Photo: Matt Emery

The great New Zealand cartoonist Barry Linton died last month.

Funtime Comics asked me to write something about Barry, and here’s what came out:

BARRY LINTON 1947-2018

I’ve been trying to write an obituary for the great New Zealand cartoonist Barry Linton, who died on the afternoon of October 2nd at Auckland Hospital, aged 71. Carefully checked facts about his life, a sober assessment of his life’s work. But I can’t. I apologise if this is rambling and inelegant. But Barry’s comics have been an important part of my mental landscape since I was a schoolboy: shaping the way I draw, the way I think about cartooning and art, the way I see my home town and the islands we live on. I’m not ready to write about him with detachment, and I’m not sure I ever will be.

Barry’s art helped define the look of the New Zealand counter-culture in the ‘70s and ‘80s, through band posters and record covers, cartoons for the alternative press, and his unforgettable, iconic comics for Strips. He did commercial work, too. For a while, he worked as a graphic artist for the Auckland Star newspaper, drawing maps, diagrams of cruise missiles and aeroplanes, and whatever else the daily news required. Later, he drew illustrations for On Film magazine, a handful of books, and even the NZ Woman’s Weekly. But he was never financially secure, and he never stopped making his unique, intensely personal comics – even when no-one was publishing them. Occasionally he’d put out a mini-comic or self-published collection, but for years, his best work was seen only by flatmates, friends, and family.