Renowned Australian political cartoonist Michael Leunig has died at the age of 79.
Leunig passed away peacefully surrounded by family and flowers, according to a post on his Instagram account.
“The pen has run dry, its ink no longer flowing—yet Mr. Curly and his ducks will remain etched in our hearts, cherished and eternal,” the post read.
“Michael Leunig passed away peacefully today, in the early hours of December 19, 2024.
“During his final days, he was surrounded by his children, loved ones and sunflowers—accompanied as ever, by his dear old friends, Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven.”
In October, Leunig had released a book called Newspaper Poems, a compilation of comics and musings he said was inspired by days of old and the notes that the women of the house would pin to walls in the home.
Born in 1945, Leunig’s path to cartooning began back when he was a young labourer whiling away the days at a meat works, cracking jokes with his colleagues, and waiting for the next Beatles or Rolling Stones album to drop.
“I started drawing for little student newspapers or what we called the underground press, which were little stapled newsletter sort of things,” he said.
Having been called up for join the Vietnam War, Leunig was spared after it was discovered he was deaf in one ear.
It gave him the opportunity to focus on a long and successful cartooning career that saw him employed by a major newspaper for 55 years before finally being let go this year.
“We didn’t have mobile phones back then, we had to talk to each other at the pub or something. Humour was an important part of the atmosphere, intelligent humour, fighting heavy censorship, we had a lot of victories,” Leunig said.
The legendary artist said his characters always tended to resemble peanuts, and that his “working class” character revelled in political cartooning and commentary.
“You’re not marching with the regiment, you’re meant to be an outsider, not an embittered outsider, not a cranky outsider, just not one of the mob and that suited me, I had big problems with the way the establishment was,” he said.
Leunig’s online biography lists him as a cartoonist, writer, painter, philosopher and poet—one who will undoubtedly be remembered for his distinct artistic style every bit as distinct as his contemplations on the world.
