Eric Jolliffe

• Name — Eric Jolliffe • Born — 31 January 1907 • Birthplace — Portsmouth, England • Died — 16 November 2001 • Place of death — Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia • Occupation — Cartoonist, illustrator, artist (painter)

Born in Portsmouth, England, he was the youngest boy in a family of twelve children. The family migrated to Perth, Western Australia, in 1911 before moving to Sydney after six months, where they settled in Balmain. Jolliffe left school at the age of fifteen and spent the next six years in New South Wales and Queensland, working as a boundary rider, rabbit trapper and in shearing sheds.

A visit to Angus & Robertson bookstore, while visiting his family in Sydney, led to the discovery of a book on drawing. He afterwards reflected: "I learned to my surprise that art wasn't necessarily a gift divine but a craft that could be studied and worked at". Jolliffe enrolled in an introductory course at East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School), where his teachers commented on his lack of talent. During the Great Depression he worked as a window cleaner, during which time he inundated The Bulletin with cartoons, which they initially rejected. Eventually they began to buy his cartoons and by the beginning of World War II he became a regular contributor, taking over Andy from Arthur Horner. During the war, he served as a camouflage officer with the RAAF and spent time in Arnhem Land. After the war, he joined Smith's Weekly but resigned and began freelancing by selling his cartoon strips Saltbush Bill and Witchetty's Tribe to Pix magazine. He was particularly fond of "bush" subjects. Another cartoon strip, Sandy Blight, appeared in Sydney's Sun-Herald. In 1973, Jolliffe began publishing his own magazine, Jolliffe's Outback.

From 1932, Jolliffe was married to the Scottish-born May H. Clark. She died in Chatswood in 1993. Their daughter Margaret ("Meg") had died in 1989. He died on 16 November 2001 at the age of 94. His funeral service was held at Ourimbah on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

Eric Jolliffe is recorded with the occupation cartoonist. Recorded as cartoonist and comics artist.

• Corroboree: Aboriginal Cartoon Fun, Cremorne [N.S.W.]: E. Jolliffe [1946] - online copy at State Library Victoria

• ACE Biographical Portraits: The Artists Behind the Comic Book Characters: The Australian Comic Book Exhibition, Australian Comics 1930s-1990s, Touring Australia During 1995/96 / edited by Annette Shiell and Ingrid Unger (1994) • Joan Kerr, Artists and Cartoonists: In Black and White, Sydney: S. H. Ervin Gallery, 1999 • Annette Shiell and Mick Stone, eds., Bonzer: Australian Comics, 1900s-1990s, Redhill South, Melbourne: Elgua Media, 1998 • Richard Rae, Cartoonists of Australia, View Productions, 1983. • Toby Burrows and Grant Stone, eds., Comics in Australia and New Zealand: The Collections, the Collectors, the Creators, New York, London, Norwood (Australia): The Haworth Press, Inc., 1994, p. 28 • Vane Lindsay, Drawing From Life: A History of the Australian Black and White Artists' Club, Sydney: State Library of NSW Press, 1994 • Fifty Years of Australian Cartooning, The Journalists’ Club, 1964 • Graeme Cliffe, From Sunbeams To Sunset. The Rise And Fall Of The Australian Comic Book (1924-1965), Margate Beach: Ozcomics, 2019 • Frederick Luis Aldama, Graphic Indigeneity: Comics in the Americas and Australasia, University Press of Mississippi, 2020, pp. 56–57 • Vane Lindsay, The Inked-in Image, Melbourne: Hutchinson of Australia, 1979 • John Ryan, Panel by Panel: A History of Australian Comics, Melbourne: Cassell Australia 1979