BIOGRAPHIES

Illustration Art | ART ARCHIVESBIOGRAPHIES

Biographies are in alphabetical order by last name.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Chris Achilleos biography
Chris Achilleos
Born in Famagusta, Cyprus, Chris moved to England with his family in 1960. With a prolific career now spanning over 30 years, Chris is famous for his celebrated paintings for book covers, posters, films, album sleeves and video covers. His work includes covers for authors Edgar Rice Burroughs, Michael Moorcock, Robert E Howard and J R R Tolkien, and for Star Trek and Doctor Who.

He has worked for film giants George Lucas, Ron Howard and Ray Harryhausen, and produced concept designs for the films Heavy Metal and Willow. His poster work includes SuperGirl, Bladerunner and Jackie Chan's The Protector. Chris is most famous for his hard-hitting fantasy works and his unique representation of Amazonian women, many of whom are depicted in these posters! Chris Achilleos art
Top of Page

Neal Adams biography
Neal Adams (b. 15 June 1941; USA)
Neal Adams was one of the innovators in comic strip art to hit American comic books in the late 1960s and 1970s, revitalizing and redefining the looks of the X-Men and Batman. Adams was also an outspoken advocate of creators rights and was central to the attempts to help Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster earn pensions from their creation of Superman and in the setting up of the Comics Creators' Guild. Adams has won the Shazam Award in 1970 and 1971, the Inkpot Award in 1976, Eagle Awards in 1977 and 1978 and has been indicted into the Will Eisner Comic Books Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999.

Neal Edward Adams was born on Governors Island, a 172-acre island a half mile from the southern tip of Manhattan in New York Harbor used by the US Army, on 15 June 1941. His father deserted the family when Adams was only 13 and, with college financially out of reach, he attended the School of Industrial Art, a vocational school in Manhattan.

Graduating in 1959, and turned down by DC Comics, he submitted samples to Archie Comics where Joe Simon was creating a superhero line. A sample of The Fly earned him his first professional appearance when a panel from his sample was used in Adventures of The Fly #4 (Jan 1960). Adams was soon drawing fillers for Archie's Joke Book Magazine and was recommended to Howard Nostrand, who needed an assistant on "Bat Masterson", a syndicated newspaper strip based on the TV series.

Adams gained some much needed experience on the strip and turned to advertising, working for Johnstone & Cushing for a year. The company specialised in comic strip advertising and Adams found himself working on AT&T advertising strip "Chip Martin, College Reporter" for Boys' Life and similar work for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Adams, following a recommendation by Jerry Caplin (brother of Al Capp), was asked to produce samples for a new strip to be based on the popular TV drama Ben Casey. The strip was successfully pitched and was syndicated from 26 November 1962 with a colour Sunday strip added on 20 September 1964. The TV series came to an end in March 1966 and the strip followed on 31 July 1966.

Adams attempted to return to advertising work but needed to fill in, ghosting a few weeks for Lou Fine on the syndicated hardboiled detective serial "Peter Scratch", Stan Drake's "The Heart of Juliet Jones" and was hawking around a strip of his own, "Tangent". He was offered work by Peter Scratch-creator Elliot Caplin on a proposed adaptation of Robin Moore's The Green Berets but Adams – opposed to the war – suggested Joe Kubert, who accepted the job.

Adams made his first splash in comic books drawing horror stories for Warren Publishing before exploiting the gap left by Kubert at DC Comics. After producing a handful of war and horror stories for anthologies like Our Army at War, Adams found himself working on The Adventures of Jerry Lewis and The Adventures of Bob Hope.

After producing a few covers featuring Superman and Batman for Action Comics, Lois Lane and The Brave and the Bold, Adams produced his first team-up story, "The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads" for World's Finest Comics in 1968. However, it was with the supernatural hero Deadman that Adams found his first real success. He took over the artwork with Strange Adventures #206 and illustrated the stories and covers for eleven issues, also taking over the scriptwriting with issue 212. Adams also briefly drew (and even more briefly wrote) The Spectre in 1968.

Adams was assigned numerous covers at DC and, in 1969, also began working for Marvel Comics, pencilling several issues of X-Men, then under threat of cancellation. He, along with writer Roy Tomas and inker Tom Palmer, are credited with turning the characters around, all three winning the Alley Awards (Best Pencil Artist, Best Inking Artist, Best Writer). That same year Deadman entered the Hall of Fame and Adams received a Special Award for "the new perspective and dynamic vibrance he has brought to the field of comic art."

Awards could not save X-Men, which folded with issue 66 (Mar 1970). Adams continued to draw horror comics for Marvel (Tower of Shadows) and Warren (Vampirella), but it was his debut on Batman which was to cement his place in comics' history. He debuted in Detective Comics (Jan 1970) with a story by writer Dennis O'Neil and, in the next eighteen months, introduced the characters Man-Bat and Ra's al Ghul. Adams' talent to draw realistic figures helped ground the series in the real after years of camp adventure that had overtaken the comic book following the success of the 1966-68 TV series. Adams and O'Neil gave Gotham back its brooding hero and reestablished characters like The Joker as a homicidal maniac rather than the prancing buffoonery of the ABC TV show.

Adams and O'Neill also performed a similar revamping of Green Lantern and Green Arrow. Green Lantern was renamed Green Lantern/Green Arrow with issue 76 (Apr 1970) and took the two characters on a journey across America that ran for two years and encompassed one of the pair's most controversial stories in which Green Arrow's ward, the clean-cut Speedy, was revealed as a heroin addict. The series ended with issue 89 (May 1972) ... the frustrating truth being that controversy in comics rarely translated into sales to the broader public. Speaking in 1978, Adams told The Comics Journal, "It takes a good year to get somebody used to a new idea, to get a market used to a new idea ... It takes a while for the news to get around. By the time the news got around to Green Lantern / Green Arrow it was cancelled."

With the exception of his work on Batman, Adams became a more sporadic contributor to DC, although he was involved in a number of 'event' comics, such as the inter-company crossover, Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man (1976) and Superman vs. Muhammad Ali (1978), the latter a 72-page story teaming Superman with boxer Ali to battle aliens.

In 1971, Adams and Dick Giordano, an inker with whom he often worked, set up Continuity Graphics Associates Inc. to produce storyboards for movies and produce comic art for advertising. A studio was set up in New York through which dozens of artists passed. Advertising work would often be passed around various artists with Adams and Giordano inking the main figures. This team effort was often credited to the "Crusty Bunkers", including numerous inking jobs for DC Comics, in the period 1972-77. Adams was also the art director and costume designer for Warp! (1973) a Broadway play by film director Stuart Gordon and playwright Lenny Kleinfeld.

By the late 1970s, Adams was almost invisible at DC or Marvel due, he said, to the introduction of a Work-For-Hire contract which he considered to be "against the intent of the new copyright law." In 1978 he helped set up the Comics Creators' Guild, which attracted 50 members. The Guild, says Adams, achieved many of its aims.

Adams also took time out to study a film course at NYU and filmed a full-length horror film, Nannaz, on a $30,000 budget. It starred Adams, his children Jason and Zeea and comic personalities Gray Morrow and Denys Cowan and told the story of two children who protect an invention of their father's from crooks with the aid of a toy monkey. It was reputedly released via Troma Entertainment in Europe in 1986 or 1987 under the title Death to the Pee-Wee Squad.

In the 1980s, Adams was tempted back into comics and produced Ms. Mystic (1982) and Skateman (1983) for Pacific Comics, the latter lasting only a single issue which was cited as the worst single comic of the past 25 years by Kitchen Sink Press's World's Worst Comics Awards (1990). Ms. Mystic, a witch in the modern world, appeared only twice from Pacific before transferring to Adams' own company, Continuity Comics in 1987.

Formed in 1984, Continuity launched a number of titles, including Zero Patrol, a reworking of a Spanish series by Esteban Maroto (2 issues, 1984-85) and Echo of Futurepast, an anthology which serialised a number of creations that Adams had planned as books to be published in Europe, including a Dracula-Werewolf-Frankenstein team-up by Adams (based on a 1975 comic book and record set, A Story of Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein from Power Records), "Bucky O'Hare" by Larry Hama & Michael Golden, "Tippie Toe Jones" by Lindley Farley & Louis Mitchell and "Mudwogs" by Arthur Suydam.

Continuiuty entered the superhero market with Armor (1985-92), Revengers (1986-89), Toyboy (1986-89), Samuree (1987-91), Zero Patrol (1987-89), Ms. Mystic (1987-93), Urth 4 (1989-90) and Megalith (1989-93). A 1993 relaunch saw a number of series revert to issue one and new titles appear, the Continuity line-up now including Armor, Cyberrad, Earth, Hybrids, Megalith and Ms. Mystic, with Samuree, Shaman and Valerie, She-Bat added soon after. Continuity were caught up in the collapse of the speculative comics' boom in 1994 part-way through a company-wide crossover. At the time, Adams was also involved in a court case – with Michael Netzer over the rights to Ms. Mystic – which was dismissed in 1997.

One Continuity success was Bucky O'Hare, which became an animated TV series in 1991-92 under the title Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars! on which Adams was credited as executive producer. Adams has worked as a concept designer on movies such as From Beyond (1986), Dolls (1987), Circuitry Man (1990), and the Skeleton Warriors TV series (1994-95).

Adams continues to work with Continuity Studios to produce material for companies, including motion capture comics (such as Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, scripted by Joss Whedon, in 2009 and the upcoming Neal Adams' Blood, based on his Dark Horse Presents series), animatics and CGI. He has also recently been involved with the Disney Educational productions to produce They Spoke Out: American Voices against the Holocaust, an online educational motion comics series that relates the stories of Americans who protested the Nazis or aided Jews during the Holocaust. The first episode was screened in April 2010.

Neal Adams' Monsters, the long-promised story featuring Frankenstein, the Werewolf and Dracula, appeared as a hardcover book in 2004. Adams has occasionally returned to mainstream comics including stories for Giant Size X-Men #3 (2005) and Young Avengers Special #1 (2006) for Marvel and Batman: Odyssey (2010-12) for DC. It was recently (May 2012) announced that Adams would be co-writing (with Christos Gage) The First X-Men, a 5-issue mini-series which Adams would be drawing. Adams has also been involved in a 5-part Wolverine project.

Adams has been twice married, to Cory Adams and Marilyn Adams. His children include daughters Kristine Stone and Zeea Moss and sons Jason (a sculptor under the name Spyda), Joel and Josh Adams. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Neal Adams art
Top of Page

Charlie Adlard biography
Charlie Adlard
Charlie Adlard has been discovered and rediscovered a number of times in both the UK and US. After producing a string of short-lived strips beginning with Biggles Bear in 1989, Adlard approached Steve MacManus with samples and was offered a Judge Dredd strip. He then drew various strips for the Judge Dredd Megazine, notably Armitage, about a brutal Brit-Cit cop and his partner, Treasure Steel (who subsequently featured in her own series), and for Marvel UK, where his best work was probably Dances With Demons, a 4-issue mini-series penned by Simon Jowett; a second collaboration with Jowett, entitled 'Bloodrush', went unpublished.

By this time, Adlard had been discovered by American publishers, drawing stories for Black Orchid Annual, Marvel Comics Presents and Good Guys. After producing a five-issue run of Mars Attacks! for Topps, Adlard began working on the best-selling X-Files comic strip from the same publisher. The strip was a tremendous success and was still selling an average 130,000 copies per issue when Adlard decided to leave, claiming that the strip was straight-jacketed by the demands of the company and he had little artistic control.

He left to work on Shadowman for Acclaim and, although never short of relatively high-profile work (on, for instance, The Crow, Gen13, Superman and X-Men, it might be said that Adlard was critically discovered only when he began working on Larry Young's Astronauts in Trouble in 1999.

In the 2000s, Adlard was, again, kept busy on a range of titles, including Blair Witch: Dark Testaments and Double Image for Image; The Authority and The Establishment for WildStorm, Before the Fantastic Four, X-Men Unlimited, Peter Parker: Spider-Man, ThunderBolts and Warlock for Marvel and Batman/Scarface: A Psychodrama, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Harley Quinn and Batman: Gotham Knights for DC.

However, it was with The Walking Dead for Image that Adlard was yet again rediscovered in 2004. Adlard replaced original artist Tony Moore with issue 7 (April 2004) and has continued the series ever since. The post-zombie apocalypse storyline proved very popular with readers and The Walking Dead won the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series in 2010.

Adlard has retained his connections with the UK, drawing the graphic novel Playing the Game by Doris Lessing in 1995 and episodes of Nikolai Dante for 2000AD in the late 1990s. However, it was the relaunch of Pat Mills' Savage in 2004 that brought Adlard back to the attention of fans of British comics. He went on to draw three series of the character's revival between 2004 and 2007. Taken from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Charlie Adlard art
Top of Page

Martin Aitchison biography
Martin Aitchison (born 1919; UK)
Aitchison was born in Birmingham. He was educated at Ellesmere College in Shropshire, leaving aged 15 to attend the Birmingham School of Art and then Slade School of Art. He married fellow art student Dorothy Self.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1939. He was deaf, excluding him from active service in the Second World War, but he worked for Vickers Aircraft as a technical illustrator. He produced drawings for the bouncing bomb designed by Barnes Wallis for the Dam Busters air raid.

He became a freelance commercial artist after the war, producing drawings for a range of magazines. His earliest work was for Hulton Press' Lilliput magazine. He drew for Girl, filling in for Ray Bailey on Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew, and illustrating Flick and the Vanishing New Girl in the first Girl annual.

He began to work for the Eagle in 1952, drawing the French Foreign Legion strip Luck of the Legion, written by Geoffrey Bond, for nearly ten years, including spin-off strips in ABC Film Review in 1952. He also drew spy series Danger Unlimited and adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World and C. S. Forrester's Horatio Hornblower stories for the Eagle, and Arty and Crafty, written by Geoffrey Bond, for Eagle's junior companion paper Swift. His work for comics displayed his talents in an exuberant and creative medium, working mainly from imagination.

He joined Ladybird Books in 1963, and with Harry Wingfield illustrated many titles in its new Key Words Reading Scheme books, also known as Peter and Jane, which were used to teach so many British children to read. The consistency, naturalistic style and attention to detail of the artist made him a favourite with the prolific British publisher and over a period of a quarter of a century, he illustrated at least 100 different titles. Martin Aitchison was not the only artist to make the switch from The Eagle to Ladybird; Frank Hampson and Frank Humphris also followed the same path.

He left Ladybird in 1987, and retired - apart from drawing a new comic strip, Justin Tyme - ye Hapless Highwayman, written by Geoffrey Bond, and later his son Jim, for the fanzine Eagle Times from 1998 to 2004. Martin Aitchison art
Top of Page

Cecil Aldin biography
Cecil Aldin (28 April 1870 - 6 January 1935)
During his lifetime, Cecil Aldin was described as one of the leading spirits in the renaissance of British sporting art. Following the death of Henry Aiken in 1851, sporting art had been in the doldrums—the comic art of John Leech aside—until the emergence of Aldin and Denholm Armour (1864-1949) towards the end of the 19th century. Between them, they founded a school of realistic portrayal of country pursuits which not only appealed to sportsmen but to the broader public.

He was particularly noted for painting of horses, dogs and hunting scenes—a hobby he particularly enjoyed. The anonymous writer of Aldin's obituary in The Times noted, "But there never yet has been a painter of dogs fit to hold a candle to him. Of all his immensely diverse interests the study of dogs came foremost. as an artist he had the ability to portray the character of his subject: as a man he understood that subject with the sympathy that enabled him to show us our very friend himself ... Somebody once complained that his drawings of dogs were 'too human'; they were not, but often showed character that even their owners had not noticed."

Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin was born in Slough, Buckinghamshire, on 28 April 1870, the son of Charles, a well-to-do builder and contractor, and Sarah Aldin. From an early age he was keen on sketching animals and the countryside and he was encouraged in his artistic aspirations by his father, who readily agreed to his studying art, after which he studied anatomy at South Kensington and animal painting at Midhurst, Sussex, under W. Frank Calderon, who went on to found the School of Animal Painting in 1894.

The Aldin family, which also included Cecil's siblings Arthur Reginald (1872-1937), Percy Charles (1874-1956), Mildred Lilian (later Dunn; 1876-1931), had moved to Clapham and lived in a house called Windemere on the south side of Clapham Common.

Aldin moved first to Chelsea and then to Bedford Park, Chiswick, where he found himself in a brotherhood of artists which included James Pryde and his brother-in-law William Nicholson—the Beggarstaff Brothers—and John Hassall, Phil May, Dudley Hardy, Lance Thackeray and many others; this wide range of friends and colleagues led to much cross-pollination of ideas and techniques.

One of his earliest commissions came from a Master of Foxhounds who wanted a portrait of a horse, an old polo pony, with the horse itself as payment, which Aldin housed in a bicycle shed. Before long, he could be found hacking on his own mount from Bedford Park to meets at Esher. Over a short period he accumulated a second horse (again in exchange for a portrait of a hunter), a Shetland pony, a donkey, two monkeys and thirteen dogs.

His artwork sales paid for his sporting hobbies and there was no shortage of magazines and newspapers who wanted Aldin's work. He found early success when he was asked to illustrated Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Stories in Pall Mall Budget (1894-95). He produced numerous sporting colour prints as well as a series on old inns of England (1919-20), illustrated R. S. Surtees' famous hunting character Jorrocks (Jorrocks on 'Uniting, 1909; Handley Cross, 1911), Dickens' Pickwick Papers (1910) and many other books, as well as contributing to Ladies Pictorial, Illustrated London News, Sketch, The Gentlewoman, Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, The Queen, Penny Illustrated Paper, The Sphere, Country Gentleman, Printers' Pie, Windsor,Cassell's Family Magazine, Ludgate Monthly, Royal Magazine, Black and White, Good Words, Boy's Own Paper, The Captain, Animal World, Land and Water Illustrated, The Poster, Pearson's Magazine and Punch, amongst others.

In his autobiography, Aldin claimed: "I may as well state here and have done with it that I have no pretensions to Art. Art for the true artist should have a capital A. For me, I am ashamed to say, it has had a rather small one for my painting has always been founded on substrata of hunting possibilities, that is to say, it has had to provide me with the wherewithal to enable me to hunt, and has been tainted with this aftermath of sporting commercialism."

Aldin's talents did not go unrecognised: he was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, the London Sketch Club and had many paintings exhibited. He was said to be a man of great charm and organised various shows, including childrens' pony shows at Cloutsham Ball and Dunster, le Touquet, and dog shows which were not always serious (with awards for the ugliest dog, for example).

Aldin suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, aggravated by falls in the hunting field, which forced him to give up the sport. He retired to the Balearic Islands, taking all his dogs with him (horses were left behind with approved new owners) and made his home at Camp de Mar, Andraitz, Mallorca. He died at 20 Devonshire Place, Marylebone, London, on 6 January 1935. He was survived by his wife and daughter, his son having been killed in action whilst serving with the Corps of Royal Engineers in 1916. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Cecil Aldin art
Top of Page

Matias Alonso biography
Matias Alonso Andrés (b. 1935, Spain)
Matías Alonso Andrés was born in Valle de Trapagaran (Euzkadi), near the Bay of Biscay in northern Spain, in 1935. An illustrator and painter from childhood, he won a Segundo Premio Nacional de Pintura (Second National Painting Prize) at the age of 16. He made his comic book debut in the pages of Colorin and Azucena but established himself at the age of 18 when he began drawing El Charro Termerario (1953), written by Pedro Muñoz for Barcelona-based Editora Grafidea. The character Juan Miguel, known as El Charro the bold, was first to be found in the wild west of Mexico and California, often fighting on behalf of the Aztec Indians. After 44 issues, Muñoz and Alonso changed the focus of the strip from Juan Miguel to a secondary character introduced to the strip, the teenage Flaviano, and his friend Knut.

The new series, La Capitana (1955), was set on the high seas and around the globe, from Africa to Australia, and Alonso could be seen developing as an artist: Jaume Salva i Lara has commented (and I'm paraphrasing because I know almost no Spanish and online translators are, at best, a little sloppy) that Alonso's artwork had taken on a lot of personality, the ships and military uniforms (such as those of the French foreign legion) drawn with an eye for detail and the exotic settings showing the influence of Hollywood movies. To counter this rather thankless attention to realism, Alonso tried to make the pages stylistically interesting, although the results could be somewhat mannered. After a further 44 issues, the focus changed again. Now married (although his wife falls ill and is soon left behind), Flaviano travels to India for his next adventure, El Amuleto Verde (1956; The Green Amulet), a somewhat disappointing finale to the trilogy as the artwork became hurried and less detailed, the action bowdlerised and the storyline less interesting. It was brought to an end after 24 weeks.

Alonso went on to draw more historical strips Jarko, el Temible (20 episodes, 1957) and Luis Valiente (24 episodes, 1957) before adapting a series of science fiction stories, commonly known as 'La saga de los Aznar', written by George H. White (the pen-name of Spanish author Pascual Enguídanos Usach, 1923-2006), into comics, producing 44 issues under the title Hazañas de la Juventud Audaz (Daring Feats of Youth), published by Editora Valenciana in 1959-60. Alonso then took over the artwork of the famous Spanish historical strip El Guerrero del Antifaz (The Warrior of the Mask) in 1961, which he drew in the style of the strip’s originator, Manuel Gago. He continued the adventures for 80 issues before Gago returned to the series. To some fans of the famous strip Alonso's artwork, influenced by Gago from the start, was a disappointing hiatus in a series that belonged to Gago; others consider the episodes featuring the clean, precise line of Alonso's artwork and storylines by Vincente Tortajada to be amongst the best. It was around this period that Alonso began working with Luis Bermejo, a Valencian artist who was one of the leading lights of Spanish comics (Aventuras del FBI, Apache). Alonso began working for D.C. Thomson's Commando in 1962 (probably via Bermejo and Selecciones Illustrades) whilst continuing to work locally, drawing various episodes of Espíritu del Oeste (1963, written by Pedro Quesada) for the Spanish publisher Maga.

Alonso also drew La isla del Tesoro (1964) for the magazine Flecha Roja and Las Aventuras de Marco Polo (1964) for Pantera Negra, the latter with Bermejo who, at that time, was also drawing Heros the Spartan for Eagle. In Spain, Alonso collaborated with Bermejo on illustrations for children’s books such as Vida y Costumbres de los Vikingos and África y sus habitantes (1965). By the mid-1960s he was firmly established in the UK market, drawing for Commando, Battle Picture Library, Air Ace Picture Library and War Picture Library, sometimes working in collaboration with Bermejo and with Eustaquio Segrelles. A fine example of his collaborative work with Bermejo can be seen in the "Heros" strip that appeared in Eagle Annual 1967, although his contributions to Boys World Annual 1968 and especially the 1969 volume, show what he was capable of working solo.

From 1967 he became a regular contributor to Victor, drawing dozens of weekly strips over the next 23 years. Often to be found drawing historical or war adventures, the titles alone offer an insight to the range of strips he drew: "Johnny Gurka", "The Lost Warriors of Tartary", "Task Force with Tusks", "Jungle Joe", "The Planet Seekers", "Vengeance Stalks the Veldt", "The Sons of Ra", "The Wild Colonial Boy", "The White Tiger", "Wings of Death", "Eagle of the Rising Sun" and "The Haunting of Running Bear".

Alonso also drew occasional strips outside of the pages of Victor and Commando, including a handful of stories for girls' comics Judy, Diana, Debbie and Emma and the boys' adventure comic Bullet ("Claws of Terror") in the 1970s.

His last known contributions to British comics appeared in the early 1990s when he drew strips for Judy Picture Library and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. By then Alonso had established himself in Spain as a painter--noted for his landscapes of northern Spain and of Spanish ports with boats jostling in the water--and has had his work exhibited in Barcelona and Madrid. Matias Alonso art
Top of Page

Colin Andrew biography
Colin Andrew
Colin Andrew has had a long and varied career in comics and as an illustrator and book cover artist, yet remains one of the lesser-known names in the field despite some high profile work.

Born and raised in Dundee, Andrew found work as a junior in Bill McCail's Mallard Features studio in Glasgow. His first published work was a cartoon in Lilliput magazine, and his first strip was for a local paper where he dreamed up the storylines and drew layouts for a story of anthropomorphic trains, in the spirit of Thomas the Tank Engine. After his national service, he moved to London and joined the King-Ganteaume studio, working mostly Westerns and historical strips for Pancho Villa, Rocky Mountain King, TV Heroes and other Len Miller titles. When the King-Ganteaume partnership split, Andrew continued to work for Kenneth King, contributing to Lone Star and Space Ace.

In the late 1950s, Andrew drew a great deal for Zip and Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, notably the Captain Morgan strip in Zip. In 1960 he assisted Syd Jordan, another McCail studio alumni, on Jordan's Daily Express strip Jeff Hawke. The strips were written by Willie Patterson, with whom Andrew collaborated on two newspaper strips in Lord Beaverbrook's Glasgow Daily Herald, both factual strips, one a history of the world cup, the other on famous football players.

His favourite strip was also penned by Patterson, What Is Exhibit X in Boys' World, starring John Brody, a scientific investigator for the Daily Newsflash. The strip was subsequently taken over and Andrew found himself drawing The Boy Who Knew Too Much in Buster as well as features for Boys' World, Eagle, Lion and over the next few years. He returned to strip work drawing Tomorrow West in Solo, followed by stints in Fireball XL5 and Stingray in TV Century 21 and Alias Smith and Jones for TV Action. Since the 1970s he has concentrated on illustration (including work for World of Wonder and Look and Learn) and book covers; in particular he supplied New English Library with many quickly executed covers in the 1970s. He has also storyboarded television commercials, including the UK Government's PowerGen sell-off. In the 1980s he also drew editorial cartoons for a local newspaper for three years.

Andrew returned to comics in the 1990s via his friend Syd Jordan, who suggested he submit samples to Fleetway and Marvel UK. He was contacted by the latter and worked irregularly on episodes of Dr. Who strips in Doctor Who Magazine. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Colin Andrew art
Top of Page

Peter Andrews biography
Peter Andrews; UK
Peter Andrews was active as an artist and illustrator in Bristol for many years where he was an active member of the Bristol Savages Artists group. Most of his work is now held in private collections.

His output was very varied ranging from strong graphic style illustration to advertising art, Cornish landscape, pure abstract art and Pop art; also sculpture and large murals. Peter Andrews art
Top of Page

Luis Arcas Brauner biography
Luis Arcas Brauner (20 October 1934 - July 1989, Valencia, Spain)
A widely admired painter of portraits (including those of Spanish royalty), landscapes and still life. He enrolled in the School of Commerce at his father's insistence. Arcas, who wanted to devote himself to the arts, eventually entered the Escuela Superior de Bellas artes de San Carlos in Valencia, where he studied until 1954. In that year he held his first exhibition.

Arcas won numerous awards throughout his career as a painter, including the Silver Medal at the 13th Exposición de arte Universitario in 1952, the Premio extradordinario nacional at the 5th National Competition of Fine Arts in Alicante in 1956 and the Premio "La Coruña" at the exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid in 1960.

His work was widely exhibited in Spain and in North and South America. He was one of the artists who participated in the Setenta y cinco años de pintura valenciana (Seventy-Five years of Valencian painting) exhibition supported by the Valencia City Council in 1975. A retrospective of his work, Treinta años de vida profesional (Thirty years of professional life), was exhibited at the Caja de Ahorros de Valencia.

He died in Cambridge, England, in July 1989, aged 54. Five years after his death, his work was celebrated as part of Un siglo de pintura valenciana (A century of Valencian painting) in Valencia. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Luis Arcas Brauner art
Top of Page

Mike Arens biography
Michael H. Arens (2 December 1915 - 19 June, 1976, USA)
Mike Arens was born in California and began his career as an animator, joining Walt Disney Studios as a production artist in 1937. He worked on the Dance of the Hours segment of Fantasia, and on Pinocchio. After performing his military service in 1942-47, Arens became a regular newspaper strip artist with Hey, Mac! (1947-61).

He turned to comic books in the late 1940s, drawing artwork for Street & Smith's Top Secrets in 1949. From 1952, he drew dozens of strips for Dell Publishing, his first work mostly western strips such as Gene Autry (1951-52, 1954-55, 1957), The Frontiersman (1952-58), Buck Jones (1953-54), Rex Allen (1953, 1956-57), Flying-A's Range Rider (1954-55), Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955), Dale Evans (1956), Chuckwagon Charley (c.1958), and various for Western Roundup (1952-58).

Arens began producing Disney characters for overseas comics such as the British Huckleberry Hound comic in 1961-62. For Western Publishing he drew a variety of Disney and adventure strips, including Chip 'n' Dale (Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, 1962), Goofy (1963), Donald Duck (1963), Mary Poppins (Gold Key one-shot, 1964), My Favourite Martian (1964-66), Tarzan (1965-66) and Korak (1966).

For King Features he drew the Roy Rogers Sunday strip (1959-62), Uncle Remus and his Tales of Br'er Rabbit (1968), Mickey Mouse (1968) and both daily and Sunday episodes of Scamp (with inker Manuel Gonzales, 1969-76). Arens was also responsible for a number of Disney Christmas Stories--including Snow White's Christmas Surprise (1966) and Dumbo and the Christmas Mystery (1967)--and many newspaper adaptations for King Features/Walt Disney Productions, including Robin Hood (1973-74), Alice in Wonderland (1974), Herbie Rides Again (1974), (1976), Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1975), and many others.

Arens had a parallel career in animation from 1965, working as a story director for Grantray-Lawrence on their Spider-Man and Marvel Superheroes animated shows. In 1967 he became a layout artist for Hanna-Barbera, working on dozens of animated TV shows, including Fantastic 4 (1967), The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (1968-70), Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969-70), amongst many. He was also layout artist on Charlotte's Web, the 1973 Hanna-Barbera movie adaptation of E. B. White's classic novel about a pig trying to avoid being killed for Christmas. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Mike Arens art
Top of Page

Martin Asbury biography
Martin Asbury
Martin Asbury grew up addicted to comics, trawling through newsagents and book shops looking for American comics. Influenced by Burne Hogarth's 'Tarzan', Classics Illustrated and Frank Hampson's 'Dan Dare', he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and studied painting at St. Martin's College of Art. Apart from illustrating a story for a comic book giveaway, his first illustrative work included the sheet music for Ron Grainer's The Maigret Theme and painting cardboard cut-outs for use on TV.

An advert in an magazine led him to apply for a job as an assistant for "an international cartoonist"; this was on Flash Gordon and Asbury moved to Austria for six months before clashes with Dan Barry led to his departure. Back in England he designed cards for Hallmark, rising to become their chief designer.

Married in 1969, he decided to go freelance and found work drawing for D. C. Thomson's Bunty. With the launch of Wizard in 1970 he graduated onto boys' adventure strips, drawing Soldiers of the Jet Age, The Crimson Claw, The Secret of Deep 16 and others for the paper. At the same time, he also found work on Joe 90: Top Secret, soon to merged with TV21, where he drew Forward from the Back Streets and Tarzan.

Some short-run strips in Countdown led to him drawing Cannon for TV Action and TV Comic before he was hired by Look-In, where, after briefly drawing Follyfoot, he had his first big hit with Kung Fu.

Asbury took over the Dr Who strip in TV Comic before returning to Look-In to draw more 'Kung Fu', and his biggest hit, The Six Million Dollar Man, which ran for four years (1975-79). At the same time, Asbury took over the artwork for Garth in the Daily Mirror following the death of Frank Bellamy. He was to draw the strip for 21 years, working initially with Jim Edgar. From 1995, Asbury also scriptwrited the strip.

In the early days of the strip, Asbury was also able to continue working for Look-In, his strips for that paper including 'Dick Turpin', 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'. However, an opportunity arose in the early 1980s for a change in artistic direction.

