Missed It: Kenyan Cartoonist Terry Hirst, RIP

Doing a deep google search on an unrelated topic, I discovered that I had totally missed the recent passing of the dean of Kenyan cartoonists, Terry Hirst. The British-born Hirst transitioned from secondary school education to university-level education and then into cartooning in the tumultuous 1960s into 1970s period for the country. He helped establish Joe, likely the leading satirical magazine for East Africa during its publishing heyday. Its reach was far enough that there's a story out there that Ghana-born cartoonist Frank Odoi one day simply showed up at the Joe offices, ready to join them in their work.

Hirst helped establish a line of kids comics in the 1980s, based on Kenyan folk tales, and later was a pioneer in educational comics-making. The entire time he served as a mentor for multiple generations that have followed, a return in many ways to his educational roots. What little I know about African cartooning and comics making suggests he will be greatly missed by many whose lives he directly touched.

Hirst was 82 years old.
 
posted 12:55 am PST | Permalink
 

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