Les Gibbard (26 October 1945 – 10 October 2010) was 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 ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

political cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curren ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

and

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

. As a political cartoonist at ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper for 25 years, Gibbard became the longest-serving artist of his type in the publication’s history. In addition to his contributions to the Guardian, Gibbard’s work also featured in the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'', the ''

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'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', ''

The Sunday Mirror The ''Sunday Mirror'' is the Sunday sister paper of the ''Daily Mirror''. It began life in 1915 as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' and was renamed the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1963. In 2016 it had an average weekly circulation of 620,861, dropping marke ...

'', ''

The London Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after bei ...

'', ''

Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an enginee ...

'' and ''

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''.Biography at the British Cartoon Archive
, University of Kent

Early life

Gibbard was born in

Kaiapoi Kaiapoi is a town in the Waimakariri District of the Canterbury region, in the South Island of New Zealand. The town is located approximately 17 kilometres north of central Christchurch, close to the mouth of the Waimakariri River. It is con ...

; he grew up in New Zealand and learnt his trade under the tutelage of

Gordon Minhinnick Sir Gordon Edward George Minhinnick (13 June 1902 – 19 February 1992) was a New Zealand cartoonist. He was born at Torpoint, Cornwall, England, educated at Kelly College, Devon, and left for New Zealand in 1921 where he studied architecture ...

(himself influenced by David Low), a former political cartoonist with the ''

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

''. After working for a number of New Zealand and Australian publications during the 1960s, Gibbard moved to London and was initially employed by ''

'' before joining ''

'' in 1969, replacing

Bill Papas William "Bill" Papas (15 July 1927 – 19 June 2000) was a political cartoonist and caricaturist, book author and illustrator, and watercolourist. In the 1960s and 1970s he worked for ''The Guardian'', ''The Sunday Times'' and ''Punch''. His wor ...

. At the time he joined, Gibbard was the youngest cartoonist in the paper’s history at 23.

''The Guardian'' (1969–1994)

While working at ''The Guardian'', Gibbard produced a number of striking cartoons and courted controversy during the

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

with a re-working of a

Philip Zec Philip Zec (25 December 1909 – 14 July 1983) was a British political cartoonist and editor. Moving from the advertising industry to drawing political cartoons due to his abhorrence of the rise of fascism, Donald Zec (journalist)"Zec, Philip (190 ...

cartoon "The price of petrol" which previously caused uproar during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Responding to the sinking of ''General Belgrano'', on 6 May 1982 the newspaper ran Gibbard's version of the cartoon, re-captioned with the line: "The price of sovereignty has increased - official". Gibbard later stated: "I was unaware of the furore caused by it until I returned home later the following day to barrage of phone calls asking me how I proposed responding to being called a traitor." The cartoon was raised in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

and was cited as evidence, by the then Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

that the British media did not support military action, and rival newspaper '' The Sun'' also accused Gibbard and ''The Guardian'' of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

: "What is it but treason for ''The Guardian'' to print a cartoon, showing a British seaman clinging to a raft... isn't that exactly calculated to weaken Britain's resolve at a time when lives have been lost, whatever the justice of her cause?" The criticism in turn led to ''The Sun''’s leader-writer being ejected from the

National Union of Journalists The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was founded in 1907 and has 38,000 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Structure There i ...

for “unfraternal behaviour”.

Later life and death

Gibbard worked as an animator and produced his own animated political cartoon series ''Newshound'' for

Granada television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

. He also provided illustrations for the popular New Zealand social commentary book, ''

The Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise ''The Half-Gallon Quarter-Acre Pavlova Paradise'' was a popular book by Austin Mitchell, published by Whitcombe and Tombs (Christchurch, 1972), with illustrations by Les Gibbard. It provided a witty, satirical description of life in 1960s New Zea ...

''. Gibbard drew political cartoons for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

's ''A Week in Politics'' and for

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

’s ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

'' and he produced weekly cartoons for political comment show '' On the Record'' between 1988 and 1995. He has also contributed to a number of international animated features including ''

The Super Globetrotters ''The Super Globetrotters'' is a 30-minute Saturday-morning cartoon, Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera Productions. It premiered on NBC on September 22, 1979 and ran for 13 episodes. It was a Spin-off (media) ...

'', ''

Under Milk Wood ''Under Milk Wood'' is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, commissioned by the BBC and later adapted for the stage. A film version, ''Under Milk Wood'' directed by Andrew Sinclair, was released in 1972, and another adaptation of ...

'' and ''

Ivor the Invisible ''Ivor the Invisible'' is an animated film made for British television's Channel 4 in 2001. It was written by the popular British author/illustrator, Raymond Briggs. Unlike Briggs' other films, which were adapted from his books, ''Ivor the Invisi ...

''. He died on 10 October 2010 of a

pulmonary embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an pulmonary artery, artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include dyspnea, shortness of breath, chest pain p ...

following a routine operation for

knee replacement Knee replacement, also known as knee arthroplasty, is a surgical procedure to replace the weight-bearing surfaces of the knee joint to relieve pain and disability, most commonly offered when joint pain is not diminished by conservative sources a ...

References

External links

*
Biography British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbard, Les 1945 births 2010 deaths New Zealand cartoonists British cartoonists The Guardian journalists