Asbury explained how he became a storyboard artist in an interview in Starlog: "When I was a strip cartoonist, I occasionally did TV commercial storyboards. A friend of mine [Dez Skinn] had an agency dealing with design and graphics and one day a man literally walked in off the street looking for a storyboard artist. I met this guy, production designer Stuart Craig, and he was about to start work on the film Greystoke with director Hugh Hudson. It was that simple.

"For Greystoke I did nearly 3,500 huge drawings, many of them in full colour. I didn't know they were going to be fed through a copying machine and come out as grey blotches. I learned my lesson on that.

Since the release of Greystoke in 1984, Asbury has storyboarded dozens of movies, a few sample credits would include Labyrinth, Willow, Alien 3, Chaplin, Interview with the Vampire, Fierce Creatures, Quills, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Thunderpants, The Hours, Troy, Alexander, Batman Begins, The Da Vinci Code, The Boat That Rocked, the last six James Bond movies (Brosnan/Craig) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

He continues to work as a storyboard artist, his most recent work being for the upcoming Between Two Worlds. Taken from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Martin Asbury art
Top of Page

Leslie Ashwell Wood biography
Leslie Ashwell Wood (c.1903-1973)
Leslie Ashwell Wood was best known for his educational and detailed cutaway drawings and paintings of trains, boats, planes and all manner of mechanical inventions, often featured in Modern Wonder and in the centre page spread of Eagle in the 1950s. Leslie Ashwell Wood art
Top of Page

Ray Aspden biography
Ray Aspden
Ray Aspden has been an irregular comic strip writer and illustrator for 35 years, contributing Philpot Bottles' Orfice Boys Own to Denis Gifford's Ally Sloper in 1976-77, a cartoon strip that harked back to the 1930s penny comics, which would often feature a column from the paper's office boy recounting (in badly spelled text) what had been happening that week.

Ray, also a playwright, started writing for D. C. Thomson in the late 1970s, selling two strories to Victor, of which only one appeared (Stokehold Joe in 1980). In 1978, having spotted an advert in The Guardian, he contacted the editors of the upcoming science fiction pocket library, Starblazer, and began contributing scripts. His first submission, The Basilisk Face of Fear'- based loosely on the story of Perseus and the Gorgon's head, was accepted and published as Starblazer #2, 'The Domes of Death'. A second story, a reworking of the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur, followed, published as 'Sinister City' (Starblazer #19).

Ray eventually became one of Starblazer's most regular writers, penning 28 issues published between 1979 and 1986. Discussing his work for the series recently, he admitted that the pattern set for those years was to have one in three of his outlines accepted, either immediately or after some amendment. One ploy used by the editors was to send a cover, bought through an agency, and have Ray write a story around it - 'Terror Tomb' (Starblazer #62) being one example.

His best-known work for the series featured Hadron Halley, the idea springing from a reversal of 'sci-fi' (science fiction) - that fi-sci could stand for Fighting Scientist. The concept of 'Moonsplitter' (Starblazer #50) was to contrast the rational scientific approach of Halley to the gung-ho militarism of General Larz Pluto, although in writing the latter as a buffoon he "transgressed Thomsons moral code of wanting figures of authority to be seen as worthy of respect." He considers the final book "a mess".

As well as his Starblazer writing, Aspden also began contributing strips to two Welsh language publications Sboncyn and Deryn in the early 1980s, writing and drawing two humour strips, Jac-Do and Alys Ofalus. Sboncyn was relaunched as Penbwl in 1989, for which Aspden wrote and drew Huwi Hurt, a Dennis the Menace-type character which Aspden turned into a Hungry Horace clone. The monthly comic folded in 1995.

Since 2004, Aspden has written and drawn two regular strips for Spaceship Away!. Both Mekki and Our Bertie owe a stylistic debt to the Knockout in the 1950s, rather than Eagle.

Ray's interest in history led him to produce illustrations for the series Cutha's Chronicles for the quarterly magazine Wiðowinde (Bindweed), for members of The English Companions (a study group for people interested in the Anglo-Saxon period of British history), since 2005; he has also drawn strips for the historical magazine Facts & Fiction and recently supplied illustrations for the book Derbyshire FolkTales (2010). Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Ray Aspden art
Top of Page

Sergio Asteriti biography
Sergio Asteriti (b. 13 February 1930, Venice, Italy)
Sergio Asteriti attended the Venice's Scuola di Magisterto d’Arte, intent on a career in advertising. His first comics work appeared in 1949 when he drew the series I bucanieri for Risveglio, which was distributed around schools in Venice.

After taking only one examination, he left school and moved to Milan, finding work with the publicity agency SPINTA where his workload included drawing movie posters featuring many of the actors in vogue at the time. Two years later, the company went bankrupt and Asteriti found himself in Milan without any work.

Not wishing to return to Venice in defeat, Asteriti hawked his portfolio around various publishers. His interest in comics had developed as a child and, whilst still in Venice, he had known Giorgio Trevisan and Leone Frollo, the latter a Venetian contemporary who introduced him to Giorgio Bellavitis, and other members of the Asso di Picche group, Faustinelli, Ongaro and Pratt.

In 1955 he joined the group of talented newcomers who began working for Caregaro's Edizioni Alpe around that era. Asteriti created the character Bingo Bongo, the comic adventures of a young black boy, for the weekly Cucciolo. Other strips from this period included Congolino and Capitan Jolando, as well as covers for Voici d'Oltremare di Bianconi/Missionari Combboniani and contributions to La Vispa Teresa.

In 1958, Asteriti began working for the English market via Creazioni D'Ami, Asteriti assisted on Fun in Toyland and The Funny Tales of Freddie Frog for the nursery weekly Jack and Jill and eventually took them over. 'Freddie Frog' was passed on to other artists in 1960, but Asteriti continued to work on 'Fun in Toyland' for many years. He continued to draw for the British market until the mid-1970s, also contributing to Bobo Bunny, and illustrations to Disneyland and Walt Disney's Now I Know.

His work also continued to appear in Italy. In the early 1960s he also drew Hayawatha for Corriere dei Piccoli in collaboration with Antonio Lupatelli. Asteriti has alos illustrated fairy stories for AMZ, Boschi and Carroccio.

In 1963, Asteriti produced Pippo e la vacanza culturale, his first strip for the Italian Disney magazine Topolino. Over the next decade he contributed to Disney Italia with increasing regularity and quickly became recognised as one of the leading contributors, both as an artist and, since 1974, a scriptwriter (a task he occasionally shared with his older brother, Franco), and eventually dropped his other work in order to concentrate on Disney characters full time, especially Mickey Mouse. Asteriti has described Mickey as "the best friend of my childhood", a character with whom he grew up. "The only drawback is that I have grown older while he has remained the same, young and healthy, without ever catching a cold!"

Having written and drawn hundreds of stories, Asteriti continues to be one of the major contributors to Italian Disney comics, his illustrative, decorative style perfectly suited for adventures set in medieval and fairy-tale locations. He was awarded Il Premio Papersera in 2008. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Sergio Asteriti art
Top of Page

Michel Atkinson biography
Michel Atkinson
Something of a mystery man with regards to cover artwork. Michel Atkinson was an irregular contributor to various romance and schoolgirl pocket libraries from 1961 until the 1970s, producing covers for Romantic Confessions Picture Library (1961), Love Story PL (1961-62, 1965, 1969-70, 1973-74), True Life Library (1961-62, 1965-66, 1968-69), Princess PL (1961-63), Schoolgirls PL (1961-62), School Friend PL (1962-63), June and Schoolfriend and Princess PL (1968).

There were some fairly substantial gaps during which time he was probably doing book covers. He is known to have been a regular cover artist for the Hank Janson novels published by Roberts & Vinter in 1961-65 and a wide variety of genres for Digit Books in 1963-65.

Although fairly prolific, it is likely that 'Michel' (as he signed most of his book covers) found more regular work outside of producing book covers for paperbacks and for Fleetway Publications from the mid-1960s on. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Michel Atkinson art
Top of Page

Edwin Austin Abbey biography
Edwin Austin Abbey (April 1, 1852 – August 1, 1911)
One of the greatest American illustrators of the Golden Age of Illustration of the last quarter of the 19th century. His work was praised for its design and historical accuracy and he illustrated works by Marvell, Pope, and Shakespeare. In 1902 King Edward VII appointed him official court painter of the coronation in Westminster Abbey. Amongst his many artist friends was John Singer Sargent. Edwin Austin Abbey art
Top of Page

B

G W Backhouse biography
Geoffrey William Backhouse (16 November 1903 - 1 August 1978; b. Holywell, Flintshire, Wales)
In 1927, Backhouse began drawing Strongheart the Magnificent for Comic Life, the comic strip adventures of a magnificent German Shepherd modelled on a canine Hollywood film star. Strongheart, one of the earliest adventure strips to regularly appear in British comics, continued his adventures when Comic Life was relaunched as My Favourite and would continue to appear, drawn by a number of different artists, until 1949.

Shortly before the war, Backhouse drew The Stolen King for Comic Cuts and Buffalo Bill for Butterfly. After the war, Backhouse illustrated a number of books for Collins, including Mr. Mole's Circus by Douglas Collins and a number of books by Denis Cleaver, including Pongo the Terrible, On the Air, On the Films and A Dog's Life, which featured the adventures of two dogs named Pongo and Peter. Backhouse's association with Collins also included illustrations for The Children’s Picture Dictionary (1951) and modern editions of Alice In Wonderland and Enid Blyton’s Shadow the Sheepdog.

Backhouse’s expertise at drawing animals and nature made him the perfect choice to draw a colourful feature strip starring George Cansdale for Eagle in 1954, following Cansdale's trips around the countryside, and the adventures of Tammy the Sheepdog for Swift (1955-58). Backhouse subsequently contributed many wildlife illustrations to Look and Learn and Treasure, appearing in the former from 1962 onwards. Some of his most notable contributions were for a series of short animal stories written by F. St. Mars, Alan C. Jenkins and F. G. Turnbull that appeared in 1967-68. He died in Tollington Park, London N4, in 1978. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. G. W. Backhouse art
Top of Page

Jim Baikie biography
Jim Baikie
Baikie began his career illustrating Valentine for Fleetway. Over the next twenty years, he built a solid reputation working for TV comics such as Look-in, including adaptations of The Monkees and Star Trek, all scripted by Angus P. Allan.

Baikie also worked extensively in girls' comics such as Jinty. In the 1980s, he drew The Twilight World in Warrior.

In Britain, he is probably best known for collaborating with Alan Moore on Skizz, a reworking of the film E.T.. Baikie was so attached to the character that he went on to both write and illustrate Skizz II and Skizz III for 2000AD. 2000 AD spin-of Crisis also saw Baikie produce the art for the New Statesmen story.

Baikie has also worked extensively in the United States, on superhero strips such as Batman and The Spectre. A new collaboration with Alan Moore also appeared in the guise of the First American.Jim Baikie art
Top of Page

Bill Baker biography
Bill Baker
Bill Baker is something of a mystery artist. Although it is possible to track his work through various comics over a twenty-year period, very little is known about the artist himself. He first appears with one-off stories in Top Spot, followed by a brief serial, New Rider at Clearwater, and illustrations for Girl in 1960-64. He remained active in girls' papers for the next decade, contributing to Tina (Two on Cockatoo) Princess Tina (Life with Tina), June (Call Me Cupid, Wedding in the Family) and Pixie Annual.

In 1974 he produced his first literary adaptation for Look and Learn, based on Jack London's The Call of the Wild. This was followed in quick succession by The Sea Wolf (London, 1974-75), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne, 1975), Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes, 1975), The Prince and the Pauper (Mark Twain, 1976), Moby Dick (Herman Melville, 1977), Westward Ho! (Charles Kingsley, 1977), A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens, 1977-78) and King Solomon's Mines (H. Rider Haggard, 1978).

It was during the publication of the latter – in August 1978 – that Baker disappeared from the pages of Look and Learn, the strip taken over with episode nine by C. L. Doughty. Taken from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Bill Baker art
Top of Page

James Bama biography
James Bama (b. 28 April 1926; USA)
James Bama is an American artist whose work encompasses two major strands: his Western paintings and what can be described - but not dismissively - as pulp art. To the collector, his name is inextricably linked with the adventures of Doc Savage and the paperback covers he illustrated during his time as a commercial artist. He then turned to fine art, which proved even more rewarding commercially and raised his status to Artist and earned him comparisons with Norman Rockwell and N. C. Wyeth.

If one theme can be seen through Bama's work it might be described as "one man (or woman) in the wilderness", as his covers often featured isolated single figures, some alone against expansive backgrounds; it is a style that can be seen in such diverse Bama illustrations as Freedom Road by Howard Fast and Groupie by Johnny Byrne & Jenny Fabian (both Bantam) and Dell's edition of Desmond Morris's The Naked Ape.

James E. Bama was born in Manhattan on 28 April 1926, the second son of Benjamin Bama, a Russian-born apron salesman, and his wife Selma, also the daughter of Russian immigrants. Raised in New York City, Bama was inspired to draw by the adventure strips of the time, most notably Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, Burne Hogarth's Tarzan and Frank Miller's Barney Baxter. His father died of a stroke when Bama was 13, and his mother suffered a debilitating stroke the following year; Bama had to cook and clean and began earning money, making his first $50 sale, a drawing of Yankee Stadium, to The Sporting News at the age of 15.

He graduated from the High School of Music and Art and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps' Eastern Flying Training Command unit in 1944, where he worked as a mechanic and physical training instructor, as well as painting murals. On his discharge, he used the GI Bill to enrol at the Art Students League, where he was learned drawing and anatomy under Frank J. Reilly.

After freelancing briefly - his first sales including Western paperback covers A Bullet for Billy the Kid by Nelson C. Nye (Avon, 1950) and Dead Sure by Stewart Sterling (Dell, 1950).

He became known epecially for the 62 covers he painted for Bantam Books' reprints of Doc Savage pulp magazine stories. Clark Savage Jr had been the star of 181 full-length adventures in the pages of Doc Savage Magazine (1933-49), 159 of them written by prolific pulpster Lester Dent.

Bama gave Doc a buzz cut, replacing the kiss-curl of his pulp days, and beefed him up, using Steve Holland, a muscular fashion model who had starred in the Flash Gordon TV series in 1954-55, as the basis for his vision of Doc Savage. The books sold incredibly well and all 182 stories were reprinted between 1964 and 1990.

Although much of his early work was Western covers for the likes of Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey, Bama quickly expanded his cover art repertoire to include everything from contemporary novels, thrillers, romances and non-fiction. A small sampling of his work would include A Rage at Sea by Frederick Lorenz (Lion, 1957), Requiem for a Gun by Burt & Budd Arthur (Avon, 1963) and covers depicting James Bond and the characters from Star Trek.

As well as Doc Savage, Bama painted many other covers for Bantam, including King Kong by Delos W. Lovelace (1965) and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1967).

Bama then changed tack after first visiting Wyoming in 1966; he and his wife, Lynn, a photographer whom he met in 1963, moved permanently to Cody, Wyoming, in 1968. During this period he transited from illustration to making more personal works, often inspired by his new surroundings. Much of his work was of contemporary Western and Native American subjects; wildlife and mountain men feature against stunning Wyoming backdrops.

Bama is inspired by real inhabitants of the state, visiting reservations and meeting trappers and cowboys; his prices rapidly escalated and, within three years, he was making far more than he had as an illustrator.He also sought inspiration in travel, to China, Mexico, Tibet and Turkey.

Bama was the recipient of the Spectrum Grand Master Award in 1998 and was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in June 2000. His work is to be found in the collections of Clint Eastwood, Nicholas Cage and Malcolm Forbes as well as numerous galleries.

Bama, who has lived in Wapati, Wyoming, since 1971, remains a keen on physical training, regularly doing heavy exercise even in his eighties. He is a keen reader and movie viewer. Taken from biographical notes by Steve Holland. James Bama art
Top of Page

Bambos Georgiou biography
Bambos Georgiou
Bambos Georgiou (known as 'Bambos') was born around 1960. Of Greek descent, and speaking only Greek, he has said that it was the discovery of comics at the age of four that helped him learn English, although this form of education was not appreciated by some. One English teacher was thoroughly frustrated that he was always reading comics and his collection - with TV21 being his comic of choice - was thrown out by his mother. This only led to him becoming more determined to create his own comics.

In the mid-1980s he could be found contributing strips ('Ratman') to Paul Duncan's Arkensword fanzine and, before long, he became a prolific contributor - lettering and inking especially - for Marvel UK, Fleetway, Fat Man Press and Panini UK, as well as a cartoonist, usually signing his work with the abbreviated 'Bambos'. Biographical notes by Steve Holland.
Bambos Georgiou art
Top of Page

Severino Baraldi biography
Severino Baraldi (b. 1930, Italy)
Severino Baraldi was born on 10 December 1930 in Sermide, a small village 50 kilometres from Mantova in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. As a boy, he entertained customers of the local barber by with his chalk drawings on the pavement. He worked as a carpenter, drawing cartoons for a local paper whose editor encouraged him to seek his fortune in the capital of the Lombardy region.

1962-63 was a major era for Baraldi with the publication of Ulisse ['Ulysses'], adapted from 'The Odyssey' by Gino Fischer, Lo Schianccianoci, based on the work by E. T. A. Hoffman, and Ciuffo Biondo, an adaptation of Peer Gynt by Anna Maria De Benedetti. Ulisse and Ciuffo Biono were praised by the reviewer for Radiotelevisione Italiana for their elegant illustrations, which helped to establish the name of the artist who often signed his work with the abbreviation Bar. At the same time, Baraldi was illustrating the story of Marco Polo and, for Milan publisher Casa Editirice, a variety of other books for children.

For seven years, Baraldi was also a prolific illustrator for the British magazine Look and Learn. More recently, Baraldi illustrated biographies of musicians Dvorak and Verdi for a publisher in Taiwan. In all, Baraldi has contributed to over 220 books and produced 7,500 illustrations. The village of Sermide dedicated an exhibition to his work in June 1997. He continued to work for Famiglia Cristiana and Il Giornalino until retiring a few years ago. Now he is content to be be a family man, the father of three daughters and six grandchildren. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland.Severino Baraldi art
Top of Page

Stefan Barani biography
Stefan (Steven) Barani
Stefan Barany has proved to be a particularly elusive artist. Best known for his cover artwork for the Sexton Blake Library, he seems to have appeared almost nowhere else, although the cover art from a 1962 issue of Princess Picture Library has been offered by the Illustration Art Gallery.

Barany's first Blake cover appeared on issue 482, Desmond Reid's Murder By Moonlight, in August 1961. Over the next few months he was the main Blake cover artist; a number of titles involved Barany combining images with other artists' work, including one image by Bruno Elettori, but primarily with Angel Badia Camps. His last cover was Lotus Leaves and Larceny, issue 521, April 1963. Taken from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Stefan Barani art
Top of Page

Carl Barks biography
Carl Barks (27 March 1901 - 25 August 2000; USA)
Carl Barks was nicknamed "The Duck Man" because of the quality of his work on Disney's Donald Duck. To Barks goes the praise for creating many of the inhabitants of Duckburg, the supporting cast featured in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories for which Barks was drawing in the 1940s.

Carl Barks was born in Merrill, Oregon, on 27 March 1901, the son of William Barks and his wife Arminta Johnson. Although he had a brother (two years older), Barks described himself as a rather lonely child, his nearest neighbour being over half a mile away from his parents' farm. The local school had only eight or ten students although Barks later recalled that it offered a good education. In 1908 the family moved to Midland, Oregon, closer to the railroad, where they established a new stock-breeding farm.

The immediate success of this venture meant that within three years the family were able to move to Santa Rosa, California, where William began cultivating vegetables and orchards. Profits were slim and William's anxiety over their financial difficulties led to a nervous breakdown and the family returned to Merrill in 1913.

Barks completed his education in 1916, in part concluded because he was suffering from a hearing disability; it was in the same year that his mother died and Barks had a range of jobs – farmer, woodcutter, mule driver, cowboy and printer. In 1918 he moved to San Francisco, California, and found work with a small publishing firm.

His early interest in drawing had been developed through a correspondence course, although Barks had only taken four lessons because he had so little free time. Now in San Francisco and, in 1921, married to Pearl Turner, he began selling drawings to newspapers. Despite returning to Merrill in 1923 with his growing family (two daughters born in 1923 and 1924), he continued to submit drawings and sold to Judge and the Calgery Eye-Opener. He was offered the editorship of the latter, a Minneapolis-based cartoon magazine, where he earned $90 a month for scripting and drawing most of the contents. He and Pearl were divorced in 1930 and Barks met Clara Balken in Minneapolis and married her in 1938.

In 1935 he learned that Walt Disney was seeking artists and moved to Los Angeles where he was hired at a starting salary of $20 a week. He worked initially as an "inbetweener", drawing the movements of characters between key poses. In 1937, his success at submitting gags led to his transfer to the story department where he first worked on the Donald Duck cartoon Modern Inventions. Over the next few years he contributed to a number of Donald's cartoons, including the first appearance of Huey, Dewey and Louie in Donald's Nephews (1938).

Barks suffered from sinus problems caused by the air conditioning in the Walt Disney art studio and left in 1942. He had then recently collaborated with Jack Hannah – who also worked in the Donald Duck story department – on a number of comic strips for Dell, Pluto Saves the Ship published in Large Feature Comics and the 64-page one-shot Donald Duck comic Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold in Four Color Comics, both published in 1942.

Barks relocated to the Hemet/San Jacinto area east of Los Angeles where he set up a chicken farm, which failed. Barks, did, however, establish himself with Dell's Walt Disney's Comics and Stories as both the author and artist of numerous stories. His first story, The Victory Garden, was published in April 1943 and was followed by some 500 tales featuring the Disney ducks, his creations including Scrooge McDuck (1947), Gladstone Gander (1948), The Beagle Boys (1951), The Junior Woodchucks (1951), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Cornelius Coot (1952), Flintheart Glomgold (1956), John D. Rockerduck (1961) and Magica De Spell (1961).

During this time, Barks divorced his second wife and became acquainted with his third, Margaret Wynnfred Williams, known as Gare, who exhibited paintings locally. They married in 1954.

Although Barks' work was published anonymously, his name became known to fans around 1960. He continued to draw strips until 1966 when he retired, although he was persuaded to script stories until the 1970s. He painted in oils and exhibited and sold at local art shows. In 1971, he was granted permission by Disney's Publications Department to paint scenes from his various stories. When fans learned of this, Barks was inundated with requests and had to announce in 1974 that he was no longer taking commissions.

Duck paintings by Barks began to attract large sums at auction and unauthorized prints led to Disney withdrawing permission from Barks. They relented in 1981 following a campaign by Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz and Conan the Barbarian screenwriter Edward Summer. Summer edited Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life and Times (1981), a collection of Barks' tales alongside a new story illustrated by Barks with watercolour illustrations.

The ambitious Carl Barks Library was published in 1984-1990, the thirty volumes reprinting every Disney comic strip written or drawn by Barks. Gladstone Publishing subsequently produced the Carl Barks Library in Color (1992-98). Barks appeared at his first Disney convention in 1993 and, in 1994, embarked on an 11-country tour of Europe. A retrospective of Barks' work was first held in 1994 and was shown around ten cities, attracting over 400,000 visitors.

In the 1980s, Barks had moved to Grants Pass, Oregon, close to where he grew up. His wife died in March 1993. Barks survived a further seven years before he also died whilst undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia, on 25 August 2000, aged 99. Taken from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Carl Barks art
Top of Page

Ken Barr biography
Ken Barr
Ken Barr is famous for his many covers for Commando comics in the early 1960s and for his many Marvel magazine covers in the 1970s and 1980s. Ken Barr art
Top of Page

Terry Bave biography
Terry Bave (b. 1931; UK)
One of the stalwarts of British humour strips, Terry Bave retired in 2007 to enjoy some well-earned rest after worked in comics for 40 years. Bave's clear, unfussy humour strips were to be found in great numbers – he worked on six or seven characters at any one time – in Fleetway's humour comics in the 1970s, '80s and '90s.

Terence H. Bave was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, in 1931. Inspired by American films and comics, which Bave sought out at newsagents selling American newspapers, he began drawing at an early age. His general education was disrupted by family moves and being twice evacuated during World War II. Bave estimated he attended eleven schools in as many years.

Returning to London in 1945, Bave took on full time work as a clerical assistant at the Post Office Savings Bank. One day a week he attended the Brook Green Day Continuation School until he was sixteen. It was here that he met Sheila Newton, who subsequently also worked at the Post Office bank.

From filling the margins and covers of his exercise books to posting regular topical cartoons on the Post Office bank notice board, Bave decided to turn his artistic inclinations into a career. At the age of seventeen he joined the Colonial Survey Department as a trainee cartographer, drawing maps with the aid of aerial photography. His first published cartoon was in the department’s magazine, The Drum.

Bave’s combined interest in films and cartoons led to his first professionally published cartoons in the pages of the film magazine Picturegoer and the home movie magazine The Pathescope Gazette. With this success in specialist magazines, Bave sought out others and, by the late 1950s, was also publishing regularly in Do-It-Yourself, TV Times, Fire! and Scooter. In a year, Bave could earn £100 from his cartoons. By then, he had joined a firm of commercial map makers but was contemplating another move. A commission to draw a cartoon design for a dog ointment carton led to an offer of work as a packaging designer for Stable Cartons Ltd.; Bave later moved to C. H. G. Jourdan Ltd. where he successfully designed fancy packaging during the heady days of the psychedelic sixties. At the same time, he became the art editor of The 9.5 Review, put together by enthusiasts of home movies following the demise of The Pathescope Gazette.

In 1967, and still keen to work in comics, Bave targetted Wham!, a recently-launched comic published by Odhams Press. Invited to meet editor Albert Cosser at the publisher’s Long Acre office, he was offered the opportunity to take over the strip Sammy Shrink, about a nine-inch-tall boy with normal-sized parents, which was languishing in the lower regions of the popularity charts.

Bave and his wife created their own character, Baby Whamster, a half-pager which they also scripted; he proved immediately popular as a mascot for Wham! and Baby Smasher was added to the line-up of Wham!’s sister paper, Smash!.

Bave was determined to make a go of comics and used every opportunity to learn more about what his audience wanted, particularly by involving himself in the school attended by his son, Russell (born in 1959). He helped with the school magazine, performed as a ventriloquist at school fetes and wrote a school play.

With the addition of work for annuals and worked sourced locally (including posters, letterheads, leaflets, display advertising, cartoons, etc.), Bave was able to turn freelance. However, Wham! was soon to be merged with Pow!, which promptly folded a few months later. Bave found work on annuals via King Leo Studios but that had all but dried up when the Baves received a letter from Jack Le Grand offering them work on a new paper. This was Whizzer & Chips, a title unlike any other on the market in that it was two comics in one.

Bave created some thirteen possible strips and was invited to write (with Sheila) and draw however many he could reasonably cope with on a weekly basis. Thus, when Whizzer & Chips debuted on 18 October 1969, it featured six strips by Bave: the full-page Me and My Shadow, Ginger’s Tum, Hetty’s Horoscope and Aqua Lad, plus half-pagers Puddin’ Tops and Karate Kid to which Nipper was soon added.

Of these, “Me and My Shadow”, in which young ‘Smudger’ Smith is in constant battle with his own shadow, “Puddin’ Tops”, a brother and sister named after their pudding-top hairstyles, and “Karate Kid”, inspired by their son’s taking up of judo lessons, lasted until the mid-1970s.

One of Bave’s rejected ideas, Eager Beavers, was picked up by Buster, where it ran for eighteen months. The new comic Cor!! included Bave’s Donovan’s Dad and Andy’s Ants. In 1970, Bave and his family moved to a bungalow in Bembridge, on the Isle of Wight, where he and Sheila were to live for over forty years.

Promotional issues often involved creating new characters, and Bave’s creativity gave Whizzer & Chips Jimmy Jeckle and Master Hide, The Scarey’s of St. Mary’s and, most successfully, The Slimms in Cor!!, which capitalised on the contemporary slimming craze – although the portly Mum and Dad in the story had no desire to slim; it was their son, Sammy, who tried different ways each week to help them stick to diets or get some exercise. When Cor!! folded in 1973, the strip moved to Whizzer & Chips where it ran until 1979.

Another ‘two-in-one’ comic, Shiver &Shake, featured the spider Webster and, after a ghosting the strips on occasion, took over the lead characters of both sections, “Shiver” the ghost and “Shake” the elephant. New for Knockout was My Bruvver, in which poor Len is stuck each week with his tearaway younger brother, the little’un. Sammy Shrink was revived in Knockout before transferring to Whizzer & Chips and Bave also took over Desert Fox in Shiver and Shake and Odd Ball in Whizzer & Chips, the latter about a ball that could stretch and morph into any shape. Truly odd, it proved to be one of Bave’s longest-running strips, surviving in Whizzer & Chips until 1990.

The launch of Whoopee in 1974 brought with it two new Bave creations, Toy Boy (who, as his name implied, loved toys) and Stoker, Ship’s Cat, a hungry cat in the mould of Ginger. Other cat characters from Bave’s pen included Police Dog and Cat Burglar (Whizzer & Chips, 1975) and Scaredy Cat (Krazy, 1976-78). 1978 saw the creation of Calculator Kid for Cheeky Weekly but the late 1970s saw the merging of various papers, leaving Bave contributing only to Whizzer & Chips, Whoopee and various annuals and summer specials as the decade turned. Barney’s Badges (Wow!, 1982-83), Good Guy (Buster, 1983) and the feature Top Class Comics (School Fun, 1983-84) kept Bave busy.

The latter half of the 1980s saw fewer new releases from Fleetway, although Bave continued to contribute new characters, including Pete’s Pop-Up Book (Buster, 1985-88), Double Trouble (Nipper, 1987, Buster, 1987- ), Mighty Mouth (Nipper, 1987; Buster, 1987-90), Melvyn’s Mirror (Buster, 1990), The Figments of Phil’s Imagination (Buster, 1991-94) and Imagine (Buster, 1991).

Fleetway’s line of humour titles shrunk further, Whizzer & Chips finally merging with Buster in 1990 and Buster becoming a fortnightly in 1995, eventually folding in 2000. By then, Bave had established himself with rivals D. C. Thomson, ghosting a number of strips – including ‘Number 13’ and ‘Bash Street Kids’ for Beano before taking over ‘Winker Watson’ in Dandy (1991-2002). Over the next few years, Bave’s creations included ‘The Great Geraldoes’ (Beano, 1992-93), ‘Buster Crab’ (Dandy, 1998), ‘Inspector Horse and Jockey’ (Beano, 1999-2000 – a parody of Inspector Morse) and ‘Baby Herc’ (Dandy, 2003). From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Terry Bave art
Top of Page

Leo Baxendale biography
Leo Baxendale (b. 27 October 1930; UK)
Leo Baxendale has been one of the few artists in Britain to advance humour strips in the past sixty years. His work has been frenetic and violent at times, subtle and thought-provoking at others. No other artist has argued the case of humour in British comics as strongly as Baxendale and few (if any) have the credentials to back up their arguments so soundly.

Born in Whittle-le-Woods, Lancashire, on 27 October 1930, Baxendale had a grammar school education; as an artist he was self-taught. Between 1949 and 1950 he served with the catering corps. of the R.A.F., after which he worked as a staff artist for the Lancashire Evening Post, drawing sports cartoons, editorial illustrations, adverts and his own series of self-written articles.

