Who took the comi’cuts? whatever happened to Ginger Meggs?

Abstract

ABSTRACT As a child, my interest in comics prompted my father to give me a book of Jimmy Bancks’ original Ginger Meggs strips. At some point, my imagination began to associate my father’s tales of growing up in a working class house with the adventures of the comic strip character. How does the rise and fall of the working class trickster child reflect the changing nature of the nation and my family? The methods used to address this question have been research of comics history, an analysis of the post-war rise of Australia’s white middle class, and biographical reflections. A comic strip that once the most popular in Australia is now largely unknown to 21st century children in the midst of print media’s decline. The larrikin motif is an expression of class politics and now less prominent in this increasingly wealthy country. Ginger Meggs no longer functions as an understanding of Australia’s self-image, but is now an icon noted for its historicity. With the rise of the middle class, the figure of the working class trickster child was left behind.