“My god, you look just like Fred!” were my exact poorly chosen words when Simon O’Leary opened the front door of his Sydney northern beaches home, appeared to duck slightly as he emerged onto the leafy front porch, and extended a warm hand to greet me.
Simon, as you likely already know, has been writing and drawing his famous (infamous?) Gassit cartoons since 1979 – back when this mag was still in newsprint – and as such has dealt with many, many, many AMCN editors over the decades. His gentle chuckle and diminutive shrug in response to my starstruck outburst told me that he’d almost certainly received the same observation from a fair few of them.
I’ve no idea why Simon gives off that Gassit aura though. He’s certainly not tiny, scrawny and aggressive. Quite the opposite: he’s long, lean, calm and extremely quietly spoken. But it’s definitely there. Something in the eyes. Like a more mature, less in-your-face Fred, perhaps.
Which seems about right, actually. When I told Simon about the regular letters we still receive begging for Fred’s return, he was immediately open to the idea of creating all-new adventures for AMCN, albeit at a more modest pace – “Not every issue like in the 80s and 90s!”
Then we touched on why Gassit had been axed in the first place. For years we’d been re-running old strips throughout the mag and on the back page. But the “HR stance”, if you like, is that they’d become so inappropriate it wasn’t worth the strife we could get into by running them – especially some of the older, “spicier” ones – in a modern setting.
How, then, to strike a balance and overcome that challenge? According to Simon, that’s an issue that will take care of itself. “It’s called growing old,” he told me as he led me into his small, cluttered home office – the intimate space where all the cartoon magic happens. Now retired, our legendary Gassit creator freely admitted that he’s not the firebrand he once was. Not so angry with the world, not so cantankerous and sarcastic. More mature. Less in-your-face.
Which made me a bit jealous, because it sounds like Simon is growing old in precisely the opposite way to 99 per cent of the population. But either way, he assured me that his own gradual softening would surely, naturally, lead to an equivalent shift in Fred that wouldn’t have the HR department up in arms quite so often…
We will just have to wait and see. There is much in this modern cultural landscape for Fred to have his say on, and Simon has already hinted at plenty of new ideas and themes he wants to explore. So keep your eyes glued to that back page every SECOND issue – and email us via
amcn@amcn.com.au to let us know what you think of Gassit’s triumphant return.
Actually, while you’re at it, email us if you’re interested at all in some Gassit merchandise too. We are contemplating resurrecting a range of Gassit T-shirts and hoodies, and Simon has kindly said he would even undertake specific requests or commissions from readers and fans.
Before I left Simon’s house, I chanced my arm and asked if I could take a selfie with him at his work station (I wore an AMCN shirt and everything). But he very gently told me – no doubt like he’s told every editor before me – that he doesn’t like to be in photos. He’s also never been interviewed, never been the subject of a biography (despite being begged several times), never nominated himself for awards, never sought out undue accolades or praise… Just quietly gone about the business of creating iconic pieces of history.
Hail to the King. It’s good to have you back.