Inspired by David Law’s Dennis the Menace, he submitted work to D.C. Thomson's The Beano, a comic he had read as a child, and was immediately accepted, his first original character appearing in 1953, Little Plum your Redskin Chum, followed shortly afterwards by Minnie me Minx, intended as a female counterpart to the popular Dennis. His third Beano set was the single panel "When the Bell Rings", later to become a full-page strip under the title The Bash Street Kids, Baxendale's first strip to introduce a team of characters.

The atmosphere of total mayhem that Baxendale was developing was certainly at odds with the traditional humour strip, particularly those of the Amalgamated Press, Thomson's main rivals. A contemporary of Baxendale's, Ken Reid, was similarly minded, and The Beano was unrivalled for humour at that time. Baxendale also drew The Banana Bunch for Beezer from its first issue, and would later create The Three Bears for Beano in 1959.

Ten years of tremendous output for relatively little reward left Baxendale suffering from exhaustion and depression, and after contracting pneumonia he left the firm following an invitation from Odhams Press to create a new humour title; this Baxendale did, and Wham! appeared in 1964 with a whole army of new Baxendale creations from General Nit and his Barmy Army, Georgie's Germs and The Tiddlers to Biff and the full-colour double-page Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy.

Most of the strips were passed on to other artists to continue after the first issue, and Baxendale even succeeded in tempting Ken Reid from Thomson's. Such was the success of the title that Smash! was created as a follow up for which Baxendale created Bad Penny, The Nerves, The Swots and the Blots and Grimly Feendish.

Baxendale's interest in politics inspired him to publish a weekly two-page newsletter, Strategic Commentary, written by radical strategist Terence Heelas, which he published for two-and-a-half years (1965-67).

When Odhams was absorbed by lPC Magazines, Baxendale continued to draw, taking on full-time some of the strips he had created plus many new creations, chief amongst them The Pirates and Mervyn's Monsters for Buster, Bluebottle and Basher for Valiant, The Lion Lot for Lion, Clever Dick for Buster and Sweeny Toddler for Whoopee!.

Baxendale left l.P.C. in 1975, writing three books featuring Willy the Kid for Duckworth, who also published his autobiography, A Very Funny Business in 1978. Baxendale drew for Eppo in Holland whilst preparing a case against Thomson's for recognition as creator of his many Beano characters which had continued under various different artists. The case finally came to a mutually agreeable but undisclosed settlement in 1987 after seven years. Baxendale celebrated the result with the release of Thrrp! from Knockabout, his first work in the UK for 12 years. In 1990 he returned to the comic strip with I Love You Baby Basil, a weekly strip for the Guardian newspaper, which he continued to draw until March 1992.

Baxendale has written a series of books - The Encroachment, On Comedy: The Beano and Ideology, Pictures in the Mind, The Beano Room and Hobgoblin Wars: Dispatches from the Front - published through his own Reaper Books imprint. Most are autobiographical with an emphasis on Baxendale's views of comedy. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Leo Baxendale art
Top of Page

Walter Bell biography
Walter Bell
Walter Bell was an artist of English children's comics. He was able to copy the styles of most of his contemporaries, so he was often assigned too fill in for other artists during the artists' holidays or illnesses. He created some characters of his own when he became a freelancer, working at an art studio and later running a studio himself. After being a soldier in World War I,
Bell began his artistic career at the Byron Studios. His first published work was a cartoon in the Daily Chronicle, and he was soon assigned to illustrate Tom Browne's Weary Willie and Tired Tim for Amalgamated Press. He also did cover illustrations for the weekly Illustrated Chips, until he took over the back-page panel Casey Court for ten years. From then on, Bell expanded his activities and took on a variety of independent weekly comics. He drew Mat the Middy for Merry Moments, Lottie Looksharp for The Golden Penny, The Sporty Boyees for The Monster Comic and Sonny Shine the Page Boy for The Jolly Jester.

In 1922, Bell began working exclusively for Amalgamated Press. He drew Geordie Brown in Funny Wonder and many characters for the Nursery Group, such as 'Children of the Forest', 'Fun and Frolic in Fairyland', 'Bobbie and his Teddy Bears', 'Redskin Chums' and 'Snow White and her Friends'.

From 1930, Bell illustrated seasonal comic books for Newnes-Pearson, including The Seaside Comic, Christmas Comic, Holiday Comic, Spring Comic and Summer Comic. Amalgamated Press was not amused by Bell's contributions to these rival publications and reduced his assignments. Therefore, Bell began drawing for the comic supplements of national and local newspapers. Among his line of characters were Molly the Messenger in the Daily Mail Comic and Jolly Jenkins in the Daily Express Comic.

He eventually moved from newspaper comics to the boys' weekly story department at Amalgamated, where he drew Mike, Spike and Greta for The Pilot, Mustard and Pepper for The Ranger and The Professor and the Pop for Detective Weekly. He also took over George W. Wakefield's Bud Abbott and Lou Costello feature in Film Fun. He later worked for several one-shot comic books at P.M. Productions, such as 'Starry Spangles', 'Jolly Jack-in-the-Box' and his final series, 'Flipper the Skipper'. In his retirement, Bell drew cartoons for his local newspaper, the Barnet Press, until his death in 1979. Walter Bell art
Top of Page

Frank Bellamy biography
Frank Bellamy (1917-1976, England)
Frank Bellamy was born in Kettering in 1917. His early artistic influences were the juvenile comics of his childhood, Rainbow and Chips, and he found the Tarzan strips of Hal Foster and Burne Hogarth much more to his taste than the rather static picture stories that mainly featured in British comics of the 1920s and '30s.

The young Bellamy had long been fascinated by big cats and other creatures of the African plains. One frequently-told story of Frank Bellamy's boyhood concerns a travelling circus that visited his home town sometime during the mid 1920s. After school hours Frank enjoyed wandering around the circus camp gazing at the caged jungle cats and, on this particular occasion, approached close enough to pluck a few hairs from a lion's tail. He kept his prize for years afterwards safely stored in a bottle! Such an act may now be deemed foolhardy – for even a well-fed, caged lion is a daunting target. But it does serve to show the sheer determination that Bellamy possessed, a quality that was, in adult life, to take him to the very pinnacle of his chosen profession.

His early work consisted mainly of spot illustrations for such magazines as Everybody’s Weekly and Outspan Magazine. His interest in ‘The Dark Continent’ was to the fore in both of these publications with an illustration to “King Solomon’s Mines” in the former and a number of African-related illustrations in the latter. Another magazine that made use of his talents early on in his career was the Boys' Own Paper.

After an inauspicious spell in advertising (Gibbs toothpaste), Bellamy’s big break as a strip artist came when he was offered the opportunity to work on Mickey Mouse Weekly, the prestigious photogravure comic published by Odhams. He left Norfolk Studios and went freelance. His main contribution to the comic was Monty Carstairs, an upper-crust adventurer whose exploits had been appearing in the comic since February, 1951.

1954 was a landmark year for the young artist, marking the beginning of his long association with Hulton Press. His first work for the publisher was a picture story adaptation of The Swiss Family Robinson for Swift, followed by King Arthur and His Knights, where he progressively used striking double sized frames to depict battle scenes, and Robin Hood and His Merry Men.

When Marcus Morris, editor of Eagle, offered him the opportunity to work on the comic’s prestigious back page, Bellamy was eager to begin. His enthusiasm was, however, tempered a little when he learnt that the work was to be a biographical strip of Sir Winston Churchill, The Happy Warrior. Up to that time the back page ‘historical biography’ had always concentrated on historical figures; to work on the biographical strip of, not only a living person but a great national hero as well, was a rather intimidating task and one that called for a great deal of careful research - as well as tact.

Early in 1959, Hulton Press had been taken over by Odhams and the new owners wanted to see some changes. They decided that Dan Dare, the famous cover character of Eagle, looked too dated and needed a face lift. They wanted someone who would inject a new vitality into the character and asked Frank Bellamy if he would take on the job. Bellamy was uneasy about taking over a character who had been created and nurtured by another artist (Frank Hampson), but during his agreed year on the Dan Dare strip, Bellamy created some stunning pages of artwork that glow vividly with life.

Also for Eagle, Fraser of Africa was one of Frank Bellamy’s greatest successes and it remained one of the artist’s own particular favourites. One feature of the strip that has contributed to its continual appeal is its philosophy of conservation, which was years ahead of its time. This was followed by the fantasy adventure strip Heros The Spartan.

In January 1966, Frank Bellamy began work on a strip version of Thunderbirds, the Gerry Anderson T.V. puppet series that has recently enjoyed yet another successful revival on BBC TV. Anderson's futuristic puppets were incredibly popular in the late 1960s and their exploits were avidly followed by fans in TV Century 21, and throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s Bellamy contributed to many quality periodicals including The Sunday Times, Look And Learn and Radio Times. His work for Radio Times, all featuring the popular character, Dr. Who, is amongst his most sought-after from the 1970s. In 1971 he took over the Garth strip in the Daily Mirror.

Frank Bellamy was a perfectionist who created some of the best colour work ever to appear in British comics. His meticulously-drawn strips were always vibrant and full of life and action. His artwork rarely showed any signs of changes or alterations: he would discard a piece of work and start again rather than resort to process white and paste on patches.

These extracts are taken from Book & Magazine Collector no. 222 by kind permission of the publisher, and authors Norman Wright and David Ashford. Click for the complete biography courtesy of the publisher and Norman Wright and David Ashford. Frank Bellamy art
Top of Page

Ted Benoit biography
Ted Benoit (b. 1947; France)
Ted Benoit has, since the 1980s, been a prominent artist working in the ligne claire style made popular in the pages of the Franco-Belgian comics Tintin and Spirou.

Born Thierry Benoit in Niort, Deux-Sèvres, in rural France on 25 July 1947, he studied cinematography at the Institut des hauntes études cinématographiques in Paris and later worked in television. His first comics appeared in 1971 after he joined the editorial team of alternative magazine Actuel.

A fan of Hergé and Edgar P. Jacobs, whose works (principally 'Tintin' and 'Blake et Mortimer') filled the pages of Le journal de Tintin, Benoit shared his enthusiasm with other artists who were based around the Pigalle neighbourhood of Paris, leading one of its proponents, François Avril, to coin the term "École Pigalle". This "school" of artists -- including Jacques de Loustal, Charles Berberian and Philippe Petit-Roulet -- helped filled the pages of A suivre and L'Écho des Savanes and other popular French comics in the mid-1980s.

Benoit published a number of strips in the mid-1970s, Géranomimo (1974) and Métal Hurlant from 1976. He also began contributing to L'Écho des Savanes after meeting cartoonist Nikita Mandryka in 1975 and it was here that his Ray Banana strips began appearing in 1978.

His first album, Hôpital (Hospital), was published by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 1979, which won the award for best script at the Festival at Angoulême. His follow-up, Vers la Ligne Claire (Towards the Clear Line, 1980), gathering stories from Libération and Métal Hurlant, showed how his style of drawing was evolving from underground to clear line and had an introduction by Joost Swarte, who had coined the term "linge claire".

More one-off stories featuring Ray Banana began appearing in A suivre in 1980, followed by the serials Berceuse électrique (Electric Lullaby, 1981) and Cité Lumière (City Light, 1984), both subsequently published in album form by Casterman. Further stories from A suivre were collected as Histoires vraies (True Stories, 1982), written by Yves Cheraqui.

In 1987, Benoit created Bingo Bingo et son Combo Congolais for Métal Hurlant and Métal Aventures as well as writing (for artist Pierre Nedjar), L'homme de nulle part (Nowhere Man, 1989), the memoirs of Thelma Ritter, Ray Banana's wife. A second volume of memoirs featuring Ritter was co-written by Madeleine DeMille and was to be drawn by François Avril but remains in limbo. (Ray Banana also appeared as a character in Philippe Paringaux's novel L'Homme qui ne Transpirait Pas in 1994.)

In 1993, Benoit was one of the artists responsible for reviving the continuing adventures of Blake and Mortimer, drawing two albums (#13 L'affaire Francis Blake, 1996, and #15 L'étrange rendez-vous, 2001) written by Jean Van Hamme.

Benoit's adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Playback, drawn by François Ayroles, appeared from Denoël in 2004.

He has also illustrated a number of books, prints and portfolios and has also been involved with l'association Le Crayon, whose members published The Naked Crayon in 2010. He has also been involved in advertising, notably for Jameson whisky and Bic. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Ted Benoit art
Top of Page

David Bergen biography
David Bergen
Although a popular fantasy artist in the 1990s, almost nothing is known about David Bergen's career. He was active in the 1970s, illustrating Sphere's H. G. Wells' reprints and the cover for SF Digest (1976), as well as books by Arthur C. Clarke and Samuel R. Delaney. He illustrated See Inside a Space Station by Robin Kerrod (Hutchinson, 1977) and an illustration appeared in The Flights of Icarus (Paper Tiger, 1977). Soon after, he could be found contributing covers to DAW Books in the USA (e.g. Barrington J. Bayley's Star Winds and E. C. Tubb's Incident on Ath, both 1978).

Bergen then seemed to disappear until 1990 when his work began appearing on various Pan fantasy and SF titles as well as the Puffin editions of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series. He continued to produce covers until at least 1997 when his work again disappears from sight.

What other areas he was (presumably) active in I have no idea; perhaps the lack of credits in the 1980s is literally down to the lack of credits that appeared on books. There can be no doubt as to the quality of his work and he was twice nominated (1991, 1992) for the World Fantasy Award.

Personal information on the artist is almost zero. I believe he was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1947 but a search of the internet turns up nothing else (and any search is rather confused thanks to there being a Canadian author (born 1957) of the same name). Taken from biographical notes by Steve Holland. David Bergen art
Top of Page

Luis Bermejo biography
Luis Bermejo Rojo (b. 1931, Spain)
Luis Bermejo was born Luis Bermejo Rojo in Madrid in 1931, although the family soon moved to Albacete. It was in Albacete that Bermejo began his professional career, still in his teens, as an assistant to Manuel Gago, himself only in his early twenties but already recognised as a great talent in Spanish comics.

In 1944, Gago created El Guerrero del Antifaz [Warrior of the Mask], which would run for 668 issues, finally ending in 1966. Bermejo began as a letterer on the series in 1947 but, before long, was allowed to ink pages. With Gago’s aid, Bermejo launched his own series in 1948, creating El Rey del Mar [The King of the Sea] for Editorial Valenciana. Written by one of the top scriptwriters of the era, Pedro Quesada, it ran for 46 issues, over which time Bermejo began to assimilate influences other than Gago, notably Alex Raymond.

Bermejo’s comic work diversified. In 1949 he drew Diablillos <Actinic:Variable Name = 'Mischief'/> for Chicos and, a couple of years later, Polín, Poli y Pol-Pol for the same paper; he drew similarly humorous strips for girls for the woman’s magazine Mariló.

Bermejo returned to Madrid to attend the Academy of Fine Arts at San Fernando, studying under illustrator Carlos Sáenz de Tejada. Bermejo’s schooling meant that a more realistic style and better figurework were on display in over 100 episodes of Aventuras del FBI [Adventures of the FBI], created for Madrid-based Editorial Rollán in 1951 and considered a classic in Spain.

Bermejo moved to Valencia and collaborated with a number of top Spanish writers, including Miguel González Casquel with whom he created Sigur (1954) and Federico Trotamundos for Chicos (1955) and Pedro Quesada on the juvenile adventure series Roque Brío (1956). The latter was an unexpected failure, lasting on 8 editions, but the two teamed up again for episodes of Pantera Negra [Black Panther], launched in 1956 with artwork by José Ortiz and, later, Miguel Quesada.

Bermejo had by now established himself at Editorial Maga, working closely with Gago, Miguel and Pedro Quesada and José and Leopoldo Ortiz. Here he produced his second famous work, Apache, scripted by Pedro Quesada, which he drew for over 50 issues from 1958.

Bermejo was already in demand elsewhere, having produced his first strip for the British market via the agency A.L.I. in 1957 - an issue of Super Detective Library featuring private eye Tod Claymore. Bermejo also contributed romance stories to Mirabelle, Romeo and Cherie in 1957-60. At the same time, he was still a busy artist in Spain, working for Bruguera on a series of literary adaptations: La conquista de los poles, Un yanqui en la corte del Rey Arturo (both published in 1957), Una vida aventurerea (1958), Las aventuras del Club Pickwick and Las aventuras de Pinocho (both 1959).

In 1960, Bermejo began drawing the character John Steel for Super Detective Library. The early stories were fairly commonplace war stories but when the stories switched to Thriller Picture Library, Steel was given a make-over and began featuring in a series of jazz-age, crime noir private eye yarns with Bermejo the main artist.

Contributions to War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library, Air Ace and Commando in 1960-62 firmly established Bermejo in the UK and he went on to draw Mann of Battle for Eagle (1962) and a series of stories featuring maritime adventurer Pike Mason in Boys’ World (1963-64).

To cope with the workload, Bermejo often worked with Matías Alonso and the two worked on a number of projects for Editorial Maga, including Marco Polo (1963), Vida y costumbres de los Vikingos (1965) and África y sus habitantes (1966). At the same time, Bermejo was having his biggest success in the UK when he worked on Heros the Spartan for Eagle, alternating adventures with Frank Bellamy in 1963-66.

Bermejo now had an informal studio set up which was responsible for many strips in the UK, notably UFO Agent in Eagle (1966) and The Avengers in Diana (1966-67).

Bermejo, solo, drew The Missing Link for Fantastic in 1967-68 and contributed illustrations to Tell Me Why, Look and Learn and Once Upon a Time, also painting the long-running fairy tale Princess Marigold for Treasure (1969-71).

Bermejo was a popular contributor to James Warren's horror magazines Vampirella, Creepy and Eerie in 1975-79, notably drawing The Rook. In 1979-81, he drew an adaptation of Lord of the Rings which was published throughout Europe. The recovering Spanish market also meant regular work in Cimoc, Metropol, Baladin, Hunter, Zona 84 and other magazines, as well as adapting books by Isaac Asimov and A. E. Van Vogt.

He worked on the revival of the famous adventure strip El Capitán Trueno [Captain Thunder] in 1986, but turned to painting and was able to retire from comics in the early 1990s. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Luis Bermejo art
Top of Page

Alfred Edmeades Bestall biography
Alfred Edmeades Bestall (1892-1986, Burma)
Born in Mandalay, Burma, Alfred Edmeades Bestall (MBE) drew and wrote at least 273 Rupert Bear stories for the Daily Express for 30 years from 1935 until 1965, including 40 stories for the Rupert annuals. He also created the specially drawn endpapers of the annuals, where his imagination was given full expression. Alfred Bestall art

Please note that we also have Rupert Bear art by John Harrold and other Rupert Bear art.
Top of Page

Alessandro Biffignandi biography
Alessandro Biffignandi (b. 1935, Italy)
Alessandro Biffignandi was born in Rome in 1935. He learned the finer points of drawing at the Favalli studios. In 1960, he settled in Milan, where he started working for many important periodicals and publishers.

From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, he worked through the Milanese art agencies for the French market and for Fleetway in the UK. His covers for War Picture Library and Battle Picture Library are some of his finest paintings.

He painted covers for the pocket publications of the publishing house Lug, such as Nevada, Hondo, Kiwi, Yuma and Rodeo. He also drew some comics for the books, such as 'Flambo', 'Agent K-3', 'Peter Berg', 'John Kine' and 'Rombo Bill'.

In the late 1960s, he worked for the British Fleetway agency, doing painted covers of The Spider. Since the early 1980s, he is mainly an illustrator and oil painter. Alessandro Biffignandi art
Top of Page

Enki Bilal biography
Enki Bilal (b. 7 October 1951; Yugoslavia)
Enki Bilal is one of the leading graphic novelists to come out of Europe in the past forty years. Still very active, he has occasionally left the field for movies, but has always returned to create something memorable. Although his work has rarely appeared in the UK (although many of his albums are available in English language translation), his work has been championed by Paul Gravett, who says: "Bilal’s visions reveal a decadent dystopia, overwhelming and baroque, inspired by directors like Andrei Tarkowsky of Solaris and Stalker. His plotting is dense, unpredictable, and really repays close attention. There is also a dark, absurdist humour, from the freakish make-up of politicians and the stripped alien cat Gogol to the world chess-boxing championships."

Bilal was president of the 14th Salon International de la Bande Dessinée at Angoulême in 1987. His exhibitions have included two months at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris in 1991-92 and he was asked to illustrate a stamp in 2006.

Bilal was born Enes Bilalovic in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on 7 October 1951. His Bosniak father was the tailor to Marshal Tito, Yugoslavia's prime minister and, from 1953, president, and his mother a Slovakian. The young Bilal's twin passions were drawing and the cinema, especially westerns, and these were combined in a movie that he starred in at the age of nine. A short film, it concerned two youngsters from rival gangs who wandered around Belgrade, stopping to sketch out battles between cowboys and indians in chalk on the pavements. The film was never completed: Bilal's family moved to Paris in 1960. At the time, families were prohibited from going into exile and Bilal revealed to a teacher at school that he was shortly to be joining his father in France. Fortunately, the teacher had an eye on their apartment and helped hasten the family's departure. Bilal became a naturalized French citizen in 1967.

Five years later, he met the editors of Pilote, René Goscinny (author of Asterix and Lucky Luke) and Jean-Michel Charlier. Goscinny encouraged him to apply his artistic talents to comics. Bilal studied briefly (three months) at the École des Beaux-Artes, at the same time submitting work to Pilote, where his first published story, 'La Bal Maudit', appeared in 1972.

He began contributing science fiction stories regularly, later collected in Mémoires d'outre-espace, Histoires courtes 1974-1977 (Memories From Outer Space, 1978), although he was sidelined into producing pages of topical humor on current affairs and caricatures for the weekly paper.

His breakthrough came when he began working with Pierre Christin. Their early collaborations included Légendes d'Aujourd'hui [Legends of Today], a linked series of dark, haunting tales, La Croisière des oubliés (The Cruise of Lost Souls, 1975; serialised as 'The Voyage of Those Forgotten', Heavy Metal, 1982), Le Vaisseau de pierre (Ship of Stone, 1976; serialised as 'Progress!', Heavy Metal, 1980) and La ville qui n'existait pas (The Town That Didn't Exist, 1977; serialised as 'The City That Didn't Exist', Heavy Metal, 1983), each set in a different town threatened by mysterious forces – military testing, developers and multinationals – which were later collected as Townscapes (2004).

Bilal became associated with the French magazine Metal Hurlant, and its American counterpart, Heavy Metal, where many of his stories appeared over the next few decades. Serials in Heavy Metal – including Exterminator 17 (1979, written by Jean-Pierre Dionnet), the three volumes of Legends of Today, two volumes of the Nikopol trilogy and The Hunting Party (1983) – introduced Bilal to a wider English-speaking audience than most European creators enjoyed.

Bilal's popularity in Europe had grown considerably with the publication of the political thriller Les Phalanges de l'ordre noir (The Black Order Brigade, 1979), about the revenge sought by a group of former comrades from the International Brigade following a terrorist bombing in a Basque village. The book won the 1980 Prix RTL for best adult graphic novel.

La Foire aux immortels (The Carnival of Immortals, 1980; serialised as 'The Immortals' Fete', Heavy Metal, 1981) introduced the character of Alcide Nikopol, who finds himself in a future Paris ruled over by a corrupt, fascist dictator bent on gaining immortality from Egyptian gods travelling in an alien spaceship. Nikopol allows himself to be taken over by a disillusioned Horus. In its sequel, La Femme piège (The Woman Trap, 1986; as 'The Trapped Woman', Heavy Metal, 1986), Horus is trapped in a block of concrete while Nikopol has been admitted into a psychiatric hospital, although their lives are about to become entangled with that of a London reporter, Jill Bioskop. The third volume of this trilogy was published as Froid Équateur (Cold Equator, 1992).

Bilal had, meanwhile, received rave reviews for Partie de chasse (The Hunting Party, 1983), written by Christin, about a group of aging Soviet political leaders who plot the death of a politician whilst reminiscing about their growing disillusion with the Russian socialist dream.

Meanwhile, Bilal had become involved in the film industry as the production and costume designer for La vie est un roman (1983), directed by Alain Resnais, having earlier designed a poster for Resnais' My American Uncle (1980). He was subsequently asked to design a creature for Michael Mann's The Keep (1983) and do graphic research for Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose (1986) and designed the sets and costumes for the show OPA Mia (1990) by Denis Levaillant and the ballet Romeo and Juliet (1991) based on Prokofiev and choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj.

His graphic novels continued to appear, including Los Angeles - L'Étoile oubliée de Laurie Bloom (Los Angeles - The Forgotten Star of Laurie Bloom, 1984) by Pierre Christin, Hors Jeu (Off Play, 1987, by Patrick Cauvin), Coeurs sanglants et autres faits divers (Bleeding Hearts and Other Stories, 1988) written by Pierre Christin and Bleu Sang (Blue Blood, 1994).

In 1989 he directed the futuristic, post-apocalyptic movie Bunker Palace Hôtel, co-written with Christin, where the elite of a totalitarian regime have fled to an ancient underground bunker to escape from rebels; amongst them, a spy (Carole Bouquet) observes the power struggle as they await the arrival of their leader.

Bilal's other excursions into movies have been equally divisive. As the reviewer of Tykho Moon (1996) said: "The film has admirable art direction but no narrative or directional discipline. Like his earlier effort Bunker Palace Hotel, pic seems destined for Bilal fans only, plus a few comic-strip festivals." Tykho Moon was another futuristic thriller, featuring an aging dictator on the verge of death. His soldiers seek out Tykho Moon, who unwillingly donated brain cells years earlier. Tykho – actually an artist named Anikst – suffers from amnesia and is unaware that he is being sought. The film received a Special Mention at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film in 1997.

Bilal returned to graphic novels with Le sommeil du monstre (The Dormant Beast, 1998), the first of four volumes that tell the story of the downfall of a futuristic Yugoslavia split by wars in the 1990s. Three further volumes appeared to make up the Tétralogie du Monstre series: 32 Décembre (December 32nd, 2003), Rendez-vous à Paris (2006) and Quatre? (Four?, 2007).

Stand-alone titles published in the same period have included Un siècle d'Amour (A century of Love , 1999), by Dan Franck, Magma (2000) and Le Sarcophage (The Sarcophagus, 2001). In 2004, his film Immortel (Ad Vitam) was released, based on the first two Nikopol graphic novel (La Foire aux immortels and La Femme piège) with the action transferred to New York. The film was created in CG Animation using motion capture and was again met with mixed reviews that felt it was both inventive and incoherent.

Bilal's recent work has included Animal´z (2009), about a variety of survivors of global warming, Julia & Roem (2011) and Les Fantômes du Louvre (Ghosts of the Louvre, 2012).

The boxing scenes in Bilal's book Froid Équateur (1992) inspired performance artist Iepe Rubingh to organize the first chess-boxing bout – six rounds of chess plus five rounds of boxing – in Amsterdam in November 2003 (which Iepe won). The World Chess Boxing Organization continues to support championship fights of the hybrid sport around the world. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Enki Bilal art
Top of Page

Harry Bishop biography
Harry Bishop (b. 3 May 1920; UK)
Harry Bishop is one of the finest artists in the UK who has turned his gaze – and talent – to the wild west. For most of his career he drew western comic strips, and it was his work on Gun Law – based on the television show Gunsmoke starring James Arness as Matt Dillon – for the Daily Express for which he is best remembered. With its superb figurework and accurate portrayals of horse and rider, Bishop drew on influences ranging from Tony Weare to Remington Russell and Norman Rockwell. He was awarded the British Cartoonists Award in 1965. He took over the Wes Slade strip in the Sunday Express in 1980 and this also earned him an award from the Strip Illustrators Society in 1981.

Born in Painswick, Gloucestershire, on 3 May 1922, Harry Bishop was a fan of illustrators like D. C. Eyles, Stanley Woods and H. M. Brock and was keen to attend art school, an interest supported by his parents. He was educated at Hatherley School and the Gloucester School of Art, leaving the latter in 1937 to travel abroad.

Bishop served in the R.A.F. during the war – mostly abroad and for some time with Bomber Command – and recommenced his art education in 1947, using his ex-serviceman's gratuity to began studying at Wimbledon College of Art. Graduating in 1952, he took up a position as a teacher at Mitcham Grammar School.

At the same time he began drawing comic strips for the Amalgamated Press, his earliest known work appearing in Comic Cuts, where he took over the artistic chores for the adventures of Cal McCord, the real-life cowboy and actor, in May 1953. Comic Cuts came to a close soon after, but Bishop was to find a regular home for his work in Swift, which was about to be launched in March 1954. His first strip, Tom Tex and Pinto ran for eighteen months, during which time he also took over the colour cover of Swift, drawing Tarna Jungle Boy from June 1954.

After this rapid rise, Bishop found work on Junior Express drawing Wyatt Earp, Red Cloud and Rex Keene, for Thriller Comics drawing Jesse James and for Sun drawing Billy the Kid. Through these strips he established himself as one of the leading western artists in the UK. In April 1957, he began drawing 'Gun Law' for Express Weekly, continuing the weekly strip until March 1961. A year earlier, in April 1960, the strip had begun appearing in the Daily Express. He continued to write and draw the strip for almost two decades.

Bishop continued to contribute to British comics, although often for brief periods only, drawing Smiley! (Swift, 1958-59), Billy the Kid (Lion, 1959), 'Tarna Jungle Boy' (Swift, 1962-63), Morg of the Mammoths (Lion, 1963-64) and numerous one-off features for TV Express, Boys' World, Eagle and Princess. In 1970-85, Bishop was also a prolific illustrator for Deans.

After drawing a second strip for the Evening Standard, Judy and the Colonel, Bishop drew Tarzan and The Saint for TV Tornado and Blackbow the Cheyenne briefly for Eagle before departing comics around 1967. He returned almost a decade later with The Wrangler, a brief one-off in Ally Sloper (1976), which year marked his debut in the Dutch weekly Eppo, where he drew the western Laben Tal until 1977. 'Gun Smoke' ended in 1978.

Bishop brought the 'Wes Slade' series to a close in 1980-81 following the death of its originator, George Stokes, after which he concentrated on painting. He has produced surprisingly few paintings on western subjects, although a 'modest number' (around 30) were sold via Frost and Reed of Bond Street, London; he has, however, painted landscapes and other subjects and worked in most media, although he prefers pen and ink.

In 1984-85, an eye infection caused him to give up painting completely. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Harry Bishop art
Top of Page

Janet Blakeley biography
Janet Blakeley
Janet Blakeley was a regular contributor to Look and Learn and was one of their most prolific artists for nature articles in the late 1970s, appearing almost every week.

She also contributed illustrations to Watching Wildlife by Andrew Cooper (London, Usborne, 1982) and the children's novel Alice's Part by Vera Boyle (London, Macmillan Children's Books, 1983). From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Janet Blakeley art
Top of Page

Michel Blanc-Dumont biography
Michel Blanc-Dumont
Michel Blanc-Dumont started out publishing in Phénix, but eventually joined Jeunes Années, where he illustrated several Indian legends as well as several posters. His actual comics career took off in 1974, when he began the western series Jonathan Cartland with scenarist Laurence Harlé in Lucky Luke Magazine, one of the best western comics series. LINK]
Top of Page

Jesus Blasco biography
Jesus Monterde Blasco (1919-1995, Spain)
There is an air of total realism about Jesus Blasco's work. Blasco is often almost photographic in the delineation of his characters and, although occasionally this tends towards a rather static look to some frames, his fine sense of composition and sensitive drawing style more than adequately compensates. Born in Barcelona, Jesus Blasco started drawing for Spanish comics while still in his teens. The eldest of five brothers, most of whom are illustrators and who are often engaged in inking his work, he has worked in practically every genre: Historical, Western, Detective, Fairy Tales.

