Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

Cartoonists

Browse all cartoonists featured in Behind the Lines.

Scott Wrigg

Scott Wrigg

Costa A, an Australian political cartoonist and writer, splits his time between cartooning and academia, teaching law at an Australian university. He has created content for Fairfax, News Corp and the ABC, and his political cartoons have been published in GOAT, Inside Film Magazine, New Matilda, SameSame and The Vocal.

Costa A

Dean Alston is an editorial cartoonist for The West Australian. A past Walkley Award-winner for best cartoon and winner of two Stanley Awards for Best Single Gag Cartoonist. Alston has also worked as a cartographer and publican.

Dean Alston

Badiucao is a Chinese – Australian political cartoonist, artist and rights activist, whose work addresses a variety of social and political issues. In 2019 Badiucao won the Robert Russell Courage in Cartooning Award and the following year the Human Rights Foundation named him joint winner of the Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent.

Badiucao

Aaron Billings

Aaron Billings

Kamsani is a prolific artist, designer, multimedia artist and illustrator, who reflects the natural world with both his intricate and graphic interpretations of pre-colonial and post-colonial Australian histories. The characters referred to as “Nullians” draw a connection between representations and attitudes informed by past ideologies. Kamsani’s work often explores and subverts past and current, often negative representations of First Nations Peoples within the mass-media.

Kamsani Bin Salleh

Matt Bissett-Johnson is a freelance political cartoonist and filmmaker, whose cartoons feature in the Melbourne Observer and Rationale magazine. His work has also appeared in Crikey, On Line Opinion, Dissent, Arena, AEU News, Medical Observer, Australian Rationalist, The Age, New Matilda, Going Down Swinging, The Walkley Magazine, Australian Penthouse and The Sleepers Almanac.

Matt Bissett-Johnson

Bill Bramhall is an American illustrator and has been the staff editorial cartoonist for the New York Daily News since 2005. Previously he was the staff cartoonist at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. His cartoons and illustrations have appeared in wide variety of publications.

Bill Bramhall

Peter Broelman is a former president of the Australian Cartoonists Association whose nationally syndicated cartoons appear in a wide range of publications, including The Canberra Times, The Advertiser, The Courier Mail, The Geelong Advertiser and Sunraysia Daily. He has won three Stanley Awards for his editorial cartoons (2004, 2005 and 2009) and has twice been named Gold Stanley Cartoonist of the Year (2005 and 2009).

Peter Broelman

Warren Brown, who signs his cartoons ‘Warren’, has been an editorial cartoonist since 1986, and his work appears regularly in the Sydney Daily Telegraph. He is also a television presenter, vintage car enthusiast and motoring columnist. Brown has won three Stanley Awards for best political cartoonist (1997, 1998 and 1999).

Warren Brown

A born-and-bred north Queenslander, Bruce is a prolific artist who has been cartooning for regional newspapers in Queensland for more than 30 years. He often creates up to five cartoons a day, and his work has appeared in newspapers from Cairns to Longreach and most towns in-between.

Harry Bruce

Gaynor Cardew was a Canberra-based printmaker, sculptor and cartoonist, who signed her work ‘Gaynor’. Her cartoons appeared in a range of publications, including government reports and newsletters, privately printed books and, occasionally, The Canberra Times. Several volumes of her own cartoons were also published. She died in 1999, aged 47.

Gaynor Alma Cardew

Jenny Coopes cartoon in The National Times 1978; A feminist Alice in Wonderland punches a white rabbit

Jenny Coopes

Mark David is a Queensland-based cartoonist, illustrator and photographer, with more than 20 years’ experience in cartooning. He is widely published and has won several awards for his work. David’s work has appeared in The Australian Financial Review, The Bulletin and The Sydney Morning Herald. He now works for Independent Australia.

Mark David

Melbourne-based Matt Davidson’s cartoons have appeared in The Age for more than 20 years. In 2008 he won the Melbourne Press Club’s Quill Award for Best Illustration.

