LOSS OF A KIWI LEGEND
We say farewell to Footrot Flats cartoonist Murray Ball
Murray Ball created many different cartoon series throughout his life, but it was Wal, Dog, Horse and company that a generation of Kiwis grew up with and came to love.
The Footrot Flats creator died, aged 78, in Gisborne last week, and the tributes that poured in commended his clever, insightful cartoons that not only made us laugh, but think.
Murray, who is survived by his wife of 53 years, Pam, and their three children, had suffered from Alzheimer’s for the last seven years and retired from public life in 2010. The son of All Black Nelson Ball and his wife Meg, Murray was born in Feilding and spent some of his school years in Australia and South Africa. As an adult, he also lived in the UK, where he developed a caveman character for renowned satirical magazine Punch. Stanley the Palaeolithic Hero became the longest-running cartoon strip in Punch’s history and was also syndicated internationally.
Back in New Zealand, he produced several popular cartoons but it was Footrot Flats that captured the imagination of the nation from 1976. It too appeared around the world and was so successful, it spawned a stage musical, a theme park and New Zealand’s first feature-length animated film Foot rot Flats: The Dog’ s Tale, which became a huge hit after it was released in 1986.
Murray was also known for his strong social conscience and cared deeply about topics from poverty to pollution. He once told an interviewer, “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.”
Charles Schultz, creator of the famous Peanuts cartoon strip, became a fan of Murray’s work, and wrote an introduction to a Footrot Flats book published in the States. In it, the man who created Snoopy wrote, “The dog is definitely one of my favourite cartoon characters of all time.”
Murray produced Footrot Flats cartoons until 1994, but even after he’d stopped drawing the iconic collie, he refused to reveal what Dog’s real name was because, “I don’t think he’d like that,” he told Radio New Zealand. “I owe him that much.”
‘ In cartooning, you must get a human reaction to the idea’