Vane Lindesay – RIP
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Australian cartoonist and comics historian Vane Lindesay has passed away.
James Vane Crawford Lindesay, OAM
October 2, 1920 – July 28, 2026
The Australian Cartoonists Association (ACA) has announced the death of Vane Lindesay:
It is with the deepest of sadness that we report the passing this afternoon of Patron of the Australian Cartoonists Association, Vane Lindsay OAM. Vane had a long, illustrious and richly-awarded career as a cartoonist, illustrator, book designer and author of at least 18 books. At 105 years of age, he had been the world’s oldest living professional cartoonist and, amongst it all, the Sydney Swans’ most avid supporter.
The Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA) has a fine biography of Vane from last year.
Vane Lindesay is one of those rare figures whose career bridged two often separate worlds: the production of visual culture and also its preservation. In Australia, where the cartoon has long been a popular tool and a national barometer, Lindesay drew, collected and chronicled, becoming one of Australia’s most significant cartoonists and an historian of black and white arts. Few have done more to honour and preserve Australian graphic humour. In a parallel career he designed books, influencing how novels, poetic works and histories were seen and appreciated.
After World War Two Mr. Lindesay spent a little time with The Melbourne Herald, in the 1950s he was at The Melbourne Herald. The Herald closed in 1957 and Lindesay went freelance as a cartoonist, illustrator, reviewer, book designer, and more. He contributed to Australasian Post for forty years and also to The Age, Overland, The Bulletin, The Australian, Australian Book Review, The Australian Dictionary of Biography, the Australian Encyclopaedia and he contributed over 20 profiles to the World Encyclopaedia of Cartoons published in 1976 and many others.
Vane Lindesay also became historian of Australian comic art. From AGDA:
Because of his knowledge, Lindesay came to establish himself as the leading historian of Australian black and white art. His groundbreaking book The Inked-In Image – A Social and Historical Survey of Australian Comic Art (1979) traced the lineage of Australian cartooning, from colonial caricature to contemporary satire. Others followed, including The Way We Were – Australian Popular Magazines 1856–1969 (1983), Noel Counihan Caricatures (1985), Aussie Osities (1988), Drawing from Life – A History of the Australian Black and White Artists’ Club (1994), and Stop Laughing: This is Serious – The Life and Work of Stan Cross (2001). His last book, Some Fragments Recalled, is a memoir published by Trojan Press in 2005. These works, most of which Lindesay designed, combine meticulous archival research with the eye of a practitioner.
He also contributed numerous articles to The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons (1980).
Vane Lindesay’s ACA biography.
Nat Karmichael’s Comicoz presents a mid 2010s video produced by the Australian Cartoon Museum.
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