Footrot Flats Creator Murray Ball Has Died, Aged 78.

Footrot Flats creator Murray Ball has died, aged 78.

Ball was born in Feilding. He worked on the Manawatu Times and The Dominion, then as a freelance cartoonist in the United Kingdom.

His most successful cartoon strips were the caveman ‘Stanley’ which appeared in Punch and the colonial ruffian ‘Bruce the Barbarian’ in the Labour Weekly.

Ball returned to New Zealand in 1974 and produced his best-known cartoon strip, Footrot Flats.
The movie Footrot Flats: The Dog’s Tale was released in 1986, bringing the characters of Wal and Dog to the big screen.

In 2002 he became an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services as a cartoonist.

He lived in rural Gisborne with his wife Pam and three dogs.