{{Short description|Australian cartoonist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} '''Nils Josef Jonsson''' (originally '''Jönsson''')<ref name="adb">{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography | last = Lindesay | first = Vane | title = Jonsson, Nils Josef | year = 1983 |id=A090519b | access-date = 29 June 2010}}</ref> (13 December 1890 – 19 March 1963) was an Australian cartoonist born in Halmstad, Sweden.<ref>{{Cite web | last = Kerr | first = Joan | title = Nils Josef Jonsson | work = Dictionary of Australian Artists Online | date = 14 November 2007 | url = http://www.daao.org.au/main/read/3601 | access-date = 29 June 2010}}</ref> thumb|Josef Jonsson At age 18 he went to sea for nine years, painting in his spare time. In 1915 he "jumped ship" in New Zealand where he worked for a while, then in Australia, finally settling down in Sydney where he studied painting full-time from 1918 to 1920 at the studio of John S. Watkins (1866–1942), becoming an instructor himself within a year. He worked as cartoonist with Smith's Weekly from 1924 to 1950 when it closed; the last artist still on staff. His jokes mostly centered on horses, ships and drunks.<ref name="Lindesay">{{Cite book | last = Lindesay | first = Vane | title = The Inked-In Image | publisher = Hutchinson | year = 1979 | location = Melbourne | pages = 45–46 | isbn = 0-09-135460-9}} </ref>
Though he produced many gag panels for Smith's Weekly, his most popular work was "Uncle Joe and his Horse Radish", a coloured strip which first appeared January 1951 in Keith Murdoch's ''Sunday Herald'', later ''Sun-Herald'' and was carried by other News Limited papers including Adelaide's ''Sunday Mail''. It revolved around the splay-footed racehorse and its owners Joe (Swedish like himself) and his wife Gladys, children Oigle and Doigle, their jockey cousin Manfred and different racecourse characters: gamblers, drunks, bookies, nobblers, touts, society belles and so on.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Ryan | first = John | title = Panel By Panel | publisher = Cassell Australia | year = 1979 | location = Sydney | pages = 73 | isbn = 0-7269-7376-9}} </ref>
Joe was a physically imposing and energetic individual known for having a photographic memory and a sharp sense of humour. He also possessed a high capacity for alcohol consumption was noted to had enjoyed using the "Great Australian Adjective" but it always came out pronounced "bletty". When he was called by Sir John Longstaff "the finest black-and-white artist Australia has produced", Joe's riposte was "Fancy that. And me a bletty Swede too!"<ref>{{Cite book | last = Blaikie | first = George | title = Remember Smith's Weekly? | publisher = Rigby | year = 1975 | location = Adelaide | pages = 75–79 }} </ref>
He was a foundation member of the Society of Australian Black and White Artists.<ref>{{Cite web | last = Foyle | first = Lindsay | title = Jonsson, Josef Nils | work = History of Australian Cartoonists | publisher = Australian Cartoonists' Association | url = http://cartoonists.org.au/?page=215 | access-date = 29 June 2010}}</ref>
He married Agnes Mary McIntyre in 1927. He died of cardiovascular disease in Sydney in 1963, and was survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.<ref name="adb"/>
==References== <references/>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonsson, Joe}} Category:Australian editorial cartoonists Category:Australian comics artists Category:Australian comic strip cartoonists Category:Australian male painters Category:20th-century Australian painters Category:1890 births Category:1963 deaths Category:Swedish emigrants to Australia Category:People from Halmstad