Ginger Meggs

“Ginger Meggs is the longest-running Australian comic strip; it features the escapades of the title character, a red-haired pre-pubescent boy with considerable talent for mischief. Most of the strips include either a sense-moral or a wisdom phrase written on one of the images.

Meggs first appeared, titled Us Fellers, in the “Sunbeams” section of the Sydney Sunday Sun on 13 November 1921, drawn by Jimmy Bancks, and remains widely syndicated today appearing in over 120 newspapers in 32 countries. After Jimmy Bancks, Ginger was drawn by Ron Vivian, then Lloyd Piper and James Kemsley. Ginger Meggs was made into a feature film by Jonathan Dawson in 1982.

On 3 December 2007, James Kemsley, cartoonist for Ginger Meggs for 23 years, passed away at his home in Welby, New South Wales. The Ginger Meggs strip will be written, drawn by Jason Chatfield and coloured by Hywel Kemsley. In the 2008 Queen’s Birthday Honour lists, the Australian Government posthumously recognised Kemsley for his efforts with the Medal of the Order of Australia.