He first appeared in British comics drawing Buffalo Bill for Comet and Billy the Kid for Sun, for which latter comic he later drew Robin Hood and Dick Turpin. In addition to Thriller Picture Library, he contributed many strips to the Cowboy Comics Library and picture strip versions of two Jeffrey Farnol historical romances for Look and Learn. He drew many strips for Lion, the best-known - and probably the most celebrated of all his strips in this country - being The Steel Claw. Biography extract courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Jesus Blasco art
Top of Page

S L Bodik biography
S L Bodik
Nothing is known about Bodik, whose book cover art appeared on what would seem to be an American family saga, a genre that flourished in the 1970s and 1980s, although it had its roots in such popular novels as The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy and The Whiteoaks of Jalna by Mazo de la Roche. S L Bodik art
Top of Page

Stephen Richard Boldero biography
Stephen Richard Boldero (1898 - 1987)
Boldero's cover artwork appeared regularly in the 1950s and 1960s, published by most of the leading paperback firms (Corgi, Digit, Arrow, Pan, Panther, Four Square, Consul). He also had a long association with Souvenir Press, producing numerous dust jackets. Stephen Richard Boldero art
Top of Page

John Bolton biography
John Bolton (b. 23 May 1951; UK)
John Bolton is best known for his painted comic strips, his dark, photorealist style particularly effective on horror stories, in which genre he became somewhat typecast through his work on adaptations of Clive Barker and Sam Raimi's film Army of Darkness and his series of voluptuous she-vampire paintings. Bolton's work in the broader field of fantasy is probably best exemplified by his collaborations with Chris Claremont, which included Marada the She Wolf in Epic Illustrated and the 6-issue mini-series The Black Dragon.

Born in London, 23 May 1951, Bolton trained as civil engineer, then worked as a clothes salesman in London. His first comics-related work came via Granddreams, illustrating annuals such as The Magician, The Lone Ranger, Planet of the Apes, Flash Gordon, New Avengers and Tarzan. His first strips appeared in House of Hammer in 1976, including adaptations of Dracula, Prince of Darkness and One Million Years B.C., and early episodes of the Steve Moore-written Father Shandor series. Switching to colour, he made an immediate impact drawing The Bionic Woman for Look-In. Bolton won the Eagle Award for Favourite Comicbook Artist (UK) in 1979.

His American debut came with Kull, written by Doug Moench for Marvel Preview in 1980. A year later, his first painted strips - The Llehs - appeared in Epic Illustrated followed in 1982 by Marada the She-Wolf. Dozens of short horror tales appeared in Twisted Tales, Alien Worlds, Pathways to Fantasy, Tales of Terror, Alien Encounters and Cheval Noir over the next few years, as did The Black Dragon. Bolton could also turn his hand to mainstream comicbooks, which he did with a run of back-up stories in Classic X-Men in 1986-89 and Wonder Woman Annual (1988).

Graphic novels like Someplace Strange (1988), written by Ann Nocenti, and The Yattering and Jack (1992), adapted from a Clive Barker story by Steve Niles, and his painting of the first issue of The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman helped cement his reputation as Britain's finest weird-fantasy/horror artist.

He has since gone on to work on many other titles, chief amongst them Man-Bat (1995), written by Jamie Delano, Menz Insana (1997) by Christopher Fowler, Gifts of the Night (1999) by Paul Chadwick, Batman/Joker: Switch (2003) by Devin Grayson, God Save the Queen (2007) by Mike Carey, The Evil Dead (2008) by Mark Verheiden and The Green Woman (2010) by Peter Straub & Michael Easton.

Over the years, Bolton has also published portfolios, illustrated trading cards and worked as a storyboard and concept artist.

A Short Film About John Bolton (2003) was written and directed by Neil Gaiman, although it featured a fictional version of Bolton's life. Bolton is played by John O'Mahony, with Marcus Brigstocke playing an interviewer who discovers, to his cost, what inspires Bolton's disturbing art. Bolton himself had a cameo in the film.

His latest work is Shame: Conception for Renegade Arts Entertainment, released in July 2011; at the time of writing he is working on the second book in a proposed trilogy. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. John Bolton art
Top of Page

George Bowe biography
George Bowe
George Bowe is a bit of a mystery. His career began at least as early as 1948 when he illustrated two books by Enid Blyton and continued until at least 1974 when he drew At the End of the Rainbow'in Bonnie. In between he contributed illustrations to Boy's Own Paper, Pony Club Annual, Robin Annual, Girl Annual and Swift Annual in the 1950s and 1960s.

For an artist with a career spanning at least 26 years, it is surprising that nothing else is known. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. George Bowe art
Top of Page

Leslie Bowyer biography
Leslie Bowyer
Leslie Bowyer was an occasional contributor to Eagle, illustrating a short story in 1951 and a feature on the Queen's post-Coronation tour of 1954.

He also produced advertising designs and watercolours and contributed to Children's Own Wonder Book (1947). Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Leslie Bowyer art
Top of Page

Eric Bradbury biography
Eric Bradbury (b.1921, England)
Eric Bradbury was born in Sydenham, Kent, but moved to nearby Beckenham at the age of ten where he gained a scholarship to the local Art School in 1936. During the War he was an airgunner flying Wellingtons. Like Geoff Campion, Eric Bradbury began his strip career drawing Our Ernie and other "funnies" characters for Knockout in 1949.

Before long, however, thanks to the persuasion of Leonard Matthews, Bradbury began work on adventure strips. Starting on Knockout's Luck Logan Western strip and, later, as the best of the Campion imitators on the Buffalo Bill strip in Comet, he was soon creating his own strips such as The King's Thief for Comet based on the MGM film - a far more exciting strip than it was a movie!

By the 1960s, Eric Bradbury began to develop his own idiosyncratic, dark, somewhat sinister style, with such strips as Mytek the Mighty and The House of Dolmann for Valiant, Maxwell Hawke for Buster and Doomlord for the new 1980's Eagle. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Eric Bradbury art
Top of Page

Frank Brangwyn biography
Guillaume François Brangwyn (Frank Brangwyn), (1867 - 1956; Belgium)

Frank Brangwyn was something of an artistic jack-in-the-box, estimated to have produced some 12,000 artistic works in a working career that spanned 65 years and a wide range of media, from stained glass windows and glassware to ceramics and furniture. He also painted murals on buildings, painted in oils, watercolours and gouache, made etchings and wood engravings and was a lithographer.

His work ranged from small woodcuts to a series of murals that were originally intended to be placed in the Royal Gallery at the House of Lords in Westminster but were considered "too colourful and lively" for the location. The 16 large works, painted between 1925 and 1932 and covering some 3,000 square feet, became known as the British Empire Panels and are now housed in the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea.

Frank William Brangwyn was born Guillaume François Brangwyn in Bruges, Belgium, on 12 May 1867. Frank's father, William Curtis Brangwyn, was an ecclesiastical architect who had moved to Bruges to paint murels and frescoes for Belgian churches as well as designing several buildings and reconstructing others (such as the church of Sint-Andries). Brangwyn did not receive any formal artistic training; instead, his father sent him to practice drawing at the South Kensington Museum where he met Harold Rathbone and Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo, who both encouraged his work. Through Mackmurdo, Brangwyn was introduced to William Morris, who employed him as a glazier.

Brangwyn began to develop as a painter and his painting A Bit on the Esk was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1885. A passion for the sea led him to join the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and he developed a good reputation for his seascapes and landscapes. His oil painting Burial at Sea (now in the Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow) won a medal at the Paris Salon in 1891. Brangwyn travelled extensively and his first one-man show was entitled 'From Scheldt to Danube'.

Commercial illustrations for The Graphic expanded his audience and his reputation amongst the artistic community was high: he decorated the façade of the L'Art Nouveau gallery in Paris in 1895 and was one of the artists, along with Rodin and Whistler, invited to show his work at the first exhibition of the Vienna Secession group. Between 1902 and 1920 he executed a great many murals for buildings in London, Venice, Cleveland, Manitoba, Jefferson City, Leeds, Taormina (Sicily) and elsewhere. He was made an associate of the Royal Academy in 1904 and a member in 1919.

During the First World War, Brangwyn was an official war artist, designing many propaganda posters. After the war he was commissioned to produce a series of murals for the House of Lords, paid for by Lord Iveagh. The initial designs, depicting battle scenes, were thought too grim and Brangwyn started afresh, using vibrant colours to depict the achievements of Britain's colonies during the conflict. These were rejected by the Royal Fine Arts Commission and Brangwyn was understandably devastated.

After executing another large commission for the Rockefeller Center in New York, Brangwyn became more reclusive and pessimistic, a situation that had begun years earlier and contributed to by the death in 1924 of his wife, Lucy (née Ray, a nurse whom he had married in 1896). Brangwyn began to dispose of many of his possessions; over 400 pieces were gifted to Bruges in 1936 in order to establish a permanent museum in his native city; a substantial collection was also donated to the William Morris Museum, Walthamstow. A museum of Brangwyn and of de Belleroche was established at Orange, France, in 1947.

Brangwyn was knighted in 1941 and a major retrospective of his work was held at the Royal Academy in 1952 - the first living Academician to be so honoured. He died on 11 June 1956 at his home in Ditchling, Sussex, aged 89. Biographical notes by Steve Holland. Frank Brangwyn art
Top of Page

Charles Edmund Brock biography
Charles Edmund Brock RI (1870-1938; England)
A portrait painter and illustrator from Cambridge; his brothers Henry Matthew and Richard Henry were also artists and all three shared the same studio in the city. He specialised in illustrating period books. >!! Charles Edmund Brock art
Top of Page

Henry Matthew Brock biography
Henry Matthew Brock RI (1875-1960)
The youngest of a trio of brothers, all of whom were illustrators, Henry Brock shared a studio with brothers Charles and Richard in their large Cambridge house. H.M. Brock was an extremely prolific artist, turning his hand to every conceivable type of publication: classics, novels, poetry, essays, school stories, children's annuals and comics, as well as posters and other forms of advertising. When Leonard Matthews brought in H.M. Brock to draw his serial, Breed of the Brudenells in 1949, it was not the artist's first foray into comic strip work. During the 1930s he had been drawing spot illustrations for comics-notably for Happy Days - and even a strip adventure of school life, Study 13, for Sparkler. It was Breed of the Brudenells, however, later reprinted in Thriller Comics Library no. 9 as Hunted on the Highway, which brought the artist, then in his seventies, into the adventure strip in a major way.

The few issues of the Library drawn by Brock are all superbly evocative of the period in which they are set and - despite the onset of blindness - beautifully drawn and it is only in his very last work, Dick Turpin and the Followers of the Fang (no. 189), that it becomes obvious that his sight was really deteriorating and Pat Nicolle was called in to redraw faces and horses and generally "pull the artwork together". Pat Nicolle recalled just how much he hated having to "muck about" with the great man's work. In truth, however, Pat helped to make Brock's last work one of the best highwayman strips in the genre. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Henry Matthew Brock art
Top of Page

Robert Brook biography
Robert Brook
Despite a great deal of digging, almost nothing is known about artist Robert Brook. He appears to have begun working for the educational weekly Look and Learn in around 1965. His work was often highly detailed, as shown in the illustration left that depicts a scene from Margaret Landon's novel Anna and the King, which was later turned into the musical The King and I (filmed in 1956, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner).

This was one of a series of covers Brook produced featuring Famous Couples, others including Hiawatha & Minnehaha, Robespierre & Eleanor Duplay, Andrian Nikolayev & Valentina Tereshkova (two Russian cosmonauts) and Heathcliff & Cathy. Other cover series drawn by Brook included Animal Heroes and Famous Partnerships.

Inside Look and Learn, he illustrated the serial The Red Bonnet by Henry Garnett with some delightful black & white illustrations and a feature on The Literary Lambs (Charles and Mary). He often worked in colour, illustrating historical features such as The Tyrant of Mysore, about the Duke of Wellington's defeat of the Sultan of Mysore in 1799, and a long-running feature on Dancing Around the World, which ran for 20 episodes in 1968. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Robert Brook art
Top of Page

Mary Brooks biography
Mary Brooks (b. 1922)
Mary Brooks was the illustrator of Enid Blyton's Noddy Gets Into Trouble (1954) and Noddy Meets Father Christmas (1955), having earlier contributed to The Enid Blyton Holiday Annual at least as early as 1951. She wrote and illustrated many books for nursery-age children in the 1960s ranging from early learning titles like One, Two, Three 123 (1966) and ABC 123 (1966) to illustrated animal books, books of rhymes and fairy stories.

She also produced illustrations for the magazine Treasure, where she also illustrated nature scenes. Her work also appeared in a number of books published by Purnell (1978-80) and Dean (1986-87) and it is said that, even in her late eighties, she continues to paint.

Mary A. Brooks was married to Laurence William Penn in Dartford, Kent, in 1947. He died in 1989, aged 73. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Mary Brooks art
Top of Page

Ralph Bruce biography
Ralph Bruce
Ralph Bruce was a talented illustrator who worked for Look and Learn in the 1960s. Until the mid-1960s he was a regular artist for The Children's Newspaper and was probably brought to the educational paper by former Children's Newspaper editor, John Davies, who took over the editorship of Look and Learn in 1965.

His artwork covered a huge range of subjects. His historical illustrations ranged from ancient Greece and Roman Britain, to the eras of Shakespeare, Caxton and modern journalism. He was particularly adept at portraits and drew everyone from Dickens to the Beatles for Look and Learn as well as contributing covers for various series, including Famous Couples and When They Were Young in the late 1960s. Some of his best work was contributed to the long-running series The Story of Opera, penned by Robin May,

Prior to working for Look and Learn, Bruce had illustrated book covers for Digit Books in the late 1950s, titles including The Deep Six by Martin Dibner, I Came Back by Krysyna Zywulska, White August by John Boland, Air Patrol Biscay by Richard T. Bickers, Horns of the Dragon by Felix Trigg, Battle of the Bulge by William M. Stokoe, The God of Channel 1 by Donald Stacy, Nor Iron Bars a Cage by W. H. Aston, all in 1957. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Ralph Bruce art
Top of Page

Reg Bunn biography
Reg Bunn (active 1949-1970)
Reg Bunn was the most prolific artist working on the Thriller Comics Library. Best known for his many Robin Hood strips, Bunn did excellent work on the U.S. Cavalry Westerns of Ernest Haycox (The Border Trumpet no. 32) and James Warner Bellah (The White Invader no. 88 and Sabre and Tomahawk no. 95) as well as on such diverse titles as Black Hood no. 21), The Scottish Chiefs (no. 58) and Captain Kidd (no. 105). The vast majority of his Thriller Comics output, however, was for the Robin Hood titles. So closely did he become associated with the character that often, when another artist was drawing the strip, Bunn would be asked just to fill in the faces, so that some sort of conformity of style would be achieved.

Reg Bunn was one of only two people signed up by Leonard Matthews after a nationwide campaign to find strip artists in 1949. The other was Geoff Campion. Coincidentally, both artists came from Birmingham, though neither knew the other. Through invalidity, Bunn was forced to take a sedentary job and, with an open, rounded, jovial, warm-spirited style (his Buck Jones strips, 1949/50 and his earliest Robin Hood work, 1949/51, both for Comet), it changed over the years until it had become decidedly angular by the time he came to draw The Spider and The Waxer for Lion in the 1960s. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright Reg Bunn art
Top of Page

Hilary Burn biography
Hilary Burn
Hilary Burn is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists. Her work appears in many British bird books. Hilary Burn art
Top of Page

Jim Burns biography
Jim Burns (b. 1948)
Jim Burns is probably the best known contemporary British Science Fiction illustrator. He has perfected his own style by highlighting not only the traditional elements of SF but also its organic and erotic overtones.

His works are striking for their 'larger than life' portrayal of scenes of the far future and in particular his fantastic 'hardware'. His masterful technique depicts land, sky and space vehicles in gleaming metal and plastic so perfectly painted that one feels one can actually feel the cold metal touch of chrome or smell the pungent odour of plastic. He is constantly in demand for book covers. Jim has worked with Ridley Scott on Bladerunner and has books published of his work, notably Transluminal, Lightship, Planet Story and Mechanismo. Jim Burns art
Top of Page

John M Burns biography
John M Burns
His initial work was as an illustrator for Junior Express and School Friend. During the 1960s, Burns worked on TV Century 21 and its sister magazines, including the Space Family Robinson series in Lady Penelope.

For a while he drew daily comics strips for newspapers The Daily Sketch, The Daily Mirror and The Sun, including The Seekers, Danielle and, for a period succeeding Enrique Romero during 1978-79, Modesty Blaise.

He moved on to illustrate TV tie-in strips for now-defunct title Look-in, always scripted by Angus P. Allan. Burns was already well-known by the start of the 1980s. He also worked on the title story for Countdown. It was when he made the crossover to 2000 AD, along with fellow Look-in alumni Jim Baikie and Arthur Ranson, that his position in British comics was cemented.

Burns began by working on Judge Dredd, a strip to which he continues to contribute to this day. By his own admission (in a 2004 interview with David Bishop in the Judge Dredd Megazine), Burns does not enjoy drawing science fiction strips, and the look of Judge Dredd is one that he finds particularly unpleasant to draw: this is ironic, as his version has drawn much reader acclaim.

Recently, Burns lobbied to work on the Nikolai Dante strip, and has proved so successful that he is now considered the lead artist on the story. He has also co-created (with Robbie Morrison) a contemporary adventure strip, The Bendatti Vendetta, for the Megazine, this is unique for the title in having no science fiction or fantasy elements at all.

He recently finished an adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, whose script was rendered by Amy Corzine, for UK publisher Classical Comics. Having previously worked on similar adaptions of Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore and, which is more, Wuthering Heights by Brontë's sister Emily, Burns was able to bring considerable experience to the project. Burns's recent work is fully painted, and very solidly crafted. John M Burns art
Top of Page

John Busby biography
John Busby
John Busby is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists. His work appears in many British bird books. John Busby art
Top of Page

C

Geoff Campion biography
Arthur Geoffrey Campion (1916-1997)
Geoff Campion brought real punch and vigour into British adventure comics. His characters would charge straight at the reader on horseback or throw an enemy bodily at him. All through the 1950s and 1960s, it was the policy at Fleetway House that their action artists based their styles on the work of Campion. As one editor put it: "When I get a prospective artist in here, I give him a handful of Campion's strips and tell him to draw it exactly like that and you've got it made." But no one could do it quite like Campion could.

Geoff Campion was one of Leonard Matthews' major discoveries. In 1948, he answered an advertisement for new comic artists and, after a short spell of drawing humorous cartoon strips for Knockout, was soon "bagged", as he said, by Leonard Matthews for a new series of comics to be known as Cowboy Comics Library. When Matthews told him he wanted him to try his hand at Westerns, Geoff replied that he couldn't draw horses. Matthews' reply has gone into adventure strip folklore: "Bloody well learn then!" Campion learnt.

As Campion said, "It was advice I've been extremely grateful for ever since." He became one of the country's finest horse artists, and one of the great exponents of the Western genre. Campion was never really at home with other historical periods, however, and his American Civil War saga, Stonewall Jackson Wins His Spurs (no.147) seems far superior to Quo Vadis (no.19), however accurate his portrayal of the film actors involved, and The Last of the Mohicans (no.15) more authentic than Robin Hood's Jest (no. 10). Although Campion was only responsible for one Robin Hood strip, he drew two Dick Turpin strips: his first for the Knockout Fun Book 1954, and the other for Sun, the only Turpin strip printed in the comic in full colour. He also drew a little-known strip featuring a highwaywoman, Black Velvet, for Poppet, the short-lived girl's comic.

Born in Coventry, England and mainly self-taught as an artist, Geoff began his working life as a tax inspector but, during the War as a staff officer in the East India Command, he contributed cartoons to the forces' magazine, Jambo, and, in 1948, successfully answered an advertisement put out by the Amalgamated Press for new artists. For a period during the 1950s, Campion drew the majority of covers for Comet and Sun, as well as most of the long strips, Strongbow the Mohawk, Buffalo Bill, Billy the Kid and Battler Britton. He drew the opening episodes for all these series and the artists who later worked on the series were required to follow his lead. Campion's work was used as a "template", and was continually sent out to artists as examples of what was required. In the '60s he became a stalwart of Lion, drawing Spellbinder, his own favourite strip, and in the '70s, his work could be found in Battle Action, as forceful as ever. Biography extract courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Geoff Campion art
Top of Page

Angel Badia Camps biography
Angel Badia Camps (b. 1929; Spain)
Ángel Badia Camps was born in Puig-reig, in the Cataluña area of Spain, which borders southern France, in 1929. His father was exiled to France following the Spanish Civil War, only returning after nine years when Franco offered a conditional amnesty and allowed him to return and move with his family to Barcelona.

His love of drawing had begun early and Camps was encouraged by his parents but his knowledge of comics was limited to En Patufet and his education came with the discovery of American comics at the Sant Antonio market. Camps developed a fascination with American culture – with artists Milton Caniff and Alex Raymond and the films of John Ford and Howard Hawks, with American literature and the music of Glen Miller and jazz.

Camps attended the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes. He began working professionally in Ameller, drawing fairy stories, and his work began appearing regularly in Florita, Aventuras de Capa Negra (17 issues written by Salvador Dulcet, 1953) and Pulgarcito (1954).

Although he drew comic strips, including the humorous stories of "Pilaropo al servicio de las damas" for La Risa (1956) and medieval historical tales Aventuras de Flecha Roja [Adventures of Red Arrow] (1956-57) and Flecha y Arturo (1956) for Ediciones Gráficas Ricart.

However, it was his work for romance comics such as "Marisol" (Lupita, 1950), Mariló, Sentimentale, Modelo, Dalia, Merche and Sissi that he established himself. He illustrated Bernadette (1956) for Editorial Bruguera. Through this romantic work, Camps developed a lengthy association with the British romantic comics' market, first appearing in Valentine in 1961. Over the next few years he contributed strips to Serenade, Roxy and True Life Library (1964). According to David Roach, "At first glance his drawing style was almost indistinguishable from <Actinic:Variable Name = 'Jorge'/> Longaron's as he mixed a thrillingly loose and expressive line with an inventive and sophisticated sense of composition. His girls were the very epitome of 'the Spanish look' – heavy-lidded, thickly mascara'd eyes, big hair, big lips and lithe, languid bodies."

To give his work accuracy, Camps travelled to the UK and took over 300 reference photos of hospitals, buses, bridges, streets... everything had to be English which was not entirely a chore as his work coincided with the era of The Beatles, swinging London models and MG sports cars.

Camps is perhaps better known in the UK as a cover artist. Following his first appearance in 1960 on the Sexton Blake Library, he produced hundreds of covers for True Life Library, Star Love, Love Story Library, Oracle, Pop Pic Library, Charm, Young Lovers and other titles. The 1950s and 1960s were the heyday of magazine illustration before colour photography became the norm and Camps's paintings were widely reprinted throughout Europe and Scandinavia, often appearing in women's magazines before being reused as covers elsewhere.

For his native Spain, Camps produced heavily illustrated translations of Heidi (1966) and Otra Vez Heidi (1966), based on the works of Juana Spyri, Los Hijos del Capitan Grant (1968) and Viaje al Centro de la Tierra (1969), both by Jules Verne, Aventuras de Tom Sawyer (1969) by Mark Twain and stories featuring Robin Hood (by Norman R, Stinnet) and Davy Crockett (by Elliot Dooley) for Editorial Bruguera.

By the late 1960s, he was working again almost exclusively for Spanish markets, Editorial Bruguera employing him on various lines of paperbacks, including Libro Amigo, La Conquista del espacio, and Selección Terror. Camps also produced work for Molino, Toray and Ceres.

Although he was still earning a good living, and demand for cover artwork slowed in the 1980s as video became a more popular form of home entertainment than reading, Camps set up a school with fellow artist Rafael Cortiella, which ran for ten years. Camps subsequently concentrated on painting, although he had been exhibiting paintings since 1974.

Camps relates the story that he was painting whilst on holiday in Olot when the owner of a Barcelona gallery approached him and asked if he had ever exhibited his work. Camps said he was merely a Sunday painter but the gallery owner was persistent. "He asked if he could come to my studio and took almost everything I had." His work has, from 1986, featured in numerous solo exhibitions in Madrid, Barcelona, London, Brussels, Castellon and New York. His most regular exhibitor is the prestigious Sala Pares in Barcelona. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Angel Badia Camps art
Top of Page

Milton Caniff biography
Milton Caniff (1907 - 1988)
Milt Caniff was one of the most famous and highly repected American comic strip artists. His newspaper strips of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon were syndicated all over the world. Terry and the Pirates ran for over 12 years and featured a host of very memorable characters brought to life by his skilled draughtmanship. Pat Ryan, Dragon Lady, Burma, Chopstick Joe, Singh Singh and April Kane are just a few of his characters that became household names. Terry and the Pirates finished in December 1946, principally because Caniff did not own the rights to his own creation.

He quickly created a new strip Steve Canyon which was to prove equally popular and it ran successfully until his death in 1988. Milt Caniff art
Top of Page

Roy Carnon biography
Roy Carnon (1911 - 2002; UK)
Roy Carnon was responsible for a stunning cover for All This and a Medal Too by Tim Carew, published by Corgi Books in 1960. The book was an autobiography, originally published by Constable & Co. in 1954, and featured the reminiscences of the author - real name John Mohun Carew (1921-1980) - about his experiences in the army between 1937 and 1950. Carnon had worked for Corgi Books at least as early as 1956, although had earlier worked in advertising (e.g. for Reed Paper Group).

Carnon, born 6 July 1911, the son of Frederick Wallace Carnon (a civil servant) and his wife Gertrude Eisdell (nee Lee), had grown up in Isleworth, London, attending art school in Chiswick for a short time. He became an illustrator, working mainly for advertising agencies, and was always to be found sketching in parks, or on buses and trains and always carried a small sketch-book or a pack of plain postcards in case inspiration struck.

During the Second World War, Carnon continued to sketch even when he was working as a fireman during the London Blitz; he subsequently joined the RAF ground crew and then became a navigator on Sunderlands, seeing action in Africa, India and the Far East.

After returning to civilian life, Carnon continued to work in advertising, as well as producing book covers. He was responsible for a number of covers for Edgar Rice Boroughs' science fiction novels published by Four Square Books in 1961-65 and illustrated Famous Fighting Aircraft for the Collins Wonder Colour Books series in 1964.

In 1965, Carnon became one of the team responsible for producing concept drawings, sketches and paintings for Stanley Kubrick, then working with author Arthur C. Clarke on the landmark science fiction movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. For this he was responsible for visualising space craft, film sets and the iconic 'wheel' space station.

After this, he worked on many other movies, including the Bond movies, Where Eagles Dare, The Battle of Britain, Frenzy, Superman, The Dogs of War, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds, The Dark Crystal, Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi, Ladyhawke and Link.

Roy Frederick Carnon was married to Violet Marian Steer in 1935 (died 1971); he re-married, in 1998, to Margaret J. Harrold. He died in August 2002, aged 91. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Roy Carnon art
Top of Page

Brian Casey introduction
" I have had a passion for Motorsport for as long as I can remember - as small boy I would often smuggle my way into the Crystal Palace Race Circuit to listen to the sound of Racing cars warming up thier engines early on a Sunday morning, in the glorious days before the noise abatement people objected. I would get there early in the morning hoping to catch a glimpse of the likes of the young Mansell and Senna. Little did I know what an effect this was going to have on me in later life, even when I left home, got married and eventually moved to Kent.

Purely by chance I found myself living 20 minutes from the historic Brands Hatch racing circuit, so it was only a matter of time before I was chatting with a colleague from work who was a Motorbike Marshall at the weekends. He invited me along to a meeting at Lyddon Race Circuit in Kent. I was hooked and travelled the whole lengh of Britain armed with my trusty camera. It was around this time that I really started to take my passion to another level as I was getting more and more commissions from Riders and their friends, I was going to bigger Race Meetings, taking myself off to Brands Hatch for British Superbike Meetings, the British Grand Prix and most of the Car and Bike shows, collating photographic material for future commissioned artworks.

I like to capture the sense of action, speed and excitement, along with a fantastic eye for detail, so the recent demand for commissioned art from Corporate, Commercial, and private clients has increased to a level that I now work full time as a Freelance Illustrator. I have work published with Felix Rosenstiels Widow and Son, in the Markham Collection, and my portfolio includes Formula 1, Superbikes, Touring Cars, GT'S, Supercars, the Clubman Motorbike Riders, Classic and Convertibles. I am a full member of the Guild of Motoring Artists, also a full member of the Coloured Pencil Society. "

Exhibits
The Donnington Motor Museum; The Goodwood Revival Meeting; Silverstone Race Circuit; Brands Hatch Race Circuit; The Bromley Pageant of Motoring; The Hop Farm Car, and Bike Meetings; Knebworth House (Car Show); Stamford House (Jaguar Show); Hall Place & Gardens, Kent (Solo Art Exhibition) . Brian Casey art
Top of Page

Arturo del Castillo biography
Arturo Perez Del Castillo (1925-1992)
The Chilean artist Del Castillo's pen and ink work has been highly admired for many years. In the late 1950s he worked for Fleetway Publications, defining the art of fine penmanship on such strips as The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask.

By the 1960s he was producing westerns for comics such as Top Spot, Ranger and Cowboy Picture Library: Garret (1962 - scripts by Ray Collins: pseudonym of Argentinian writer Eugenio Zappietro); Dan Dakota, Kendall (sheriff of Dodge City) , Larrigan (reprinted in both Fleetway's Lone Rider Picture Library and Cowboy Picture Library nos. 455, 463, 467), and Los tres mosqueteros en el Oeste. In 1974, again with Ray Collins he created El Cobra, and with Oesterheld Loco Sexton. His most famous creation remains the western strip, Randall: The Killer, began in 1957. arturo del Castillo art
Top of Page

Richard Caton Woodville Jnr. biography
Richard Caton Woodville Jnr. (1856-1927, England)
Richard Caton Woodville Jr. was a widely recognised and prolific artist, producing many accomplished illustrations and paintings, notably for the Illustrated London News. He is particularly remembered for his battle scenes and many of his paintings are in military art collections, such as the National Army Museum, the Royal Naval College, the Royal Canadian Military Institute, the London Scottish Regiments Museum Trust and West Point, as well as national collections such as the Tate Gallery.

He was the son of Richard Caton Woodville (1825-1855) an American artist and the son of a stockbroker, who originally studied medicine but who turned to painting as a career.

In 1845, at the age of 20, Caton Woodville Jnr left Baltimore to train at the Kunstacademie in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he lived for the next six years with his wife, Mary Theresa (nee Buckler), whom he had married on 3 January 1844.

In 1879, his painting Before Leuthen, Dec. 3rd, 1757 was exhibited at the Royal Academy and, over the next few years he produced many popular paintings, amongst them Kandahar and Saving the Guns at Maiwand (both inspired by the Second Anglo-Afghan War), and many scenes from the Zulu War and First Boer War. His painting The Moonlight Charge at Kassassin,was exhibited at the Fine Art Society in 1883 and The Guards at Tel-e-Kebir was exhibited by Royal Command in 1884. The latter was painted for the Royal Family in 1882 and led to a number of further commissions, including the wedding of Princess Beatrice to Prince Henry of Battenberg in 1885. He later also painted a portraits King Edward VII and King George V.

Woodville was commissioned by the Illustrated London News to paint a series depicting famous battle throughout history, including the charnge of the Light Brigade, the Charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, the Battle of Blenheim, the Battle of Badajos and several of the Battle of Waterloo. In 1895 he produced some 200 drawings, 2 large paintings and 2 smaller paintings. He maintained a large collection of arms and uniforms at his studio.

