Bill Leak and Peter Nicholson spearhead the attack
Look back at Brown Nose Day, Leak’s 2002 Walkley Award winning cartoon. It’s an example of Leak’s relentless skewering of prime minister John Howard – in this instance for his subservience to the United States.
The Australian is turning 60 and we invite you to celebrate with us by looking back at six decades of journalism. Today we cover cartoons. See the full series here.
A new millennium begins with Bill Leak and Peter Nicholson spearheading the attack, coming to grips with a world reshaped by the attacks of 9/11 and the wars that followed.
Brown Nose Day, Leak’s 2002 Walkley Award winning cartoon, is an example of Leak’s relentless skewering of prime minister John Howard – in this instance for his subservience to the United States.
Leak’s cartoons were a constant irritant to the Howard government as it laboured to secure public support for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
As photos leaked out of Abu Ghraib and shocked the world, Leak sent George W. Bush crashing down a slippery slope to come face-to-face with his foe, Osama bin Laden, at the moral low ground.
Kevin Rudd took centre stage in 2007 and his fresh-faced, squeaky clean persona was summed up memorably by Leak’s depictions of him as Hergé’s indefatigable Tintin. The changing of the political guard is apparent in the contrast between Kevin 07’s range of snappy merch compared with John Howard’s bespoke cardigans.
And in his snapshot of the royal family from 2005, on the occasion of the wedding of then Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, he invokes the title of a hit Hollywood comedy about an eccentric and dysfunctional family.
His cartoon marking the death of Yasser Arafat in November 2004, shows that even in death, old habits die hard.
Peter Nicholson was an early adopter of computer-based drawing techniques and software, and managed to retain all the jittery life and movement of his work on paper in his digital work, as evident in the drawing of the hapless photojournalist who just can’t win.
Jon Kudelka made his appearance on the pages of the Oz in the 2000s. His work brought a different feel to the page – his drawings appearing almost naive and childlike but demonstrating sharp observation and essential truths. Cleverness delivered in a cute package.
