Michael Leunig

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Michael Leunig, often referred to as just Leunig, (born in East Melbourne in 1945) is a noted Australian cartoonist whose best known works include The Adventures of Vasco Pajama and the Curly Flats series. He was declared one of Australian Living Treasures by the National Trust of Australia in 1999, and currently lives in central Victoria, Australia.

1 Biography
2 Leunig's cartoons
3 Leunig's popularity
4 Leunig and controversy
- 4.1 The Ariel Sharon Cartoon
- 4.2 The Hamshahri Cartoon Incident
5 Some descriptions of Leunig's cartoons
6 Published works
- 6.1 National Library of Australia links
7 External links

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Biography

Leunig grew up in Footscray and went to Maribyrnong High School before entering into an Arts degree at Monash University. His first cartoons appeared in the Monash University Student Newspaper "Lots Wife" in the late 1960's. He was conscripted in the Vietnam War call-up but he registered as a conscientious objector.

After Monash Leunig enrolled at the Swinburne Film and Television School and then began his cartoon career. He has noted that he was firstly interested in making documentaries before finding his feet with cartooning.

In the early 1970's his work appeared in the Nation Review newspaper, Womans Day, Londons OZ magazine, and also various long since defunct newspapers of that era.

The main outlet for Leunig's work has been the daily Fairfax press, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (Melbourne) newspapers published in Australia. In recent years he has focussed mainly on political commentary, sometimes substituting his simple drawings with reproduced photographic images with speech balloons attached. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has also provided airtime to Leunig to discuss his views on a range of political and philosophical issues.

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Leunig's cartoons

Leunig's drawings are done with a sparse, quavering line, usually in black and white with ink wash, the human characters always drawn with exaggerated features. This style served him well in his early years, when he gained a loyal following for his quirky take on social issues. He also made increasingly frequent forays into a personal fantasy world of whimsy, featuring small figures with teapots balanced on their heads, grotesquely curled hair and many ducks.

He has revealed in past interviews that the music of the Beatles inspired his early work, along with European cartoonists the absurdist Newyorker writer/cartoonist James Thurber (as well as dogs and ducks).

His work has frequently explored spiritual and religious ideas.

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Leunig's popularity

Leunig was declared one of Australian Living Treasures by the National Trust of Australia in 1999.

There has also been a Leunig Melbourne tram.

The philosophical and mystical nature of his work was selected as one theme for the 15 March 2006 Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games held at the MCG in Leunig's hometown of Melbourne. The principal character was a "boy and his duck", exploring the dreams and visions of a boy, and Leunig was heard reading a stanza of his poem as a voice-over.

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Leunig and controversy

As his status as a national institution has grown so too has opposition to the point-of-view reflected in Leunig's works. From feminist criticism of his "stay-at-creche baby" cartoon ("I'm a stay-at-creche baby so she doesn't have to be a stay-at-home Mum.") to his anti-war stance in regards to the invasion of Iraq Leunig and his cartoons have become the subject of controversy.

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The Ariel Sharon Cartoon

On January 11, 2006, the The Age (Melbourne) newspaper published a Leunig cartoon which criticised Israeli leader Ariel Sharon, who at the time was hospitalized following a severe stroke, for sanctioning an attack on an 'old Palestinian in a wheelchair' - a reference to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader and founder of the militant Islamic group Hamas. This piece attracted many letters of protest from readers.

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The Hamshahri Cartoon Incident

During the Muhammad cartoons controversy, a cartoon, claimed to be a 2002 work by Michael Leunig, was published in an Iranian newspaper Hamshahri for a competition in retaliation for the Muhammad Cartoons. This competition was supposed to be on the subject of the Holocaust. Leunig denied he had submitted the cartoon, and said that the act was "malicious and horrible". He demanded the cartoons be withdrawn, and the newspaper removed the cartoons and apologized to Leunig. [1] It later emerged that the cartoon had been submitted as a prank by a sometime contributing writer to the website of The Chaser [2].

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Some descriptions of Leunig's cartoons

Two American cowboys on a hill looking over a campsite of some American Indians. One cowboy is saying "They've got bows and arrows of mass destruction"
A man plays a small guitar in an industrial wasteland landscape. A child and a woman sit on a picnic rug nearby. The child says "Gee dad, youre fantastic"
A waiter with hair coming out of his nose and every other orifice stands next to a diner who says "waiter, theres a hair in my soup"
A depressed looking man rattles a bird cage which has a heart in it. The man says to the heart in the cage "Sing, damn you, sing"
A Jewish man walks through a gate with the words written above it "work brings freedom". In the next panel, a Jewish soldier walks through a gate with the words "war brings peace" written above it.
A man wheeling a pram with a baby in it is confronted in a park by another man who points to a sign which says "No wheeling baby nephews in the park".
A bird steals the pubic hair of a naked woman in order to make a nest in a tree
A series of "medals for ordinary people", such as a "medal for conspicuous weeping", a "medal for just bumbling through and not leaving too much of a mess", etc
A bird makes a nest, and then makes another nest and puts up a sign "nests for rent".
An image showing a woman being dunked in a pond by a group of people. The caption reads "While the robber barons rape and pillage, the village idiot is dunked in the pond". This cartoon appeared during the Helen Darville or Helen Demidenko literary hoax.
A homeless man shouts "gold, I have found it, gold" while another man looks on. In the next panel it appears that the "gold" is an Australian sausage roll
A man standing in the shower holds a shampoo bottle which has the label "Shampoo for very dirty hair".
A man with a parrot-like haircut stands staring into a petshop where there is a parrot, while in the background a group of protesters march by with a placard which reads "Defend humanity".
A man walks past a city avenue. There are two street-name signs. The street-name sign of the street he is on reads "The life you lead". The street-name sign of the avenue which is bathed in sunlight reads "The life you could have lead".
A group of pets are gathered around an old woman who is drinking a cup of tea. The caption reads "The spectators watched with baited breath the finish of the Mavis Cup" (A reference to the Davis Cup tennis championship)