The Museum of Australian Democracy has named Megan Herbert as Cartoonist of the Year for its long-running annual Behind the Lines exhibit. The exhibit “celebrates the talent of this country’s best cartoonists, presenting a unique time capsule of the year in Australian politics.”
This is Megan’s first win as Cartoonist of the Year. Her work has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age since 2020. Before that she lived in the UK, Iceland, and the Netherlands writing for television, film, designing products, and creating children’s books.
Judges said her work “demonstrated an impressive and sophisticated range of tone, subject matter, visual technique and creativity.”
Here’s a selection of her cartoons from her exhibit. You can see all her work on the museum’s website.
The exhibit also features cartoons of over 40 other Australian artists (listed below).
Costa A, Dean Alston, Badiucao, Aaron Billings, Matt Bissett-Johnson, Bill Bramhall, Peter Broelman, Warren Brown, Harry Bruce, Gaynor Alma Cardew, Jenny Coopes, Mark David, Matt Davidson, Oslo Davis, John Ditchburn, Chris Downes, Andrew Dyson, Danny Eastwood, Jules Faber, John ‘Polly’ Farmer, Rocco Fazzari, First Dog on the Moon, Sarah Firth, Lindsay Foyle, John Frith, Andrew Fyfe, Matt Golding, Gorkie, Jess Harwood, Megan Herbert, Judy Horacek, Pat Hudson, Matt Huynh, Ed Iffland, Kamsani Bin Salleh (Kambarni), Fiona Katauskas, Simon Kneebone, Mark Knight, Jon Kudelka, Judy Kuo, Glen Le Lievre, Sean Leahy, Johannes Leak, Simon Letch, Brett Lethbridge, Michael Leunig, Mary Leunig, Peter Lewis, Eric Löbbecke, Reg Lynch, Will Mahony, Alan Moir, Wes Mountain, Peter Nicholson, Nordacious, Meg O’Shea, Jim Pavlidis, Bruce Petty, Elyce Phillips, David Pope, Geoff Pryor, David Rowe, ROY, John Shakespeare, Greg ‘Smithy’ Smith, Philip Somerville, John Spooner, Peter Sully, Ron Tandberg, Adele K Thomas, Van Nishing,Sam Wallman, Andrew Weldon, Cathy Wilcox, Scott Wrigg, Paul Zanetti,
It will travel to four venues starting in March 2025.
- Pinnacles Gallery, QLD: March 8 to May 11
- Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum, QLD: May 17 to June 28
- Old Treasury Building, VIC: July 17 to August 28
- The Hawke Centre, SA: September 4 to October 31
The problem is with some foreign cartoons is that they’re completely incomprehensible to those of us here in the states. Like the one on the right.
the one on the left is quite good.