David Low in The Daily News (Perth)

David Low's cartoons started featuring in The Perth Daily News in 1940:

DAVID LOW
Grinning gadfly in Britain's public life is David Low, political cartoonist for Lord Beaverbrook's London Evening Standard. Low's satiric, fascist-hating brush earns him the reputation of being the world's best cartoonist, £ 10,000 a year. Squat. bearded, beetle-browed David Low is a New Zealander, 49. He has been cartooning in London since World War 1.

Exclusive W.A. rights to Low's cartoons have been secured by The Daily News. They will appear often, and will be the talk of the town. Here (below) is the first:

David Low (7 April 1891 – 19 September 1963)

David Low photograph from The Political Cartoon Gallery.

Today marks 124th anniversary of the birth of David Low, one of New Zealand's most influential political cartoonists. Born in Dunedin and educated in Christchurch, Low sold his first cartoons at 11 to The Christchurch Spectator. Low worked for a variety of papers throughout his teens and twenties before moving to Sydney in 1911. After a career in Australian newspapers in 1919 Low moved to England where Low's cartoons in British papers proved an immediately success. Low's antipodean upbringing and attitudes provided a satirical bite in his work in contrast to his peers whose work was still rooted in staid Victorian society. Before and during World War Two Low's stinging depictions of Adolf Hitler and Mussolini led to his work being banned in Italy and Germany, and his being named in The Black Book, a list of prominent Britons to be arrested upon the successful invasion of Britain by Nazi Germany.

From Dr Timothy S. Benson essay on Low.

"A few months later, Bruce Lockhart, as foreign correspondent of the Daily Express visited Germany to interview Hitler. During the interview, Hitler surprisingly mentioned Low in conversation and was full of praise for him in his mistaken belief that the cartoonist's attitude was anti-democratic because of the way he derided politicians and parties in his daily cartoons. According to Low: "At the time I was upbraiding democracy rather drastically for its attitude to European events and Hitler got the impression I was anti-democratic." Hitler then asked Lockhart if he could arrange for Low to let him have some originals to decorate the Brown House, the national headquarters of the Nazi party in Munich. When Lockhart relayed Hitler's request to Low upon his return, the cartoonist obligingly sent a couple as from in his words 'one artist to another'.

Read the full David Low essay by Low Historian Dr Timothy S. Benson.
 
Read New Zealand cartoonist/historian Alan Moir's essay on David Low.

Gallery of Low's work on Te Pikitia tumblr.

The Billy Book: Hughes Abroad, collected 50 satirical drawings by Low about the wartime visit by Australian Prime Minister William Morris Hughes to Britain and the Western Front to attend the Imperial War Cabinet from June to August 1918. Copies of the book received by various English editors led to the book became a bestseller and critical praise.  This also led to Low moving to England to take a salaried job at the London Star newspaper in 1919.

David Low cartoons from the Billy Book.

David Low cartoons reprinted from British papers in Australian newspaper The Worker (1921).

Ian Dickson (15th January 1905 - 21st July 1987)

Updated post from the old Pikitia Press blog to celebrate the 110th anniversary of New Zealand cartoonist Ian Dickson's birth.

Ian Oscar Dickson was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 15 January 1905 and emigrated with his family to Melbourne, Australia, in 1913. Dickson, a self-taught artist, had work published in the Adelaide Register News Pictorial, the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin, the Brisbane Telegraph and illustrated tourist brochures for the Queensland government.

The Rockhampton Morning Bulletin 24th June 1932

Original art possibly from Razzle circa 1950's via Illustration Art Gallery

Dickson eventually emigrated to England and found work with film companies and Razzle magazine. In the early thirties Dickson spent several months in Ceylon and after a period back in Australia he relocated there to work for the Times of Ceylon and Ceylon Observer. In 1935 Dickson returned to England where he produced work for Punch, London Opinion, Men Only and Blighty. Dickson was a prolific contributor to these men's digests with some issues featuring three or four pages of his work. During the War Dickson served with the Royal Air Force.

In the fifties and sixties Dickson contributed three or four panel gag strips for Eagle, Girl and Swift Annuals from Hulton Press. Dickson's friend fellow cartoonist Australian John Jensen shared that at some point Dickson burned most of his original cartoon art. " He said they took up too much space. No value to anyone . . .There was no  Cartoon Museum when he did the deed. I still haven't forgiven him.Dickson died 21st July 1987."

Below: Selection of Ian Dickson's gag cartoons from Men Only circa 1940-1950's.

Sources: http://illustrationartgallery.blogspot.com, Men Only 1946-1954, British Cartoonist's Album, Dictionary of British Cartoonists and Caricaturists 1730-1980 compiled by Mark Bryant and Simon Heneage, http://bearalley.blogspot.com.