Matt Davidson

Oslo Davis draws and writes for various publications and projects worldwide, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Monthly, SBS and Readings. Overheard, Oslo’s weekly eavesdropping cartoon, has been published in The Age since 2007. Oslo is also the author of the satirical This Annoying Life colouring-book series, and he is a Walkley Award and American Illustration Award finalist. His new book, Oslo’s Melbourne, is published by Black Inc.

Oslo Davis

John Ditchburn has been the cartoonist for The Courier (Ballarat) since 1990. He is also regularly published in The Farmer. His work has featured in numerous international educational books. He won the Quill Award for Best Cartoon in 2006 and 2013, and has been shortlisted six times.

John Ditchburn

Based in Tasmania, Chris Downes regularly draws for the Hobart Mercury. He has also created works for MoAD and for the Lore podcast. Downes works for the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona). He created the book Mona’s Ark (2021), a zoological appreciation of art from Mona’s collection. Downes won a Stanley Award in 2015.

Chris Downes

Andrew Dyson began working as a cartoonist for the The Herald(Melbourne), moving to The Sunday Age in 1989, and then to The Age 10 years later. His work also appears regularly in The Sydney Morning Herald. Dyson has won Walkley Awards for cartooning (2004) and illustrations (2005).

Andrew Dyson

Danny Eastwood is a member of the Ngemba tribe of western New South Wales. He is a painter, illustrator and regular cartoonist for the Koori Mail. Eastwood has created public artworks and murals in Sydney and has won many awards, including the NAIDOC NSW Aboriginal Artist of the Year twice. In 2023 he received the key to Blacktown City.

Danny Eastwood

Jules Faber is a freelance cartoonist and illustrator who has worked in animation, editorial cartooning and live caricaturing. A former President of the Australian Cartoonists Association, he has won multiple awards for his work, including the Jim Russell Award for Significant Contribution to Australian Cartooning and Book of the Year for Older Children with author Anh Do for WeirDo. He lives in Sydney with his wife and daughter and two polar opposite cats.

Jules Faber

John Farmer was a political cartoonist for the Sunday Tasmanian and the Hobart Mercury, and at one time was the Mercury’s longest-serving cartoonist. He drew his first cartoon in 1985, and now ‘draws from home’. In 2023 he won cartoon of the year at the 32nd annual Rotary Cartoon Awards.

John 'Polly' Farmer

Rocco Fazzari’s cartooning and illustrative work appeared in Fairfax publications for 30 years. He is now an independent multimedia artist and produces a regular blog for Pluto Media. He is also a passionate painter and has twice won the Bald Archy Prize, including the inaugural prize in 1994.

Rocco Fazzari

First Dog on the Moon (who used to be known as Andrew Marlton) has been a full-time cartoonist since 2007, first at Crikey and then, since 2014, at The Guardian Australia. He has also written and illustrated books and performed live on stage. First Dog is a Walkley Award-winner and was MoAD’s Political Cartoonist of the Year in 2011.

First Dog on the Moon

Based on Wurundjeri country, Sarah Firth is an Eisner-Award-winning cartoonist, a comic artist and writer, speaker and graphic recorder. Her work has been published by ABRAMS Books, ABC Arts, Frankie Magazine, kuš!, Graphic Mundi (Penn State University Press), Penguin Random House, Picador, Allen & Unwin, the Nib, Black Inc. and Routledge. She has recently released her debut graphic novel.

Sarah Firth

Born in Sydney, Lindsay Foyle has been drawing cartoons professionally since 1975. He was deputy editor of The Bulletin in the 1980s and worked as a journalist and cartoonist on The Australian from 1996 to 2009. He is a past president of the Australian Cartoonists Association and has been active in the Media and Entertainment Arts Alliance for more than four decades.

Lindsay Foyle

John Frith (1906–2000) was one of Australia’s most prominent and prolific cartoonists for more than four decades years. His work was printed in The Bulletin, The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne’s Herald over his long career. He was also a sculptor and potter, and many of his cartoons and ceramic works are held in the Museum of Australian Democracy’s collection.

