It’s a very sad day in New Zealand
Forget all the celebrity deaths in 2016. 2017 just delivered the hardest blow you could give to our wee country.
Today Murray Ball died.
Who?
Murray ball was a cartoonist and creator of the much loved cartoon strip – Footrot Flats. I grew up reading all about the adventures of The Dog, Wal, Horse, Cheeky Hobson and of course Cooch. It was such a wonderful series of books, calendars and even a movie.
It championed the little man (dog) who worked hard on the farm, played fair and was generally the backbone of the rural lifestyle. I visited many farms in my travels that could have been the Footrot Flats farm, and the characters in the books can be found all over the country. I think that’s what made the books so successful. Everyone sort of knew the characters and could relate them to their own district.
I have a collection of books from my childhood sitting in the shed somewhere. When it stops raining, I think I’ll go and dig them out and re-read them. It’ll be good to go back and visit with the Dog again and see how he’s getting on.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading any of Murray Ball’s cartoons, I strongly suggest you do. It will introduce you to a whole new world, one which you already know and love.
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Digging out the black armband as we speak...
Sorry to hear about that.
Yeah, that just blew me away today. I was helping my dad put up his latest post and this turned up in the news.
I was going to send one of the books for the @little-peppers to read, but they are quite hard to find.
If I do come across any now I'll snap them up. Your kids would just love them.
If you send it, we will read it!
They really enjoyed that dog book!
I'm sorry for your loss!
I felt similarly when Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts, died...
😄😇😄
Thanks. I was a Peanuts fan also.
Footrot Flats was a bit like Peanuts, but the characters, particularly the animals, were a bit more realistic in the things they got up to.
So less of Snoopy flying in his doghouse, more of the Dog trying to get into the 'bitches box' (a box to put a female dog into when they are in heat to protect them from all the neighborhood hounds) then Jess was in heat.
..... and the puppies that followed when he succeeded. ;-)
Yes, does sound like a little more realism... ;) :)
Are there any short cartoons on YouTube that might give me "the flavor" of Footrot Flats?
Did Murray Ball do any comic strips like Peanuts?
Murray did a regular comic strip in many local papers and they eventually got turned into books, and finally a movie.
Here is a quick image search that shows some of the cartoon strips.
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=footrot+flats+cartoon&rlz=1C1CHBF_enNZ713NZ713&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2i77G7dHSAhVBppQKHd12DvoQsAQILw&biw=1588&bih=873
Thanks very much! :)