{"id":35085,"date":"2026-03-11T18:32:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35085"},"modified":"2026-03-11T18:32:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:32:39","slug":"footrot-flats-book-7-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/03\/11\/footrot-flats-book-7-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Footrot Flats Book 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Murray Ball<\/strong> (Onrin Books)
\nISSN: 978-0864640222 (PB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced for comedic effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once upon a time, Britain ran an Empire, and now we\u2019ve found a more equitable station as just one of 56 (ish) independent nations in a Commonwealth. This is a fluid and ongoing situation so keep watching…<\/p>\n

Some of those nations have always been handy with comebacks, rejoinders and cartoon salvos of their own, and whilst this particular item may not have the political venom of Murray Ball\u2019s earlier works, it more than makes up for it by being the absolute best comedy strip the Commonwealth has ever produced (and yes, I\u2019m even including our very own long lost and much missed The Perishers<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s greatest natural wonder and National Treasure was in fact a comic strip. Footrot Flats<\/strong>\u00a0is one of the funniest ever created, designed as a practical antidote to idealistic pastoral fantasy and bucolic self-deception and concocted in 1975 by cartoonist and comics artist Murray Ball after returning to his New Zealand homeland from an extended work tour of the UK and other, lesser, climes.<\/p>\n

The fantastical farm feature ran for a quarter of a century, appearing in newspapers on four continents until 1994 when Ball retired it, citing reasons as varied as the death of his own dog and the state of New Zealand politics. Such success naturally spawned a multitude of merchandising material such as strip compendia, calendars and special editions released regularly from 1978 onwards.<\/p>\n

Once Ball officially ceased the daily feature he began periodically releasing books of all-new material until 2000, with a net yield of 27 collections of the daily strip, 8 volumes of Sunday pages dubbed \u201cWeekenders\u201d, 5 pocket books and ancillary publications such as \u201cschool kits\u201d aimed at younger fans and their harried parents. There was a stage musical, a theme park and in 1986 a truly superb feature-length animated film. The Dog\u2019s Tail Tale <\/strong>became New Zealand\u2019s top-grossing film (and remained so until Peter Jackson started associating with Hobbits) – track it down online or petition the BBC to show it again; it\u2019s been decades, for Pete\u2019s sake…<\/p>\n

The well-travelled, extremely gifted and deeply dedicated Mr. Ball had originally moved to England in the early 1960s, becoming a cartoonist for Punch<\/strong> (crafting Stanley the Palaeolithic Hero<\/em> and All the King\u2019s Comrades<\/em>) as well as drawing numerous strips for DC Thompson and Fleetway and even concocting a regular political satire strip in Labour Weekly<\/strong>. After marrying, he returned to the Old Country and resettled in 1974 – but not to retire. Ball was busier than ever once he\u2019d bought a small-holding on the North Island to farm in his \u201cspare time\u201d, which inevitably led to the strip under review here.<\/p>\n

Taking the adage \u201cwrite what you know\u201d to startling, heartbreaking and occasionally stomach-turning heights, the peripatetic pencilpusher broke most of the laws of relativity to make time for these captivatingly insane episodes concerning the highs and lows – and most frequently \u201cabsurd\u201d – of the rural entrepreneur as experienced by the earthily metaphoric Wallace Footrot Cadwallader<\/em>: a proper bloke never too-far removed from mud, mayhem, ferocity and frustration…<\/p>\n

Wal<\/em> is a big, bluff farmer. He likes his grub; loves his sport – Rugby, Football (the Anzac sort, not the kiddie version Yanks call Soccer) Cricket, Golf(ish) and even hang-gliding; each in its proper season and at no other, since he just wants the easiest time a farmer\u2019s life can offer…<\/p>\n

Wal owns a small sheep farm (the eponymous Footrot Flats) honestly described as \u201c400 acres of swamp between Ureweras and the Sea\u201d…<\/p>\n

With his chief – and only – hand Cooch Windgrass<\/em> (a latter-day Francis of Assisi), and a verbose and avuncular sheepdog, Wal enjoys being his own boss – as much as the farm cat, goats, chickens, livestock and his auntie will let him.<\/p>\n

Other persons of perennial interest include Wal\u2019s fierce and prickly little niece Janice<\/em> – known to all as Pongo<\/em> – the aforementioned Aunt Dolly <\/em>(AKA sternly staunch and starched Dolores Monrovia Godwit Footrot<\/em>); smart-ass local lad Rangi Wiremu Waka Jones<\/em>; Dolly\u2019s pompous and pampered Corgi Prince Charles<\/em> and Pew<\/em>, a sadistic, inventive, obsessed and vengeful magpie who bears an unremitting grudge against Wal…<\/p>\n

When not living in terror of the monumental moggy dubbed Horse<\/em>, teasing the corpulent Corgi or panic-attacking himself in imagined competition with noble hunting hound Major<\/em>, The Dog<\/em> narrates and hosts the strip.<\/p>\n

A cool, imaginative and overly sentimental know-all and blowhard, Dog is utterly devoted to his (for lack of a better term) Master – unless there\u2019s food about, or Jess<\/em> the sheepdog bitch is in heat again. However, the biggest and most terrifying scene-stealer was that fulsome feline Horse; a monstrous and imperturbable tomcat who lords it over every living thing in the district\u2026<\/p>\n

One of the powerful and persistent clich\u00e9s of life is that to make people laugh one truly needs to experience tragedy and, having only recently lost two of my own four-footed studio-mates and constant companions, I can certainly empathise with the artist\u2019s obvious manly distress as this otherwise magnificently hilarious collection is movingly dedicated to the uniquely charming real-world inspiration for the battered and bewhiskered juggernaut… which only makes the comedy capers contained within even more bittersweet and effective, beginning with the poem to his departed companion and the bluff, brisk photo tribute which opens proceedings.<\/p>\n

