In 1992, Andrew Kidman came to artist Mark Sutherland with the germ of an idea. The then-Waves editor was keen to do a modern take on the classic surf cartoon genre. It was nominally titled Gonad Man, and he wanted Sutherland to write and illustrate it. 

The timing was fortuitous for Sutherland. The lifelong surfer had spent the past decade focussed on his art, and had found some critical success with his animated film Dream (later to be featured in Litmus), among other gongs. But a recent return and readjustment to life living in Sydney had him ready to try something different. 

“I grew up reading Captain Goodvibes in the old Tracks mags,” said Sutherland, “and always dreamed of making my own contribution to the cartoon genre.”

Gonad Man was the perfect vehicle. Despite being an oil painter at heart, Sutherland was trained in animation and eager to give the cartoon medium a crack. But while the easy option would have been a cut and paste cartoon hero, Sutherland brought a fresh pair of eyes to the subject matter.

“I didn’t really know anything about the surf industry when I first started doing Gonad Man,” said Sutherland.“I hadn’t really surfed much the previous decade. From ’82 to ’89 I got caught up in drugs, then I moved to North Queensland, so I hadn’t really been observing the development of the industry at all. I just came back in 1990 and it was all different.”

The initial brief was to create a superhero-type character, righting wrongs and rectifying injustices. But Sutherland had other ideas.

“I think it was one of the ad guys [at Waves] that came up with the name for Gonad Man,” said Sutherland. “But the rest was me. I saw him more as an anti-hero. A lot of guys who are good surfers are really fuck-ups in their everyday life, and that’s what I wanted to get across - that just because you surf good, doesn’t mean you will be successful in life. Or happy. Gonad Man could surf well, but he was hopeless at everything else.”

Sutherland holed up in his Coledale studio, 1995

Gonad Man was a postmodern pastiche of literary and popular culture: the ‘wild native,’ a noble savage in the classical sense, raised by gorillas and living in a Gilligan’s Island-style tropical paradise.  He just also happened to have a giant set of balls and a penchant for charging the longest and heaviest barrels this side of Skeleton Bay. 

The cartoon strip was the perfect dose of boorish absurdity at a time when surfing was attempting to portray a polished image to the mainstream world.

“I could see certain things that had changed over the years from the ‘70s,” said Sutherland. “Surfing was more corporate: the advertising, the films, the art - everybody was riding the same boards and surfing a similar way. It had all become quite a serious business.”

Gonad Man was a reminder of surfing’s true, decrepit roots: an expertly drawn dick (and balls) across the cheek of those that would take the sport too seriously. With guidance from Kidman and the Waves team, Gonad Man set about filleting the surf industry one player at a time. Unsubtle parodies of big names like Slater, Curren and Occy appeared alongside elders of the sport such as ‘Derek Blynd’ and ‘Lorne Wynch.’ Even the great MP featured.

'Lorne Wynch' visits Lalaland teaching Gonad Man the ways of the world

Storylines riffing on commercialism, overdevelopment, and creative compromise were mixed in with barrels, tits, dicks, and spew. Crudity became a hallmark. 

“Obscenity was often an issue; what you can draw, what you can’t draw,” said Sutherland. “The editors used to tell me to work smarter; that it was harder to work clean, rather than just go for the cheap laugh all the time. Which is absolutely true. But it’s also true that poo and dick jokes never get old. Nudity and crudity are an endless wellspring of comedy gold that crosses all social, political and ethnic boundaries.”

While most wore their skewerings with good humour and as a badge of honour, others didn’t take so kindly.

“I met Johnny Boy Gomes once, and he didn’t appreciate that I had put him in the comic wearing a dress. I tried to explain to him that it was only funny because it was so unlikely, but he struggled to see the funny side.”

It wasn’t an easy process for Sutherland either.

“I read something Roy and HG said, where they never wanted to meet the people they were taking the piss out of, because they didn’t want to think of them as real people,” said Sutherland.  “And it was inhibiting. I can understand where they’re coming from.”

 But while not everyone was a fan of their portrayal in the comic, Sutherland always made sure Gonad Man took the biggest hit. 

“No-one ever came off looking quite as stupid or pathetic as Gonad Man himself. That was his job, in a way; to say and do the stupidest thing, so that everyone else was off the hook.”

Gonad Man was an instant success in the surf world. Over sixty episodes appeared in Waves. The cartoon strip was studied in universities. Overtures for a TV series were made. But ultimately, success caught up with both ‘Nadsy’ and ‘Sutho.’

“Gonad Man followed a fairly typical arc, I think, where he got really successful for a couple of years,” said Sutherland.  “The more successful he got, the more I drank. After a while, that affected the quality of the work; it all got harder and harder, and you can see that in the comics. I cringe when I see some of them now.”

Not that Sutherland, now sober, would change any of it. 

“It’s a bit like the crudity argument, if I’d been sober, I may have made better decisions. But then maybe the comic wouldn’t have been as funny and I’d never have had the chance at a TV show in the first place. So you never know. But it’s all water under the bridge now.”

At his height, Gonad Man was a true tribal elder and custodian of the sport –  the cartoon a ‘countercultural twist on the surfing’s consciousness,’ as described by Sutherland himself. Nadsy was a reminder to the world that surfing is equal parts toxic, narcissistic, juvenile, beautiful, and transcendent. All of life’s contradictions wrapped up into one tube-shooting, big-balled hell hound. 

Though Sutherland warns against reading too far into it. 

“It’s not rocket science,” says Sutherland. “I think Gonad Man was popular because people just like to have a laugh.”

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