Stan Cross

Stanley George Cross (3 December 1888 – 16 June 1977) was born in the United States but was known as an Australian strip and political cartoonist who drew for Smith's Weekly and the Herald & Weekly Times. Cross is famous for his iconic 1933 "For gorsake, stop laughing: this is serious!” cartoon as well as the Wally and the Major and The Potts cartoon strips.

Early life and education Cross was the third son born to English-born parents, Theophilus Edwin Cross, builder and architect, and his wife Florence, née Stanbrough, who met in Brisbane, married in Sydney then sought their fortune in the United States. His father hoped to make money there but only found work as a carpenter (he became secretary of the American Carpenters' Union). Cross was born on 3 December 1888 in Los Angeles, California. The family returned to Australia in 1892 when Stan was four years old and settled in Perth, Western Australia.

Cross was a gifted student who attended Perth High School on a scholarship. During that time, some of his cartoons were accepted by Punch. The strip was a straight adaptation of the radio serial, which commenced in 1936, and ran for 2,276 episodes before finishing in 1951.

During his time at Smith's Weekly, Cross established a reputation as a skilled draftsman, particularly in the area of single-panel cartoons. and Lyon eventually took over all the drawing, with Cross writing the stories, and took over completely when Cross retired later that year.

Other activities and personal life Cross also wrote books on accountancy, economics and English grammar, and treatises on soil conservation. He painted watercolours and there is some speculation that Cross and George Finey held the first exhibition at David Jones Art Gallery. On 17 November 1924, Cross married a 25-year-old clerk Jessie May Hamilton (died 1972) at the Waverley Methodist Church in Bondi Junction. In 1970, he retired from the Melbourne Herald and joined his family at Armidale, New South Wales, where he died on 16 June 1977 at the age of eighty-eight. The epitaph on his tombstone reads, "Stop laughing, this is serious".