After attending
St Virgil's College, Hobart, Hook started as a cadet press artist on the Hobart
Mercury and completed a course in
graphic arts at the Hobart Technical College (now Tasmanian School of Art, a faculty of the
University of Tasmania) which included tuition in
fine arts under
Jack Carington Smith, Margaret Chandler, Harry Buckey and
Edith Holmes. He started his career as a press artist and part-time cartoonist on
The Mercury, drawing under the name "Jeff". He moved to
Melbourne and started at
The Sun News-Pictorial in 1964. Hook became the full-time cartoonist for
The Sun News-Pictorial (later to be merged with the afternoon newspaper
The Herald to become the
Herald Sun). Jeff was famous for hiding a fishhook in his cartoons, which became his "trademark", and looking for the hidden fishhook became a widespread morning pastime amongst readers of
The Sun News-Pictorial. " with
caricatures of
Gamal Abdel Nasser (President of
United Arab Republic),
Faisal (King of
Saudi Arabia) and
Hussein (King of
Jordan). The cartoon includes the artist's trademark
fish hook. The cartoon provided Hook with international recognition when it was re-published in
The Times. Hook first gained international recognition in 1967 for his cartoon about the end of the
Six-Day War, "The three wiser men", which was re-published widely outside Australia, including in
The London Times. In 1987, Hook won the award for
Humorous Illustration in the
Australian Black and White Artists Club's Bulletin Awards. Also in 1987, Geoff won the award for the
Best Political Cartoon at
The International Cartoon Festival at
Knokke-Heist,
Belgium, and in 1991 he won the award for
Best Press Cartoon at the same Festival. Hook retired from the
Herald Sun in early 1993, but continued to freelance, doing a regular editorial cartoon for the Sunday
Herald Sun while devoting his time primarily to painting. That continued until the year 2000, when he largely stopped cartooning after holding his first exhibition at the
Australian Guild of Realist Artists (AGRA) gallery and pursued his love of painting full-time. After that, Hook exhibited widely at regional art shows and galleries in Australia and held a second exhibition at the AGRA Gallery in 2005. Over the course of his career, Hook did numerous cartoons and illustrations for papers, magazines and 46 books, including two children's books
Harry the Honkerzoid and
Planet of the Honkerzoids, written by one of his sons, Brendan, and a children's book of his own,
Jamie the Jumbo Jet, which was first published in the mid-1970s, and was revised and reprinted in 1998. After retiring from full-time cartooning, Hook was awarded the
Australian Black and White Artists Club's Silver Stanley Award for lifetime achievement in 1998; In January 2012, he was awarded an
Order of Australia Medal for "services to the print media as a political and social commentator, and as a cartoonist". ==Affiliations==