Australia's Baby Boomer Generation

The Footrot Flats comic strip is one of New Zealand's most popular imports, and was loved as much in Australia as in his home country. Set in rural New Zealand, Footrot Flats has appeared daily in newspapers right accross New Zealand and other countries such as Australia since the mid 70s when it started. It has long been a favourite in those countries and even has quite a following in countries such as the USA, where it is quite hard to come by.

The author Murray Ball, has a unique way of portraying every day trivial events in a very humourous way. The comic also benefits from a wide range of likeable characters. Some of the favourites are the tough super-tomcat Horse, nature loving Cooch, old Cecil the ram and of course the Dog.

Most of the comic takes place on the Footrot Farm although other places such as Cooch's farm, the Murphy's farm and the local town are often seen. Wal and the Dog even went on a holiday to Australia in Footrot Flats 20. The exact locations were never really solid until the animated movie was developed.

Most of the comic is set on the farm of Wal Footrot although the main character is his dog. Most of the main characters are either Wal's neighbours, relatives or animals on his farm. The dog says a lot in the form of thought bubbles, sort of like Snoopy or Garfield, but it is rare for any of the other animals to say anything. The Characters section of this site gives descriptions of each of the main characters along with pictures of each one.

Footrot Flats has been around since 1975. Some of the characters have changed over the years. Some examples are Pongo and Rangi who were little kids in earlier series but are teenagers in more recent series. The characters in general changed over the first couple of years so that you can see quite a bit of difference with the way they look in Footrot Flats 1 & 2.