John Frith

Andrew Fyfe started his television career in 1985 as an on-air cartoonist for Hey Hey It’s Saturday. After 14 years with the show, he went on to produce animated cartoons for Nine’s The Footy Show. His cartoons have also been published in MAD magazine, the Herald Sun and The Sunday Telegraph.

Andrew Fyfe

Melbourne-based Matt Golding has been cartooning for more than 25 years. He is currently political cartoonist for The Age and The Sunday Age. A collection of his cartoons, Three Second Thoughts, was published in 2009. Golding has received a Walkley Award, eight Stanley Awards (including Best Single Gag Cartoon every year from 2005 to 2010) and, in 2018, was honoured as MoAD’s Political Cartoonist of the Year.

Matt Golding

Sarah Nagorcka, also known as Gorkie, is a multidisciplinary artist based in Melbourne / Narrm. Her cartooning work has previously featured in Crikey. The Monthly and was shortlisted for the Overland Fair Australia Prize. Her SH*T DRAWING Masterclass runs regularly and her solo show, Animal in the Office, ran at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and 2022 Melbourne Fringe.

Gorkie

Jess Harwood is an artist and campaigner living on Gadigal land in Sydney. She has published cartoons in The Guardian and her work has also been featured by the ABC and the BBC, and by various social movements, charities and businesses.

Jess Harwood

Megan Herbert is an artist, writer and cartoonist whose work appears in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She has been writing for television and film, cartooning, live-drawing, designing products and creating children’s books for more than 20 years. After 13 years living abroad (in the United Kingdom, Iceland and the Netherlands), she returned to Australia in 2020 to live on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

Megan Herbert

Judy Horacek is a freelance cartoonist and picture book creator. Her cartoons have been published widely in newspapers and magazines, including The Australian, The Canberra Times and The Sydney Morning Herald. They currently appear regularly in the Melbourne Age. Judy has published quite a few books over the years – ten collections of her cartoons and nine picture books for children, five with Mem Fox and four solo. Judy is also well known for her picture books, particularly Where is the Green Sheep?

Judy Horacek

Based in Melbourne, Pat Hudson is a freelance artist, cartoonist and caricaturist. He has created works for educational organisations, corporates and for private commissions. Hudson’s editorial/political cartoons are self-published on social media platforms and have appeared in online publications here and around the world. He is a past winner of the Bald Archy Prize and a prize winner in Rotary Cartoon Awards.

Pat Hudson

MATT HUYNH is an Emmy Award winning Vietnamese-Australian artist working in New York City. His bold brush and ink paintings are informed by calligraphic Eastern sumi-e ink traditions and Western comic books. His illustrated essays, comics and animation interrogate the repercussions of war, with a focus on diasporic refugee narratives and the experiences of asylum seekers and migrant communities.

Matt Huynh

Edmund Iffland is an illustrator/designer practicing in Sydney, Australia.

Edmund Iffland

Sydneysider Fiona Katauskas has been a cartoonist since 1997, and is a cartoonist for The Guardian and The Echidna Newsletter. Her work has also appeared in a wide range of publications, including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Age, New Matilda and Eureka Street. She is the author and illustrator of The Amazing True Story of How Babies Are Made (2015).

Fiona Katauskas

Simon Kneebone is an Adelaide-based freelance cartoonist and illustrator. He regularly illustrates for The Big Issue. His work has appeared in the New Internationalist, the website Pro Bono, and the journal Australian Options. Originally, he studied psychology and worked as a youth worker in Port Adelaide, and he says that both turned out to be good training for working as a cartoonist.

Simon Kneebone

Mark Knight is a cartoonist for the Melbourne Herald Sun, having been the last editorial cartoonist for its predecessor, The Herald. He is also well known in Melbourne for his AFL premiership posters. Knight is a much-awarded cartoonist, having received two Golden Quill Awards from the Melbourne Press Club, two Walkley Awards and two Stanley Awards. He was named MoAD’s Political Cartoonist of the Year in 2014.

