Mark Knight

Not to be confused with Mark Knight (sound designer) or Marcus Knight.

Mark Knight (born c. 1960s) is the editorial cartoonist for the Herald Sun, a daily tabloid in Melbourne, Australia. Knight was also the last editorial cartoonist for one of the Herald Sun's joint predecessor newspapers, the afternoon broadsheet The Herald[1][2]

He created Leuk the Duck, short for Leukemia, a mascot for Challenge, a cancer foundation to provide a visual impetus for kids with cancer. It has consequently been used in all educational material produced by Challenge.[3]

Childhood

Knight was born and raised in Sydney. He grew up in Lakemba, attended Wiley Park Primary School, then Narwee Boys' High School. He said there hasn't been a time when he didn't love to draw. He started a cadetship in 1980 in the Fairfax art department, filling in the black squares in the crossword grids. He went to East Sydney Technical College and studied life drawing, painting, drawing and etching.[4]

Knight's father taught him to love drawing. When he was a little boy, his father would draw for him. Mark's first cartoon's were of his family and their idiosyncrasies, drawn on Christmas Day or at other family gatherings.[5]

He cited the cartoonist Paul Rigby as having played an influential part of his childhood, as his first book his father bought for him when he was six years old was Paul Rigby's cartoon annual of 1967. He is quoted as saying that he still has the worn-out, tattered pages of this much-loved and influential paperback on his bookshelf.[6] He further added that he used to create scrapbooks full of Rigby's cartoons which he would cut out from The Daily Telegraph. He would pore over them every day, copy and imitate them in school books, note pads as well as in sketch books in order to emulate the highly accoladed cartoonist as well as to develop a sense of his own style.[7]

In 1999 Knight, alongside Bill Leak and other male political cartoonists were criticised by the Labor Party's deputy leader, Jenny Macklin, argued that cartoons such as those by Knight and Leak showing Meg Lees in sexual relations with John Howard were demeaning to women politicians.[8]

Awards

Knight won a Gold Quill Award from the Melbourne Press Club in 2005 for the best cartoon of the year.[9] In 2001 he also picked up a Quill Award for Best Cartoon from the MPC.[10]

He was also named The Age Cartoonist of the Year at the 22nd annual Stan Cross Awards ceremony hosted by Rod Quantock in Ballarat, Victoria on 4 November 2007.[11] His other accolades include awards in the categories Single Gag (2003) and Editorial (1995, 2006).[12]

In 2004, Knight also picked up a Walkley Award for his cartoon named "Benefits Of A Bedtime Story".[13]

In 2003, he received an award as part of the Australian Comedy Awards in the visual category for Outstanding Cartoonist [14] as well as another Walkley.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Political Cartoonist". ABC. 2004-10-06. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  2. ↑ "Talking Pictures with Mike Bowers". ABC. 17 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  3. ↑ "Challenge Facts". Foodservice Industry Association. 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-08-29. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  4. 1 2 "Cartoonist of the Year" (PDF). Lindsay Foyle, Australian Cartoonists' Association. 2005-12-20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-08-28. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  5. ↑ Knight, Mark (2005). The Mark Knight Collection. Gspbooks, 6, 7. ISBN 0-9757287-7-6.
  6. ↑ "15,000 cartoons later, Paul Rigby finally hands in his pen and ink". The Australian. 20 November 2006. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  7. ↑ "Inkspot Newsletter" (PDF). Australian Cartoonists' Association. 2005-12-20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-08-28. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  8. ↑ Robert Phiddian, Haydon R. Manning Comic Commentators: Contemporary Political Cartooning in Australia - 2008 - Page 125 "In June 1999, the Labor Party's deputy leader, Jenny Macklin, argued that cartoons such as the following two of Meg Lees ... Pauline Hanson's One Nation.2 The following cartoons by Mark Knight and Bill Leak are indicative of what so annoys ...
  9. ↑ "Melbourne Press Club – Quill Awards media release". The Age. 3 March 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-09-08. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  10. ↑ "2001 Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards". Melbourne Press Club. 3 September 2001. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  11. ↑ "The 22nd ANNUAL STANLEY AWARDS CONVENTION". Australian Cartoonists' Association. 2006-03-03. Archived from the original on 2007-08-28. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  12. ↑ "Previous recipients of Stanley Awards". Australian Cartoonists' Association. 2006-03-03. Archived from the original on 2007-08-28. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  13. ↑ "Media Release: The Walkley Awards". AAP. 2004-12-02. Archived from the original on 2007-03-26. Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  14. ↑ "Australian Comedy Awards". The Age. 26 November 2003. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
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