FOOTROT FLATS # 7 by Ball, Murray - 1982-01-01

Orin Books, 1982-01-01. Paperback. Good. INL Print Limited, Lower Hutt, New Zealand [Published Date: 1982]. Volume 7. Early printing published by INL Print Limited with $3.95 price printed on title page. Paper covers, 80 pp. In good+ condition. Oblong (10.25 x 6.5") illustrated paper covers have a small nick to the top of the spine and light bumping and creasing to edges and corners of covers. Light rubbing and scuffing to covers as well. Binding tight (staple bound). Pages are lightly aged but otherwise clean and unmarked. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. Murray Hone Ball (1939 – 2017) was a New Zealand cartoonist, known for his Stanley the Palaeolithic Hero (Punch magazine), Bruce the Barbarian, All the King's Comrades (also in Punch) and the long-running Footrot Flats series. The strips first appeared in The Evening Post newspaper in 1976. The strip follows the adventures of a working sheep-dog called (if anything) "Dog" or "The Dog" or "@*&#!", his owner Wal Footrot and the other characters, human and animal, that they encounter or associate with. Ball expresses Dog's thoughts in thought-bubbles, though he clearly remains "just a dog" (rather than the heavily anthropomorphised creatures sometimes found in other comics or animation). Ball's Footrot Flats has appeared in syndication in international newspapers, and in over 40 published books. Footrot Flats features several remarkable traits: its expansive created-universe, complete with ancillary characters, things and places; the fact that the characters slowly but perceptibly age and mature throughout the twenty-year run of the comic; and the gradual encroachment of political themes over the years (particularly environmentalism and gentle parodies of feminism).