Australian Comforts Fund: don't let them down, the Blueys and Curleys

Depicts a 2nd Australian Imperial Force poster appealing for donations of reading matter (books and magazines) for distribution by the Australian Comforts Fund to soldiers. Soldiers are shown in the jungle reading and making jokes about the 'comforts' they have received of brown paper, bark and cigarette papers. The cartoon appearing in this poster was drawn by the cartoonist and illustrator, Alex Gurney (1902-1955). Born in England, he immigrated to Hobart, Tasmania in 1908 with his family. He showed a keen interest in cartooning from a young age and at 13 he worked briefly as an ironmonger before being apprenticed for seven years to the Hydro-Electric Department. He attended evening art classes at Hobart Technical College and sent cartoons to the 'Illustrated Tasmanian Mail', the 'Bulletin', 'Melbourne Punch' and 'Smith's Weekly'. In 1926 he published a book of caricatures of notable citizens, 'Tasmanians Today'. By late 1937 Gurney was living in Melbourne and in 1939 created the comic strip 'Bluey and Curley', which centred on two larrikin soldiers. As an accredited war correspondent, Gurney visited army camps throughout Australia to obtain authentic detail and gain a feel for military life. He also visited New Guinea in August 1944. The cartoon strip was noted for its 'superb use of Australian idiom and slang', and 'instinctive understanding and interpretation of the Australian male'. The cartoon strip was syndicated in newspapers in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The Australian Comforts Fund (ACF) was first formed in August 1916 from a number of individual state based organisations that had been created at the beginning of World War I to send comfort to the troops. Many local women's groups formed early in the war to provide various 'luxury items' to supplement the Australian soldier's army rations and personal kit. The Australian Comforts Fund quickly grew into a fundraising, collecting, sorting and distributing machine which rivalled the scope of the Red Cross. At the conclusion of World War I, the ACF officially dissolved. However it was revived in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II to provide comforts to a new generation of soldiers.