"No Ordinary Assignment": Graham Kirk's Dick Sargeson

Abstract

Comics are a popular medium that are often overlooked in terms of New Zealand cultural history. This article discusses Taranaki artist Graham Kirk’s comic strip Dick Sargeson, which ran in the New Zealand Listener from 1984 – 1988, as a significant piece of contemporary New Zealand popular culture. The two extended serial adventures that constitute the strip are used as a vehicle for socio-political commentary on the New Zealand of the mid-1980s through the application of distinct narrative and aesthetic approaches, such as parochial Taranaki settings and a photo-realist drawing style.