Editorial: Late Kiwi comic Murray Ball no joke

The front cover cartoon for Having A Ball, by renowned Kiwi cartoonist Murray Ball, who died at the weekend. Photo/File

The death of "goofy and generous" east coast cartoonist Murray Ball at the weekend didn't come as a shock.

He'd been a long-time Alzheimer's sufferer who for some time had been nursed at his Gisborne property - a place his wife Pam recently claimed was the "spiritual home" of his Footrot Flats series.

Alzheimer's cut short the stellar career, spearheaded and remembered primarily by this spectacular black and white comic strip.

While the death wasn't unexpected it did give his huge audience pause to appreciate how lucky we were to be shaped, entertained and educated by his prolific pencil.

Initial news of the death took me back to a house in our family sometimes rented during 80s Christmas holidays at Blackhead Beach.

As happens when you're holidaying, reading comes to the fore and my siblings and I would sprawl out on a sunny patch of carpet and swap copies of the home's endless Footrot Flats collection.

Given the cartoonist's ubiquity in Kiwi lounges, most of what we were reading we'd all read before. But like all worthy works of literature, a re-reading was rewarded.

Needless to say he deserves special mention for his skill in sphering both the rural and urban demographics.

Strangely enough, for a comic, and despite the countless written tributes since his death attesting to his humour, that was simply one aspect to his work.

Personally I remember more the dark humour, satire, send ups and subtext that often was anything but humorous.

From where I'm sitting, his powerful and often moving social commentary was in fact his forte.