Bluey and Curley

The first Bluey and Curley strip appeared soon after the start of World War II. It featured two Australian soldiers, Bluey (who had served in the First AIF), and Curley, a new recruit.

By the end of the war, they had served in every Australian campaign — in North Africa, in the Middle East, in New Guinea, in Northern Australia, and in the Pacific Islands — and, once the war was over, they even went to London and took part in the 1946 Victory Parade.

{{quotation|   Bluey and Curley epitomised what was seen as the typical Australian soldier. They liked a drink, a gamble and a chat (in colourful Aussie slang of course), and they always had some scheme afoot. They had a healthy disregard for officers and regulations and were quick to bring down any mates who were getting too big for their boots. Despite their larrikin streak, they were fearless, resilient and skilled in battle.

   Alex Gurney, the creator of Bluey & Curley, produced the strip from 1940 until his death in 1955. It was syndicated across Australia and appeared in New Zealand, New Guinea, and Canada (but was considered too Australian for American newspapers).[http://www.awm.gov.au/education/box/06_res_book.pdf Australian War Memorial Resource Book: Memorial Box No.6, pp.26-27.]}}

By 1939, Alex Gurney was already well established as a caricaturist, cartoonist, and comic strip artist.

In late 1939, following the outbreak of World War II, he created his most famous characters, Bluey and Curley,[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26154717 Memento for Cartoonist, The Mercury, (Tuesday, 20 November 1945), p.11.] which first appeared in the Picture-News magazine.

He applied for the copyright registration of Bluey and Curley on 16 October 1939; and his application was granted on 9 November 1939 (Australian Copyright No.6921).[http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=769405 Australian National Archives (Item Number A1861).]

It was transferred to The Sun News-Pictorial in 1940, from whence it was syndicated throughout Australia,[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44891544]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44910203]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25849793]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25850275]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25849944]. New Zealand and Canada.

It was syndicated throughout Canada as "Bluey and Curley of the Anzacs: [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Da5TAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cjgNAAAAIBAJ&dq=bluey%20and%20curly&pg=6626%2C3097468]; [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=k61TAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YDgNAAAAIBAJ&dq=bluey%20and%20curley&pg=1322%2C146741].

The strip featured a pair of soldiers, "Bluey" (named for his red hair),As was the case, in real life, with the champion Essendon centre half-back Ian "Bluey" Shelton. the Great War veteran who had re-enlisted in the second A.I.F., and Curley (named for his extremely curly hair), the new recruit to the A.I.F.Even though it was sometimes used to refer to those with an abundant crop of very curly/wavey hair, in the strongly ironic Australian idiom of the day (where, for example, someone as diminutive as Elton John would be referred to as "Lofty"), the nick-name "Curly" (or "Curley") was almost exclusively given to those with little or no hair. From the late 1930s the somewhat balding, enthusiastic amateur fisherman Alex Gurney, was universally known at the Elwood Angling Club by his nick-name "Curley", and his red-headed mate, Len Anderson was universally known as "Bluey". The nick-names given to each became so much a part of their life that the boat that they fished in was named "Bluey and Curley" (Eidelson, 2006).

The strip was widely appreciated for the good-humoured way it depicted the Australian "diggers" and their "mateship", as well as for its realistic use of Australian idiom of the day.[http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140392b.htm Panozzo, S., "Gurney, Alexander George (Alex) (1902 - 1955)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, (1996).]

Gurney visited army camps throughout Australia and New Guinea to ensure authenticity.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47704568]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42028467]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59483384]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49936680]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26008384]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59185127]. While in New Guinea he contracted malaria and was incapacitated for some time.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48952038 We're Also Rationed, The Courier-Mail, (Wednesday 6 September 1944), p.3.]

Image:Alex Gurney-(1944).jpeg in New Guinea, 1944.This photograph, held by the Australian War Museum, was obviously taken at the same time, with the same subjects, and in the same location as [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26015171], and [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42028467].]]

Gurney was in England in June 1946, as part of an Australian Press Syndicate sent specifically to view the Victory Parade. As well as sending caricatures of various eminent people involved in that parade back to Australia for distribution through the press, he also used the opportunity to have Bluey and Curley attend the parade, and a number of his Bluey and Curley comic strips reflected that event.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59356880 Bluey and Curley,The (Perth) Sunday Times, (Sunday, 16 June 1946), p.6.]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59356759 Bluey and Curley Go to the Victory March, The Sunday Times Comics, The (Perth) Sunday Times, (Sunday, 16 June 1946), p.8.]

Gurney's visit to London, and his version of events, as seen through his Bluey and Curley comic strip, was also historically significant for another reason: it was the first time that a newspaper comic strip had ever been transmitted from England to Australia by radio.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59356273 Bluey and Curley by Radio from London, ''The (Perth) Sunday Times, Sunday 9 June 1946), p.2.]

