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Story: Ball, Murray Hone

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From page 1 - Biography

Murray Ball as a young man, seated beside an enlarged illustration of the Wal’ and Dog ‘Footrot Flats’ characters.

Wal’, Dog and Murray, 1976

A studio portrait of Murray Ball as a young man wearing a rugby jersey.

Murray Ball, All Black prospect

A single-frame cartoon showing the interior of a farm shed, where two men in black singlets are decapitating sheep. A third man holds a newspaper with the headline ‘New export: Ghana wants NZ sheep heads’. The cartoon is captioned ‘Let’s see ’em replace this with nylon!’ An inset excerpt from a newspaper article explains that the establishment of a nylon industry in New Zealand was ‘a slap in the face for sheepfarmers’.

‘Let’s see ’em replace THIS with nylon!’

Bruce the Barbarian

Bruce the Barbarian

Stanley

Stanley

Footrot Flats

Footrot Flats

Murray Ball seated on a grassy bank beside a black and white border collie dog.

Finn and the Dog

Footrot Flats: the dog’s tale

Footrot Flats: the dog’s tale

Murray Ball is sitting on a desk at which Pam sits with a typewriter in front of her. They are smiling at each other.

Murray and Pam

Murray Ball, in later life, is seated at his drawing desk, surround by art supplies, shelving with books and ringbinders, and a tape deck and cassettes.

Ball in the studio, 2009