It was Vane Lindesay's one hundredth birthday yesterday. I tried to talk to him, but couldn't get through. Too many congratulatory calls, I'm sure! One hundred years! Pretty amazing! For any not familiar with Vane's works, here (above) is a short video produced by the Australian Cartoon Museum a few years back. It's not the best summary of his works or history, but it will suffice.
Vane drew a cartoon in the Australasian Post (1946-2002) every week for an amazing forty years. But more than being a simple cartoonist, Vane was also a book designer and has had (and still has) an interest in the history of the cartooning medium. He contributed to articles to Inkspot when I was editor recently, and continues to do so. He is best known for his book The Inked-in Image, A Survey of Australian Comic Art (first published by William Heinemann in 1970). My favourite book of Vane's is The Way We Were, detailing some of this country's popular magazines between 1856 and 1969. I have a long way to go to catch up with the man: he has had published about 18 books on cartooning. (Or so I am told.)
Vane drew a cartoon in the Australasian Post (1946-2002) every week for an amazing forty years. But more than being a simple cartoonist, Vane was also a book designer and has had (and still has) an interest in the history of the cartooning medium. He contributed to articles to Inkspot when I was editor recently, and continues to do so. He is best known for his book The Inked-in Image, A Survey of Australian Comic Art (first published by William Heinemann in 1970). My favourite book of Vane's is The Way We Were, detailing some of this country's popular magazines between 1856 and 1969. I have a long way to go to catch up with the man: he has had published about 18 books on cartooning. (Or so I am told.)
 This is a sample of Vane's cartoons in the "Australasian Post" (from page 56 in the August 9th 1979 edition). |  A detail from the only Vane Lindesay original I own. (Shame, yes?) |
My fondest memory of Vane is at my first Australian Cartoonists' Association Award Night (then the Bulletin Black and White Artists' Club Awards) in 1988. Have I told this story before? I was sitting in the back of the room (perhaps because the organisers had no idea where to place this new member). I was in seventh heaven! I was in the company of Dan Russell whose comic work I knew (and that he was chuffed to know I cared), and others that I came to know that night: Tony Rafty and Vane Lindesay, and many more. (It was the same night I met Monty and Dorothy Wedd in person, although they were not at our table.) How our table erupted with cheers and congratulations when Vane won the Silver Stanley (now the Jim Russell Award) for his 'significant contribution to Australian Black and White Art'. It was a fabulous night, where many friendships were forged. Here's my record of the night (below). I went around like a fan-boy and obtained the autographs of all who won Awards that evening...
Happy Birthday - 100 years - to Vane Lindesay!
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