Mark Knight

Jon Kudelka is published in the Hobart Mercury and The Saturday Paper. Jon has won two Walkley Awards (2008 and 2018), a Stanley Award and a Kennedy Award. He has been MoAD’s Political Cartoonist of the Year twice, in 2010 and 2019 and runs The Kudelka Shop, an art gallery in Hobart’s Salamanca Place.

Jon Kudelka

Judy Kuo is a visual artist and activist, living and working on Wurundjeri country. She is passionate about developing a politically energised art practice, particularly in areas of anti-racism, workers’ rights and disability justice. The child of multiple generations of refugees, she is also an activist for refugee rights. Kuo has participated in projects for Diversity Arts Australia, Multicultural Arts Victoria, demos journal and local zines.

Judy Kuo

Glen Le Lievre is a crowd-funded cartoonist working out of Sydney. His cartoons have appeared in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, MAD, Private Eye, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker and Time. He has won four Stanley awards, including a Gold Stanley in 2016. Le Lievre was MoAD’s Political Cartoonist of the Year in 2021.

Glen Le Lievre

Sean Leahy is a political cartoonist for The Courier Mail in Brisbane. He also writes and draws the comic strip Beyond the Black Stump. He was previously cartoonist for Brisbane’s Sunday Mail, Sunday Sun and the Daily Sun, as well as Perth’s Sunday Times and The West Australian. In 2000 Leahy was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake research into cartooning overseas.

Sean Leahy

Johannes Leak is an artist, cartoonist and illustrator based in New South Wales. His cartoons appear regularly in The Australian and in Tracks surfing magazine. Leak also illustrates children’s books and has been commissioned to paint the official portrait of former prime minister Tony Abbott.

Johannes Leak

Simon Letch is an illustrator and editorial cartoonist for The Sydney Morning Herald and has worked for Fairfax Media for more than 10 years. On his X page he also describes himself as a ‘surfer at Bronte, cook at home’.

Simon Letch

Brett Lethbridge is an artist, gallery owner and cartoonist. His editorial cartoons have appeared in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail since 1995 and have also been published by The West Australian. Lethbridge has won six Stanley Awards, including two Gold Stanleys (1997 and 1998).

Brett Lethbridge

Michael Leunig is an Australian cartoonist, writer, painter, philosopher and poet. His commentary on political, cultural and emotional life spans more than 50 years. He often explores the idea of an innocent and sacred personal world and the fragile ecosystem of human nature and its relationship to the wider natural world. His newspaper work appears regularly in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Michael Leunig

Peter Lewis was born in Mungindi in 1953 on the Queensland side of the border and now resides in Newcastle. After graduating in fine arts, he worked as a pizza cook, labourer, taxi driver, commercial artist and ballet dancer. Since 1986 he has been editorial cartoonist at the Newcastle Herald. He is also the owner of Lewis Eye-Opening Art.

Peter Lewis

Eric Löbbecke is an award-winning illustrator and cartoonist for books, newspapers, magazines and advertising since 1988. He has worked for News Limited on The Australian and the Sydney Sunday Telegraph and Daily Telegraph. He has won Walkley and Stanley awards for illustration and two Bald Archy Prizes for satirical portraiture.

Eric Löbbecke

Reg Lynch is a cartoonist, illustrator, designer and occasional curator, currently living in the north-west of Tasmania. Lynch’s work regularly appears in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald. His cartoons have also been published in The Bulletin and The Age. A collection of his work, Bulk Reg, was published in 2000.

Reg Lynch

Francis William ‘Will’ Mahony (1905–1989) was an Australian cartoonist and printmaker, most widely associated with Sydney’s Daily News, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror.

