Anthony Ellison (born 1966) is a
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
cartoonist and animator.
Ellison is of Māori descent, from the
Ngai Tahu
Ngai (also called Múrungu or Enkai) is the monolithic Supreme God in the spirituality of the Kikuyu (or Gikuyu) and the closely related Embu, Meru and Kamba groups of Kenya, and the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania. Ngai is creator of the universe ...
iwi.
Ellison has been the political cartoonist for ''
The Sunday Star-Times
The ''Sunday Star-Times'' is a New Zealand newspaper published each weekend in Auckland. It covers both national and international news, and is a member of the New Zealand Press Association and Newspaper Publishers Association of New Zealand. ...
'' since 1988 and was at one stage the youngest political cartoonist in New Zealand. His cartoons addressed Māori issues but did not stereotype Māori and women.
Frustrated by the limitations of the medium, Ellison abandoned political cartooning and began a bizarre weekly cartoon 'Meantime' for the ''
New Zealand Listener
The ''New Zealand Listener'' is a weekly New Zealand magazine that covers the political, cultural and literary life of New Zealand by featuring a variety of topics, including current events, politics, social issues, health, technology, arts, f ...
''. 'Meantime' survived two changes of editor before being dropped by the current editor who favoured a more conservative approach to the magazine.
More recently he is the creator of the controversial animated character '
Media Dog' for the media satire show ''
Eating Media Lunch
Eating Media Lunch (EML) was a satirical New Zealand news show hosted by Jeremy Wells. It aired on TV2 from 2003 to 2008. The show was frequently controversial during its run.
Notable episodes
In 2005 it shocked some viewers when it depi ...
'' and also created the 1920s pastiche
Happy Hori for the comedy show ''
The Unauthorised History of New Zealand''. According to an interview with
Chris Slane
Chris Slane (born 1957) is a left wing New Zealand cartoonist.
He has had cartoons published in ''Metro'', ''New Zealand Herald'' and ''AA Directions'' magazine. Slane is currently the cartoonist for the '' New Zealand Listener'' and ''New Zeala ...
, Ellison does not use story boards for his animations, "just writes a script, takes it into the recording studio and sees what happens".
In 2005, Ellison made his first foray into live action comedy with the one-off television pilot '
Barry Barry may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name
* Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...
'. ''New Zealand Listener'' TV critic
Diana Witchel describes Ellison's television work as representing "some of the most disturbing material on television this side of Destiny TV" and goes on to say that 'Barry' "as comment on the pretensions of the intelligentsia, the gullibility of the media and the stunning incomprehensibility of late-night innovative comedy, it’s a triumph."
In addition to editorial cartoons he has also published adult minicomics, including '
Popeye has a Fuck' (1977),'
Tard
Tard is a village in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine ...
' (1998), and '
Ray Gun Girls' (1999), which ''
Pavement'' has described as "An unsettling mixture of Japanese school-girl eroticism, fifties ray-guns and haunting landscapes".
References
External links
Search for work by Anthony Ellison on DigitalNZ
1966 births
Living people
New Zealand editorial cartoonists
New Zealand animators
New Zealand comics artists
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