Murray Ball
From wiki.comics.org.nz
In contrast to the small and insular world of New Zealand comics, local cartooning enjoys a very public success. This is perhaps due to the nature of cartoons; in most cases the readers don't have to decide to buy them. They usually come as part and parcel of a newspaper, an important source of information. In this article I'll look at our most successful cartoonist to date, Murray Ball who is best know as the creator of Footrot Flats. Ball was born in Fielding in the Manawatu in 1937. He spent the early part of his life in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. His cartooning career started in childhood, copying Walt Disney/Tom and Jerry characters as a child and he maintained an interest in cartooning through his youth.
While waiting for his first year of university to start he took a job with the Dominion in Wellington as a reporter. He didn't enjoy that so after three months he left and took up a position as a cartoonist with the Manawatu Times. He stayed for three years then left to be a freelancer. While he doesn't regret that decision, times were financially tough, and he had to take up teaching for three years when he was low on cash. In 1968 he and his family left New Zealand for England.
While in England he freelanced, with his most regular employment being with the childrens' book publishers DC Thomson of Dundee. He credits feedback he received from the editors with helping hone his craft. He achieved success in having his Stanley strip accepted by the English satirical magazine, Punch. Stanley became the longest running strip in the history of Punch and was also syndicated in the US, Australia, New Guinea and Italy. After five years he returned with his family to New Zealand, continuing to submit work to Punch until a postal strike put pay to that as a source of regular income.
Ball's real success came with his next continuing strip Footrot Flats which made it's first appearances during early 1976 in the Evening Post. Set on a mythical New Zealand farm the strip focused on the adventures of an always optimist farm dog, his owner Wallace (Wal) Footrot and the various neighbours/family/animals that inhabit the countryside. Ball and his wife, Pam, lived at that time on a farm on the outskirts of Gisborne in Poverty Bay and it was from here that Ball got a lot of his ideas and models for his characters.
The nostalgic aspect of the rural setting, one that few New Zealanders have actually experienced but somehow feel connected to, with it's good ken blokes interested in rugby, racing and beer gave the strip a strong local appeal.
Ball's art style, which he described as Hard downwards pressure and intense effort was clear and fresh, giving the animals expressive features while keeping them true to their animal form. Dog (whose real name we never learned due to his violent reaction to anyone who attempted to utter it) was the audience's guide, commenting on the events and people that surrounded him.
The success of the strip saw it syndicated in New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Germany. There also followed a musical, a theme park in Auckland for a short period and a film in 1986 which drew the largest opening week box office of any film release in New Zealand at that time. The theme song, A Slice of Heaven; by Dave Dobbyn became the biggest selling record in Australia in 1987 and the film went on to win many awards.
Ball calls cartoon Disciplined dreaming, commenting in 1990 that
...the heart of a cartoon is the idea, an artist can create a painting, hang it on the wall and be satisfied with what he has achieved even if no-one else sees it. In cartooning you must get a human reaction to the idea. The task of the cartoonist is to translate his idea into a drawing that will have impact.
While Ball ceased work on Footrot Flats many years ago it lives on in over 24 volumes of collections of the strips that continue to appear in the top selling list in New Zealand, and as a local icon. Ball ceased producing cartoons on the scale of his daily schedule of Footrot Flats but has published the occasional cartoon/text work
Dog-eared Books
- Footrot Flats in Focus:- a 1990 prospective Berry, John & Orchiston, Wayne. Gisborne Museum and Arts Centre (1989)
- Murray Ball : What is it like being to be a cartoonist?, Davidson, Margaret & Brook, Liz. Highgate/Price Milburn (1989)
- Laughing Lines: 12 New Zealand Contemporary Cartoonists, (Ed) Reid, John & Winter, Mark. Pilgrams South Press (1981)
Other Doggerel links
The "Unofficial" Footrot Flats Page