Woodville lived at Flat B, Dudley Mansions, 29 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, Middlesex, where he committed suicide on 17 August 1927: at shortly after 1 pm, Woodville's housekeeper and a friend, Mr. P. Gair, heard a report from a revolver and found Woodville sitting in his favourite chair in the studio attached to his house with a bullet wound to his head. He was still breathing, but died on the way to the hospital. Although he had been laughing and joking only that morning, Woodville had recently been suffering from heart trouble and pain from his leg, which he had broken years earlier and which had been aggravated by a second accident in Egypt.

After such an active life, Woodville was worried that, at 71, he would become an invalid. A letter read out at an inquest on 20 August 1927 revealed his final thoughts: "I am mentally and bodily ill. My health is a thing of the past." The Coroner recorded a verdict that Woodville was of unsound mind when he shot himself. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Richard Caton Woodville Jnr art
Top of Page

Steven Chapman biography
Steven Halliwell Chapman (active c1925-1969)
Steven Chapman had been drawing for juvenile adventure stories since the mid 1920s, notably in the Aldine Robin Hood and Wild West annuals. In the 1930s he was contributing picture stories for the back pages of various Amalgamated Press comics as well as illustrations for their story papers such as Triumph and Champion. Indeed, at some time or other, he contributed spot illustrations and covers to the majority of the boys' and girls' papers published by the firm. This wide experience enabled him to bring a wealth of expertise to his work for the Thriller Comics Library. Whether drawing pirates (To Sweep the Spanish Main no. 56), Elizabethan courtiers (Kenilworth no. 51), or the many Three Musketeers adventures he did for the library, Steve Chapman was one of the finest and most historically accurate of artists, always evoking the authentic period atmosphere.

Incidentally, there was something decidedly Elizabethan about Steve Chapman's appearance and Matthews persuaded Sep Scott to use Chapman as a model for his cover painting of Kenilworth - most appropriate as Chapman had drawn the entire strip! When his style - and, indeed, the whole genre of historical strips - lost favour with the Amalgamated Press, Steve Chapman found himself temporarily without work. Amalgamated Press' loss was D.C. Thomson's gain and, from 1961, Chapman spent the rest of his working life drawing magnificent strips for the likes of Hotspur and Victor, utilizing all his skills at depicting historical adventure. Fittingly, his last strip, for the 1969 Hotspur annual, was set in Regency prize-fighting days. Biography extract courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Steven Chapman art
Top of Page

Rene Cloke biography
Rene Cloke (B. 1904; Plymouth, UK)
Rene Cloke was born Irene Mabel N. Cloke in Plymouth on 8 October 1904. According to the Dictionary of British Book Illustrators, she "works as a postcard and greetings card designer, and as an author and illustrator of stories for very young children ... mainly depicting nursery animals and pixies."

As well as her books, she also produced illustrations for many annuals, including Uncle Oojah's Big Annual, Blackie's Children's Annual, Tiny Tots Annual, Jack and Jill Annual, Playhour Annual and Jack and Jill Harold Hare Book. She also contributed to Sunny Stories. Rene Cloke art
Top of Page

Dennis Collins biography
The Perishers strip was the brainchild of the then Daily Mirror cartoon editor, Bill Herbert. Scripted by Ben Witham and drawn by Dennis Collins, it first appeared in the Manchester edition of the Mirror in February 1958.

Alas, the strip did not thrive and Bill enlisted the aid of advertising artist/writer Maurice Dodd. Maurice didn't work in the usual way of producing a written script from which the artist worked, but worked out his own ideas in rough pencilled layouts with action and dialogue in situ, while Dennis continued to execute finished drawings for the script. Ben Witham moved on to write gags for the popular single frame cartoon Useless Eustace.

The Collins - Dodd combination was successful and the Perishers moved into the national editions in October 1959. The partnership lasted until Dennis retired in 1983. Maurice then took on the complete execution of the strip, from idea to finished artwork, until 1992, when he once again went into partnership, this time with Bill Mevin who now executes the finished work. Dennis Collins art
Top of Page

Harold Copping biography
Harold Copping (25 August, 1863 - 1 July 1932; UK)
Harold Copping was a British artist, born in Camden Town on 25 August 1863, the second son of Edward Copping (a journalist) and Rose Heathilla (nee Prout), the daughter of J. S. Prout, the water-colour artist.His brother, Arthur E. Copping, became a noted author, journalist and traveller.

Copping grew up in St. Pancras. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools and won a Landseer Scholarship to study in Paris. He was a successful painter and illustrator, living in Croydon and Hornsey during the early years of his career.

Copping was a notable illustrator of Biblical scenes and in order to achieve some authenticity in his work, notably an illustrated edition of The Bible published in 1910, he travelled to Palestine and Egypt. This version was a best-seller and led to many more commissions for Copping.

A trip to Canada inspired the collection of watercolour sketches Canadian Pictures. Amongst the many books he illustrated were The Gospel of the Old Testament, Scenes in the Life of Our Lord, Scripture Picture Books, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Tales from Shakespeare, Character Sketches from Dickens, Longfellow and others.

Copping was married to Violet Amy Prout in 1888, and had children Ernest Noel (1889- ), Romney (1891-1910) and Violet (1891-1892). Following his wife’s death in 1894 (aged only 29), Copping was married a second time, to Edith Louise Mothersill, in 1897 and had children Joyce (1901-1934) and John Clarence (1914-1977).

Copping lived for many years at The Studio, Shoreham, near Sevenoaks, Kent. He died at home on 1 July 1932, aged 68, after some years of ill-health and a Memorial Fund was set up in his name to provide for his widow and children, raising over £500. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Harold Copping art
Top of Page

Richard Corben biography
Richard Corben (b. 1940)
Born in Missouri, Richard is best known for his illustrated fantasies in Heavy Metal (Métal Hurlant) magazine, and he is the celebrated author and artist behind the popular graphic novel Den series and the the creator of Jeremy Brood. In a varied career, Corben's work also includes the cover of Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell album. Richard Corben art
Top of Page

Philip Corke biography
Philip Corke
British artist who worked on the Trigan Empire for a year in 1974-75. Previously he had illustrated a number of books for North Cheap publisher’s Young World Productions. Following this brief sojourn into comics, he returned to illustrating books and posters, mostly historical subjects, also penning titles for the Longman Butterfly Books series. Philip Corke art
Top of Page

Graham Coton biography
Graham Coton (1926 - 2003)
Graham Coton's metier was the Second World War. Although he started as a strip artist by drawing Kit Carson for Cowboy Comics Library and later drew four short strips for the Thriller Comics Library (an adventure of Gulliver for no.5, a Dick Turpin strip for no. 8 and two Three Musketeer strips in issues 12 and 26), it was not until he started drawing Captain Phantom, the World War II Master Spy, for Knockout in 1953, that he really came into his own. Some of these strips were later reprinted in Thriller Comics Library with the lead character renamed Spy 13.

Coton was very much a new force in comics when he first appeared, bringing with him a violent, ultra-tough approach. Coton's two short Musketeer strips are interesting mainly for their story lines- particularly the reunion with Aramis in Musketeers Ride Again (no. 26) - for the artwork is not really in tune with the swashbuckling genre.

Coton will be mainly remembered as far as comic art is concerned for his car racing strips in Tiger, his superb war strips in Top Spot and, most of all, for his dynamic covers for the War Libraries. Graham Coton was born in Woolwich, London and was self-taught, although he admits to attending Goldsmith's College of Art in London, which he says was a "disaster". Biography extract courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Graham Coton art
Top of Page

D

Tony Dezuniga biography
Tony Dezuniga (November 8, 1932 - May 11, 2012)[
With writer John Albano, Tony Dezuniga co-created DC Comics long-running and best-loved Western anti-hero Jonah Hex, and with Sheldon Mayer the first Black Orchid.

DeZuniga was the first Filipino comic book artist whose work was accepted by American publishers, paving the way for many other Filipino artists to break into the international comic book industry. Tony Dezuniga art
Top of Page

Frank Dickens biography
Frank Dickens
Frank Dickens began his famous and long-running Bristow strip in the Aberdeen Press and Journal in 1961 and has since produced more than 12,000 strips, the majority published in the London Evening Standard between 1962 and 2001. Bristow is the longest-running daily cartoon strip by a single author and has been in continuous publication since its inception.

It's principal character, the eponymous Bristow, is a buying clerk (18th in line for Chief Buyer) in the Chester-Perry Organization and his adventures involve everything to do with the drudgery of commuting, bureaucracy and large office life. Frank Dickens art
Top of Page

Ian Dickson biography
Ian Dickson (1905 - 1987; New Zealand and UK)
Ian Oscar Dickson was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 15 January 1905. He grew up in Melbourne and was self-tought as an artist. Dickson was something of a world traveller, seeking out work as a cartoonist and illustrator wherever he was. His work appeared in the Adelaide Register News Pictorial, the Brisbane Telegraph and tourist brochures for the Queensland government.

Emigrating to England, he produced illustrations for film companies and work for Razzle before moving to Ceylon, working for the Times of Ceylon and Ceylon Observer. Returning to Britain in 1935, his work appeared in Punch, London Opinion, Men Only and Blighty, often drawing glamour girls. During the War he served with the R.A.F.

For 15 years he drew Mum each week for the Sunday Graphic and his comic strips also appeared in Eagle Annual, Girl Annual and Swift Annual.

He died on 21 July 1987. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Ian Dickson art
Top of Page

Maurice Dodd biography
Maurice Dodd
The Perishers strip was the brainchild of the then Daily Mirror cartoon editor, Bill Herbert. Scripted by Ben Witham and drawn by Dennis Collins, it first appeared in the Manchester edition of the Mirror in February 1958.

Alas, the strip did not thrive and Bill enlisted the aid of advertising artist/writer Maurice Dodd. Maurice didn't work in the usual way of producing a written script from which the artist worked, but worked out his own ideas in rough pencilled layouts with action and dialogue in situ, while Dennis continued to execute finished drawings for the script. Ben Witham moved on to write gags for the popular single frame cartoon Useless Eustace.

The Collins - Dodd combination was successful and the Perishers moved into the national editions in October 1959. The partnership lasted until Dennis retired in 1983. Maurice then took on the complete execution of the strip, from idea to finished artwork, until 1992, when he once again went into partnership, this time with Bill Mevin who now executes the finished work. Maurice Dodd art
Top of Page

Peter Doherty biography
Peter Doherty
Peter Doherty notes on his intriguingly named Not a Proper Person blog that he is not to be confused with the famous singer bloke. "I'm the much less well known comic book illustrator." Within the comic book industry, however, he is well known—as a regular artist for 2000AD's Judge Dredd and chronicler of the early life of Death in Judge Dredd Megazine, or as an artist who has tackled Grendel, Superman, Batman and Catwoman, or as a colourist for Geof Darrow's surreal Shaolin Cowboy.

At a time when Britain's comics were beginning a love affair with fully painted art in the wake of Simon Bisley's 'Slaine: The Horned God', Doherty preferred treating colour as an enhancement to his line art. "The few bits I actually painted were a bit of a disaster," he would later say. "Mostly I coloured my line drawings—I'd ink on watercolour paper with waterproof ink then use transparent media like coloured inks, watercolours and thinned acrylics so the line showed through, and finally finish off with solid colour over the top."

Doherty was taking an applied physics degree at university when he decided that his career should take a different direction. He met Duncan Fegrado, then working on 'The New Statesman' for Crisis with writer John Smith. Smith's friend Chris Standley was also trying to get into comics and he and Doherty collaborated on a five-page story "about an unemployed bloke, something we knew a lot about back then."

After meeting Steve MacManus at a Glasgow comics' convention, the story was sold to Crisis (Felicity, Crisis 47, 1990), with Doherty also providing that issue's cover. He was immediately offered Young Death, the origin story of the popular character from the 'Judge Dredd' strip, written (under the pen-name Brian Skuter) by Dredd co-creator John Wagner for the debut issues of a new 2000AD spin-off, the Judge Dredd Megazine. Doherty's first professional assignment couldn't have had a higher profile.

It's dark humour proved a hit with readers and Doherty soon became a regular on the Dredd strip in 2000AD, drawing episodes of the epic 'Judgement Day' storyline and a memorable one-shot, Bury My Knee at Wounded Heart, often cited as being one of the best Dredd stories ever. He also drew Mechanismo Returns for the Judge Dredd Megazine (1993) and a one-off tale of Armitage (1994).

Doherty soon found himself working for the US market, drawing the 6-issue Grendel Tales: The Devil May Care (1995-96) and Carson of Venus (Dark Horse Presents, 1998) and pencilling a 3-part series for Vertigo's The Dreaming written by Bryan Talbot ('Weird Romance', 1997). Further work on The Dreaming, Superman 80-Page Giant, Batman and Superman: World's Finest and Catwoman followed from DC Comics over the next few years.

In 2001 Doherty (then a relative newcomer to computers and computer colouring) found himself working full-time for a computer games company. Over the years he has also worked as an illustrator, storyboard artist and designer but has always returned to comics when the opportunity allows.

The 2005 2000AD strip Breathing Space (set in Luna 1, a moonbase in the Dredd universe) was begun by Doherty, but a lengthy illness meant the strip had to be reassigned after two issues; Doherty coloured the remaining seven episodes (pencilled and inked by Laurence Campbell & Lee Townsend).

Doherty has subsequently worked mostly as a colourist—on the 3-issue mini-series Seaguy (2004) and the 7-issue Geof Darrow series Shaolin Cowboy, which he also lettered and designed. The latter was nominated for five Eisner Awards in 2005.

His recent work has included colouring the Dredd episode 'The Convert' in 2000AD (2010) and a DCU Legacies back-up, 'Revelation!', drawn by Frank Quitely (2011). Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Peter Doherty art
Top of Page

Gerry Dolan biography
Gerry Dolan
With Doctor Who back on our TV screens, it seems apt to take a look at the work of a Doctor Who artist.

Gerry Dolan worked only briefly for Dr Who Magazine, providing illustrations for the short story The Infinity Season (#151, August 1989), written by Dan Abnett, and the strip Stairway to Heaven (#156, January 1990) scripted by John Freeman from a story by Paul Cornell and inked by Rex Ward.

Both featured Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor and were noted for Dolan's detailed rendition of the character. The strip's appearance in Doctor Who Magazine coincided with the final episode of the Sylvester McCoy era of the TV show (December 1989) and a gap of seven years before the TV movie and sixteen before the series was revived.

Dolan also contributed to The Worm, an exercise in record breaking that took place 1991 at London's Trocadero. From an outline by Alan Moore, 125 creators gathered to draw and letter a 250-foot long comic strip, recognised as the longest comic strip in the world.

Since those brief appearances, Dolan seems to have disappeared from the world of comics. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Gerry Dolan art
Top of Page

Cecil Doughty biography
Cecil Langley Doughty (1913-1985, England)
C.L. Doughty became the Thriller Comic's number one Dick Turpin artist and all his full-length adaptations of the Aldine/Newnes stories are superb examples of historical adventure. It was Doughty who introduced into the comic strip Turpin's the band of stalwart comrades (created for the Aldine story papers at the turn of the century) who included Jem Peters of the red whiskers and Beetles, the giant Negro.

Cecil Langley Doughty was born in Withernsea, Yorkshire, and trained at the Battersea Polytechnic. From an early age, he admired the work of Brocks, Hugh Thomson and Fortunino Matania and their influence can be clearly seen in his work. His earliest picture strip work appeared in P.M. Productions' Starflash and Challenger comics and, a little later, in adaptations of Oliver Twist and Lorna Doone for Amex's A Classic in Pictures (P.M. and Amex were, in fact, the same publisher). A short two-page complete strip for Knockout, Buffalo Bill - Rescued from the Redskins in 1948, was, strangely enough, the only strip he did for Amalgamated Press until his long-running detective series, Terry Brent, for School Friend (beginning in 1950).

Doughty's debonair style, ideal for the swashbuckling costume/action strip, found its true home in the pages of the Thriller Comics Library. It is only surprising that he was not used for any of the Library's covers as his paintings for Look and Learn show him to be admirably suited for such work. Perhaps his finest historical strips are those he contributed to A.P.'s "teenage comic" of the late '50s, Top Spot . Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Cecil Doughty art
Top of Page

Serge Drigin biography
Serge Drigin (1894 - 1977, Russia and UK)
Serge Drigin, sometimes spelled Sergie, Sergey or Serge R. Drigin, was a Russian artist, born on 8 October 1894, who, without formal training, became a successful illustrator in the UK in the 1920s. Formerly a sailor, he illustrated at least one book in his native Russia, Skazka o rybakie i rybkie by E. Venskii, in 1919 before beginning a prolific output for British magazines such as The Detective Magazine, Modern Boy and Chums.

He produced many startling covers for various titles published by George Newnes in the 1930s, including Scoops, Air Stories, War Stories, Fantasy and others. In around 1941, he was working for War Artists & Illustrators, based in central London, who supplied material to War Illustrated and Sphere amongst others.

In around 1934-35, he briefly turned to comics and drew varioius episodes for Film Picture Stories and the serial The Flying Fish in Sparkler. He returned after the war, when paper shortages meant that illustrators were finding work thin on the ground. He produced numerous one-off strips in 1947-48, mostly for Scion Ltd. In 1948, Drigin began drawing strips for Manchester-based J. B. Allen, producing a number of series for Allen's Comet, Sun and Merry-Go-Round comics until 1949.

In the 1950s, he was still very active, contributing features and artwork to various annuals, including Swift and Eagle, but seems to have grown inactive around the mid-1950s.

Drigin was married three times, firstly to Ruth Evelene Baker at Totnes, Devon, in 1923, with whom he had a daughter Shirley N., born 1927 (who later became a veterinary assistant in South Africa). The Drigins separated soon after and Ruth Drigin remarried in 1929. Serge Drigin was subsequently married at Lambeth in 1931 to Eva Walker (1905-1993) and, at Fulham in 1954, to Joan Octavia A. Nicholle (1916-1992).

Drigin, who was naturalised in 1932, died in Lambeth, his death registered in 2Q 1977 under the name Sergie Drigin. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Serge Drigin art
Top of Page

Edmund Drury biography
Edmund Drury (active 1952-1965)
Little is known of this excellent artist - we are not even certain whether his name is Edward or Edmond as it appears he was known to all simply as "Ted". It is believed that he was born in South Africa and was discovered by Ted Holmes who used him for the pirate strip, Guy Gallant for the cover of Comet. Drury also drew for the Hulton Press, producing another 18th century strip for Girl, as well as a strip for the first Eagle Annual.

His illustrations for the text serialisations of Edgar Rice Burroughs' early Tarzan stories in Comet show just how versatile this stylish artist could be. According to Leonard Matthews, Drury was "handsome to a degree" but "of a very objectionable nature" and extremely arrogant. Drury left British comics in the mid 1960s and returned to South Africa. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright Edmund Drury art
Top of Page

E

Will Eisner biography
Will Eisner (1917-2005, USA)
The Spirit is his greatest creation and is still being reprinted regularly, despite being created in 1940. Reknown for his cinematic style and unusual panel layout and angles, Eisner is highly respected by his peers. Born in 1917 in Brooklyn, he formed a partnership with Jerry Iger to produce comic strips for the voracious comic book publishers of the 1940s. His Hawks of the Sea was a tremendous pirate adventure strip. Lou Fine, Bob Powell, Jules Feiffer, Wally Wood, Jerry Grandenetti, plus many other respected artists have worked for and with Eisner throughout his career. Over the past few years he has produced a series of innovative graphic novels beginning with the award winning A Contract with God. His book Comics and Sequential Art is one of the top selling books on how to draw comics and is continually being reprinted. See also our Will Eisner books and graphic novels. Will Eisner art
Top of Page

Ron Embleton biography
Ron(ald Sydney) Embleton (1930-1988)
Born in London on 6 October 1930, Embleton began drawing as a young boy, submitting a cartoon to the News of the World at the age of 9 and, at 12, winning a national poster competition. At 17 he earned himself a place in a commercial studio but soon left to work freelance, drawing comic strips for many of the small publishers who sprang up shortly after the war.

He was soon drawing for the major publishers. His most fondly remembered strips include Strongbow the Mighty in Mickey Mouse Weekly, Wulf the Briton in Express Weekly, Wrath of the Gods in Boys’ World, Tales of the Trigan Empire and Johnny Frog in Eagle and Stingray in TV Century 21.

Embleton also provided the illustrations that appeared in the title credits for the Captain Scarlet TV series, and dozens of paintings for prints and newspaper strips. A meticulous artist, his illustrations appeared in Look and Learn for many years, amongst them the historical series Roger’s Rangers. Embleton died on 13 February 1988 at the age of 57.

We also have books featuring Ron's work. Ron Embleton art
Top of Page

Dan Escott biography
Dan Escott (1928 - 1987, England)
Dan Escott wrote and drew many features which played to his strength and interest in heraldic and medieval illustration. He was a regular contributor to the From Then Till Now feature in Look and Learn as well as creating back cover series on flags of the world, national symbols of Britain and the Guilds of London amongst many others.

Escott was born in Surrey on 3 December 1928. He studied at Croydon School of Art where he first came in contact with the subject of heraldry. Discovering that he had a flair for heraldic illustration (he won the school's Arms and Armour drawing competition two years running), he joined the College of Arms as a trainee herald painter, designing heraldry for stained glass, wood carvings, ceramics, engravings, banners, flags and coins, and developing a strong, bold style which stood him well when he began producing illustrations for advertising. One of his best known works was a painting of the Battle of Crecy which was published in the Illustrated London News.

In 1967 he was invited to work at the Institute of Heraldry in Virginia for the US forces, designing many regimental and other insignia, including badges for the Washington DC Police Department. Returning to England in 1968, he continued to work as a book and magazine illustrator. After the dissolution of his first marriage to Barbara Mitchell, he married Wendy Manfield (née Thornborough) in 1983 and emigrated to Australia where he worked for the Australian Geographic. Escott died of cancer in Sydney on 7 May 1987, aged 58.
Biography courtesy of Steve Holland. Dan Escott art
Top of Page

Frances Olive Esme Eve biography
Frances Olive Esme Eve
Esme Eve was born in Sydenham, London and designed book jackets, fabrics and beautiful greeting cards for the Medici Society. Frances Olive Esme Eve art
Top of Page

Derek Eyles biography
Derek Charles Eyles (1902-1974)
Derek Eyles was born in North Finchley, London, and had an artist brother, Geoffrey, with an uncannily similar style, although, according to Leonard Matthews, of no use when it came to "our sort of thing", i.e adventure strip work. Derek Eyles was the Amalgamated Press' number one horse artist and all new artists were given his work to help them learn to "do horses properly". He worked for Knockout from number one, having previously been working on Wild West Weekly, producing some of that paper's superb full-colour cover paintings as well as many of the interior illustrations.

Eyles' first strip work was for Knockout in 1947: a Western serial, The Phantom Sheriff (a strip featuring the same character appeared in the Knockout Fun Book for 1949 and is one of his best pieces of work).

This was followed, in 1948, by his masterly Dick Turpin's Ride To York and then by a complete Western story, Buffalo Bill's Close Call, in January 1949. His Kit Carson strips for the early issues of Cowboy Comics Library rank with the very best examples of the genre and his wonderful Western plates graced many of the A.P. annuals throughout the 1950s, including Comet. As well as contributing to a myriad of comics and annuals, Derek Eyles was a prolific book illustrator working for many publishers, painting covers and illustrations for a wide range of subjects. Biography extract courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Derek Eyles art
Top of Page

F

Don Forrest biography
Don Forrest (active 1951-1968)
Donald A. Forrest is a wildlife artist noted for his illustration of birds. One of his most notable books is The Birdwatcher's Key which is an illustrated guide to 382 different species to be found in the British Isles and North-Western Europe.

Forrest's career may date back to at least as early as 1949 and the publication of a children's book entitled Binkie Beacon and His Friends. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Don Forrest art
Top of Page

Robert Forrest biography
Robert Forrest (active 1951-1968)
Robert Forrest came into the comic business quite late in life, after a career with the Inland Revenue. He had never drawn professionally but was taken on by Ted Holmes for Comet, drawing Kit Carson for the front page. With his action-packed, free style, Forrest was a natural, at home in all adventure genres but, when Leonard Matthews used him for The Lyons Mail, he found his true metier, as one of the finest of all the historical Thriller Comics Library artists. As well as working for the TCL, Forrest continued to draw Western strips for its companion title, Cowboy Comics Library. He contributed to its Kit Carson and Buck Jones issues early on and later, towards the end of the run, full-length adaptations of Western novels, which can stand among his best work.

Forrest even tried his hand at science fiction, with The Martian, a strip version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Princess of Mars", for Comet. He drew a fine strip for Knockout in 1960 - The Mad Emperor - which vividly conveyed the opulence and decadence of the Russian court in the 18th century. As with his masterpiece, The Picture of Dorian Gray (TCL 148), even the architecture, massive, opulent and overpowering, seemed to evoke the atmosphere of horror and terror. He also drew a splendid version of R.L. Stevenson's famous story, Jekyll and Hyde, which was originally destined for the Thriller Comics Library but, the policy by then having swung against historical fiction if favour of War stories and Westerns, it was decided to use it as a serial strip in Top Spot late in 1959. Forrest's strip adaptations of Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of Four for Look and Learn are recognised as the best Sherlock Holmes picture strips ever produced. For the same magazine, Forrest produced his only colour strip - a serialisation of the story of Richard III -, which shows what a master colourist he was. Incidentally, the last chapter was drawn and painted by Eric Parker, indicating perhaps an illness or even, perhaps, Forrest's sudden death. Certainly the present authors can find no further work by this artist after that date. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright Robert Forrest art
Top of Page

Dave Franks biography
Dave Franks
Italian English by birth, Dave Franks' imagination and ability to work fast from memory have long helped established him as key to major players including Disney, Madame Tussauds, Coca Cola, and EMI.

Dave began his career working alongside Comic art creator Frank Langford in the 1980s whose mantle he was later to adopt. " I was also good at helping agencies out of difficult situations where they'd spent all night talking about doing the work and found there was almost no time for the artist (me) to actually do it.. "The conversation would go, 'Oh Dave I know this is impossible but would you help us out..etc etc..no matter what I'd get it done and they just could not believe it.

A recent Waterstones campaign was another eleventh hour job. One client even accused him of producing work that was 'too good'... "Now I'm painting, and it's such a relief from the digital fiddling about we get sucked into which so often looks sterile. Painting is more immediate and I'm having a lot of fun with it". Dave Franks art
Top of Page

Frank Frazetta biography
Frank Frazetta (9 Feb 1928, USA - 10 May 2010)
Probably the greatest name in fantasy/sword and sorcery art. Born in 1928 in Brooklyn, he studied fine art in New York and started work as an assistant to John Giunta. Influenced by Hal Foster his work for various comics publishers in the 1940s culminated in 1952 with the only comic completely drawn by Frazetta, Thun'da Tales 1. Following a few short pieces for DC his cover work began for Famous Funnies #209 - #216 featuring Buck Rogers. During the 1950s he worked on the daily strip Johnny Comet with brief periods on Flash Gordon and Li'l Abner. In the 1960s he began his painted covers for Eerie and Creepy magazines, the Ace paperbacks for Tarzan and the Lancer Conan series of novels. Today his original paintings are sold at Sotheby's for tens of thousands of dollars. See also our Frank Frazetta books. Frank Frazetta art
Top of Page

Fred Fredericks biography
Fred Fredericks (B. 1929; USA)
Fred Fredericks is an American cartoonist, who has drawn the Mandrake the Magician comic strip for over 40 years, taking over for the late Phil Davis.

Creator Lee Falk modernized the comic when Fredericks took over the strip, making it more reality-based by focusing less on science fiction and fantasy, and making Mandrake operate more like a secret agent, often helping out the police with cases they could not solve.

After creator Lee Falk died in 1999, Fredericks has also been responsible for writing the scripts for the Mandrake strip by himself. Fred Fredericks art
Top of Page

Friz Freleng biography
Isadore "Friz" Freleng (1905 -1995)
Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer, best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros.

He introduced and/or developed several of the studio's biggest stars, including Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the cat, Yosemite Sam (to whom he was said to bear more than a passing resemblance) and Speedy Gonzales.

The senior director at Warners' Termite Terrace studio, Freleng directed more cartoons than any other director in the studio (a total of 266), and is also the most honored of the Warner directors, having won four Academy Awards.

After Warners shut down the animation studio in 1963, Freleng and business partner David DePatie founded DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, which produced cartoons (notably The Pink Panther Show), feature film title sequences, and Saturday morning cartoons through the early 1980s. The nickname "Friz" came from how "frizzly" his hair was at one time. Friz Freleng art
Top of Page

Barbara C Freeman biography
Barbara C Freeman
Barbara Freemam illustrated many books by other writers, including The Treasure Hunters by Enid Blyton, and many collections of fairy tales, both traditional tales by Bros Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen and modern stories. Some of her earliest illustrations are found in The Cuckoo Book (1942), a book of fairy tales by Edith Mary Bell.

She also contributed to comics, including Playhour, and to annuals, such as Blackie's Children's Annual 1934. By the 1960s she had begun writing and illustrating her own books for children and young adults. Barbara C Freeman art
Top of Page

Oliver Frey biography
Oliver Frey (1948- )
Swiss-born artist resident in the UK for many years, Frey was a fan of Eagle and Look and Learn as a boy. He studied film at the London School of Film Technique and began drawing comic strips to support himself, working for Fleetway’s picture libraries.

After briefly running a film company in Switzerland, Frey returned to the UK and worked as a full-time comic strip artist and illustrator, working on two of his favourite boyhood comic strips, The Trigan Empire (1976-77) and Dan Dare (1982-83). With his brother, Franco, he was a co-founder of Newsfield Publications, providing hundreds of covers and illustrations for their many computer and horror magazines. He later co-founded Thalamus Publishing. Oliver Frey art
Top of Page

Leone Frollo biography
Leone Frollo (b. 1931, Italy)
Born in Venice in 1931, Leone Frollo still lives in the Rialto area. Initially he studied as an architect, but failing to find success he was persuaded to become involved in comics.

In 1948 he had his first story published in an English magazine It was received so well by the publisher, Fleetway that they retained his service for many other projects where hoe continued to work until 1963.

Despite illustrating Westerns, Science Fiction, machines, horror, costumes etc, he became considered as the major exponent of erotic art and Frollo's women put on and take off their clothes in a wickedly exhibitionist manner. Leone Frollo art
Top of Page

G

Giorgio De Gaspari biography
Giorgio De Gaspari (b. 1927, Italy)
For such an incredibly talented artist, almost nothing exists on the internet about Italian painter Giorgio De Gaspari. Although his merits have been praised on blogs - Bear Alley and Cloud 109, for instance - hard facts about the artist are almost impossible to come by.

De Gaspari was born on 30 January 1927, possibly in Varese - or the province of Varese - north of Milan in north-western Italy, not far from the Swiss border. He began his career under the auspices of comic strip artist and illustrator Walter Molino who, in the 1940s, was a leading contributor to Grand Hotel, to which paper De Gaspari also contributed; another strip ('Uragano, il re della prateria' [Hurricane, the King of the Prairie]) appeared in Success Collection published by CEA in 1946-47. De Gaspari also worked for Il Giornalino di Carroccio and illustrated il Giustiziere scarlatto for Albi Mignon.

In May 1947 his first illustrations appeared in La Domenica del Corriere, a Sunday paper which he was to continue contributing to until February 1970, producing over 1,000 illustrations. De Gaspari's paintings were of high quality and innovative in their use of original material, tools and techniques. He would use any sort of paper, create collages and cut and scratch the images. Such experimentation did occasionally cause him to fall foul of his editors. In one instance, on a Kit Carson cover painting for Cowboy Picture Library, he used real sand glued onto the page; although it made for a superb, textured image, it all had to be scraped off and a new sandy background painted in by an in-house 'bodger' rather than run the risk of damaging the machinery that turned the artwork into four-colour separations.

