By Rebecca Skilton
Mark Knight has spent more than three decades entertaining audiences across the country with his illustrations. The Tonimbuk resident of 23 years sat down with REBECCA SKILTON to talk work, family and footy, and explain how a Sydney cartoonist ended up calling Gippsland home.
With a lengthy list of accolades that includes prizes from the Australian Comedy Awards, the Walkley Awards and the Melbourne Press Club’s Quill Awards; it’s no surprise that Mark Knight has become a household name.
Born in Sydney’s inner-city suburb of Marrickville in 1962, he today entertains Herald Sun readers with his daily editorial cartoons, while for AFL fans, he’s the mastermind behind the greatly sought-after premiership commemorative posters.
“I’ve always drawn – ever since I was a little kid,” Mark said.
“Drawing to me was a companion, I loved it.
“Kids these days have their games and their phones, but to me drawing was a little friend that always kept me busy. Whenever I got bored as a child, I could always create something and just scribble away.
“At school, I would draw in projects. The teachers noticed and asked if I could draw for the school magazine. So I ended up the school magazine’s cartoonist; that was my first sort of gig I suppose – doing the same thing I’m doing now – I would caricature the teachers.”
Recognising his artistic talent, Mark’s mother took a sample of his work to the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH). They liked the look of it, he scored an interview and was promised a cadetship in journalism when he finished school.
“It was funny; my dad didn’t think it was a real job because he’s a tradie, so he would be going ‘learn how to hammer a nail into a piece of wood for Christ’s sake’,’’ Mark laughed.
“(But) when I was a child he would draw for me and I would copy his drawings – so I’ve got to give him some credit.
“So I finished Year 12, went to the Sydney Morning Herald and started as a press artist, and they were sending me to art school one day a week.
“My first job was blacking in the squares on crosswords – it was the bottom of the bottom. I was re-touching racehorse results, and then I worked my way up and started doing small cartoons. Then when their cartoonist went on holidays, I would fill in.”
In 1984, following around four years with the SMH, the Australian Financial Review’s (AFR) departing cartoonist Patrick Cook contacted Mark, urging the then 22-year-old to try out for the position.
“I had to send my drawings to Paddy McGuinness – Paddy was this fearsome, big, scary man. He was the editor in chief of the AFR, and he said to me the only condition on me getting employed as a cartoonist was that I must make him laugh. I thought ‘oh s***!’ ” Mark laughed.
“But anyway, I got a little memo back from Paddy after he looked at my work saying: ‘I laughed.’ So I had the job.”
Throughout his early years with both the SMH and AFR, Mark was a frequent presence in Canberra, reporting first-hand on Australian politics.
However, he does admit that it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
“I did think about giving it in (during those early days). I doubted myself severely,” Mark admitted.
“I remember doing the budget one year in 1984 or ’85 for the Fin Review, and I’d gone in the lock-up and was looking at all these journalists I’d seen on television. I was sitting with Patrick Cook, this legendary cartoonist, and by the time I’d finished reading the budget speech, Patrick had already done five or six cartoons, and I was sitting there thinking, ‘I can’t do this.’
“You s*** yourself, but you persevere. You’ve got to relax. That’s the secret to this game. You have to know what’s going on, to enjoy it and to have fun, and I think the readers can see that in your work. So I try to have fun, and that has seemed to work for me.”
After kicking on at the AFR for almost four years, Mark was invited to Melbourne to join Rupert Murdoch’s newly revitalised, The Herald.
While he was initially hesitant in taking the role, he conceded, knowing that he would always have the option of returning to Sydney.
The Herald eventually merged with The Sun in 1990 and became The Herald Sun.
Mark is now in his 31st year with the Melbourne-based paper.
“A lot of people say to me; ‘Bloody Murdoch, does he ring you up every day and tell you what to draw?’ but I do have control over what I create,” Mark said.
“My day involves scanning the news, seeing what’s going on, and then in the afternoon I’ll touch base with either my chief of staff or my editor, Damon Johnston.
“I’ll ask them; ‘what have you got at the front, what are you chasing, are you doing this? I’m looking at this.’ They’ll often say (they’re looking at the same thing) … so we touch base, and occasionally I’ll ring one of the journos to suss out a story. But really, what the cartoon is is the issue that I think people are going to be talking about the next day … what’s the talking point for tomorrow?”
“That’s my first step. The second step is ‘well, what do I want to say about that issue? What’s my opinion?’ And then the third step is ‘how do I say that? Am I going to use a metaphor, am I going to do a multiframe or is it going to be a straight drawing with a caption?’”
While work has undoubtedly been a factor in keeping Mark in Victoria, fans of his cartoons can also give thanks to his wife, Sophy. Having met following Mark’s move to Melbourne, the couple married in 1992 before settling in Tonimbuk.
They now have three children, Jack (21), Elliott (19) and Daisy (14).
“Sophy’s a Melbourne girl. I met her through coming up (to Tonimbuk) actually,” Mark said.
“I moved to Melbourne with my girlfriend at the time, and she was into horse riding. We would come out to (Tonimbuk Trail Rides) which was where I met Andrew Clarke from Jinks Creek – he was taking one of the rides one day and we became friends.
“I bought a horse and I started playing polocrosse with him for Trafalgar and that was really fun … eventually, I met Sophy through horsey friends and we married in 1992 and moved out here in ’95.
“I loved the fact that this place was just an hour from Melbourne … it’s constant maintenance, but I quite enjoy that because it gets me out of the office.”
With a personal studio on his 15-acre property, Mark works from home around five days a week but does have an office at The Herald Sun’s Southbank headquarters.
When he’s not working, he still enjoys an occasional ride with Sophy and Daisy on one of their three horses.
And on the weekend, it’s not uncommon to catch him watching his beloved Sydney Swans.
Which was why creating the 2012 Sydney Swans AFL premiership poster will forever be a highlight of his career.
“It wasn’t until I moved down (to Melbourne) that I realised how big AFL was … the (supporters) are crazy, but I loved it.
“And when WEG (former AFL premier cartoonist William Ellis Green) died they said; ‘will you carry on the tradition of the premiership poster?’
“I remember when they asked me I thought, ‘yeah, I’ll draw a cat, or a swan or whatever,’ but when you sit down and all the supporters are waiting, and they’re asking ‘what’s it going to be, what’s it going to be?’ every year – I’m serious – the premiership poster is the hardest thing I do.
“But it’s great to be part of it. We go to the grand final and when the game’s finished you walk out and all the stalls are set up and people are buying posters and you hear them commenting and rolling them up and taking them home … it’s a great thing and it’s a real privilege to be able to do it.”
