Design and Art Australia Online

cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator, writer and comic strip artist, was born in London on 13 April 1939. He sold his first cartoon to London's Daily Sketch when aged 14. While doing National Service he worked on the British Army magazine Soldier as a cartoonist, press artist and art editor. Then he studied at Hornsey College of Art, graduating top of the school in 1963 (acc. obit.). He sold gags to Punch, Private Eye, the New Yorker (once) and, by syndication, to the Bulletin. An original cartoon dated 27 August 1967 (ML PXD 739) was drawn for the Sunday Telegraph, presumably after he moved to Australia. In Sydney, Buchanan took over from Rigby as feature cartoonist on the Daily Mirror in 1970-71; he was followed by Frank Benier.

Original Mirror caricatures by Buchanan are owned by the former premier of NSW Neville Wran, by Joan Sutherland and by the current Attorney-General of NSW. He then became chief graphic designer to the NSW Health Commission (1972-76), Creative Director, The Market Place (1976-80), partner with Mike Selby of Promotional Thinking (1980-84) then freelanced from 1984, including tutoring for the Australian College of Journalism’s cartooning course and regularly assisting at cartooning workshops conducted by the ABWAC at the Children’s Hospital. He illustrated numerous books with cartoons, including most of Peter Clyne’s Tax Avoidance books and some comic book titles from Avenue, Beaumont and Capricorn Books, but specialised in drawing comics in trade magazines, notably 'Polly the Pumper’ for the service station proprietors’ trade magazine, Australian Service Station. His best-known character was Captain Humungus who appeared in a strip in The Picture for years; a 1992 example featuring both the artist and the editor of the paper was reproduced in Inkspot 28, 19.

A longtime member of the Australian Black and White Artists’ Club, Cole Buchanan served on its committee from November 1990 (including being elected NSW Vice President). He was also on the committee of the Federation of European Cartoonists’ Organization. In 1983 he won the API Packaging Award. His work was included in the Stanley exhibitions from 1990 and he won a silver Stanley in 1995. He lived at Balmain until his death from cerebral lymphoma (diagnosed April 1995) on 7 May 1997, aged 58. He was survived by his widow, Penny, and their three sons, Josh, Giles and Sam.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007