De Gaspari was a busy children's book illustrator in Italy for publishers Valladri, Agostoni, Lucchi and Fabbri as well as contributing illustrations to Arianna. Amongst the many titles he illustrated in the 1940s and 1950s were editions of Pinocchio, Don Quixote, The Three Musketeers, Moby Dick, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and various fairy tale books.

De Gaspari's first cover in the UK appeared on the Sexton Blake Library in February 1958, gracing Peter Saxon's The Sea Tigers; his second (and last) cover showed his talent for variety, illustrating Collapse of Stout Party by Jack Trevor Story.

De Gaspari thereafter turned his talents to providing covers for Fleetway's many pocket libraries, including Cowboy Picture Library (30 covers, 1958-60), Thriller Picture Library (39 covers, 1958-60) and Super Detective Library (4 covers, 1960).

However, it was with his work for War Picture Library that he is mainly known in the UK. Beginning with the very first issue in September 1958, De Gaspari produced 32 of the first 48 covers (1958-60) and were still appearing regularly until 1961, during which period (1960-61) he also contributed 12 covers to Air Ace Picture Library and the debut number of Battle Picture Library (1961). A brief resurgence in 1966 marked the end of De Gaspari's original appearances in the UK, although his work continued to appear, albeit infrequently, on book covers and in Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Giorgio De Gaspari art
Top of Page

Terence Gilbert biography
Terence Gilbert; UK)
Terence Gilbert is a chronicler of the contemporary scene. This he achieves with supreme success in his unique style combining realism with impressionism. He is present at events where action at every level of society is taking place: polo at Windsor, racing at Longchamp, rowing at Henley Royal Regatta, or ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
His assured draughtsmanship and exceptional observation enable Terence to capture an exact moment of action as well as the atmosphere of the setting where the event is happening.

Having studied at Camberwell Arts School in London, his knowledge of structure and anatomy enable him to portray the bodily tension of a sporting or theatrical moment: the stance of a fighter; the leap of a ballet dancer, a jockey's balance on a race horse and the dexterity of a jazz musician.

Terence's range of work is remarkably varied. He is extremely well-known and highly regarded for his equestrian portraits and his paintings on racing and sporting themes. Moreover, he has achieved international renown for his portraiture. His most significant commissions include a painting of HM The Queen and President Reagan riding at Windsor, which was presented to the President at the White House and a portrait of HM King Hussein of Jordan painted at Sandhurst. He has been commissioned by stars of film and stage, as well as painting many sporting heroes.

Terence has exhibited successfully worldwide and is in constant demand for new paintings.
Terence Gilbert art
Top of Page

Ruggero Giovannini biography
Ruggero Giovannini (1922-1983, Italy)
The word that most accurately describes the strip work of Giovannini is "rugged"; peculiarly apt for an artist whose Christian name is "Ruggero". His Western work for Thriller Picture Library, Cowboy Picture Library and for Top Spot is first class, his style eminently suitable for the hard-bitten subject matter. Paradoxically, however, perhaps his very best work was not a Western strip but a superb, action-packed version of The Three Musketeers (from a first class script by Leonard Matthews) for Look and Learn. Printed in full colour, this is one the most resplendent versions of Dumas' story ever to appear in comics, Giovannini's unusual "tough" style modified by a new swashbuckling grace.

Born in Rome, he began working as a strip artist in the pages of the celebrated comic journal, Vittorioso, in 1945. His first strip for the British comics was a wildlife adventure series based on the true-life exploits of Armand and Michaela Denis for Junior Express Weekly in 1955, followed by Red Devil Dean for the same paper. The following year, he was given the front page strip of the comic (now renamed Express Weekly), drawing Freedom is the Prize, set in Ancient Rome and introducing the character of Wulf the Briton, later to be made famous by Ron Embleton. His longest running strip for British comics was another story set in Ancient Rome: Olac the Gladiator for Tiger. He drew many more Historical strips for Ranger and for Look and Learn, including a fine version of Ben-Hur for the latter. It must be admitted, however, that, like so many European artists, Giovannini was not comfortable drawing English historical subjects as can be seen by his work for Dick Turpin and the Double Faced Foe (TCL no. 149) where the lack of authenticity is glaringly apparent. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright Ruggero Giovannini art
Top of Page

Maureen & Gordon Gray biography
Maureen & Gordon Gray
For such prolific illustrators and strip artists, almost nothing is known about Maureen and Gordon Gray. Some library sources give their years of birth as 1932 (Gordon) and 1940 (Maureen), but that information should be treated with care.

Usually signing their work 'Gray', they were regular contributors to comics in the 1980s, producing Kid's Army, a Second World War strip loosely based on the TV sitcom Dad's Army, Fame, based on the TV show, and The Fantastic Adventures of Adam Ant, about pop-star Adam traveling through time to pop up at various points in history. These strips all appeared in DC Thomson's TV Tops comic in around 1982.

The Grays then began appearing in Look-In, contributing Bucks Fizz (1983-84), The Story So Far featuring Shaking Stevens (1985), A-Ha (1986) and Michael Jackson (1986), Airwolf (1986), The A-Team (1986-87) and Five Star Life (1987).

A later graphic novel is credited to Maureen Gray only: The Haunting of Julia (2007) is based on Mary Hooper's children's novel Thirteen Candles, described thus: "When Julia watches Dad's video of herself preparing to blow out the candles, she notices something weird and mysterious, a dark hazy shape, leaning over her shoulder. She's sure it blew out the candles, but what is it?" From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Maureen & Gordon Gray art
Top of Page

Harry Green biography
Harry Green (b. 1920; UK)
A little-known artist, Harry Green contributed extensively to Look and Learn in the 1970s and 1980s, illustrating a variety of subjects ranging from historical buildings to football. However, it was as a transport illustrator that he really made his mark in the 1980 with the series "Britain's Railway Wonders". Green also contributed illustrations to Speed & Power in the 1970s.

His book illustrations include Architecture (1969), Architecture: The Great Art of Building (1969), Discovery of Australia (1969) and Discovery of South America (1970), some of which were jointly illustrated by Gwen Green who was also a prolific children's educational book illustrator. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Harry Green art
Top of Page

Roland Green biography
Roland Green (1890 - 1972; UK)
Roland Green was a noted nature artist, particularly known for his pictures of birds, which he painted in oils and watercolours.

He was born Roland Green in Rainham, Kent, in January 1890, the son of Roland Green, a taxidermist, and his wife Emily Filmer whom he married in the 1880s. Roland was their third child and first son, following Ivy (1885) and Daisy Eunice (1886). According to one biography, Green's father "taught him how to skin, stuff and set up birds, which gave Roland a fine knowledge of anatomy and plumage. Whilst at school he showed a gift for drawing and painting birds and went on to study at the Rochester School of art as well as Regent Street Polytechnic."

By 1911, Green was working as an artist/lithographer in London, the family having moved to Seven Kings, Essex, where Green's father was now employed as a joiner in the building trade. He later moved to Hickling in Norfolk, where his work attracted the attention of Lord Desborough, owner of the Hickling Estate. Green was commissioned to paint the frieze on the walls of Whitelea Lodge depicting the birds of the Hickling Broad.

Green illustrated a number of books, including contributions to The Birds of Australia by Gregory Mathews (London, Witherby, 12 vols., 1910-27) following the death in 1912 of J. G. Keulemans, who illustrated the first four volumes. Other books include Birds in Flight by W. P. Pycraft, The Bird Book by Enid Blyton, Wing to Wing by E. H. Ware and The Ladybird Book of British Wild Animals by George Cansdale.

Green died in Norfolk in 1972, aged 82. He never married. A large collection – 120 watercolours and 7 oil paintings – of Green's artwork amassed by Commander David Joel, a schoolboy when he was first introduced to Green, was sold in 2012 with profits going to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society.

Joel said in an interview: "There was not anyone on the Broads who did not know about Roland Green. He lived in the reedbeds and people thought he was a hermit, but he was anything but. He was an extrovert who gave talks at school and loved enthusing children with his love of art ... Modern artists use photographs but Green worked only from observation and that is why his birds look absolutely real." Joel has written a tribute to Green, A Homage to Roland Green – His Norfolk Legacy (2012), published by St. Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Lymington.

Note: Wikipedia gives his name as Roland J. Green, but there is no record of Green having a middle name or initial. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Roland Green art
Top of Page

H

Frank Hampson biography
Frank Hampson (1918-1985, UK)
Frank Hampson was only thirteen when he got an assignment to draw sketches for Meccano Magazine. At the age of twenty, he started studying at the Victoria College of Arts & Sciences.

During World War II, he served in the Royal Army Service Corps and became a lieutenant. At the end of the war, freshly married, he started attending the Southport School of Arts and Crafts and tried to make a living doing freelance jobs. He met Marcus Morris, a vicar, who had ambitions for founding a national Christian magazine, The Anvil, with a special emphasis on material for youngsters.

Eventually, Morris employed Hampson full-time, and they created Eagle, the magazine that featured the popular Dan Dare comics, in 1950. Hampson started out doing all the work single-handedly, but soon gathered a large crew of hard-working artists around him, including artists Desmond Walduck, Harold Johns, and Donald Harley, as well as writers Alan Stranks and Arthur C. Clarke.

The years between 1955 and 1959 were the heyday of the Eagle studios. In addition to 'Dan Dare', Hampson has worked on a variety of other strips for Eagle, such as 'The Great Adventurer', 'Tommy Walls', 'Rob Conway' and 'The Road of courage'.

After this, with a new editor, Frank retired from the 'Dan Dare' strip, leaving it to Frank Bellamy. In 1975, he was given an award recognizing his work at the Comic Festival in Lucca. He died of a stroke in 1985. Frank Hampson art
Top of Page

Martin Handford biography
Martin Handford
The artist creator of Where's Wally (Where's Waldo in USA) with many magazine illustrations to his name, including Miss London.. Martin Handford art
Top of Page

Wilf Hardy biography
Wilf(red) Hardy
Wilf Hardy began working for Treasure in its early days after working as a commercial artist. Some of his earliest illustrations were designed to help youngsters understand subjects ranging from building a motorway to the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

Hardy became one of the mainstays of Fleetway's educational titles, working for Look and Learn, Ranger, Speed & Power and World of Knowledge. His best known series was the long running Into the Blue which helped establish him as an aviation artist of renown, an area he has continued working in - nowadays in oil and other media - for posters and private commissions.

Producing the series 'Into the Blue' in Ranger and Look and Learn for some years helped Hardy develop an ability to depict aircraft of every description, from the days of stick and string to futuristic zeppelins. Hardy often picked the subject matter himself, although the text was usually editorially written, and designed the layouts for his pages.

'Hardy's Drawing Board' was a popular feature in later issues of Look and Learn. Hardy is a member of the Guild of Aviation Artists. Wilf Hardy art
Top of Page

John Harrold biography
John Harrold (b. 1947)
John Harrold first drew Rupert for the Daily Express in 1973 for Fun to Cook with Rupert, and his first Rupert the Bear story and annual work was in 1976. John is still illustrating Rupert today, almost 30 years later, and although living and working in France, he makes time to be at Canterbury (Rupert's birthplace) for Rupert's Birthday celebration in November each year. John Harrold art

Please note that we also have Rupert Bear art by Alfred Edmeades Bestall and other Rupert Bear art.
Top of Page

Andrew Haslen biography
Andrew Haslen
Andrew Haslen is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists. His work appears in many British bird books. Andrew Haslen art
Top of Page

Reginald Heade biography
Reginald Cyril Webb Heade (1901-1957, UK)
Reg Heade only produced a few covers for the Thriller Comics Library but they were of quite exceptional quality. He is, of course, noted for his 'girlie art' covers for the Hank Janson series of paperback "hard-boiled" thrillers for the author/publisher, Stephen Frances, but he also produced some superb Western paperback covers for Archer Books in the late '40s, four sensitively painted colour plates for The Adventures of Robin Hood published by Collins, powerful illustrations in bold colour for a series of children's classics for Partridge Publications Ltd., dust jackets for W.E. Johns' Worrals books, some covers for A.P.'s Sexton Blake Library and later, under the name "Cy Webb", extraordinarily-detailed work for Pan and Panther.

It was a pity he did no strip work for the T.C.L. for he was an excellent exponent of the art as can be seen in his strip work for Knockout in the late '40s, the Robin Hood strip he did for Sun in the early 1950s and his beautiful version of When Knights Were Bold that he painted in monochrome for Playhour, filling in for Arthur Horowicz. He was born in Forest Gate, London, and it appears that the name "Heade" was, in fact, a pseudonym and that the artist's true name was simply Reginald Cyril Webb. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Reginald Heade art
Top of Page

Jim Holdaway biography
Jim Holdaway (1927 - 1970, England)
Born in Barnes, London, Jim Holdaway became a freelance illustrator in 1950, working for publishers such as Odhams and Farrington Press. He worked on all types of artwork, adverts, cartoons, book illustrations and covers. His first full length stories were for Gallant Detective in 1952, and then went on to strips for Comic Cuts, and Swift. His first newspaper strip was Romeo Brown in the Daily Mirror. Sadly none of the original art for this strip has survived. This association with Peter O'Donnell led to the creation of Modesty Blaise which he drew from 1963 until his untimely death in 1970. Jim Holdaway art

We have been selling art to collectors for over 20 years, and the most regularly requested art has been Jim Holdaway's fabulous pen and ink artwork for Modesty Blaise, written by Peter O'Donnell. We also have Modesty Blaise original signed artwork by Romero, John M Burns, Patrick Wright and newspaper strips and novels!
Top of Page

Fred Holmes biography
Frederick Thomas Holmes (1908-1994)
It is extraordinary the way certain artists take to the adventure picture strip as to the manner born. Fred Holmes was one of these. His first strip, Robin Hood of Sherwood was published in Sun in August 1953, (and reprinted in TCL 91) and gives all the appearance of work done by a long-established strip artist. For his very next strip, he was entrusted with creating a brand new character for the comics: Claude Duval. This strip began in September of 1953 for Comet and he made it his own.

Like all Associated Press's new adventure strip artists at this time, Fred was given artwork by Campion and Eyles to study before getting down to work. Both influences can be seen in his work, but Holmes had a style that was all his own, which he was able to adapt to suit not only period costume adventures but, later, football strips, taking over Roy of the Rovers for Tiger and the rather jokey Carson's Cubs for Lion; Western strips such as Billy the Kid for Sun and Buffalo Bill for Comet and several World War II battle stories for the various War Picture Libraries.

Fred has intimated that his initial break into illustrations came about because Drummonds of Stirling, Scotland, who were looking for an artist to illustrate their series of religious annuals for children, confused him with Frederick W. Holmes (no relation), a well-known illustrator of the time. If true, we can be grateful that such a mix-up occurred. We can also be grateful that this work came to an end after the War, prompting Fred to answer an advertisement put out by the Temple Art Agency looking for children's book illustrators. When Holmes realised it would mean working for comics, he was overjoyed. Starting by contributing spot illustrations to stories in Film Fun, Jingles and Tip Top, Holmes worked steadily for A.P. with occasional strip work for D.C. Thompson's Hotspur, Victor and Hornet in the late 60s until, shortly after the demise of Lion, he retired from comic work.

Fred Holmes was born in Lindsdale, Buckinghamshire, and took a postal course in illustration with the British and Dominions School of Drawing. Before the age of twenty, Holmes' drawings were appearing in such publications as the Meccano Magazine and the Co-op Magazine as well as in the pages of the Birmingham Weekly Post. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright Fred Holmes art
Top of Page

Andrew Howat biography
Andrew Howat
Born in Hale, Cheshire, Howat studied life drawing, anatomy and painting at Manchester School of Art.

Andrew Howat has contributed a wide variety of work to Look and Learn. In the late 1970s, he was one of the key artists providing features on the rear cover, including the miscellaneous strip 'Strange Facts' and episodes of the 'Land of Legend' and 'Crowning Glory' series.

After his move to London he worked at a commercial studio before linking up with fellow artists Bob Robins and Gordon Davidson to produce illustrations for magazines and books. The trio often signed their work 'RDH'.

Howat later worked for various London advertising agencies as well as freelancing as a designer of greetings cards. He continues to design cards featuring landscapes and views of London as well as to paint landscapes in watercolour and pastel around London and Hertfordshire.

One of his paintings of the Palace of Westminster was used as a Christmas card by the House of Commons in 1999. He currently lives in north London. Andrew Howat art
Top of Page

Ernest Michael Hubbard biography
Ernest Michael Hubbard (1904-1976, Ireland)
Michael Hubbard was one of the most talented artists ever to draw for comics. Perhaps best known for taking over Jane from Norman Pett in the Daily Mirror, he drew superbly atmospheric illustrations for The Thriller in the 1930s, including some sensational covers. As would be expected from the artist who drew "Jane", his delineation of the female form was second to none, equalled only by Heade. This talent was not exploited in the Thriller Comics Library as his only strip to appear in the series was Treasure Island (no.3) and that was not an original but adapted from the serial, which had appeared in Knockout some years previously. The only woman to appear in this was Jim Hawkins' mother!

His strip work for the comics can be seen to its best advantage in Ranger and Princess Tina in the 1960s where he not only drew but painted lavish versions of the classics, notably King Solomon's Mines and Coral Island (a version of which he had previously drawn for Knockout in 1946) for the former and The Secret Garden for the latter. An unfinished version of Lorna Doone, perhaps also destined for Princess Tina, was probably the last work he produced before he died. The colour is radiantly jewel-like and atmospheric, and the drawing of exceptional quality, beautifully evoking the world of Blackmore's novel. Michael Hubbard was born and trained as an artist in Dublin before starting work in Dean's Studios. He was an excellent portrait painter and an expert on the history of architecture. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Ernest Michael Hubbard art
Top of Page

Geoff Hunt biography
Geoff Hunt
Geoff Hunt is one of the leading marine artists of his generation. After formal art school training Geoff worked in marine publishing where he acquired a love of marine history. A Member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists since 1989, and a trustee since 1992, he was responsible for the RSMA's book A Celebration of Marine Art and The Tall Ship in Art. His work hangs in public and private collections around the world. There are 12 of his paintings in the Royal Naval museum in Portsmouth. Geoff Hunt art
Top of Page

Gordon Hutchings biography
Gordon Hutchings
Gordon Hutchings took over the long-running Gulliver Guinea-Pig strip from Philip Mendoza around 1961 and his crisp charming work appeared in Playhour and later the Teddy Bear Annual. Gordon Hutchings art
Top of Page

I

Victor Ibanez biography
Victor Ibáñez Sanchis (b. 1938, Spain)
Victor Ibanez (Vicente Ibáñez Sanchis) was born in Valencia in 1938. He began his career as an apprenctice at Editoria Valenciana in 1954, contributing to collections like Comandos (1954) and later Yuki, el Temerario (1958) and Cuentos Gráficos Infantiles Cascabel (1958). By 1960 he was also present at Maga with contributions to Johnny Fogata (scripts by Pedro Quesada) and Muchachas. Work for Valenciana during this decade included Kid Tejano and El Sargento Virus. However, Ibáñez was mainly drawing action comics for the British market, among others for The Victor and Pow!. Victor Ibanez art
Top of Page

J

Peter Jackson biography
Peter Charles Geoffrey Jackson (b.1922)
Peter Jackson is a master of historical illustration, second to none in his ability to bring any period to life. His wonderful London Scrapbooks drawn for the Evening News from the 1940s onwards, some of which were collected in two memorable volumes, "London Explorer" and "London is Stranger Than Fiction", are legendary. Born in Brighton and trained at the Willesden School of Art in London, Jackson's first published work was an illustration for True Story in 1945.

In the late '40s, he drew a series of adventure classics, one of which, Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, was printed as Thriller Comics Library no. 29 with additional frames by Patrick Nicolle (taken from his 1952 Sun strip). Jackson is the first to dismiss this strip and it is certainly not in the same league as his version of Treasure Island, part of the same series, which was published in book form by Pitman, or any of the wonderful work he was to do later.

Never a prolific strip artist, much of his working life being taken up with historical reconstructions, etc., his work for Express Weekly, Swift, Mickey Mouse Weekly and Eagle confirm that he could have been a great asset to the Thriller Comics Library. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Peter Jackson art
Top of Page

Ron Jobson biography
Ron Jobson
Ron is a well-known illustrator and the creator of many of the propaganda posters during the Second World War. In 1967 he was responsible for the illustrations on all of the Matchbox 1-75 Series model boxes for that year.
Ron has also produced illustrations for Airfix model boxes and for many books on aircraft and spacecraft. Ron Jobson art
Top of Page

Bruce Jones biography
Bruce Jones, USA)
Bruce Jones started out as an artist in New York in the 1970s, selling illustrations to science fiction magazines, comic books, fanzines and men's magazines. In the mid-1970s Jones turned to writing for the Warren magazines.

Since the 1980s, he has worked for numerous comics like Alien Worlds, Batman, Conan the Barbarian, Incredible Hulk, Vampirella and Weird War Tales. He has also let loose his unusual imagination in his own comic Twisted Tales. Bruce Jones art
Top of Page

Chuck Jones biography
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones (1912 - 2002, USA)
"Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio.

He directed many of the classic short animated cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester, Pepé Le Pew and the other Warners characters, including Duck Amuck, One Froggy Evening and What's Opera, Doc? (all three of which were later inducted into the National Film Registry) and Jones' famous "Hunting Trilogy" of Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit! Duck! (1951-1953).

After his career at Warner Bros. ended in 1962, Jones started Sib Tower 12 Productions and began producing cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including a new series of Tom and Jerry shorts and the television adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.

He later started his own studio, Chuck Jones Productions, which created several one-shot specials, and periodically worked on Looney Tunes related works. Chuck Jones art
Top of Page

Jeff Jones biography
Jeffrey (Jeff) Jones (b. 1944, USA)
Born in Atlanta Georgia, he studied geology in college before moving to New York in 1967 where he became an illustrator. In 1971 he created the strip called Idyll for National Lampoon magazine. His early comic included work for Charlton and DC, but his vocation is painting. He has illustrated many paperback covers for Ace and Bantam including many Robert E Howard works. In 1976, along with Barry Windsor Smith, Mike Kaluta and Berni Wrightson, he founded The Studio, where he produced a number of high quality extremely limited edition prints. His black and white strip I'm Age appeared in Heavy Metal magazine. He continues to paint and has had several major exhibitions in America. See also our Jeffrey Jones books. Jeffrey Jones art
Top of Page

Sydney Jordan biography
Sydney Jordan
Scottish artist Sydney Jordan was initially drawn towards a career in flying and studied at the Miles Aircraft Technical College in Reading. Unable to find a job, he joined a small artists' studio in Dundee, his place of birth.

He assisted Len Fullerton on his comic Dora, Toni and Liz and came up with a new science-fiction character, Orion. In 1952, he moved to London and started working for the agency Man's World.

Here, he came up with Dick Hercules, and submitted his Orion character to the Daily Express, who advised him to make his hero an RAF pilot: Jeff Hawke was born.

After the first few aircraft episodes, Jeff Hawke took off into space and became a popular feature of the Daily Express. Sydney Jordan and his friend Willy Patterson, who wrote the scenarios, devoted themselves to this series, which appeared until 1974 and was translated and published in countries all over Europe. Sydney Jordan art
Top of Page

K

Michael Kaluta biography
Michael Kaluta (b. 1947, USA)
Born in Guatemala (of U.S. Citizens), he has been influenced by Al Williamson, Frank Frazetta, and Maxfield Parrish, amongst others. He began his comics work in the 1970s for DC and it was during this time that he first illustrated The Shadow. In the late 1970s he joined with Barry Windsor Smith, Bernie Wrightson and Jeff Jones at The Studio where he produced a series of limited edition prints and photoprints. In the 1980s he produced a a number of book covers and record sleeves, and in 1985 illustrated Elaine Lee's SF satirical play/graphic novel Starstruck. More recently he has returned to painting covers for the new Shadow and Tarzan comic books for DC and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Minidoka book for Dark Horse. Michael has also illustrated covers for DC's new Aquaman (issues 64-75). See also our Michael Kaluta books. Michael Kaluta art
Top of Page

Charles Ian Kennedy biography
(Charles) Ian Kennedy (b.1932, Scotland)
Best known as a superb cover artist for DC Thomson - most of the Thomson adventure annual covers of the '80s were by him as are, to this day, all the best Commando Library covers - Ian Kennedy also drew many strips for the Amalgamated Press in the '50s and was the best of the new Dan Dare artists in IPC's New Eagle. He is extremely versatile and, as well as being a thoroughly convincing War artist in his many Battler Britton stories, he drew excellent Western strips. He drew Billy the Kid for Sun and Hopalong Cassidy and Davy Crockett for Knockout, the latter being of particular interest for its authenticity as well as for its backwoods humour.

Ian Kennedy was born in Dundee, Scotland, and, on leaving school, worked for five years in DC Thomson's Art Department which he said was the best training an apprentice comic artist could possibly wish for. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Ian Kennedy art
Top of Page

Jack Kirby biography
Jack Kirby (1917 - 1994, USA)
One of the fathers of the comic book, there is hardly an artist in comics today who has not been directly or indirectly influenced by Kirby. In his early career he worked at the Fleischer animation studios, and in the 1940s teamed with Joe Simon to create many different super-hero teams and characters. Among these were Captain America for Timely, Stuntman and Boy Explorers for Harvey. In the 1960s he worked with Stan Lee on Fantastic Four, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers, etc, and he was the major factor that made Marvel a household name in comics.See also our Jack Kirby books and Jack Kirby Collector issues.
Top of Page

L

Bill Lacey biography
Bill Lacey (1917-2000)
Bill Lacey was one of the finest storytellers British comics ever produced. Born in 1917, he served in Bomber Command in the RAF during World War II. In 1947 he worked for Jackman Studios Bible publishers and drew amongst others The Story of Jesus. He then moved to work on the prestigious comic Mickey Mouse Weekly in which he drew Robin Alone. It was in Super Detective Library that he really made his mark, drawing #3 Bulldog Drummond, #54 The Riddle of the Blue Men, various Dirk Rogers adventures and all the Blackshirt issues starting at #103 'Wanted - Blackshirt. He also drew 4 of the John Steel Special Agent World War II issues : #157, #160, #165 and #171. He only drew two Thriller Picture Library issues #76 The Covered Wagon and #347 Operation Freedom.

He contributed to girls comics including The Circus Ballerina for Princess. He also worked for Film Fun, Buster, Tiger, Lion and Valiant. He then went to work for the marvellous magazine Look & Learn where he drew a version of Great Expectations and Eagles Over the Western Front a Biggles inspired WW1 series that saw Lacey excelling in depicting action packed dogfights over the French countryside. His other main strip for Look & Learn was Agent of the Queen which told the adventures of a Victorian James Bond. In the 1970s his style and expertise were used in Battle Picture Weekly and Valiant, and numerous other annuals.

We are pleased to offer some outstanding 1972 episodes of original art from Eagles Over the Western Front. Bill Lacey art
Top of Page

David Langdon biography
David Langdon (24 February 1914 - 18 November 2011; UK)
David Langdon was born in London in 1914, the son of Bennett Langdon and his wife Bess. Keen on drawing from the age of four, he studied "Design and Decoration" at Davenant Grammar School, London, and contributed sketches to the school magazine. However, he was largely self-taught. Langdon's parents did not regard art as offering a worthwhile career, and in 1931 he left school to work in the Architects Department of the London County Council. For the next five years he concentrated on professional qualifications, but in 1935 he had his first cartoons published in the LCC staff journal, London Town.

In 1936 Langdon sold his first cartoon - a joke about Mussolini - to Time and Tide, and in 1937 he was invited to contribute to Punch after meeting Kenneth Bird, who was then its Art Director. Langdon felt at home at the Punch office. "It was a holy-of-holies sort of atmosphere", he recalled: "It was all very quiet, with highly-polished floors." Styles of cartoon were changing and Langdon's work suited the moment. As he recalled, "I concentrated on pure humour at a time when the simplified drawing and the short caption were taking over from the stylised drawing and the copious legend." In 1937 Langdon began contributing to the new magazine Lilliput, and sold an idea for an advertisement to Shell.

On the outbreak of war in 1939 Langdon left the LCC to become an Executive Officer in the London Rescue Service. At the same time he began to make a name for himself as a cartoonist, recalling later that "we minor cartoonists left it to David Low to satirise and exhort and try to move mountains": "We occupied ourselves with the minutiae of life as it was lived hour by hour in the shortest term view. We were flattered by having our work together with Low's described as contributing to the war effort." Langdon produced a series of wartime information cartoons for London Transport featuring Billy Brown of London Town, with verses by Richard Usborne. These became so famous that they inspired a song by Noel Gay: "Who stood up and saved the town when London Bridge was falling down? Mr Brown of London town."

In 1941 Langdon's first book of cartoons was published, entitled Home Front Lines. In the same year he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, eventually becoming a squadron leader and, from 1945 to 1946, editor of the Royal Air Force Journal. Langdon worked quickly, and it was noted in 1942 that "it takes him about twenty minutes to finish a drawing." His wartime output was large and very popular, and on his demobilisation in 1946 he became a freelance, making regular contributions to Punch. In 1948 he started a long association with the Sunday Pictorial, later renamed the Sunday Mirror, by contributing a weekly column of topical cartoons, and in 1952 he also began contributing to the New Yorker.

In 1953 Langdon created Professor Puff and His Dog Wuff for Eagle, the children's comic, and a book of these strips was published in 1957. In 1958 Langdon was elected to the Punch Table. His drawings also appeared in Paris-Match, Radio Times, Saturday Evening Post, Aeroplane, Royal Air Force Review, Collier's, True and The Spectator. From 1959 he produced an annual racing calendar for Ladbrokes. He also drew a set of caricatures of lawyers and High Court judges, and produced a considerable amount of advertising work including drawings for Bovril, Winsor & Newton, Shell, Schweppes and others.

Langdon had an economical style, citing his influences as Honore Daumier and Kenneth Bird ("Fougasse"). He once described his method of working as "controlled mind-wandering": "You pick something out of the paper - I'm very much a current affairs cartoonist, you know - you think about it, your mind wanders away, you pull it back, it wanders away again, you pull it back once more, and by now the gag is beginning to stare you in the face." For the final version he would use a brush and ink over a pencil outline drawn half larger than reproduction size on white Bristol board. He claimed to have introduced the "open mouth" into humorous art, to indicate who is speaking.

In 1977 Langdon described his weekly routine. On Monday he would go through the papers, and in the evening rough out his Punch cartoons. The next day he would take them into the Punch office, returning home in the afternoon to work on the finished versions. On Wednesday he would take the finished cartoons to the Punch editorial lunch, and in the afternoon begin working on his roughs for the Sunday Mirror. On Thursday he would take these roughs to the Mirror office, and remained there until the chosen cartoons were finished. A devoted supporter of Wycombe Wanderers football club, where he sat for a time on the committee, his daughter recalled that "watching the Blues and playing golf at Harewood Downs were my father's way of relaxing at the end of a week thinking up new and original ideas for cartoons".

