AustLit

'Martin Ritchie Sharp was born into a wealthy Sydney family in 1942. He was educated at Cranbrook School and went on to study at the East Sydney National Art School. In 1963, Richard Neville, Sharp, Richard Walsh and some of their friends launched the satirical Oz magazine. The first issue carried cartoons by Sharp that lampooned the monarchy and ridiculed sexual taboos. As if this was not enough, another cartoon by Sharp depicted the Christian God as a tycoon smoking a cigar at his desk with trays marked Heaven, Purgatory and Hell. Other subjects avoided by the mainstream press that were now voiced in Oz included suburban customs and habits caricatured in Sharp’s dull and tedious ‘Norman Normal’; misogynistic abuse of women as parodied in his The Word Flashed round the Arms; publication of the names of organised-crime bosses with links to the police; and condemnation of laws against abortion and homosexuality that created opportunities for blackmail and extortion.' (Introduction)