michael leunig in 1970

It was slim pickings in the State Library today, not their fault, I was really actually truth be told just looking for a few skerricks to prop up some bigger ideas-studies-papers, so that's all fine. But while I was waiting for my order to come in (I just missed the 11:00 retrieval by minutes, and had to wait for an hour) I scrolled through a few weeks of the Sunday Observer in late 1970, which was quite a paper. And Michael Leunig was working for it, doing what I am going to propose was possibly some of the most groundbreaking work of any cartoonist of a mainstream newspaper anywhere in the world (or at least the anglosphere) at that time. 

Here he is having a go at the Libs: 

To be fair I don't really know the full context of this snipe at Gorton, but I love the set up of the viewer 'pulling back' from Gorton in the studio in the first two panels, to him being on tv in the second, the pullback continuing, and the dog attacking the tv leg:

Not 100% sure of all the fine details of 'La Bonzer' but that's OK. This is pretty nifty as a piece: 

This one is atypically detailed and structured, I think ML has really enjoyed all the elements and the slight reference to renaissance perspective is excellent. 

Another anti-Vietnam war cartoon that needs no further comment from me:

This kind of thing was probably still pretty radical for the mainstream in 1970, I'm not sure, but in any case, it's succinct and pointed:

But these last two are the best because really they're not that political - or they're a different kind of political and it's not savage. With hindsight you could see where he was going (well, not all the way to where he was going, but where he was going to his years of greatness):

You have to admit that's pretty incredibly funny.