In 1988 Langdon was awarded an OBE and elected FRSA. In 1990 he stopped working for the Sunday Mirror, and he also stopped working for Punch when it folded in 1992, having contributed at least 5,000 cartoons to the magazine. In 2001 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Cartoon Art Trust. David Langdon died peacefully in his sleep on 18 November 2011, at the age of 97. David Langdon art
Top of Page

Don Lawrence biography
Don(ald Southam) Lawrence (1928-2003)
Born in East Sheen, London, on 17 November 1928, Don Lawrence used his gratuity from National Service to attend Borough Polytechnic to study art. He became a regular contributor to the superheroic adventures of Marvelman in 1954 before producing the Western strips Wells Fargo and Pony Express for Zip and Swift He found work with Fleetway, drawing another Western, Billy the Kid, before finding his niche drawing historical strips Karl the Viking, Olac the Gladiator and Maroc the Mighty.

Fully colour strips for Lion Annual and Bible Story, including the life of Herod the Great in the latter, led to him being offered The Trigan Empire, which debuted in the short-lived Ranger in September 1965 before finding a regular home in the educational weekly Look and Learn from June 1966. Lawrence was to draw this iconic strip for 11 years in all.

After 11 years on Trigan Empire, Lawrence helped create Storm, the story of a man catapulted into the distant future, for the Dutch weekly comic Eppo. Lawrence painted 22 volumes of Storm's adventures between 1976 and 1995. That year, Lawrence lost the sight in one eye and a final volume was completed with the assistance of Liam McCormack-Sharp in 2001. Lawrence was widely respected in continental Europe (he was made a Knight of the order of Oranje-Nassau by Queen Beatrix of Holland) and won many awards. He died on 29 December 2003, aged 75. Don Lawrence art
Top of Page

Brian Lewis biography
Brian Moncreif Lewis (3 June 1929 - 4 December 1978; UK)
Brian Lewis is an artist whose reputation has continued to endure long after his death. Known in science fiction circles for his often abstract covers for New Worlds, Science Fantasy and Science Fiction Adventures and in comic circles for his contributions to House of Hammer, appreciation of Lewis's work has grown as more of his work for other papers and magazines is discovered.

Brian Moncreif Lewis was born on 3 June 1929 and served his National Service with the RAF. An interest in science fiction led him to co-edit and contribute to The Medway Journal fanzine in the early 1950s. His first professional sale relating to SF is thought to be an illustration relating to Journey Into Space for the Radio Times. His connections with Nova Publications began in 1954 and, between 1957 and 1962 he painted some 80 covers for their three SF magazines, his work often showing a strong surrealist influence. During the same period he also painted a number of rather more straight-forward covers for Digit Books.

Lewis made his comic strip debut in 1959, drawing early strips for Lone Star and TV Comic. However, it was with Jet Ace Logan in Tiger that he found his feet and there followed a 13-month run on Captain Condor in 1961-63. Lewis also proved adept at drawing sports and war strips, culminating in work for Eagle where he drew Mann of Battle and Home of the Wanderers. Science fiction was not forgotten and Lewis drew SF tales for Boys' World, Tiger and Hurricane. In 1964 he also proved himself as a humour artist when he began contributing cartoon strips to Wham! and, over the next few years, humour and adventure strips often ran concurrently in the pages of Smash!.

In the late 1960s, Lewis worked for the Central Office of Information on public information films and also contributed to the Beatles' animated movie Yellow Submarine. He suffered a heart attack in 1970 and struggled for some years, drawing strips for Countdown and Look-In and a series of scientific biographies for All About Science. In 1976, his agent contacted Dez Skinn suggesting Lewis as an artist for the upcoming House of Hammer; Skinn was only persuaded after seeing samples, but the connection proved fruitful, eventually leading to a brief association between Lewis and 2000AD where he drew covers and, briefly, the Dan Dare strip.

A busy artist in the late 1970s, painting books covers and contributing to The Muppet Show Diary, annuals, Vampirella and Target magazine, Lewis suffered a heart attack and died on 4 December 1978, aged only 49. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Brian Lewis art
Top of Page

Kenneth Lilly biography
Kenneth Norman Lilly (30 December 1929 - Spring 1996; UK)
Kenneth Lilly was one of the finest of British nature artists, his drawings of wildlife - most notably the kind of wildlife you would find in your hedgerow or nearby fields - drawn with a passion and interest for the subject.

Born in Bromley, Surrey, on 30 December 1929, Lilly became a prolific contributor of illustrations and covers to Look and Learn and Treasure. He produced a number of notable series for the former, illustrating Maxwell Knight’s This Month in the Country (1967) and Ken Denham’s series on Animal Families (1968).

Lilly was also a regular illustrator of books from the 1970s onwards and an exhibition of his animal paintings was held at the Medici Galleries in London in 1983. Some of the best illustrations can be found in Kenneth Lilly’s Animals (1988). As well as books, Lilly also illustrated a set of stamps entitled Friends of the Earth, released in 1986.

In 1992, Dorling Kindersley published a series of short children's books under the title Kenneth Lilly's Animal Ark, which grouped animals with common features (feathers, scales, spots or stripes) with a single sentence description by Angela Wilkes. A later series by Tessa Potter featured different animals and different seasons. One of his most notable series was a number of books which depicted animals at life size.

Lilly, who lived in Devon, died in the spring of 1996, aged 66. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Kenneth Lilly art
Top of Page

Barrie Linklater biography
Barrie Linklater (b. 1931, UK)
Born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, in 1931, Barrie Linklater studied at Woolwich Polytechnic School of Art and began his artistic career working in a London studio before leaving for Australia where he worked as a freelance for four years.

Returning to London, Linklater forged a reputation as a fine portrait artist and subsequently as an equestrian artist, his first commission in the latter area coming from HRH the Duke of Edinburgh during a sitting for a portrait in 1975. Equestrian work has since been commissioned by Her Majesty The Queen and the City of London amongst many others. In all he has 13 paintings in the Royal Collection and his work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery. Linklater lives and works in Berkshire.

In the 1960s, Linklater contributed illustrations to Look and Learn's adaptation of H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon in 1963 and later, in 1967, began producing covers and illustrations on a semi-regular basis. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Barrie Linklater art
Top of Page

Virginio Livraghi biography
Virginio Livraghi (b. 1924, Cremona, Italy)
Virginio Livraghi was a painter, born in Dovera in the province of Cremona in the Lombardy region of Italy, in 1924. Dovera is only 35 km southeast of Milan and it is no surprise that Livraghi gravitated to this centre of artistic excellence. In the late 1940s he worked as an animator on the famous Italian film La Rosa di Bagdad directed by Anton Gino Domenighini and quickly found a market for his illustrations with Milanese publishers Carroccio, Gino Conte, Fratelli Fabbri, Piccoli and others in the 1950s and 1960s.

His talents lay in illustrations for young children, especially fairy tales (including classics like Snow White, Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland and Pinocchio) and stories about animals (including Penny, an Italian translation of Isobel St Vincent's Penny Pullet, and Maria Pia Pezzi's Curly Pig, which made the reverse journey in translation into English).

Working via Creazioni D'Ami, Livraghi began producing delightful colour strips and illustrations for British nursery comics, beginning with a run of strips starring the comical adventures of Playhour's Leo the Friendly Lion, taking the strip over from Harold McCready in April 1960 and later handing over to another ex-animator, Bert Felstead, in February 1961.

That year, Livraghi began drawing illustrations and covers for the British educational magazine Knowledge and the Italian nursery magazine Michelino, published by the Fabbri brothers. In February 1969 he returned to the British market after a four year absence to draw illustrations featuring Brer Rabbit for Once Upon a Time. These beautiful colour illustrations would continue to appear until October 1971, although Henry Fox provided an increasing number of fill-ins from mid-1970.

It is a shame so little is known about this immensely talented artist: he was one of the best artists in the field of anthropomorphic animals to work in the UK; in Brer Rabbit especially he captured the humour and sense of mischief of the stories he illustrated as Brer constantly outwitted the wily creatures who wanted to capture him. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Virginio Livraghi art
Top of Page

Vincent Locke biography
Vincent Locke (b. 1966, USA)
Vince Locke is an American artist, often associated with grotesque and violent fantasy and horror images, although his work has also included mainstream superhero work for Batman and The Spectre, as well as work for British comics 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine.

Born in Michigan in 1966, the son of a sign painter. Influenced by artists like Andrew Wyeth and turn of the century illustrators, Locke came to fan attention with his work on Deadworld, a zombie horror series created by Stuart Kerr and Ralph Griffith for their own small press outfit Arrow Comics. Deadworld, by Kerr and Locke, was launched in 1987 but lasted only seven issues before the collapse of the black & white market in the US. Deadworld was continued by Caliber Comics and Locke continued drawing the series until 1991 as well as inking Baker Street in 1989-91.

Locke found work with Vertigo, drawing or inking episodes of The Sandman (1992-93), American Freak: A Tale of the Un-Men (1994), Sandman Mystery Theatre (1994-95), Witchcraft: La Terreur (1998) and The Books of Faerie: Auberon's Tale (1998). For Paradox Press Locke drew A History of Violence (1997) written by John Wagner, which was filmed by David Cronenberg in 2005 with Viggo Mortensen in the lead role.

The artist has also been long associated with the death-metal band Cannibal Corpse. He has painted covers for all their albums starting with Eaten Back to Life in 1989. The ultraviolent images - ranging from zombie doctors to visceral birth scenes. Locke also illustrated the graphic novel Evisceration Plague which was distributed during the band's tour promoting the album of that name and featured stories based on each of the songs.

In the early 2000s, Locke was a popular contributor to White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast, producing many illustrations for the latter's Forgotten Realms role-playing games. In 2006-09, Locke drew a number of Tales from the Black Museum one-off stories for Judge Dredd Megazine, a Tharg's Future Shocks and two Judge Dredd yarns for 2000AD. He has also drawn illustrations for two collections of stories by Caitlin R. Kiernan, Frog Toes and Tentacles (2005), Tales from the Woeful Platypus (2007) and A is for Alien (2009).

Locke, married and with three children, lives in the suburbs of Michigan. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Vincent Locke art
Top of Page

Bernard Long biography
Bernard Long
Very little is known about Bernard Long. Only a few scattered examples of his work have come to light, and those mostly in the chronically underexplored world of nursery comics. Long was a contributor to Jack & Jill, drawing the lighthearted adventures of Fliptail the Otter in around 1970, and to the Jack & Jill and Teddy Bear annuals.

Although these are low on the collectable scale of most comics' fans, Long's work shouldn't be dismissed. He was an exceptionally good nature artist and it seems very likely he contributed to various educational magazines as well as nursery comics. It is thought that he contributed to Look and Learn in the late 1960s and back page artwork for Fun-To-Do in later years, for which information I should thank David Slinn, who recalls that Long was "quietly efficient, very reliable and, as a result, somewhat taken for granted." Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Bernard Long art
Top of Page

Sydney Seymour Lucas biography
Sydney Charles Seymour Lucas (9 May 1878 - 1954; England)
Sydney Seymour Lucas was an illustrator and portrait painter, the son of artist J. Seymour Lucas, R.A. (1849-1923) and his wife, also an artist, Paris-born Marie Elizabeth, daughter of Louis Dieudonne de Cornelissen (1851-1921), then living at 21 Queen Square. Born Sydney Charles Seymour Lucas on 9 May 1878, he was baptized at St John the Evangelist, Westminster, on 1 June 1878. In the 1880s, the family moved to 1 Woodchurch Road, St. John, West Hampstead, a purpose-built studio and home designed by John Seymour Lucas's friend, the architect Sydney Williams-Lee.

Lucas was educated in Suffolk (in 1891, he was boarding with James George Easton, vicar of St Margaret's Church, Ilkeshall St Margaret), Westminster School (1892-95) and at the Royal Academy Schools, and began selling illustrations professionally around the turn of the century (some references give the dates his work flourished as 1904-40).

Lucas was married in 1905 to Mary Douglas Clark. By 1911, Lucas and his family, which now included a son, Arthur Henry Seymour-Lucas, born in 1908, were living at 61 Rudolph Road, Bushey, Hertfordshire. Mary Douglas Seymour-Lucas died, in 1933, at the early age of 48 at the time, the Lucas family were living at 64 Falconer Road, Bushey.

Lucas worked at 6 Albert Studios, Albert Bridge Road, Battersea, in 1934. His younger sister, Marie Ellen Seymour Lucas (later Grubbe), also studied as an artist.

Lucas died in Blyth, Sussex, in 1954, aged 76. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Sydney Seymour Lucas art
Top of Page

M

Sue Macartney-Snape biography
Sue Macartney-Snape
Sue Macartney-Snape has been poking fun at British stereotypes for over fifteen years in the pages of the Saturday Telegraph Magazine. With pin-sharp commentary by Victoria Mather, she has skewered fanciful fashions and foibles since 1994 in their weekly 'Social Stereotypes' column. John Julius Norwich has described her as a "master of caricature" and has said that her paintings "illustrate the English social scene more brilliantly and with greater accuracy than those of any other painter working today." Cartoonist Martin Rowson has said her artwork "can encapsulate an entire social milieu in a drooping eyelid or a flared nostril." Elsewhere she has been described as the "Wodehouse of Art".

Born in Tanzania, Sue Macartney-Snape grew up in Australia, arriving in London in 1980. She has exhibited widely, including sell out exhibitions with David Ker, Jonathan Clark and at the Sloane Club. She has also painted many commissions, including ones from Glyndebourne, The Metropolitan Opera and Barbara Amiel (Mrs. Conrad Black).

She won the 2004 Pont Award for drawing the British Character for her funny, colourful caricatures of folks from all walks of life, which have been collected in a series of books over the years. Another book, Araminta's Wedding, was a humorous story of the upper classes by Jilly Cooper. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Sue Macartney-Snape art
Top of Page

Robert Maguire biography
Robert A Maguire (August 3, 1921 - February 26, 2005; USA)
Robert Maguire painted over 600 covers for such publishers as Pocket, Dell, Ace, Harper, Avon, Silhouette, Ballantine, Pyramid, Bantam, Lion, Berkeley, Beacon and Monarch - virtually every mainstream publishing house in New York - making his original cover art a tour de force in the last half of the twentieth century.

Robert Maguire began his education at Duke University, but like so many others of his generation, left for service in World War II. Upon his return, his interest in art led him to the Art Students League, where his instructor was the famed Frank Reilly. Two of Maguire's more noteworthy fellows included Clark Hulings and Jimmy Bama, graduates all of the class of '49. Mr. Maguire is a Member Emeritus of The Society of Illustrators.

Bob Maguire's career took off immediately with his first work for Trojan Publications: cover art for their line of small pocket pulps, with titles like Hollywood Detective Magazine (Oct. 1950). Maguire did three of the eight covers for this pocket pulp series. From then on, his career blossomed.

His classic period of the 50s and 60s grew out of his skilled female images, some of the best and most memorable of the period. Maguire's mastery of the femme fatale created a vintage paperback icon: his women are passionate yet somehow down to earth, approachable, though sometimes at your own risk. These images compel one to wonder what led up to that instant in time and where it will lead next, the very stuff of timeless art.

Robert Maguire continued evolving and his contributions to the golden age of noir art are legion. That period, fraught with reaction and change, produced extremes. Life in the 1950s was set against a backdrop of Joe McCarthy, Ezekiel Gathing and their ilk, ranting of fear and hatred, while the USA was experiencing a social revolution that reverberates to this day. R. A. Maguire's work is a window on the birth of that revolution. Robert Maguire art
Top of Page

Maroc biography
Maroc (Robert Coram)
"Maroc" was the pen name of Robert Coram who contributed to London Opinion, Answers, Blighty, Inky Way Annual, Weekend Mail, Passing Shows, Sunday Chronicle, Daily Dispatch, Children's Own Favourite, Men Only, Strand, Sunday Telegraph and Razzle - especially the 4-6-page Reggie series.

In the 1960s he also drew Sportrait pocket cartoons for the Evening Standard. Coram's comic strips included Prairie Pete and Pronto, Ann Howe, Bob and Tanner, Wibble and Wobble and his pocket cartoon series included Wartime Humour and To-Day's Smile. Maroc art
Top of Page

William Francis Marshall biography
(William) Francis Marshall (1901-1980)
Francis Marshall studied at Slade before entering the world of advertising illustration. In 1928 he began a 10-year relationship with Condé Nast, drawing for Vogue. In 1959 he wrote a successful book on drawing entitled Magazine Illustration. Francis Marshall art
Top of Page

Fortunino Matania biography
Fortunino Matania (1881-1963)
Born in Naples in 1881, Fortunino Matania trained at his father's studio and illustrated his first book at the age of 14. He studied in Paris, Milan and London, where he worked on The Graphic. He returned to Italy at the age of 22 for military service in the Bersaglieri. He then returned to London where he joined the staff of The Sphere. With the outbreak of World War I he became a war artist and spent nearly five years at the front drawing hundreds of sketches. His work was admired by military experts and critics alike for his technical accomplishment and scrupulous accuracy. His war art features in virtually every history or encyclopaedia of WW1 ever produced.

At the end of World War I Matania illustrated numerous ceremonies in London, including the coronation of Edward VII. During the first half of the 20th century he literally illustrated history as it happened. He was made a Chevalier of the Crown of Italy, and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and The Royal Institute of Art.

In his studio he maintained an enormous collection of artefacts to aid him in his work. He rarely made preliminary sketches, preferring to begin an elaborate illustration without previous preparation. It was as if he had a exact mental photograph of the art before he began to paint or draw. His reputation was such that he was visited in his studio in London by Annigoni, Russell Flint, and John Singer Sargent, and his work is collected and admired by many of today's greatest artists and illustrators.

He was an expert at historical scenes from all periods of history and his Ancient Roman and classical illustrations are particularly admired and collected. During WW2, many of his paintings and drawings were destroyed when his studio was bombed in the Blitz. He was so prolific, however, that many examples of his art still survive.

He pictures were published every week in Illustrazione Italiana from 1895 - 1902, in The Graphic from 1901 - 1904, and in The Sphere from 1904 to 1963. He also contributed regularly to Britannia & Eve, and The Passing Show, where his Edgar Rice Burroughs illustrations appeared amongst others. His work has been used in numerous magazines and books such as Look & Learn, London Life and many others. Fortunino Matania art
Top of Page

Angus McBride biography
Angus McBride (1931-2007)
Angus McBride is one of the world's most respected historical and fantasy illustrators, and contributed to numerous books, magazines and articles, including the classic Look & Learn, JRR Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, and more than 70 Osprey titles (see our Illustrated Military History and Angus McBride books sections) in the past three decades. Born in 1931 of Highland parents, but orphaned as a child, he was educated at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School. He worked in advertising agencies from 1947, and after National Service, emigrated to South Africa where he lived for several years, before relocating to Ireland before his sad demise in 2007. Angus McBride art
Top of Page

James McConnell biography
James E. McConnell (b.1903)
Well known as a paperback and book jacket artist, particularly for Westerns, James McConnell never turned his hand to picture strips. Leonard Matthews, seeing his paperback work on display in a bookshop, soon had him working as a cover artist for Amalgamated Press, doing the majority of covers for the all text Western Library, a great many of the Cowboy Comics Library covers and a fair number of covers for Thriller Comics Library.

His robust, action-packed style is instantly recognisable. He always seemed more at home with cowboys rather than historical swashbucklers, his covers for the Western Library being of a particular high standard. Nonetheless, some of his historical covers for Thriller Comics Library are very satisfying for he is a great professional and can turn his hand to any genre. He is a first class water-colourist and his colour technique has often been compared with - and even, on occasion, confused with - that of Reginald Heade. McConnell was an incredibly prolific artist, frequently completing a cover painting and the rough for another painting in the same day. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. James McConnell art
Top of Page

Al McKimson biography
Al McKimson
"Al McKimson" the regular artist on the Roy Rogers comic strip from 1949 - 1953 was actually the brothers Chuck & Tom McKimson. The strip was syndicated by King Features. Al McKimson art
Top of Page

Hugh McNeill biography
Hugh McNeill (1910-1979)
Hugh McNeill was born in Manchester and apprenticed at an Art studio, the Kayebon Press, attending evening classes at the Manchester School of Art. Hugh was best known as a brilliant "funnies" artist for Knockout but his "straight" strips are a delight and his Dick Turpin work is amongst his best. McNeill was chosen by Leonard Matthews to start off the long series of Dick Turpin strips, which were to appear on the back page of the original large-page format Sun. Called "Highway Days", the strip introduced a new companion for Turpin - a girl comrade, Moll Moonlight (a character created by Leonard Matthews). These strips were originally light-hearted affairs but soon after the format of the comic changed, so too did the Turpin stories. The readers were suddenly plunged into the Gothic horror genre of the "penny bloods" and Turpin and Moll Moonlight found themselves in a series of adventures set in haunted manor houses where weird happenings were very much the order of the day and the chief villain was the splendidly evil master criminal "Creepy" Crawley.

McNeill based his Dick Turpin on the actor Richard Greene (whom he had portrayed earlier in his strip version of the film The Fighting O'Flynn for Sun), and the 'gothic' Turpin adventures had an atmosphere akin to that in the 1953 Richard Greene film, "The Black Castle". McNeill was given examples of Derek Eyles' work to help him in drawing horses and the occasional frame of a horseman shows clearly how big a debt he owed to Eyles. Biography extract courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Hugh McNeill art
Top of Page

Rodger McPhail biography
Rodger McPhail
Rodger McPhail was born in 1953 and is extremely well known for his superb wildlife bird paintings. Rodger McPhail art
Top of Page

Philip Mendoza biography
Philip Mendoza (1898-1973, England; active 1948-1970)
Born in Hackney, London, Philip Mendoza was a descendant of the great bare-knuckle pugilist of the Regency days, Daniel Mendoza, and was, by all accounts, a most colourful character in every meaning of the word. He was dark and swarthy and usually wore a bright-hued neckerchief, which added to his gypsy-like appearance. During the 1940s he illustrated a number of books, including Biggles Charter Pilot (1943), and a great many paperback covers of all genres (signing his work under many aliases, including Gomez, Ferrari, Garcia, Grimaldi and Zero) before turning to comics.

One of his greatest achievements occurred early on in his career: The Mighty Atom (1948), an all colour strip comic, designed and drawn in its entirety by Mendoza. This publication, from the tiny firm of Denlee Publishing Co., can probably lay claim to being the first all-colour, all picture, British comic. It certainly shows Mendoza's versatility, containing as it does strips featuring highwaymen, cowboys, detectives, space-travellers and funnies. It was written and published by the author/publisher, Stephen Frances, for whom he later designed the silhouette logo of Hank Janson for the famous series of "hard-boiled" paperback thrillers. Mendoza drew the comic, Captain Vigour, for Miller's Sports Cartoons series before starting work for the Amalgamated Press.

He drew strips for Sun, Comet, Cowboy Comics Library, Super Detective Library and, during its early years, for Thriller Comics Library; first contributing a number of short strips, in issues 4 and 6, and then the splendidly drawn Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (number 7). His ability to capture a brooding atmosphere was admirably displayed in The Green Archer (no.16) and Phantom Footsteps (no. 20, for which he also contributed the cover painting) and his Rogues' Moon (no.66) is an entertaining piratical adventure. His one piece of work for the Super Detective Library: The Island of Fu Manchu (no. 9) is generally accepted as one of the best issues of the series. Mendoza was a true professional who would turn his hand to almost any style of strip. During the latter part of his career, a great deal of his output was for the nursery comics. His version of Kenneth Graham's Wind in the Willows was published in book form, in full colour, by Leonard Matthews' Martspress. Biography extract courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Philip Mendoza art
Top of Page

Colin Merrett biography
Colin Merrett (aka Colin Merritt) (b. 1912)
Colin Merrett began work as a strip artist in 1936 with Chang the Pirate for Joker and only recently retired from drawing for comics, latterly for D.C. Thomson's girls' papers. He is an extremely private man and every attempt to garner any information from him in his career - even to confirm his birth date! - has met with determined, dogged resistance. In the late 1940s, Merrett was used extensively by P.M. Productions for their splendid series of short-run comics printed in two-tone photogravure such as Flash, Zip and Sky High.

For Associated Press's Chips he drew his longest running strip, Paul Power and his Speed Shell. Merritt was very much at home with the Western and The Outlaw Orphan (TCL no. 17) contains some of his finest work; as does his Buffalo Bill and Billy the Kid work for Comet and Sun and for The Billy the Kid Book of Picture Stories. However, his historical strips are also of interest, particularly his versions of Treasure Island and Westward Ho for Amex's A Classic in Pictures in the early 1950s (for which he also did the cover paintings). Merritt's Dick Turpin strips for the library (appearing in nos 2 and 8) are great fun, despite the somewhat inaccurate period flavour. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Colin Merrett art
Top of Page

John Millar Watt biography
John Millar Watt (1895-1975)
Born at Gurrock on the Clyde, educated at Ilford, studied art at The Sir John Cass Institute and The Slade. In 1915 he joined the Artist's Rifles and was later commissioned into the Essex Regiment. Serving on the Western Front in the line at Dedville, Beaumont Harnell and the Somme, he was gassed at Virny Ridge. Demobbed in 1919 he became a student at the Slade. While still at art school he drew some sports cartoons for the Daily Chronicle and the Christmas cover in colour for the Sphere in 1920.

In 1921 on May 21st, the great comic character, Pop appeared in the Daily Sketch. In 1925 the first Pop annual appeared and continued annually until 1949. He painted front covers for Sphere for Royal weddings, Coronations, state funerals as well as Christmas numbers, The Illustrated London News, Readers Digest and many other publications.

As a water colourist and oil painter he exhibited at The Royal Academy of Art as well as many galleries. In the late 1950s, Millar Watt turned his talents to adventure comic strips and historical illustrations. His work appeared in Thriller Picture Library (covers and interior art, especially Robin Hood and Dick Turpin), Robin Hood Annuals (covers and full colour plates), Look & Learn magazine (colour and black and white illustrations for many famous historical scenes and events), Ranger ( Treasure Island serial) and historical work for Topper annuals. Sadly, much of his original work has disappeared over the years, lost or destroyed. John Millar Watt art
Top of Page

Moebius (Jean Giraud) biography
Moebius (Jean Giraud) (8 May 1938 - 10 March 2012; France)
Never has a pen-name been so apt: like the half-twisted Möbius strip he took his pen-name from, Jean Giraud seemingly had two sides which, when examined carefully, proved to be aspects of a single creative mind. As Gir, co-creator of Blueberry, one of France’s most popular comic strips, selling out print-runs of a quarter million copies with each new album, his brushwork was detailed and realistic; as Moebius he used intricate, visually arresting pen-work to explore his subconscious in the pages of Arzach, The Airtight Garage and The Incal.

Giraud had an impact on the visual arts that went beyond comic books. He was seen as a figurehead linking the bande dessinés with Modernism and the nouveau réalisme (although he denied any conscious effort to do so); as co-creator of Métal Hurlant magazine, he took comics to an older, more literate audience; and, in cinema, his fans ranged from Federico Fellini to Hayao Miyazaki and his style influenced dozens of others, including Ridley Scott, George Lucas, James Cameron and Luc Besson.

Giraud was modest about his talents, acknowledging the influences of others, notably Joseph Gillain on his work as Gir, and Alexander Jodorowsky, whom he credited with unchaining his vision and allowing it to fly free to create the surreal worlds of Moebius. Even as the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain held a five-month retrospective—“Moebius Trance-form”—of his work, Giraud told Le Figaro that the act of creating images was not as romantic as often portrayed and that it was something rather ordinary; speaking to the LA Times in 2011, he admitted to feeling happy and amazed when he was told by young fans that his work had changed their lives and read statements like “Moebius is a legendary artist”. “A legend—now I am like a unicorn,” he responded.

Born in Nogent-sur-Marve, a suburb of Paris, on 8 May 1938, Jean Henri Gaston Giraud’s parents divorced when he was three and he grew up in Fontenay-sous-Bois with his grandparents. He began drawing illustrations and comic strips—mostly featuring cowboys and indians, inspired by Hollywood westerns—as a way to pass melancholic hours whilst his mother was out working; at 14 he was introduced by his father to the science fiction magazine Fiction and he became a regular reader of both Fiction and Galaxie for the next twenty-five years. He sold his first story to publisher Jacques Dumas (Marijac) at the age of 15.

At 16 he began training at the École des arts appliqués in rue Dupetit-Thouars, Paris, and earned a diploma in applied arts after two years. At the age of 18 he began producing artwork for advertising and fashion and his first substantial comic strip, ‘Les aventures de Frank et Jérémie’ for Far West magazine. He then devoted himself to comic strips, drawing for Fripounet et Marisette, Cœurs villants and Sitting-Bull.

When his mother moved to Mexico to remarry, Giraud joined her for nine months, returning to France to undertake his military service, drawing for the military newspaper 5/5 Forces Françaises whilst stationed in Germany and Algeria. On his release, he visited Belgian artist Joseph (Jijé) Gillain, whom he had met prior to joining the army, at his home near Paris, who hired him as an assistant. Gillain had absorbed the qualities of American storytelling during a long sabbatical to the USA, and introduced Giraud to the works of Milton Caniff and others whose style was highly realistic. Gillain was then drawing Jerry Spring for Spirou and Giraud became his inker on the story La Route de Coronado, published in 1961 and collected as an album in 1962.

In 1961-62, Giraud also worked with Jean-Claude Mézières on the collection L’Histoire des civilisations for Hachette whilst also producing illustrations for the satirical magazine Hara-Kiri where he first began using ‘Moebius’ as a signature.

Giraud met Jean-Michel Charlier, editor-in-chief of the newly founded Pilote magazine and was invited to draw Charlier’s new western strip featuring Lieutenant Blueberry, one of the most popular comic strips to appear throughout Europe. Blueberry was the nickname of Mike Donovan, a lieutenant in the US Cavalry based at Fort Navajo where he faced constant battles against gunrunners and local Indian tribes. Charlier travelled to the USA to research his scripts and filled them with historical detail, matched by Giraud’s highly detailed artwork.

Drawing, and sometimes colouring, Blueberry filled most of Giraud’s time for the next decade, with each new storyline in Pilote quickly released in album form; sixteen stories had appeared by 1973. Giraud was able to use the time—and the royalties generated by Blueberry—to his own advantage and began exploring new territories. He contributed a number of short stories to Pilote, notably ‘La déviation’ (1973) and ‘L’homme est-il bon?’ (1974), exploring different styles of storytelling and letting his imagination roam free.

Other artists were also trying to break free of the constraints of comics: L’Echo des Savanes was launched in 1972 by former Pilote creators Marcel Gotlib, Claire Bretécher and Nikita Mandryka, marking a new direction for the bande desinees in France.

After one further volume of Blueberry, Giraud teamed up with writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet, artist Philippe Druillet and financial director Bernard Farkas to found Le Humanoides Associés and publish Métal Hurlant (Screaming Metal). Initially conceived as a French answer to American underground ‘comix’, Heavy Metal (as it became in translation) was the launching pad for Giraud’s Arzach and Druillet’s Lone Sloane and very quickly attracted the likes of Richard Corben, Jacques Tardi, Vaughn Bode, Serge Clerc, Enki Bilal and many others. It was in the pages of Métal Hurlant that Moebius experimented with non-narrative (Arzach, 1975) and non-linear (Le garage hermétique de Jerry Cornélius, 1976-79) stories, developing many of the iconic images that were to make Moebius such an influence—the figure of Arzach flying over a barren alien landscape on a pterodactyl or the pith-helmeted Major Grubert, first introduced in ‘Les vacances du Major’ (France-Soir, 1974) and reintroduced in ‘Le major fatal’ in Métal Hurlant before taking a central role in The Airtight Garage.

