Coloured Comics Used To Brighten Australian Federal Election Campaign

Wanganui Chronicle, 10 November 1949, Page 5

Coloured Comics Used To Brighten Australian Federal Election Campaign

Labour And Anti-Labour Parties Adopt Popular American Feature

SYDNEY, Nov. 9 (Ree. 8.25 pm).—New weapons are being employed by both sides to fire the first shots of the Federal elec-

nun campaign. They are coloured propaganda “comics” which set out in familiar pictorial form the opposing views of life in Australia under the Labour Government. Already the anti-Labour forces allied with'the Liberal Party have published and issued half a million free 16-page comics in Victoria. A second printing has been ordered to be distributed all over Australia. It is understood that a Melbourne firm which prints comic books, first put the idea before thet Labour Party but that, though the scheme received the enthusiastic support of the Victorian Labour leaders, including Mr. P. J. Cleary, Prime Minister Chifley would not agree. When the matter was considered by caucus a short time ago it was suggested that pictorial propaganda on the- comic-strip pattern should be built around the figures of Labour leaders. This provoked newspaper jokes concerning Mr. Chifley and Dr. clvatt in such roles as "Superman” and “The Lone Ranger,” but went no farther. Then a Victorian organisation supporting the Opposition took the matter up and produced two fourcolour comics. The first of these, entitled “The Road Ahead,” portrays the adventures and frustrations of a set of fictional characters who voted for Socialism and “found themselves in a highly regimented society with no happiness, no freedom and not even a vote.” A second comic, called “The Road Back,” deals with th e courtship and marriage of an ex-serviceman, “blue,”

and “Mary” and their halting progress through the trials of post-war Australia. It terminates pointedly enough with the sketch of a ballot box. Th e Labour Party reacted to this challenge by reconsidering the. previous veto. It was stated that in the last American Presidential election millions of copies of a 16-page comic called “The Story of Harry Truman,” helped turn the balance. American research revealed that almost as many adults as children read comics, and Australian distributors stated that five million comic papers, exclusive of strips in newspapers, were sold month, ly in the Commonwealth. On these figures Australians are even more avid comic readers than Americans, for in the United States the population of 147,000,000 absorbs 60,000,000 comics a month. Mr. Chifley vetoed the personal comic on the American model but the resulting Labour effort features a coloured photograph of the Prime Minister, complete with pipe, on the front page. Inside 42 coloured panels tell the story of Johnny Kent, his wif e and children, his parents and ex-service friends and their experiences in the land of hospital benefits, maternity allowances, child endowments, old age and invalid pensions and other amenities. The title of this work is “The Wav Ahead—Future Without Fear.” The presence of over two milliar, political comics will certainly brighten th e campaign, but the cost, estimated at £6OOO per million, is expected to keep inventiveness in check.- -Bv C«, R. Mentidplay, Special N.Z.P.A. Correspondent.