Drawing OUR INTEREST

WE PAY TRIBUTE TO FORMER STREET MACHINE CARTOONIST BRENDAN AKHURST, THE MAN WHO GAVE US 'WAYNE & VICKY' - AND MUCH MORE BESIDES

- GEOFF SEDDON

BRENDAN Akhurst, one of Australia's leading illustrators and cartoonists, passed away earlier this year after a brief battle with cancer. He was 73. As BJ Akhurst, he was best known to Street Machine readers as the creator of the long-running Wayne & Vicky comic strip and countless other illustrations. His iconic image of Wayne's XP Falcon and a souped-up A9X hatch facing off at the lights (pictured above), which appeared on the cover of our 30th-anniversary special, is as recognisably Street Machine as our masthead.

The adventures of Wayne Clodpole, his voluptuous girlfriend Vicky and their Holdenbaiting XP coupe were the perfect reflection of our homegrown modified car lifestyle, viewed through a screen of healthy, self-deprecating humour. The cars are beautifully drawn, instantly recognisable, but stupidly tough. You can almost feel the ground shake and smell the fuel. And who didn't see themselves in the couple's relationship - the car-obsessed bloke and the spunky sheila who loves him anyway?

"None of us really knew where Brendan got his inspiration from, but some of the characters were based on real people," Brendan's widow Michelle says. "Wayne and Vicky were based on Brendan's neighbours when he lived in western Sydney in the 70s. He changed Vicky's name so as not to offend."

Wayne & Vicky debuted in black and white in the Dec '81/Jan '82 issue, edited by Geoff Paradise, and went full-colour in Feb/Mar '83. The duo's last appearance first time around was in Oct/Nov '83. Perhaps BJ knew it was the last one: the strip ends with Wayne's hands turning into breasts mid-drag race and then crashing into the offices of the Australian Women's Weekly.

In 1984, Wayne & Vicky reappeared in slightly raunchier form in the Bruce Flynn and Mac Douglas-produced Street & Custom mag and, later, Super Street.