AustLit

'Stan Cross’s “For gorsake, stop laughing: this is serious!” (Smith’s Weekly, 1933) is the symbol and bellwether of the Australian cartooning tradition. It is often lionised as a national treasure, but its archival history has been perilous in a way that shows a lack of care amounting almost to national negligence. The original of this most famous cartoon of the Depression era was lost for 80 years before being rediscovered in 2014, and this article notes for the first time that Trove Newspapers lacks a record of its initial publication. We use this troubled material history of one significant cartoon to raise a range of issues about the quality and purpose of collecting and presenting Australian cartoons as a resource for Australian studies in fields ranging from media and humour studies to cultural and political history.' (Publication abstract)

'This chapter re-assesses the colonial Australian versions of the London Punch, making a case for their importance as essentially migrant and minority publications. Founded as a means of maintaining a sense of Britishness, and as a direct link to the culture of Metropolitan London, these magazines were staffed overwhelmingly by migrants (from Britain and elsewhere), directed to a predominantly migrant readership, and filled their pages with migration-themed jokes, cartoons, and pieces of doggerel. The everyday worries of a stranger in a strange land could be soothed by reference to the humour of the local satirical magazine, and a sense of shared community built through regular recourse to the pages of Melbourne Punch, Sydney Punch, Tasmanian Punch, Ballarat Punch, Adelaide Punch, Queensland Punch, or even Ipswich Punch.'

Source: Abstract.