Will Mahony

Alan Moir has been an editorial cartoonist for The Sydney Morning Herald since 1984 and, prior to that, for The Bulletin and The Courier-Mail. Moir was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1999. He has received two Walkley Awards for his work (2000 and 2006) and the United Nations Award for Political Cartooning in 1994.

Alan Moir

Wes Mountain is a London-based freelance illustrator and cartoonist who was previously Multimedia Editor for The Conversation, where he put together all kinds of fun interactive and animated things in between drawing cartoons and comics. He is currently the Digital Art Editor for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Work also displayed at Behind the Lines 2014.

Wes Mountain

Peter Nicholson has worked for Nation Review, the Australian Financial Review, The Age (for 18 years) and The Australian (until 2016). He also produced weekly animated political cartoons for The Australian Online. From 1984 to 1991 he created the Rubbery Figures puppets and for five years produced the Rubbery Figures programs in his Melbourne film studio for Fast Forward. He sculpted six of the portrait busts on the Prime Ministers Avenue in Ballarat and has won five Walkley Awards.

Peter Nicholson

Brisbane-based artist James Hillier, also known as Nordacious, specialises in portraiture, creating work inspired by pop culture, Australiana, social and political commentary and queer + camp. Hillier has had three solo exhibitions since 2015. His work was exhibited internationally at the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow in 2021. One of Nordacious’s works was used as a limited-edition CD cover for the Elton John and Britney Spears single ‘Hold Me Closer’.

Nordacious

Meg O’Shea is an independent comic artist based in Sydney, on the unceded lands of the Wangal clan. In addition to self-publishing her work on online platforms and as zines, O’Shea’s comics have featured in The Nib, The Lily and as part of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art’s digital program. They have also been collected in numerous anthologies, including Comic Sans; The Threads That Connect Us; and Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment and Survival, which in 2020 won the Eisner A

Meg O'Shea

Jim Pavlidis has been at The Age as a press artist, designer and illustrator/cartoonist in two stints since 1987. His gap years of 1995–98 were spent at the Independent and Daily Mail newspapers in London, and at the Paris Free Voice. He won a Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for best artwork in 2015 and for best cartoon in 2019.

Jim Pavlidis

Bruce Petty was one of Australia’s most celebrated cartoonists. He worked for a number of Australian newspapers including the Daily Mirror, The Australian and The Age. Bruce Petty’s bold ‘scribbles’ were as at home on the screen as on the page. His work in several media was characterised by his depiction of multiple interconnected concepts rather than a single idea. Although best known for his political cartoons in The Age for more than three decades, Petty was also an Oscar-winning animated film maker.

Bruce Petty

Elyce Phillips is an illustrator, writer and comedian. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s and Junkee, and she has performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Darwin Fringe Festival, Fringe at the Edge of the World and she appears regularly at The Improv Conspiracy in Melbourne. Her work can be found in Heaps Comics and on Twitter.

Elyce Phillips

David Pope grew up in Canberra and began drawing cartoons for the underground press in the 1980s. He became editorial cartoonist for the Sydney Sun-Herald, returning to Canberra as editorial cartoonist for The Canberra Times in 2008. Pope has received 15 Stanley Awards, including four Gold Stanleys for Cartoonist of the Year (2010, 2012, 2015 and 2022). He was MoAD’s Political Cartoonist of the Year in 2012 and 2022.

David Pope

Geoff Pryor

Geoff Pryor

David Rowe is a Sydney-based cartoonist and caricaturist whose works appeared in The Canberra Times, The Independent (London), and the Times Literary Supplement before he joined the Aus tralian Financial Review as editorial cartoonist 28 years ago. He has three Walkley and 24 Stanley Awards to his credit, including eight Golden Stanleys, and was MoAD’s Political Cartoonist of the Year in 2013 and 2017.

David Rowe

Chris ‘Roy’ Taylor has been a professional cartoonist and illustrator for over 25 years and his work appears daily in the Herald Sun. Roy creates daily cartoons (which can range from federal politics to the Kardashians), illustrations, and fine art. He has illustrated and co-authored a collection of zany children’s books on a wide variety of subjects from Aussie Football Anthems to Time Travelling Toilets. Chris is regularly asked why he goes under the pen name of Roy.