Once again the funny businesses comes courtesy of the loquacious canine softie, taking time out from eking out his daily crusts (and oysters and biscuits and cake and lamb\u2019s tails and scraps and chips and…) and alternately getting on with or annoying the sheep, cows, bull, goat, hogs, ducks, bugs, cats, horses and geese, as well as sucking up to the resolutely hostile wildlife and the decidedly odd humans his owner knows or is related to.<\/p>\n

Dog<\/em> – his given name is an embarrassing, closely and violently guarded secret – loves Wal but always tries to thwart him if the big bloke is trying to do unnecessarily necessary farm chores like chopping down trees, burning out patches of scrub, culling livestock, or trying to mate with the pooch\u2019s main rival Darlene \u201cCheeky\u201d Hobson<\/em>, hairdresser-in-residence of the nearest town. As is also the case with the adoring comradeship of proper blokes, Dog is never happier than when embarrassing his mate in front of others, which explains those pages extracted from Wal\u2019s old albums, showing the man to be in various humiliating baby shots and schoolboy scrapes…<\/p>\n

Following on is the epic adventure \u2018The Invasion of the Murphy Dogs\u2019<\/em> – barbaric hounds from a neighbouring farm only afraid of one thing…<\/p>\n

This extra-large (262 x 166 mm) landscape monochrome seventh volume came from Australian Publisher Onrin Books and continued the policy of dividing strips into approximately seasonal sequences, and after a few more all-original cartoons again opens with \u2018Spring\u2019<\/em> – the busiest season of the farmer\u2019s year (apart from the other three) – and concentrates on Pew\u2019s first attempts at avian homemaking, Dog\u2019s libido, horny farmers and hussy-hairdressers, loopy lambs, wild pigs, killer eels and CRICKET, as well as an extended sequence in which Wal and the Dog become involved in the local school\u2019s curriculum and cuisine…<\/p>\n

Once the long hot \u2018Summer\u2019<\/em> settles in, bringing fun with chicken-shearing, busy bees, a plague of carnivorous Wekas, thistles, Horse\u2019s softer side (!) and his war with Pongo and Aunt Dolly, Hare infestations, river-rafting, Irish Murphy<\/em>\u2019s Pigs (far worse than his dogs), Cheeky\u2019s picnic charm-offensive and the growing closeness of Rangi and Pongo…<\/p>\n

\u2018Autumn\u2019<\/em> brings piglets, scrub-burning, the revenge of dispossessed magpies, amorous bovines, fun with artificial insemination, fence-lining and back country cattle, honey-harvesting, darts and rugby, a confused ram who\u2019d rather pursue Dolly than associate with eager ewes and Horse\u2019s crucial role in the war against the magpies…<\/p>\n

As \u2018Winter\u2019<\/em> closes in, offering floods, the mixed messy joy of lambing season, mud, mad goats, whitebait fishing and footy, Wal unwisely agrees to take a class of schoolkids and their puritanical, prudish and priggish teacher on an eye-opening nature-lesson around Footrot Flats. Touched by the painful experience, the bluff cove then volunteers to coach the school\u2019s sports and, after much humiliation, spends the rest of the book discovering how hard – and, for all us observers, funny – farming in a plaster cast can be…<\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect, the comedy content is utterly, absolutely top-rate and the extended role played throughout by the surly star Horse all the more poignant…<\/p>\n

Murray Ball – who died in 2017 – was one of those truly gifted individuals who could actually imbue a few lines on paper with the power of Shakespeare\u2019s tragedy and the manic hilarity of jester geniuses like Tommy Cooper or the Marx Brothers. When combined with his sharp, incisive yet warmly human writing, the result was, is, and will remain sheer, irresistible magic.<\/p>\n

In the early 1990s Titan Books published British editions of the first three volumes and German, Japanese, Chinese and American translations also exist, as well as the marvellous Australian compendia reviewed here – as ever the internet is your friend (although prices for individual volumes can make your eyes water, so if ever there was an argument for a comprehensive archival re-release, sheer profit would seem to be it)\u2026<\/p>\n

Dry, surreal and wonderfully self-deprecating, Footrot Flats<\/strong> always successfully wedded together sarcasm, satire, slapstick and strikingly apt surrealism in a perfect union of pathos and down to earth (and up to your eyebrows) fun that was and still is utterly addicting, exciting and just plain wonderful.<\/p>\n

Plant the seeds for a lifetime of laughs by harvesting this or indeed any volume and you\u2019ll soon see a bumper crop of fun irrespective of the weather or market forces.
\n\u00a9 1981-1982 Murray Ball. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1900, Frederick Burr Opper<\/strong>\u2019s Happy Hooligan<\/strong> first appeared, as did legendary Spanish comic TBO<\/strong> in 1917 and Mort Walker<\/strong>\u2019s Boner\u2019s Ark<\/strong> in 1968. Colour artist Lynn Varley<\/strong> was born today in 1958, and deaths include The Gambols<\/strong> creator Barry Appleby<\/strong> in 1996, Harvey Comics stalwart Sid Couchey<\/strong> in 2012 and Murray Ball<\/strong> in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Murray Ball (Onrin Books) ISSN: 978-0864640222 (PB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for comedic effect. Once upon a time, Britain ran an Empire, and now we\u2019ve found a more equitable station as just one of 56 (ish) independent nations in a Commonwealth. This is a fluid and ongoing situation so keep watching… Some … <\/p>\n

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