4 days ago
Walkley award-winning newspaper cartoonist John Shakespeare dead at 63: 'Treasure the small stuff'
One of Australia's most loved and widely read newspaper cartoonists, John Shakespeare, has died of cancer, aged 63.
Tributes have poured in for the 'big-hearted' illustrator who died on Monday evening and is survived by his partner Anna-Lisa Backlund, and their son, Lukas.
Shakespeare's career in Australian journalism spanned nearly four decades, with him spending the bulk of this time as a cartoonist at The Sydney Morning Herald, where he created nearly 20,000 illustrations and won a Walkley Award for his work in 1995.
Announcing his death, his partner shared an emotional tribute to the cartoonist on Instagram alongside an illustration of Shakespeare riding off on a motorbike saying the words: 'Gotta fly', while his dog waits behind.
'Ride free sweets!' Backlund wrote. 'He passed away tonight on the couch with Lukas and I.
'Take a leaf out of his book and laugh at the hard stuff and treasure the small stuff. To honour him, go out and do your favourite thing asap.'
Backlund, a former magazine designer and style columnist, said the memorial service will take place after July 6 'when friends get back from overseas'.
Sydney Morning Herald's Jordan Baker shared a fitting tribute to the cartoonist and revealed he was affectionately known as 'Shakes' amongst colleagues.
Shakespeare's career in Australian journalism spanned almost four decades before taking a voluntary redundancy from The Sydney Morning Herald last year (pictured, a cartoon Shakespeare created for his son Lukas)
'Shakespeare's shy smile and boundless kindness were woven into the fabric of the newsroom, and his loss will be felt deeply by generations of staff and readers,' Baker wrote.
Fellow cartoonist and long-time Sydney Morning Herald colleague, Cathy Wilcox praised her friend and his work.
'They're not nasty,' she said of his cartoons. 'He might ridicule them a bit, but not from a place of judgmental superiority.'
Wilcox described Shakespeare as unfailingly 'big-hearted and generous', both in life and art.
Peter FitzSimons, whose column The Fitz Files was illustrated by Shakespeare for 15 years, said: 'The most loved figure at the SMH in the 40 years I've been there. Lovely man. Vale, Johnny.'
James Brickwood, staff photographer at Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review, said the late cartoonist had 'such a beautiful, kind soul'.
He was 'warm, encouraging, and modest (besides his love of fast motorbikes)'.
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A post shared by Anna-Lisa Backlund (@anna_lisa_backlund)
'I started at the paper over 20 years ago. It was a pretty intimidating place to enter. John was one of those who made the experience less so right from the beginning,' he wrote on Instagram.
'Over the following 20 years I saw it time and time again as new young faces joined the paper he was warm and welcoming. It's a small gesture but it mattered.'
Shakespeare started his career at Brisbane's Courier Mail, where a job fixing photocopiers led to a role in the art room despite no formal training.
He moved to Fairfax's Sydney Sun in 1985, and when it closed he transferred to The Sydney Morning Herald.
Shakespeare remained at the newspaper for 39 years before taking a voluntary redundancy last year.
He produced thousands of illustrations during his career from political portraits to pop culture phenomena, including Taylor Swift 'mania'.
Explaining how he created his art, Shakespeare told the Queensland Law Society's Proctor newsletter: 'The process of creating a funny cartoon can be quite excruciating.
'I actually don't enjoy that part. Once I have the idea, I can relax a bit and draw it, which I enjoy.'
