Cartoonist’s Cartoonists: Influences of Matt Golding
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Today’s Cartoonist’s Cartoonists is Matt Golding. Matt is an Australian editorial cartoonist whose work appears in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
He’s won multiple Stanley Awards – his first award for single gag cartoonist was in 2005 and he kept winning that category through 2010. He’s won the award twice more in 2016 and 2020. In 2018 he was honored as the Museum of Australian Democracy’s (MoAD) Political Cartoonist of the Year. He was also a finalist for the Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism last year.
He’s regularly featured in Mike’s Comic Strip of the Day column, but if you’re not familiar with Matt’s work, here’s a sample of his cartoons.
And without further ado here is Matt’s influences with his commentary about them.
Matt’s 10 cartoonists who have influenced his work + bonus: the current cartoonists he admires
R.O.Blechman
Blechman’s work inspired me with the refined use of line and colour, combined with a wonderful spatial sense to communicate a humorous visual story.
John Callahan
Wickedly dark and funny cartoonist who taught me that the drawing doesn’t need to be perfect, but the idea does.
Jules Feiffer
Feiffer showed me how disarmingly simple lines and creative storytelling can convey deeply powerful commentary on all issues.
Andre Francios
I’ve always been in awe of Francios’ graphic artistry and beautifully delivered sequential gags.
Sam Gross
My all-time favourite gag cartoonist. Wonderful absurdist humour delivered with perfect visual timing.
Lou Myers
A master of dark and absurd sequential visual storytelling. His drawings have a wonderful visual freedom delivered through his bold and expressive lines. He manages to communicate so much humour and comic timing in the drawing of eyes and facial expressions.
Ron Tandberg
Tandberg drew pocket cartoons for Melbourne’s The Age newspaper for 45 years. He showed me the power of distilling political events down into a small square with just a few lines.
Bruce Petty
I’ve always loved Petty’s creative freedom and the originality in his expressive line.
Jean-Jacques Sempe
A master of line, ink wash, watercolour and humorous storytelling on both a simple and grand scale.
Clarke and Dawe
An amazing comedy duo who delivered two-and-a-half minutes of beautiful satire on TV at the end of every week. Their dry humour, comic timing and delivery is still a wonderful source of inspiration and learning.
Bonus: What fellow cartoonists do you think are doing great work?
Jeremy Banks (Banx)
Banx is a master of the pocket cartoon. Wonderfully insightful ideas combined with deadpan humour and delivered in a minimalist way.
Edward Steed
Dark and absurdist humour captured with a unique visual style.
The current crop of Australian cartoonists:
Cathy Wilcox, David Rowe, David Pope, First Dog and Jon Kudelka who are constantly producing such inspiring work.
Thank you, Matt, for sharing with us your list of influential and admired cartoonists. You can find more of Matt’s work on Twitter and Instagram.
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