As a consolation, I indulged myself with the decorated bedspread and curtains in panel 1. Sam’s predicament here is uncomfortably familiar from my days writing scripts for DC Comics. Poor old Sam is late for a deadline And so, while his wife Sally sleeps alone, Sam sits staring at his computer screen, stuck on page 17 of his Lady Night script. We’ll see.īut for now, the following are available for purchase for US$350 each (including postage). I may change my mind tomorrow and take them down. I have been reluctant to sell original art from Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen, but more than a year after the book’s release, I think it’s time to tentatively let a few pages go. Posted in News, Other cartoonists | No Comments »

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. But he was never financially secure, and he never stopped making his unique, intensely personal comics – even when no-one was publishing them. Later, he drew illustrations for On Film magazine, a handful of books, and even the NZ Woman’s Weekly. 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. I’m not ready to write about him with detachment, and I’m not sure I ever will be.īarry’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. 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 apologise if this is rambling and inelegant.

Carefully checked facts about his life, a sober assessment of his life’s work. 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. The great New Zealand cartoonist Barry Linton died last month.įuntime Comics asked me to write something about Barry, and here’s what came out:

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