May Gibbs’ ‘Bib and Bub’ turns 100

100 YEARS OF AUSTRALIA’S LONGEST RUNNING COMIC STRIP BY A SINGLE ARTIST

May Gibbs’ ‘Bib and Bub’ is turning 100 – as Australia’s longest running comic strip by a single artist May Gibbs’ iconic ‘Bib and Bub’ is marking its milestone centenary in August this year.

Establishing May as Australia’s first female cartoonist ‘Bib and Bub’ first appeared as a half page cartoon strip in the Sunday News which circulated in New South Wales on 3 August 1924 and initially earned May a sum of five pounds per week.  Featuring her familiar Gumnut characters and signature humour combined with small lessons in life for the young audience, ‘Bib and Bub’ was originally published with May’s distinctive scribbly-gum writing for captions before being later typeset.

Syndicated to newspapers across Australia and in New Zealand with the cartoons appearing in the Adelaide Mail, New Zealand Herald, the Melbourne Star, several Queensland newspapers and the Daily News in May’s hometown of Perth, ‘Bib and Bub’ with its topical themes ran 1968 episodes until 43 years later in 1967.

May Gibbs’ ability to capture characters combined with her quick wit and off-beat sense of humour lent themselves well to the art of cartoons.  Encouraged by her father Herbert, himself a talented satirist, May was known to carry a sketchbook everywhere she went, drawing inspiration from daily life.

Her comic strips and stories often reflected her daily life and interests, which included gardening, picnics and camping.  Mr and Mrs Bear regularly featured in the weekly strip and were loosely based on May and her husband, James Ossoli Kelly, who often wore a three-piece suit with a bowtie and smoked a pipe.  Her beloved Neutral Bay home Nutcote often appeared, as did her car and her pet Scottie dogs.

The success of ‘Bib and Bub’ encouraged the Sunday News to introduce ‘Gumnut Gossip – Extracts from the Daily Bark’.  The weekly column first appeared in the Sunday News in August 1925 and ran for 10 years featuring short stories and illustrations of life in Gumnut Town.

May’s second comic strip ‘Tiggy Touchwood’ was published in 1925 in the Sunday News’ rival newspaper the Sunday Sun – whilst penned under the pseudonym Stan Cottman, the printing of ‘Tiggy Touchwood’ saw May simultaneously producing two comic strips for opposing newspapers.

A series of ‘Bib and Bub’ books were first published by Angus and Robertson (under imprint Cornstalk Publishing Company) for Christmas 1925 featuring a compilation of the comic strips – becoming a Christmas tradition collectable editions were released in 1927, 1928 and 1929.

1932 saw a mostly black and white ‘painting book’ of ‘Bib and Bub’ comic strips released with a final collection available during the Second World War.

At 91, May produced her final ‘Bib and Bub’ comic strip, published in he Sun Herald on 10 September 1967.  She was a lifetime member of the Australian Society of Black and White Artists — now called the Australian Cartoonists Association — which is also turning 100 this year.

For the first time since 1929 ‘Bib and Bub’ will appear in a published format with the release of Scholastic Australia’s ‘A Bib and Bub Tale’.  To be released on 1 November 2024 ‘A Bib and Bub Tale’ will be available at Australia Post stores across Australia.