cartoonist, drew obsessively as a schoolboy living in Sydney’s Marrickville West. He began work as a copy boy at News Limited in 1982 then got a cadetship as an artist. He joined Wollongong’s Illawarra Mercury in 1984 after convincing the editor of the need for a cartoonist: “It started off once a week and ended up daily”, Foyle reported (p.94). He replaced Benier as editorial cartoonist on Sydney’s Daily Mirror in 1986, where he continued the Rigb y/Benier style of duo-board cartoons. Vince O’Farrell took over on the Mercury . An original c.1970s cartoon by 'Warren’ is at ML PXD 764. In late 1988 Brown and O’Farrell were working on a comic strip, which the latter claimed would be 'bigger than Mickey Mouse’ (Foyle, 96).
Warren has been political cartoonist on the Sydney Daily Telegraph since its merger with the Daily Mirror in 1990 and, according to Ann Turner’s criteria (circulation figures), is one of the two most influential cartoonists in Australia. (The other is Mark Knight , on Melbourne’s Herald Sun .) 'The Telegraph sells over 400,000 copies weekdays; 350,00 copies on Saturdays and 720,000 on Sundays – making the Sunday Telegraph Australia’s largest selling newspaper’, Turner comments, admitting the figures taken from Audit Bureau of Statistics do not reflect actual readershi
'I’ll count to ten’ from the Telegraph of September 1998, and 'Britannia’ of June 1997, were exhibited in Bringing the House Down: 12 Months of Australian Political Humour (Canberra: National Museum of Australia/ Old Parliament House exhibition, 1997), cats 24, 61. Warren exhibited again the following year and spoke about his work at the Old Parliament House Seminar on Australian Political Cartooning on 5 December 1998. He had three originals in the 2001 exhibition: 'Keeping it up’, 'Liberty weeping’ and 'Terrorism’ (according to NMA website). Warren Brown was nominated for a Walkley in 1990 (and possibly later). He later won a Stanley Award for best editorial cartoonist.
Warren Brown returned to Marrickville to live in 1992. Under a self-portrait in the Weekend Australian 1-2 April 1999, 6, Brown of the Daily Telegraph comments:
'In every pub, on every train, driving every cab, there is someone itching to tell you what constitutes a great cartoon. Why? Because “it must be great to have a job taking the piss out of politicians.” It is. The tricky part is whether you torture your victims subtly or take them out with an axe.’
The panel says:
'The artist: “Irreverent. Habitually funny and capable of anything. Must be looking forward to a bright future under a new editor.”
The politician: “Not bad. Rose to the occasion recently when he had the dove of peace flying out of Kosovo and the Nato hawk flying in.” '
Warren Brown has also appeared on television, as a reporter on the ABC’s history-based Rewind program in 2004 and as one of the initiators of Peking to Paris , a re-enactment of the 1907 car rally, also shown on the ABC, in 2006.
