Jon Kudelka, one of Australia’s most prolific and influential political cartoonists, died in Hobart on Sunday, aged 53.
In a post shared by his family, Kudelka’s death was confirmed following a diagnosis of glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, in early 2024.
Over a career spanning more than three decades, his work appeared across some of the country’s most influential mastheads, including the Hobart Mercury, The Australian and The Saturday Paper.
One of Kudelka’s political cartoons.
A long career across Australian newsrooms
Kudelka began drawing cartoons for the Hobart Mercury in 1993 and went on to produce political cartoons for more than 30 years, with around 10,000 works published during that time.
He worked at The Australian for two decades before later contributing to The Saturday Paper.
Born in Burnie on Tasmania’s north coast in 1972, Kudelka sold his first cartoon at the age of nine.
Despite holding a degree in biochemistry, he built a career in editorial illustration that became closely tied to Australia’s political and media landscape.
Beyond political cartoons, his work also included non-political illustrations celebrating life in Hobart and Tasmanian birds and animals. He also pursued life drawing, animation and authored a number of books.
Awards and recognition
Kudelka was a two-time Walkley Award winner, taking out best cartoon in 2008 and again in 2018.
He also received Kennedy, Stanley and News awards, and was named the Museum of Australian Democracy’s political cartoonist of the year in 2010 and 2019.
His 2018 Walkley-winning cartoon, From the Heart, published in The Australian, depicted Uluru as an upturned middle finger alongside the words: “Official government Uluru statement response.”
Judges praised the work for capturing “how many felt after the Government so quickly dismissed the central recommendation of the Uluru Statement From The Heart”.
In a statement published on the Kudelka Shop website, his family said:
“Jon was deeply loved and admired by many, including fellow Tasmanians, the legions of fans of his inimitable art, countless newspaper readers over 30 years, and even by the politicians he relentlessly skewered in his award-winning cartoons (many of whom have his work on their walls).”
Reflections on the craft
Following his diagnosis with an inoperable brain tumour, Kudelka continued to write and reflect on his profession. Last year, he penned an article for The Saturday Paper titled ‘Lessons from Political Cartooning’.
“The noble art of political cartooning is a profession that isn’t terribly important in the scheme of things, but doing it well is a lot harder than it looks,” he wrote.
“If you do try to do the job properly, then it becomes a bit more like threading a needle at gunpoint, which I probably flatter myself in claiming I occasionally succeeded at. The downside to all this effort is that, disappointingly, none of your finely crafted little sketches ever bring down the government, even if they absolutely had it coming.”
In a separate statement posted to Facebook and the family website, Margaret Kudelka said:
“Jon believed in showing up fully for life and embracing humour even in the hardest of times. In the past two years, he was heard many times to say, ironically, ‘good times’.”