Edward Brodie Mack (who dervied his 'pen name' from that of his father, James Brodie Mack) attended Otaga High School, New Zealand, and initially worked for the New Zealand Lands and Survey Office. He contributed cartoons to the New Zealand Freelance during 1915-1916, before migrating to Sydney, Australia, where he worked as a booking manager for Fullers' Theatres, while establishing his reputation as a prolific cartoonist.
Mack submitted caricatures and sports cartoons to various newspapers and magazines throughout the 1920s and 1930s, his work appearing in such publications as The Truth (Sydney), The Australian Budget (formerly Beckett's Budget), The Sunday Mail, The Sun (Sydney) and The Bulletin. Consolidated Press appointed Mack as the official sports cartoonist for their Sydney newspapers, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph (commencing in 1936 and 1939, respectively), a post he retained until 1962. He was a foundation member of the Black & White Artists' Society (est.1924) and, during the 1930s, he established the Brodie Mack Correspondence Art School, which remained in operation for nearly thirty years.
Mack frequently worked with the author A.E. Martin (q.v.), who (using the pseudonym 'Peter Amos') wrote numerous children's and humour books throughout the 1930s and 1940s, for which Mack provided cover designs and interior illustrations (See Phantom Pants). They collaborated on the memorable science-fiction/fantasy comic books Kazanda: The Wild Girl & The Lost Continent (New South Wales Bookstall Company, Sydney, NSW, 1942) and Kazanda Again (New South Wales Bookstall Company, Sydney, NSW, ca.1944). Martin and Mack scored an impressive publishing coup when they sold 'Kazanda and the Lost Continent' to Fiction House Magazines (USA), where it was serialised in Rangers Comics between June 1945-April 1946. During this time, Mack also drew numerous covers for Currawong Publishing Company's 'pulp novels' (See Queen of the Night Clubs).
