T.O. Honiball

Thomas Ochse Honiball was a well known South African cartoon artist.

.O. Honiball (as he was commonly referred to) was born on 7 December, 1905 in Cradock, South Africa. He originally studied architecture at the University of Cape Town. However, he needed a less structured way to express his artistic capabilities and from 1927 to 1930 he lived in Chicago where studied commercial art. During this period he was introduced to American cartoons.

On his return to Cape Town he worked in advertising and later as freelance caricaturist and cartoonist. In 1941 he became the political cartoonist for a major Afrikaans newspaper group, and quickly became one of the best known South African cartoon artists.

In addition to his political cartoons he also published the Oom Kaspaas series, wherein Uncle Kaspaas boasts about his colorful past to his cousin - always to be reminded by some unfortunate event of what had really happened.

He loved to portray people as animals, and he produced two series to that effect. Jakkals en Wolf covered the good and bad times of two friends, a jackal and a wolf, while Adoons-Hulle related the experiences of a baboon family.

He died on 22 February, 1990 in Montagu.

- Jan Tik - 23:45, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

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