Frontiers of Science
The original Frontiers of Science strips ran from 1961 and was significant as a means of communicating and popularising science. It was Australian and developed from the University of Sydney, and was produced and distributed by Press Feature Service. The series was co-written and produced by Professor Stuart Butler from the School of Physics and journalist and film-maker Bob Raymond. The early art work in the series was by Andrea Bresciani, continued later by David Emersen.
In total 939 weekly episodes or "pulls" - five strips, one for each weekday, each around a particular topic. The strips were initially published in the Sydney Morning Herald, and were then syndicated to each of the capital city major dailies (except Adelaide). Within a few years it was available throughout the USA and Canada, and was translated and available internationally through over 600 newspapers.
While the production of Frontiers came to an end in 1982 with Stuart Butler's death, but there was such a backlog of unpublished cartoons it continued to run in many parts of the world for years. Bob Raymond and Miriam Butler sifted through all 939 strips and updated them with colour and an environmental theme (initiated by illustrator David Emerson) to create a new strip, Frontiers of Science: Earthcare which ran until 1993.
These publisher pulls and some of the original art work are located in the Library's Rare Books and Special Collections.
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