Sarah, over at Art Expedition, is doing a wonderfully creative series of posts this month around the daily National Appreciation Days that take place in May. I love the idea of this and thought I might be able to flavour a few of my own posts with acknowledgement of some of the things that are celebrated this month.
Today is National Cartoonists Day.
It’s also National Astronaut Day, Cinco de Mayo, National Hoagie Day, National Totally Chipotle Day and National Space Day, but moving right along ….
… I can’t think of cartoonists without remembering and celebrating New Zealand’s own Murray Ball, who died only a few weeks ago. He is known best here as the creator of Footrot Flats, a long-running comic strip series about life on a Kiwi farm seen through the eyes of a sheepdog.
A sheepdog remarkably like the one held by the boy-child above.
In 1986, Footrot Flats: The Dog’s Tale — an animated movie — was made, written by Murray Ball and fellow cartoonist Tom Scott.
The soundtrack from the movie, by Dave Dobbyn, contains a couple of songs that have become Kiwi classics, which neatly allows me to include a reference in this post to another May celebration — NZ Music Month.
So allow me to play us out with Wal, Dog and Cheeky Hobson in Dave Dobbyn’s You Oughta Be In Love.
And please visit Art Expedition to see Sarah’s creative World Day of … posts
Never heard of National cartoonists day!
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Neither had I until I looked up National Appreciation days.
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😀
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Oooh! This is awesome! Thank you so much for linking up to my blog, Su!! 🙂
I didn´t know of Murray Ball and “Footrot Flats” before and am now off to do some wonderful research of this comic! The little music clip is lovely – I like that song! And the shepherd is just beyond cute – a wonderful character that I´m looking forward to meet properly now! Happy Cartoonist´s Day, Su! 🙂 xxxxxxxxxx
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Thanks so much Sarah. Footrot Flats has been much on my mind since Murray Ball died. The Big T and I saw the movie when it came out with a bunch of his engineering friends, all slightly drunk and sitting in the front row of the cinema. Most of us were at a wedding recently and someone mentioned seeing that movie. Nostalgia is such a powerful thing.
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What a lovely memory! 🙂 And I agree, nostalgia is a very powerful thing! xxxxxxx
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🙂 xxxxxx
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Great thoughts. 🙂 Yesterday, May 4, was National Prayer Day in the US. All prayers needed, I would say.
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Definitely!
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Wonderful tie-in of all the National Appreciations. And the boy-child is so adorable holding his best friend, the sheepdog! 🙂
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Thanks Amanda. I love the photo, and the fact that when the boy-child went flatting, Wham went too!
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Oh, that’s adorable! I love it.
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I almost went with Cartoonists Day today – but then I realized no one wanted to see my drawings! (I mean, Choppy and Schooner’s drawings.)
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Guess I cheated; there is no way I could draw a decent cartoon. I’m going with the creativity of packing three post ideas into one. 🙂
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🙂
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Where does your son’s red hair come from? There must be a bit of the Irish in him?
Leslie
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His dad’s other nickname was “Big Red”. The boy-child has Scottish ancestry on both sides. My grandad was a redhead too.
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Ah, ha I guess they have them in Scotland too.
😉
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Red hair is really common in Scotland and Ireland.
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Yes it is and it is lovely!
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What a darling shot of your boy. That is such a sweet age.
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Thank you. Yes, when I get nostalgic about him, it’s often for that time. He was old enough to be easy, fun company, and young enough to still do what he was told (at least sometimes) 🙂
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🙂 I can relate!
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