Seker een van ons land se bekendste spotprenttekenaars was TO Honiball (klas van 1925), wat van skooldae af verskeie sketse van Oom Polla met sy forse gestalte en welige snor gemaak het.
In die Paul Roos 150-feesboek verskyn die volgende inligting oor hierdie geliefde kunstenaar:
It was clear from very early on that Honiball would make his mark as a caricaturist or cartoonist. His first caricatures were of his teachers at PRG, including the rector, Paul Roos. The caricatures published in the school magazine are just about all that remain of his earlier attempts. The formative influences of his youth can be observed in the comic strip Jakkals en Wolf, which drew inspiration from stories told by his nanny. Character names like “Jêmpot” and ”Windvogel” were derived from people he knew during his youth. His comic-strip characters all lived in rural areas of South Africa, indicating his preference for country towns like Stellenbosch.
Honiball studied architecture but longed to express his artistic abilities more freely. From 1927 to 1930 he was based in Chicago, where he studied commercial art. It was during this time that he got to know American cartoons. In 1941 he was hired as political cartoonist for Die Burger and soon became one of the best known South African cartoon artists.
In addition to his political cartoons he also created cartoon strips like Oom Kaspaas. The popular Adoons-hulle related the experiences of a baboon family. On retiring in 1974, he held his first solo exhibition in Pretoria and continued his political caricatures and cartoons until 1978.
As a cultural icon, Honiball contributed, according to FP Verster in his PhD thesis, a great deal “to (the) moral values of his people during the almost 50 years that he produced humour and satire.”
Sketse uit PRG Argief
