Firebrand Bill Leak’s bruising brush and piercing pen
The swashbuckling Bill Leak entered the cartooning scene at The Australian in the 1990s in the era of Hawke, Hewson, Howard and Hanson. That combination makes a cartoonist very happy.
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The ’90s was the era of Hawke, Hewson, Howard and Hanson. And happiness for cartoonists. Ready to capture this period’s heroes, scoundrels, scandals and skulduggery were the young and brilliant Paul Zanetti, the quirky Peter Nicholson and the swashbuckling Bill Leak.
As the daily editorial cartoonist Nicholson set the tone with his bold palette, scratchy lines and idiosyncratic drawing style. Nicholson had combined cartoons, animation and sculpture in his skill set, including the Rubbery Figures TV series. There is a cuteness to his work that belies a probing intellect and cynical outlook.
After the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, as the country reeled, Nicholson illustrated John Howard’s predicament in challenging the gun lobby as the head of a fractured nation.
Only 10 days later, Nicholson is couchside in a suburban lounge room as a champion TV watcher and fat bloke – beer and ciggie in hand – barks at the telly demanding more from our green and gold athletes at the Atlanta Olympics.
Young firebrand Bill Leak joined The Australian in 1994, at the age of 38. Keen to cement his authority on the job, he adapted his virtuoso illustration and caricature techniques to the business of drawing editorial cartoons, beginning with a weekly cartoon in The Weekend Australian, titled The Bleak Picture.
Leak employed superb draughtsmanship with trademark ink splatter to depict the newly minted Howard cabinet as it attempted to find its feet. It was a taste of what was to come as Leak continued his bruising and piercing approach to Howard and his government through the rest of the decade.
Other Leak classics of the ’90s include a brutal drawing of trigger-happy Victorian policemen, frustrated with the limitations of non-lethal weapons, and The Statue of Bigotry, capturing the disquiet and discomfort felt by many Australians as they witnessed the rise of Pauline Hanson, with her middle finger replacing the torch of enlightenment.
