Cartoonist Michael Leunig dies peacefully age 79
Cartoonist, poet and writer Michael Leunig’s studio has announced the sad news that his “pen has run dry” at the age of 79.
His death was revealed in a brief statement on social media on Thursday evening.
Leunig died peacefully early on Thursday morning, his loved ones by his side.
“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,” said the statement on Instagram.
“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.”
Declared a national living treasure in 1999, Leunig’s commentary on political, cultural and emotional life spanned more than fifty years.
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He had been drawing cartoons for The Age in Melbourne since 1968 until he was axed in August this year in a bitter departure.
The sacked cartoonist wrote on his blog at the time:
“I’d had a growing expectation that I would be disposed of by the big shots at Nine Entertainment and in the fateful phone conversation with the editor, when he said he was sorry, I told him in all honesty that everything was okay and that I actually felt exhilarated.
“Suddenly, there at last after all those years in newspapers, in one bound I was free; free to have a life without the compliance and worry of thankless mainstream media deadlines.”
Michael Leunig was a social and political commentator through his work. Photo: Michael Leunig blog
Media figures and Leunig’s audience reacted to the news.
ABC radio veteran Phillip Adams paid tribute to his friend of half a century: “Vale Mike. Yes, Leunig sometimes got things wrong — but when he was right he was magnificent.”
Journalist Hugh Riminton said it was “sad news”.
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“Few of us, of a certain age, have not been sparked into a tiny blessing of wonder or gratitude by his odd little lines and words.”
Comments on the Instagram announcement expressed sadness at the loss of such insightful talent.
“You made sense of the nonsense..RIP Micheal Leunig,” wrote one.
Another follower said: “Who will name the madness, name the wrongness and remind us of all things that truly matter now.”
Picture: Michael Leunig blog
Leunig was born in East Melbourne in June 1945, a slaughterman’s son and the second eldest of five children.
His creative influences included Enid Blyton, Arthur Mee, Phantom comics, The Book of Common Prayer, JD Salinger, Spike Milligan, Bruce Petty, Martin Sharp, Private Eye magazine and The Beatles.
Leunig’s online biography states that his political consciousness intensified radically upon his military conscription in 1965 at the time of the Vietnam war.
Born totally deaf in one ear he was rejected for military service and “fled in disgrace” from formal education to pursue a successful career as a factory labourer and meat worker.
There he nurtured his art and philosophy before beginning work as a political cartoonist for a daily newspaper in Melbourne in 1969.
Picture: Michael Leunig
His first book of collected cartoons, The Penguin Leunig, was published in 1974.
He produced 23 more collections, including books of newspaper columns, poetry and prayer.
His prints, paintings and drawings have been exhibited broadly and are held in various public and private collections.