Although Bluey and Curley were popular with Australians because they related to the slang, attitude, and the lack of respect towards authority exhibited by the main characters,Pilcher, Tim and Brad Brooks. (Foreword: Dave Gibbons). The Essential Guide to World Comics. Collins and Brown. 2005. 260. the strip lost some of its appeal and readership when the pair returned to "civvy street".Ryan, John Panel By Panel Cassell Australia 1979

Gurney died suddenly, of heart disease, on 4 December 1955. He had collapsed in his car parked outside his home.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3FMRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=d5UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5291%2C698971 Famous Strip Creator Dead, The Age, (Monday, 5 December 1955), p.3.]

The strip was later drawn by Norman Howard Rice (1911–1956). Rice died as the result of a car accident on 31 December 1956 (New Year's Eve).[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qHZWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BOUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5090%2C5174574 4 More Deaths on Roads, The Sydney Morning Herald, (Monday, 1 January 1957), p.4]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71774039 3 Killed in Crash, The Argus, (Tuesday, 2 January 1957), p.10]; [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71774294 Artist Killed in Crash, The Argus, (Wednesday, 2 January 1957), p.9]; [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qnZWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BOUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7422%2C5015645 Death Notice: Rice, Norman Howard, The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, 2 January 1957), p.18.] The strip was then drawn by Les Dixon from 1957 until 1975.

The comic was adapted into a TV film Mud, Bloody Mud in 1985.

Image:Bluey & Curley-(6921-original, 1939c).jpeg|Copyright Application, 1939.

{{reflist}}

{{Portal|Comics|Australia|Military of Australia}}

• Gurney, Margaret, My Dad: Alex Gurney 1902-1955, M. Gurney, (Black Rock), 2006.
• Gurney, John & Dunstan, Keith, Gurney and Bluey and Curley: Alex Gurney and his Greatest Cartoons, Macmillan, (South Melbourne), 1986.
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27044150 Hetherington, J., "Bluey's Creator Was Hobart Student", The Mercury, (Saturday, 28 July 1951), p.4.]
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48649561 Hetherington, J., "He's the Boss of Bluey and Curley", The Barrier Miner, (Thursday, 2 August 1951), p.4.]
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page5308055 The Cartoonist Wields a Mighty Pen, The (Adelaide) Mail, (Saturday, 28 January 1933), p.13.]
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59465807 Meet Alex Gurney — Creator of Bluey and Curley, The Sunday Times Magazine, The (Perth) Sunday Times, (Sunday, 17 August 1947), p.9.]
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59507216 J.A., ""Bluey and Curley" Creator in Perth, The Sunday Times Magazine, The (Perth) Sunday Times, (Sunday, 15 May 1949), p.15.]
• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59532195 Now, Meet Their Maker, The Sunday Times Magazine, The (Perth) Sunday Times, (Sunday, 12 August 1951), p.4.]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110706130348/http://skhs.org.au/~SKHSflood/Bluey_and_Curly.htm Eidelson, M., "Bluey and Curley", Flood, Fire, and Fever: A History of Elwood, Prahran Mechanics' Institute Press, (Windsor), 2006. ]
• [http://nishi.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-82/t1-g-t6.html Lindesay, Vane, "Alex Gurney: Creator of Bluey and Curley", The La Trobe Journal, No 82, (Spring 2008), pp.59-65.] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121127031004/http://nishi.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-82/t1-g-t6.html |date=2012-11-27 }}
• [http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/AJRP/remember.nsf/Web-Printer/2F981485B69C0E3BCA256A99001D9F12?OpenDocument Stanley, P, "Remembering the war in New Guinea, The real Bluey and Curley: Australian images and idioms in the island campaigns", Symposium Paper, Australia-Japan Research Project, 2000.]
• [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3FMRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=d5UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5291%2C698971 Famous Strip Creator Dead, The Age, (Monday, 5 December), p.3.]
• [http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140392b.htm Panozzo, S., "Gurney, Alexander George (Alex) (1902 - 1955)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, (1996).]
• Kendig, D., "Alex Gurney", The Funnies Paper, (November/December 2000), pp. 24–26.
• Gurney, Alex (1902–55), p. 334 in Wilde, H.W., Hooton, J.W. & Andrews, B.G., Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (Second Revised Edition), Oxford University Press, (Melbourne), 1994

Category:Australian comic strips

Category:Military humor

Category:Military comics

Category:1939 comics debuts

Category:Comics characters introduced in 1939

Category:1975 comics endings

Category:Comic strip duos

Category:Fictional Australian people

Category:Fictional Australian Army personnel

Category:Fictional World War II veterans

Category:Australian comics characters

Category:Male characters in comics

Category:Australian comics adapted into films