Emile Mercier - a cartoonist of note.

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I grew up with Emile Mercier.

When I was a child, my father bought two daily newspapers - the Sydney Morning Herald and, in the afternoon, The Sun.

Emile Mercier's work appeared in every edition of The Sun from 1949 until he retired in the late 1960s (see Wikipedia article - link above). I used to buy The Sun myself when living and working in Sydney.

It was a sad say when he retired - a little like the sadness felt when Charles M. Schulz drew his last 'Peanuts' strip in 2000.

Mercier's style was unique; for instance, in many of his cartoons there were springs under the floorboards (example above) or even under footpaths.

He also drew wonderfully-scraggy cats and scruffy dogs and most of his works which featured race-horses had at least one of them named "Gravy Bones".

His inventive mind also came up with alliterative names for businesses and products.

The Wikipedia article to which I've given a link has good information about Emile Mercier. There are many other sources on the internet, too.

I just wanted to pop up a few of his pieces from the 1957 booklet entitled "Follow That Wardrobe!",  bought quite a few years ago and which I unearthed yesterday when sorting through some books.

You will find the occasional Mercier booklet on eBay. They are not cheap, having become sought after by collectors. For example, right at this moment there is one available for $40 and, from another seller, eight first-editions going as a job-lot for $260.

So enjoy the following examples, straight from 1950s Australia...............

The two pieces below certainly sum-up Mercier's view of road workers!

Those who are familiar with lawn bowls will get the gist of the comment below.

Nothing changes in politics, does it?!

When this cartoon was published (1957), Australia's television industry was only one year old. Politicians were very quick to take advantage of the new medium.

Every oil company had their own additives, each touted to provide some sort of improvement or benefit to the engine.

You might recognise the legitimate brands in the fictional names which Mercier has used below. Two of them have long gone from the roadsides of Australia.

Mercier's love of "gravy" and "shrdlu" come to the fore in the public bar and the horse stables.

That's probably "Gravy Bones" who ran last.......a very long last!

I'll round out this gallery with Emile Mercier showing that even Santa could get a "bluey" for illegally parking his sleigh.