Cripes! Cartoons can provide a pictorial history in a series of time capsules, and they often hold a mirror up to Australian society.

Join National Library Director of Exhibitions, Guy Hansen, in our Special Collections Reading Room for this new series, where he shares some of his favourite images from the Library’s cartoon collection.

Two works by legendary Australian cartoonist Stan Cross, the namesake of the current ‘Stanley’ cartoon prizes, are examined in this video including one of the most famous cartoons in Australian history, ‘For gorsake stop laughing – this is serious!’.

If you love cartoons as much as Guy, you can learn more about the cartoons in the Library’s collection in& ‘Inked: Australian Cartoons’, available through the National Library Bookshop.

Like this video? Watch the second video in the series, Uprising! One of the oldest cartoons in the National Library.

The National Library of Australia acknowledges Australia’s First Nations Peoples – the First Australians – as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land and gives respect to the Elders – past and present – and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Cultural Notification

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this website contains a range of material which may be considered culturally sensitive including the records of people who have passed away.

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