horner

 

It was really good to be able to give Arthur Horner's lost weekly cartoon strip Tall Poppies another viewing, even if one of the episodes was virtually unreadable and many of them have lost their tart edge, I'm going to suggest, by dint of (1) world's moved on (2) relatedly, some jokes now unfunny/whimsy faded (3) also relatedly, visual refs now completely incomprehensible/ good caricatures but of whom? And why? That's what newspapers used to be, I guess. It was like memes. It made sense in the big broader context and then one day it didn't. 

Tall Poppies was based clearly on Ronald Searle's Rake's Progress or the original Hogarth series that Searle's book was based on, or both or more. I like that Horner, who was Australian-born but spent most of his career in the UK, could be both Australian and an outsider, just as in the UK he had been an outsider too. 

I love Horner's art (he could also be very funny too). If I live to be, um, 80 I think I will try and bring some of his work back to the public eye for instance there might be a biography in there perhaps? Very interesting man. 

This picture from the Age 'Saturday extra' section 25 October 1986 p. 11