A short post today on Australian Cartoonist and Illustrator, Eric Jolliffe 1907 – 2001.
He was a master at depicting the Australian bush and outback subjects in both comical and serious sketches, including traditional Aboriginal lifestyles and customs. He also published his own annual calendar which I remember purchasing many times from the newsagents when I was a child in the eighties, along with his comic books depicting Saltbush Bill and the Witchetty's Tribe. Below is a scanned excerpt from an old edition of “Jolliffes Outback”, featuring the character Saltbush Bill. This particular page describes the biology of Australian goannas, illustrated with one of Jolliffe’s brilliant drawings, showing a female goanna burrowing into a large termite mound in order to lay her eggs, with a pandanus palm in the background.
He was a master at depicting the Australian bush and outback subjects in both comical and serious sketches, including traditional Aboriginal lifestyles and customs. He also published his own annual calendar which I remember purchasing many times from the newsagents when I was a child in the eighties, along with his comic books depicting Saltbush Bill and the Witchetty's Tribe. Below is a scanned excerpt from an old edition of “Jolliffes Outback”, featuring the character Saltbush Bill. This particular page describes the biology of Australian goannas, illustrated with one of Jolliffe’s brilliant drawings, showing a female goanna burrowing into a large termite mound in order to lay her eggs, with a pandanus palm in the background.
Quote -“Some species of Goanna have a much better idea in country where termites build their large nesting mounds, some up to twenty feet high. The female burrows through the hard mud wall and into the centre of the termite nest. She then lays her eggs and departs. The white ants obligingly set to work to repair the breach in the mound wall, thus sealing in the eggs from their natural enemies with a taste for goanna eggs. Besides protecting the eggs the mound provides the even temperature necessary for successful incubation of the eggs.”- Eric Jolliffe
“There wasn’t anything in the bush that I hadn’t done a cartoon of. I included barns, sheds and relics. I’d drawn all through the bush.” - Eric Jolliffe
All the images in this post are the Intellectual property of Eric Jolliffe
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