'Cheeky Bird' by Michael Leunig
Leunig, was born in East
Melbourne, Victoria, grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray and
went to Maribyrnong High School before entering an arts degree at Monash
University. His first cartoons appeared in the Monash University
student
newspaper, Lot's Wife, in the late 1960s. He was conscripted in the
Vietnam War call-up, but he registered as a conscientious objector; in
the event he was rejected on health grounds when it was revealed that he
was deaf in one ear.
After university Leunig enrolled at the Swinburne Film and Television
School and then began his cartoon career. He has noted that he was at
first interested in making documentaries.
In the early 1970s his work appeared in the satirical magazine Nation
Review, Woman's Day, London's Oz magazine and also various 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 focused 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.
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 and The New
Yorker's absurdist writer and cartoonist James Thurber (as well as dogs
and ducks).
In his latest cartoons, Leunig frequently satirises concepts such as
Americanisation, capitalism, consumerism, corporate success and more
recently warmongering, in a personal proclamation against the War on
Terror. Of particular note are his recent parodies of political matters,
especially those concerning former Australian former prime minister
John Howard and former
American president George W. Bush. This has earned Leunig the
description of "political cartoonist",
though this is misleading as only some of his works are political in
nature or reference.
His work has frequently explored spiritual and religious ideas.
Excerpt taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Leunig, September 2010