ROY

John Shakespeare is a Sydney-based cartoonist, caricaturist and illustrator for The Sydney Morning Herald, having previously worked for the Brisbane Courier-Mail and The Sydney Sun. He grew up in Brisbane, inspired by cartoonists of MAD and Cracked magazines. He has won three Stanley Awards, in 1992, 2004 and 2005.

John Shakespeare

Greg ‘Smithy’ Smith is an editorial and sporting cartoonist based in Western Australia, where he was born. He started cartooning at Perth’s Daily News in the 1980s and, for more than a decade, has drawn cartoons for Perth’s Sunday Times and Perth Now.

Greg 'Smithy' Smith

Freelance cartoonist Phil Somerville lives in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. He started cartooning in the 1980s and, since then, his works have appeared in a wide range of publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Bulletin, Freewheeling, Nexus, Matilda, The Independent, Good Weekend Magazine and Limelight. Somerville now also produces an online topical cartoon, Line of Thought.

Philip Somerville

Melbourne-based John Spooner began cartooning in the early 1970s and his works have appeared in many Australian and international publications, including The Age from 1977 to 2016. His cartoons now appear regularly in The Australian. Spooner has won many awards, including four Walkley Awards and six Stanley Awards, including a Gold Stanley in 1986.

John Spooner

Peter Sully has worked for 40 years in the newspaper industry as a graphic designer, cartoonist and illustrator. He is a member of the Australian Cartoonists Association and of Cartoon Movement, a global platform for editorial cartoons and comics journalism. He currently lives in Melbourne.

Peter Sully

Ron Tandberg (1943–2018) was first published in the Melbourne Age in 1972 and was famous for his pocket cartoons. He was the winner of nine Walkley awards for best cartoon and two prestigious Gold Walkley awards.

Ron Tandberg

Adele K Thomas is an illustrator, director and art director, with over fifteen years of experience in animation film and TV design, children’s books, advertising and apps. She was lead illustrator working for Flying Bark Productions on Disney’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and illustrates children’s books for Scholastic, Hardie Grant and Penguin.

Adele K Thomas

Queensland-born and Melbourne-based Van T Rudd, also known as Van Nishing, is a political street artist, muralist and sculptor who has been producing visual art for 30 years. He has long been fascinated by different methods of creating social and political commentary. He won the 2017 Crichton Award for illustration. Rudd has also run as a political candidate in two federal elections, in 2010 and 2022, for socialist parties.

Van Nishing

Sam Wallman is a comics-journalist, cartoonist and labour activist based in Melbourne/Narrm, mostly on Wurundjeri country. His work has been published by The Guardian, The New York Times, The Age, the ABC and SBS. His first book-length comic, Our Members Be Unlimited: A Comic about Workers and Their Unions, was recently published by Scribe.

Sam Wallman

Andrew Weldon is a freelance cartoonist based in Melbourne. He has been the cartoonist for The Big Issue (Australia) since its inception in 1996. His work appeared regularly for many years in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald and the Chaser’s books, website and newspaper. It has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, Private Eye, the Spectator (UK) and Meanjin. Weldon has also published book collections of his cartoons and written and illustrated children’s books.

Andrew Weldon

Sydney-based cartoonist and illustrator Cathy Wilcox has been drawing cartoons since 1989. Her work appears almost daily in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She is the president of the Australian Cartoonists Association. She is also an award-winning illustrator of children’s books. Wilcox received Stanley Awards for her cartoons in 1994, 1997, 2014, 2015 and 2019, and a Gold Stanley in 2021. She was MoAD’s Political Cartoonist of the Year in 2009, 2016 and 2020.

Cathy Wilcox

Paul Zanetti is a Queensland-based freelance cartoonist whose work is syndicated nationally and internationally.

Paul Zanetti