Leunig’s Last Clue: Vale Michael Leunig, Leading Australian Cartoonist

With Michael Gray Griffith: Cafe Locked Out

One job of great artists is to navigate our human soul and bring back any clues they find for us to ponder. In a time where our perceived identity could support us all, like an indomitable perch in time, this saw him embraced by the governments, mainstream media, the arts, and the people. Every quirky image he produced, that we published, bred hope for us all, because it was clear that, whether we believed him or not, or whether we ever understood the clue, as a people, we were willing to look.

Then, post-COVID, he started bringing back clues that hinted at a cold shift in our combined core. Because the powers that be didn’t want these clues published, and because we, the people, had lost the strength to look, he was cast out. We wanted to categorize him as old and irrelevant. What we didn’t realize was that his greatest clue was yet to be produced.

He had to leave us that one, by leaving us. Australia, our souls are in dark times, and our greatest canary — the one who sang with a voice so light and deep it connected us all — has died. But just before dying, we tried to smother him. And that’s the clue. For today, many will actively ignore our canceling of him in order to celebrate his work.

Like trying to glue his unique wings back on to the soul who has now found a way out of our grip.

And that is the final clue he is leaving us.

Leunig was Leunig before many of us were born, a national living treasure, and whilst in the future he will be ever more revered, the image he left our generation, is a portrait of us.

There we are, looking up at the space he left, with his wings, that we silently let The Age clip, in our hands.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Leunig’s studio announced his departure on Instagram. “The pen has run dry, its ink no longer flowing – yet Mr. Curly and his ducks will remain etched in our hearts, cherished and eternal.

“Michael Leunig passed away peacefully today, in the early hours of December 19, 2024. During his final days, he was surrounded by his children, loved ones, and sunflowers – accompanied as ever, by his dear old friends, Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven.”

It was Leunig’s scepticism towards Australia’s ultra-woke cultural agenda and the censorious, totalitarian instincts lying behind it which led him to being cancelled. He was reportedly gobsmacked at the news he was being sacked, or let go, from The Age. The same ultra-woke “news” outlets including the $1.2 billion Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Guardian Australia, set up with contributions from Bill Gates, are now happy to celebrate his unique style. Guardian Australia reports: “In recent years, Leunig’s views critical of no jab, no play policies for vaccination, that were sometimes apparent in his cartoons published in The Age, drew controversy.”

His parting of ways with the publication was a bitter one, with the cartoonist telling The Australian: “It’s almost embarrassing now to say that I worked for the Age, it’s become like a tacky tabloid.”