Ronald Peter Tandberg (31 December 1943 – 8 January 2018) was an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

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

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 ...

who contributed to ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' newspaper in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

from 1972. Tandberg's credits include eleven

Walkley Awards The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

. He was inducted into the

Melbourne Press Club The Melbourne Press Club, commonly referred to as MPC, is a not-for-profit association of journalists in the city of Melbourne, Australia. The Melbourne Press Club provides awards in the State of Victoria for outstanding journalism, presenting th ...

's Victorian Hall of Fame in 2014.

Early life and education

Tandberg was born in Melbourne to working-class parents and raised in a small house at the suburb of

Pascoe Vale Pascoe Vale is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Merri-bek local government area. Pascoe Vale recorded a population of 18,171 at the 2021 census. History Pa ...

South. His grandfather was a builder who gave away his money during the Great Depression and believed in communist ideas. Raised a Catholic, his father was a maintenance electrician while his mother was an overlocker who worked in a knitting mill. Both his parents worked at William Angliss Meatworks. He attended a Catholic primary school (St Fidelis' Primary) in Moreland, St Ambrose primary school Brunswick, St Joseph's College, and then Coburg Technical School. Qualifying for a teaching certificate, he worked as an art teacher, then attended

RMIT RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scienc ...

to study art and graphic design.

Artistic career

Tandberg started working at

Leader Community Newspapers The Leader Community Newspaper group publishes 20 digital titles covering metropolitan Melbourne. The group was downsized in 2016 and in 2020. Prior to this, it published 33 weekly print titles which were delivered to over 1.4 million homes. In ea ...

in 1963, although he claimed he lost this job for impersonating his boss. At around the same time, he was producing a regular comic strip called "Fred and Others" which was syndicated to '' The Herald'' in Melbourne, '' The Advertiser'' in Adelaide, and eventually international papers including ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' and the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

''. After a few newspapers dropped the strip, Tandberg approached ''The Age'' about taking it on. Editor

Graham Perkin Edwin Graham Perkin (16 December 1929 – 16 October 1975) was an Australian journalist and newspaper editor. Early life Perkin was born at Hopetoun, Victoria, elder son of Herbert Edwin Perkin, baker, and his wife Iris Lily, née Graham, bo ...

declined, but offered him a job as a political cartoonist, which he reluctantly accepted in 1972, thus beginning a 45-year career with the newspaper. Tandberg became known for his distinctive "pocket" cartoons—minimalist single-panel images to complement and draw attention to a story. Tandberg illustrated an HIV/AIDS prevention poster campaign for the National AIDS Education Council with the tag line "If it's not on, it's not on" (referring to a

condom A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of in ...

), which was widely distributed in Australia in the early 1990s.

Death

Tandberg died of

oesophageal cancer Esophageal cancer is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Other symptoms may include pain when swallowing, a hoarse voice ...

at St John of God Hospital, in Geelong, Victoria, surrounded by his family, in the afternoon of 8 January 2018, at the age of 74. He was survived by his wife, Glen.

Bibliography

* * * *

References

External links

Biography at Design & Art Australia Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tandberg, Ron 1943 births 2018 deaths Australian editorial cartoonists Walkley Award winners Deaths from esophageal cancer Deaths from cancer in Victoria (Australia) Cartoonists from Melbourne People from Pascoe Vale, Victoria 20th-century Australian artists RMIT University alumni People educated at St Joseph's College, Melbourne