Bill Leak

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Australian political cartoonist Bill Leak was seriously injured in a "freak accident" that has left the award-winning cartoonist in an induced coma.

According to the report, Leak, the staff cartoonist for The Australian newspaper, has undergone brain surgery and remains in a serious but stable condition in Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital on Sunday night, after falling several meters from the first-floor balcony of advertising executive John Singleton.

Leak, 52, has won eight Walkley Awards, 19 Stanley Awards from the Australian Cartoonists' Association and has entered the Archibald Prize for portrait painting 13 times.

Bill Leak's cartoon from Saturday's Australian criticizing photographer Bill Henson's methods.: (click to enlarge)"As one who defines 'photographer' as 'a person who owns a camera', I've always been suspicious of people who take photographs and call them art," said Bill Leak, the editorial cartoonist for Australia's largest newspaper, The Australian.

Leak filed a cartoon in Saturday's Australian that has many people up in arms, including journalist David Marr, author of Herald, which covers the work of controversial photographer Bill Henson.