cartoonist and theatrical entrepreneur, was born in Wellington and grew up in New Zealand. He contributed cartoons to the New Zealand Freelance in 1915-16 before becoming a theatrical executive in NZ and Australia. From 1919 he sent cartoons to the Bulletin , e.g. She Had A Soft Spot For Him 30 March 1929 and (minister to little girl) “So your mother goes to church regularly. And what religion is your father, dear?”/ “Daddy’s? Oh, daddy is a wireless” 8 November 1933 (original ML PX*D489/15). He also contributed to the Sunday Mail , e.g. Fiftyfifty (artist to model): “Y’know, you’re not a bad looking sort of a girl.”/ “Oh, but you’d say so even if you didn’t think so.”/ “Well, we’re square – you’d think so even if I didn’t say so”, 17 June 1920, 18.

Brodie Mack’s cartoons in Smith’s Weekly include: '“I cannot keep up this constant theatre-going, Kathleen! I have to think of my expenses.”/ “Well, what’s to prevent your thinking in the theatre?”’ 5 May 1923, 20, and The power of concentration 5 July 1930, 27. The original drunk gag: 'Proprietor: Wot’ll y’ave?”/ Newcomer [regarding man flat on floor]: “Wot did 'E 'ave?”’ (undated) is held in private collection. He drew cartoons for Aussie , was a political and sporting cartoonist on Sydney Truth , a relieving political cartoonist for the Sun and sporting cartoonist for the Sunday Sun .

With 24 other male cartoonists mainly from Sydney (see Harry J. Weston ), Mack was a foundation member of the Society of Australian Black and White Artists in 1924. All 25 contributed to the first publication, which commemorated the visit of the US Fleet in 1925. He did drawings for The Budget , e.g. flappers on the cover of 28 March 1930 issue. In the 1930s he established the Brodie Mack Correspondence Art School.

Mack was appointed the paper’s sporting cartoonist when the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph were first published by ACP (in 1936 and 1939 respectively) and he lasted an unbroken 26 years. He made Australia’s first rotogravure cartoons when working on the Telegraph (acc. Fifty Years ). His original cartoon of Sir Eric ('Neck to Knee’) Spooner as Nelson looking through a telescope towards a beach of scantily clad people is in the Spooner Papers (ML PIC ACC 4899), along with several other cartoons by various cartoonists featuring and collected by Spooner (see W.F. Mahony). His was published in the Daily Telegraph on 9 February 1937. At the ACP Brodie Mack also drew comics for the NSW Bookstall Publishing Company. He contributed to Gigglywinks and to the series of Kazanda comics whose story lines were written by Archie E. Martin under the pseudonym 'Peter Amos’, e.g. Kazanda: The Wild Girl of the Lost Continent (c.1940s). Mack’s style in the comic books he illustrated for the NSW Bookstall Publishing Company et al. (listed by Shiell & Unger) was inspired by the American Flash Gordon artist, Alex Raymond.

Writers:

Kerr, Joan

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007