It was Giraud’s experimental stories that attracted the attention of film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky, who, in 1975, was attempting to adapt Frank Herbert’s political, ecological and religious science fiction epic, Dune. Although the film eventually came to nothing, it was central to Giraud’s future influence on film-makers. During the pre-production of Dune, Giraud met visual effects supervisor Dan O’Bannon and the two collaborated on the short serial ‘The Long Tomorrow’ for Métal Hurlant. O’Bannon, left penniless after the collapse of Dune, returned to the USA where he roomed with Ronald Shusett, picking up the threads of a screenplay they had begun working on some years before about the crew of a spaceship, whose voyage is interrupted by a mayday signal. The script was offered to Ridley Scott, who used many of the creative team assembled by Jodorowsky—including Giraud, Chris Foss and H. R. Giger—to design the SF/horror classic Alien, released in 1979.

Giraud was now able to split his time between his various personae: Gir was able to take up the reigns of Blueberry once again, re-teaming with Charlier to produce six further albums. With Charlier’s death in 1989, Giraud turned to writing the series as well as drawing, producing another five volumes between 1995 and 2005. At the same time, he also penned four volumes (1991-97) featuring another western hero Jim Cutlass (another Charlier/Gir creation who had made a single appearance in Pilote in 1976) with artwork by Christian Rossi.

Moebius, meanwhile, embarked on the multi-volume story of L’Incal, which debuted in Métal Hurlant in 1980. Written by Jodorowsky, the story is set in a dystopian galactic empire where rulers, rebels and aliens are all seeking an energy crystal which has fallen into the hands of a shambolic private eye, John Difool. This simple premise underpins an endlessly inventive masterpiece, a relentlessly-paced galaxy-spanning adventure, which, at the same time, charts Difool’s philosophical and spiritual evolution.

Meanwhile, Jean Giraud was in demand from the film industry as a concept designer, storyboard artist and even director. His films included the animated Les Maîtres du temps (Time Masters) and Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, live-action SF/fantasy movies TRON, Masters of the Universe, Willow, The Abyss and The Fifth Element, and the hybrid live action/cartoon Space Jam. For French TV he directed the animated Arzak Rhapsody and La Planète Encore. The story ‘Cauchemar blanc’ (L’Echo des Savanes, 1974) was filmed by Matthieu Kassowitz in 1991; a Blueberry movie starring Vincent Cassel in the title role was released in Europe in 2004 (in America it went straight to DVD under the title Renegade).

In the 1980s, Giraud spent much of his time in America (and briefly in Tahiti and Japan) where, championed by Jean Marc and Randy Lofficier, many of his best works began appearing in translation, some—like the Marvel/Epic edition of The Airtight Garage—newly coloured. His connections with Marvel led him to illustrate the two-part Silver Surfer: Parable, written by Stan Lee.

The series won the the 1989 Eisner Award for best finite series and Giraud (along with collaborators Paul Chadwick and Charles Vess) picked up a second Eisner for the story ‘Concrete Celebrates Earth Day’ in 1991. Translations of Giraud’s work won the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material in 1988, 1989 and 1991. Giraud had long been recognised for his work, taking major prizes at Lucca (Italy), Angoulême (France) comic festivals and the Salón Internacional del Cómic (Spain). In 1985 he was decorated with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by French president François Mitterrand.

In 1992, he again collaborated with Jodorowsky on Le Coeur Couronné (The Crowned Heart), which ran for three albums (La Folle du Sacré-Coeur, 1992, Le Piège de l’irrationnel, 1993, and Le Fou de la Sorbonne, 1998), and again in 1994 with Griffes d’Ange (Angel Claws).

A sequel to The Airtight Garage, L'Homme de Ciguri, appeared in 1995 and Giraud, despite being kept busy with his scripts and artwork for Blueberry and Jim Cutlass, still managed to produce further Moebius works, including an Incal sequel, Le Nouveau rêve (2000), and Ikaru (Icarus, 2001) drawn by Jiro Taniguchi.

Giraud died in Paris on 10 March 2012, aged 73, after a long battle with cancer and is survived by his wife, Isabelle and two children, Helene and Julien, from an earlier marriage. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Moebius (Jean Giraud) art
Top of Page

Sheldon Moldoff biography
Sheldon 'Shelly' Moldoff (b. 14 April 1920 - 29 February 2012; USA)
Sheldon Moldoff began his career with DC Comics in 1939 assisting Bob Kane with Batman. He went on to draw many of DC's most famous characters including The Flash, Green Lantern, The Spectre, The Black Pirate and Hawkman. Shelly drew nearly every issue of Batman and Detective Comics from 1953 through 1967.

Sheldon Moldoff, one of the architects of the comic book Golden Age, died from kidney failure on 29 February 2012, aged 91. Mark Evanier noted in a tribute published on 3 March 2012 that Moldoff was the last surviving artist to have contributed to Action Comics #1, perhaps the most collectable of all comic books; although Moldoff did not contribute Superman's debut, he did contribute artwork to that issue – a sports strip filler on the inside back cover. It was his first professional appearance.

Born in Manhattan, New York, on 14 April 1920, Sheldon Douglas "Shelly" Moldoff was the son of Russian-born immigrants Ben Moldoff (Baruch Moldanski) and his wife Kate. He was raised in The Bronx. After teaching himself to draw, he was introduced to comics by illustrator Bernard Baily, who lived in the same apartment house as Moldoff and his family. At 17, he broke into the comic book industry, selling his first strips to Vincent Sullivan, the editor at National Periodicals.

Moldoff drew covers for the first appearances of The Flash (Flash Comics #1) and Green Lantern (All-American Comics #16) in 1940. In April 1940 he created the character Jon Valor, The Black Pirate, for Action Comics (#23) and took over the artwork (from Dennis Neville) for Hawkman (in Flash Comics #4). In All Star Comics (#5, Jul 1941) he introduced Hawkgirl.

Drafted in 1944, Moldoff returned to drawing in 1946, working for Standard, Fawcett, Marvel and Max Gaines' EC Comics. In 1948, he packaged two horror titles (This Magazine is Haunted and Tales of the Supernatural) which he first took to Fawcett Comics; when Fawcett turned them down, he took them to Max Gaines at EC who offered him a percentage of the profits. Gaines launched Tales from the Crypt a few months later and Moldoff was threatened with blacklisting if he tried to take legal action.

Moldoff subsequently took his dummies back to Fawcett, who paid him $100 for the titles (the latter became Strange Suspense Stories when it launched in 1952) and offered him as much work as he wished to take on. Fawcett folded the titles in 1953 and Moldoff became the assistant to Bob Kane, ghosting Kane's Batman comic strips. Although the work was anonymous – the strips were signed as by Kane – it was steady work; Moldoff also sold strips to DC Comics independently and thus kept himself busy until 1967.

During this period, he helped create the original Bat-Girl (Betty Kane), Batwoman, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Clayface and, as the stories began to grow more outlandish, Bat-Mite, Ace the Bat-Hound, Zebra Batman and the Merman Batman.

In the 1960s, DC made an effort to update Batman and a number of other long-term artists, were let go. Kane's contract was renegotiated in 1967 and he moved into TV animation where he created Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse, for which show Moldoff produced storyboards. He was also the writer, producer and storyboard director of Marco Polo Junior versus the Red Dragon (1972) and Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu (2001).

Moldoff also continued to draw the occasional strip, drawing giveaway promotional comics for Big Boy and Red Lobster restaurants, Blockbuster Video and others. His last work for DC Comics appeared in 2000's World's Funniest one-shot where he illustrated a chapter of Evan Dorkin's Superman and Batman tale.

Moldoff was "outed" in 1991 when Julius Schwartz admitted at a convention "All the years I was buying artwork from Bob Kane, I wasn't buying it from Bob Kane, I was buying it from Shelly Moldoff." Moldoff became a regular at conventions, selling drawings and signing autographs.

Moldoff and his wife, Shirley, retired to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he died. Shirley predeceased him in 2002; he was survived by his children, Richard Moldoff, Kenneth Moldoff, Ellen Moldoff Stein and seven grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Sheldon Moldoff art
Top of Page

Beverley R. Morris biography
Beverley Robinson Morris (14 July 1816 - 19 March 1883; Ireland & UK)
Information about Beverley R. Morris is sketchy but a little research reveals the following. He was the brother of the Reverend Francis Orpen Morris, BA, of Nunburnholme Rectory, Bayton, Yorkshire, who was a well-known naturalist, who published a number of books about birds and their nests as well as butterflies and moths.

Beverley R. Morris authored a similar two-volume work, British Game Birds and Wild Fowl (1855) which he also illustrated with plates coloured by hand. The book was well reviewed, the Daily News saying that it "has a unique position among works of its class. The sixty hand-coloured plates are splendidly executed".

Beverley Robinson Morris, M.D. was the fourth son of Rear-Admiral Henry Gage Morris. He was born in Ireland on 14 July 1816, but grew up in England, the family moving to Worcester in 1824 and settling in Charmouth, Dorset, in 1826. Morris later trained at Trinity College, Dublin.

He was married to Annie Robinson Skottowe (b. Isle of Man; d. Burnham, Somerset, 21 Jun 1890), daughter of Lieutenant George Augustus Frederick Skottowe, late of the Royal Navy, at St Marylebone Church on 20 June 1850. They had a daughter, Florence Bellenger Skottowe Morris, on 13 March 1851, who married W. B. Saunders in 1874; a second daughter, Annie Leonora Morris, died in 1866 shortly after being born.

Morris worked as a doctor in York and Nottingham; whilst working as Physician to the York Dispensary in the 1840s, his specialty appears to have been the treatment of the insane and he published A Theory as to the Proximate Causes of Insanity and Observations on the Construction of Hospitals for the Insane in 1844.

At the same time he was editor of The Naturalist, which described itself as "A popular monthly magazine illustrative of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms".

He died on 19 March 1883 at 17 Burns Street, Nottingham, aged 66. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Beverley R. Morris art
Top of Page

Dean Motter biography
Dean Motter (b. 1958; Canada)
Dean Motter is a Canadian artist, illustrator and graphic designer best known as the creator of Mister X and Terminal City, two highlights of the "comics aren't for kids" boom of the 1980s/90s.

The history of Mister X began in the early 1980s: Motter was then sharing a studio with Ken Steacy and Paul Rivoche and the character went through a lengthy development process before independent publisher Vortex Comics began insisting that work the comic book needed to begin. Motter provided a story outline from which Gilbert Hernandez created a script, illustrated by Jaime Hernandez. After only four issues, the Hernandez brothers quit, citing non-payment by Vortex, and Motter wrote issues 5 through 14, which were illustrated by Seth (Gregory Gallant).

Mister X himself was an architect, the creator of Radiant City, which has been designed on the principals of psychetecture, driving its citizens mad.

Although the character continued to appear, it was in the hands of other writers and artists. Motter later used the characters in Electropolis and returned to them in the mini-series Mister X: Condemned, published in 2008-09 by Dark Horse.

Motter has earlier co-created The Sacred & the Profane with art by Ken Steacy, which he later described as being influenced by the Symbolists and the Pre-Raphaelites, aesthetics he had wanted to introduce into comics since his days as an art history student. Mister X was influenced by Art Deco, German Expressionism, film noir, Russian Constructivism, Bauhaus, mid-20th century industrial design and the futuristic artwork of SF and popular mechanics magazines of the pulp era.

Motter's influences, thanks to his upbringing in Canada, were European, especially French, when it came to comics, although for Mister X he acknowledged the heavy influence of Will Eisner and Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Motter, born in 1958, began reading comics around the age of 8 or 9 and was also a fan of vintage horror and science fiction films. He produced comic pages for his college newspaper and freelanced for Media Five, a tabloid magazine published in London, Ontario, whilst at college. After moving to Toronto, he was a regular at the Silver Snail comic book store. The owner of Silver Snail produced the SF magazine Andromeda in 1977-79, reprinting stories by Arthur C. Clarke and A. E. Van Vogt. Mottor worked as art director and designer for the magazine.

Another acquaintance, Marty Herzog, began working as a creatove director with CBS Records Canada, which led to Motter designing album covers for numerous bands, creating the cover art for Anvil's Metal On Metal (1983 Juno Award winner), Seamless by The Nylons (1984 Juno Award winner) and Jane Silberry's No Borders Here (1985 Casby Award winner). He was awarded the Best of the 80's Album Cover award by the Toronto Art Directors Club for Honeymoon Suite in 1985.

The Sacret & the Profane was originally published as a 5-part serial in Star+Reach in 1977-78. Motter and Steacy subsequently revised and coloured the strip for Epic Illustrated in the early 1980s; the revision was then reprinted as a graphic novel by Eclipse in 1987. The story has echoes of James Blish's A Case Of Conscience as it concerns Sister Marianna, a nun aboard a spaceship of the Catholic Interstellar Crusade – in effect, a flying church – who has begun to question her faith. After attacking an alien vessel, the human crew start to fall prey to an invading alien force.

Following on from his work on Mister X, Motter was invited to produce a comic based on Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, drawn by Mark Askwith, a former Silver Snail manager who went on to become a TV producer.

In 1990, Motter relocated to New York, working for Byron Preiss Visual Publications where he was art director and senior designer, as well as editing a series of graphic novels based on the stories of Raymond Chandler. He subsequently joined DC Comics as manager of the Creative Services Department. This latter job allowed him to freelance and, for Vertigo, he produced Terminal City, drawn by Michael Lark.

Reverting to freelance, he continued the Terminal City saga with Aerial Graffiti, also drawn by Lark. The two also teamed up for the Batman graphic novel Nine Lives, winner of the Will Eisner Award in 2003. Motter's other works have included The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (adapted for Classics Illustrated), Batman: Gotham Knights, Grendel: Red, White and Black, Hellblazer and 9-11: Artists Respond. Further stories have appeared Superman Adventures, Star Wars Tales, Will Eisner's The Spirit, and Wolverine. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Dean Motter art
Top of Page

José Muñoz biography
José Muñoz (b. 10 July 1942; Argentina)
Jose Munoz is nowadays best known for his work on the series Alack Sinner, which has been hugely popular in Europe for over thirty-five years. The detective series and the many volumes that have spun off from it are characterised by the artist's heavy use of chiaroscuro and the exaggerated (often grotesque) faces and figures.

José Antonio Muñoz was born on 10 July 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and studied painting, sculpture and drawing at the Escuela Panamericana de Arte where he was taught by Alberto Breccia and Pablo Pereyra.

At the age of 18 he published his first comic strips in the pages of Hora Cero and Frontera, magazines strongly associated with Hector Oesterheld. Muñoz drew several episodes of Oesterheld's Ernie Pike and also illustrated Precint 56 by Ray Collins (Eugene Zappietro) for Mixterix, then edited by Hugo Pratt.

For many years Muñoz worked in Francisco Solano Lopez's studio, which was set up in the early 1960s to capitalise on the vast amount of artwork that could be supplied to British comics. Lopez, at his peak, had six assistants, working on weekly and monthly assignments ranging from weekly science fiction and football yarns (Kelly's Eye, Raven on the Wing, etc.) to monthly war titles (for War, Battle, Air Ace, etc.). The studio's output was immense and for the most part it is impossible to distinguish the work of individual artists.

Muñoz travelled to Europe for the first time in March 1971 and in Spain, via a mutual friend, Oscar Zarate, met Carlos Sampayo, a fellow Argentinian who, shortly after, settled in Madrid. Muñoz, meanwhile, settled in London where he was working regularly for Lion, drawing a number of short-lived strips – 'A Stitch in Time', 'The Treasure-Hunt Twins', 'Lost in Limbo Land' and 'Sark the Sleeper' – ahead of Lion's imminent folding into Valiant, where he would draw a few stories featuring Adam Eterno.

At this time, he was being encouraged by Breccia and Hugo Pratt during trips to Paris and Lucca to create his own work, but Muñoz's separation from his wife and daughter led to him living in a commune and earning money washing dishes.

Again, Oscar Zarate persuaded him to visit Carlos Sampayo at his home in Castelldefels, Spain. Here, the two began to develop the character Alack Sinner, who was to debut in AlterLinus and Charlie Mensuel in 1975. The two also began working on other albums, including El bar de Joe [Joe's Bar] and Sophie Goin' South, both published in 1981. The following year Muñoz was named Best Artist at Lucca. Alack Sinner won the Best Foreign Comics Album award at Angoulême in 1978 and 1973. Another collaboration with Sampayo, Billie Holiday, won the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material in 1994.

Very little of his work has been seen in the UK. Escape magazine's tenth issue featured 'Joe's Bar' in 1987 and Viet Blues was serialised in Crisis in 1990-91. In Europe Muñoz has continued to work with increasing recognition. He collaborated with American author Jerome Charyn on Au croc du serpent (1996) and Panna Maria (1999) and continues to collaborate with Sampayo on such titles as Dans les bars (2002), Le livre (2004) and further adventures of Alack Sinner.

In 2002 he was awarded the Max-und-Moritz-Preis in Germany for his life's work and, in 2007, he became only the fourth non-French language creator to receive the Grand Prix at Angoulême. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. José Muñoz art
Top of Page

Russell Myers biography
Russell Myers (b. 9 October 1938; USA)
Russell Myers is an American cartoonist whose popular Broom-Hilda appears in American newspapers. The strip, featuring a 1,500-year-old, beer-guzzling, cigar-smoking, man-crazy witch and her friends, was launched in 1970 and is syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. At least 25 collections of the strip appeared in 1971-87.

Born in Pittsburg, Kansas, on 9 October 1938, Myers was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his father, a college professor, taught at Tulsa University. He attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, where artist Archie Goodwin was a fellow student, and the University of Tulsa. Interested in cartooning from an early age, Myers began illustrating greetings cards for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City in 1960 when his first cartoon submissions were rejected.

"Broom-Hilda" was based on an idea by Elliott Caplin (brother of cartoonist Al Capp), who suggested the characters, which Myers designed. Caplin submitted the strip to the Chicago Tribune Syndicate and it began appearing on 19 April 1970. Myers won the National Cartoonists Society's Humor Comic Strip Award for 1975 for his work on the strip.

Myers married his wife Marina in 1964. Living in Grants Pass, Oregon, the Myers family includes son Stewart and daughter Rosie. His hobbies include reading, collecting old cars and hanging out at the local Saturday night dirt track, where he sponsors a car. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Russell Myers art
Top of Page

N

Angel Nadal biography
Angel Nadal Quirch (b. 1930; Spain)
Spanish artist Angel Nadal was one of a group of artists discovered in Spain when Ron Clark, Barry Coker and Keith Davies went in search of new humour artists for planned launches by the new Fleetway Publications. In Spain, they discovered the Bruguera School of artists and introduced a host of them to the pages of Film Fun, Knockout and the newly launched Buster.

One of the leading artists thus discovered was Angel Nadal. Born Ángel Nadal Quirch in Barcelona in 1930, Nadal began his career in 1944 as an assistant to Antonio Ayné and Emilio Boix. He began working for Editorial Valenciana's Jaimito where, in 1948, he credited the strip Sindulfo Sacarina. That same year he also began working for Bruguera.

Editorial Bruguera were established as Black Cat Publishing by Juan Bruguera in 1910 but was renamed by Bruguera's son in 1939. Black Cat launched the weekly comic Pulgarcito [Tom Thumb] in 1921 but its popularity grew after 1947 and Bruguera expanded with more humour titles such as Din Dan and El DDT.

Nadal began working on strips for the magazine Pulgarcito, his creations including Casildo Calasparra (1948), Sandalio Pergamín (1948), Don Folio (1951), Don Cloroformo (1951) and Pascual, criado leal (1953). Nadal's style of artwork mixed realism with caricature and he became known for his ability to draw attractive women in such strips as Rosita, la vampiresa (1951) and Las mujeres de Nadal (1954). Nadal also drew historietas costumbristas – stories of daily life – including "Matildita y Anacleto, un matrimonio completo" (El DDT, 1954) and "Maripili y Gustavito, todavía sin pisito" (Sissi, 1958).

In 1957, some of Bruguera's contributors – amongst them José Escobar, José Peñarroya, Carlos Conti, Guillermo Cifré and Eugenio Giner – were unhappy with their lot and set up the group DER (Dibujantes Españoles Reunidos [Spanish Designers Reunited]) who created Tio Vivo, a Spanish adult humour magazine along the lines of the Argentinean comic Rico Tipo. Nadal's contributions included Tip y Top y su pandilla and Marilin, chica moderna (1959), which were immediately dropped when the paper was taken over by Bruguera in 1961.

The struggling paper was also home to the work of Gin (Jordi Ginés) and Raf (Joan Rafart), who, along with another Bruguera regular Martz Schmidt (Gustavo Martínez) and Nadal, were to become regulars in British comics, represented by Bardon Art.

Nadal's first work in the UK was the gag strip Laugh in a Line for Film Fun, but he soon became a regular in Buster and Knockout. Although a prolific contributor to the early issues of the former, his earliest success was with Blarney Bluffer in Knockout (1960-63). In 1962, Nadal took over the front cover artwork on Buster when he began drawing Buster's Diary (later "Buster's Dreamworld"), which he continued to draw until 1974. At the same time he also drew the popular The Nutts for Valiant (1962-76). His later work in the UK included Minnie's Mixer (Whizzer & Chips, 1969-73) and Penny Pincher (Buster, 1973-74).

In the 1970s, Nadal also began contributing stories featuring Goofy and Mickey Mouse to the Danish Disney publications published by Gutenburghus. He also drew episodes of Donald Duck in the 1980s. For the German market, he drew Viva la Revolution in Primo and San Tomato in Zack. Other German strips include Bussi Bär and Fridolin for Kauka Verlag.

Nadal's studio was based in Cadaques, where Salvador Dali was a near neighbour. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Angel Nadal art
Top of Page

Arthur Nash biography
Arthur Nash
Arthur Nash was a contributor to Look and Learn, his artwork appearing in 1981. Nash was also a contributor to Treasure. Nash also illustrated Alice in Wonderland but is otherwise unknown. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Arthur Nash art
Top of Page

Rudy Nebres biography
Rudy Nebres (b. 14 January 1937; Philippines & USA)
Rudy Nebres was one of a group of talented Filipino artists who found work in the USA with DC and Marvel, amongst them Alfredo Alcala, Alex Nino, Nestor Redondo and Tony De Zuniga.

Born Rodolfo D. Nebres (pronounced NAY-bres) in the Philippines on 14 January 1937, Rudy was able to attend art school in Manila thanks to the sacrifices of his parents, who sold their possessions to pay for his tuition. He made his first professional sales as a teenager and was already working regularly before he graduated.

After graduating, he found work with ACE Publications and Graphic Arts Service (GASI), where he worked on various stories including 'Baby Face' (1958-59) for Extra Komiks, 'Kamay ni Dimas' (1962) for Ditektib Komiks, 'Themesong' (1963-64) for Redondo Komix, 'Anino ng Agila' (1964) for CRAF Klasix, 'Blanca Negra' (1965) for Hiwaga Komiks, 'Babaing Bakulaw' (1965) for Espesyal Komiks with writer Galo Burgos, 'Ang Paborito ni Linda' for Hiwaga Komiks with writer Mer. A Abella, 'Nakabakas sa Langit' (1965-66), for Pioneer Komiks with writer Angel Ad Santos, 'Suicide Sammy' (1967) for Aliwan Komiks with writer Greg Igna de Dios, 'Javlin and the Pirates' 1968) for Pilipino Komiks,'Magkuwento Ka Puso' (1968) for Aliwan Komiks, 'Micaela' (1968) for Aliwan Komiks, 'Talagang Gusto Kong Magpakatino!' for Kislap Komiks (1971-72) and many others.

Rudy Nebres began working for DC Comics in 1972 when DC Comics publisher Carmine Infantino and Editor Joe Orlando visited the Philippines on a scouting trip. He was given assignments on such DC mystery titles such as The Unexpected, House of Secrets and Ghosts, but was not working as regularly as he wanted. He continued to draw for Filipino comics such as 'Ginintuang Rehas' for Sixteen Magazine (1973-74), 'Huwag Mo Akong Tangisan!' for Kislap Komiks (1973-74) and 'Paper Doll' for Kislap Komiks (1974-75).

Nebres moved to the United States in 1975 and promptly found much more success when he started working for Marvel Comics on such prestigious titles like Dr. Strange, The Avengers, Iron Fist, Master of Kung Fu and The Hulk. His speciality, however, was sword and sorcery and his talents for drawing the muscular heroes like Conan, Kull, Red Sonja and John Carter are renowned. His ability is to draw exaggerated musculature without losing the realism of the figure. He has put this down to a strong grasp of anatomy. "The key is the collarbone. If that's off, the whole drawing will be wrong," he has said.

He found much further acclaim when he started working for Warren Publishing on Creepy (1978-82), Eerie (1978-83), 1984 (1978-79), 1994 (1980-82), The Rook (1979-82), Vampirella (1980-82) and The Goblin (1982), where he turned in stories that represented an extraordinary evolution in his art characterized by profuse, graceful hatching, dynamic figurework and imaginative compositions.

Tim Perkins has said, "His line work was very stylised and yet still had all the contemporary licks of his fellow Filipino artists. Instantly recognisable amongst the group his work flowed with the same lushness of line that the others had, but with a greater dynamic, which probably explained his use of super-heroic titles, when the others were considered, wrongly in my honest opinion, not to be suitable for superhero comics."

Nebres was in demand as an inker. Editor Ralph Macchio recalled working with Doug Moench and John Buscema on 'Warriors of the Shadow Realm' (Marvel Super Special #11-13) in 1979: "We needed an inker to work on John's brilliant pencils who would brink his own flair to the pencils but not over-power the delicacy of what John had drawn. We were astonished at how faithfully <Actinic:Variable Name = 'Rudy'/> rendered John's pencils yet added his own special touch."

He next spent 10 years working with Neal Adams for Continuity Studios doing storyboards and animatics, but was able to work on Continuity comics titles like Armor (1986-90), Toy Boy (1986-87), Megalith (1989) and Ms. Mystic (1989).

He went freelance again afterwards and has since worked on a variety of titles and companies like Spider-man, Conan and Punisher for Marvel, as well as a Negation one-shot in an issue of Crossgen Chronicles for Crossgen Comics in 2002.

The Art of Rudy Nebres, a collection of fan commissions, was published by SQP Inc in 2000.

Nebres currently lives in Edison, New Jersey, with his wife Dolores. They have two children Melvin and Edwin.

In a 2012 interview, Neil Adams said that Nebres "has got to be one of the nicest guys in comics. He's very humble, almost too self-effacing. he's humble to the point that I want to hit him in the head and say, 'You're better than you think you are. You're great.' He's that humble, but he puts better lines on the page than any artist or inker I know." From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Rudy Nebres art
Top of Page

Mark A. Nelson biography
Mark A. Nelson
Mark A. Nelson is a prolific artist, primarily of fantasy subjects, who has drawn widely for comics, illustrated role-playing games and worked for computer games (Raven Software, where he was senior artist in 1998-2004, Big Rooster, Emergence Games, Sega Games).

Nelson was born on 28 November in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and was educated at Moorehead State College, at Cleveland Institute of Art and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He later worked as a professor of art at Northern Illinois University for over twenty years.

His comic strip credits have included Starslayer (First, 1985), Aliens (Dark Horse, 1988-89), Feud (Marvel/Epic, 1993) written by Mike Baron and Blood and Shadows (DC, 1996), written by Joe R. Lansdale. His work has also appeared in Graphic Classics from Eureka Productions, and he has also contributed to IDW Comics, Eclipse Comics (Airboy), Now Comics, Kitchen Sink Comics and Just Imagine Comics.

His illustrations have been published by Hero Illustrated, Subterranean Press, Cemetery Dance Publications, Borderlands Press, Roadkill Press, Ziesing Books, Journal Wired, Byron Priess, Sight and Sound Books, Worldbook-Childcraft, David C. Cook and Fantasy Newsletter.

Nelson has had a long association with the role-playing games industry and has produced illustrations for many Dungeons and Dragons books and Dragon magazine.since the mid-1980s. He had also produced artwork for games including Villains and Vigilantes (Fantasy Games Unlimited), Earthdawn and Shadowrun (FASA) and Orpheus (White Wolf). He also produced illustrations for the collectable card game Magic: The Gathering.

He has published two collections of artwork: From Pencils To Inks: The Art of Mark A. Nelson (2004) and Strange Thoughts and Random Images (2008).

Nelson nowadays works as a conceptual artist creating digital skins and textures for computer games. He was the lead instructor of the Animation Department of Madison Area Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin.

He now lives in Missouri City, Texas, with his wife, artist Anita C. Nelson. They jointly run Grazing Dinosaur Press. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Mark A. Nelson art
Top of Page

Paul A. Nicholas biography
Paul A. Nicholas
Little is known about Nicholas. He produced many beautiful watercolour paintings of birds of all varieties and other nature scenes, incorporating woodlands and river banks. Paintings appeared in the 1960s and 1970s — he was active at least 1964-72 — but I have not traced any books illustrated by Nicholas. It is possible that he was an amateur, albeit talented, painter rather than a full-time illustrator. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Paul A. Nicholas art
Top of Page

Russ Nicholson biography
Russ Nicholson (UK)
Nicholson was educated at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, part of Dundee University. He came to the attention of fantasy fans through his work for fanzines in the 1970s. His early work appeared in girls' comics and annuals. He has revealed: "I was introduced to the world of drawing comics through a comic artist, Ken Houghton, who ran a comic artist evening class at a school where I taught Art & Design."

Nicholson contributing to Bunty, Diana, Jinty, Misty and Tracy and he also produced cartoons for Mayfair in around 1980. His career really took off in the early 1980s with his association with the Fighting Fantasy games books. Nicholson had been the illustrator of Dicing With Dragons: An Introduction to Role-Playing Games (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982) written by Ian Livingstone. The book included an adventure game, 'Eye of the Dragon'.

In the mid-1970s, Livingstone was the co-founder, with Steve Jackson, of Games Workshop, who were importers of Dungeons & Dragons and publishers of White Dwarf. Nicholson has been a prolific illustrator for the magazine and the company.

In 1981, Livingstone and Jackson wrote the first of a series of fantasy role-playing adventure books which they sold to Puffin Books and published as The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in 1982, which Nicholson illustrated. The book sold well and Puffin asked for more, which Livingstone and Jackson eagerly provided. Nicholson illustrated the following Fighting Fantasy titles: The Citadel of Chaos (1983) by Jackson, Masks of Mayhem by Robin Waterfield (1986), Chasms of Malice by Luke Sharp (1987), Stealer of Souls by Keith Martin (1988), Island of the Undead by Keith Martin (1992), Deathmoor by Robin Waterfield (1994) and Magehunter by Paul Mason (1995); Advanced Fighting Fantasy titles illustrated by Nicholson include Blacksand! (1990) and Allansia (1994), both by Marc Gascoigne & Pete Tamlyn. Nicholson also illustrated two Fighting Fantasy novels, Demonstealer by Marc Gascoigne (1991) and Shadowmaster by Ian Livingstone and Marc Gascoigne (1992).

Nicholson also created creatures for the Fiend Folio Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game book (TSR, 1981). The six episodes of the 'Fabled Land' series, co-written by Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson, were (1) The War-Torn Kingdom (1995); (2) Cities of Gold and Glory (1995); (3) Over the Blood-Dark Sea (1995); (4) The Plains of Howling Darkness (1995); (5) The Court of Hidden Faces (1996); and (6) Lords of the Rising Sun (1996).

Other stories illustrated by Nicholson have included numerous titles by Dave Morris, including The Lands of Legend (Corgi, 1986), The Battlepits of Krath (Knight, 1987), The Kingdom of Weird (Knight, 1987), The Walls of Spyte by Morris & Oliver Johnson (Knight, 1988), Necklace of Skulls (Mammoth, 1993), Knightmare: Lord Fear's Domain (Yearling, 1994), Heart of Ice (Mammoth, 1994), Twist of Fate (Mammoth, 1994). He was also the illustrator for the Richard Carpenter's Robin of Sherwood Gamebooks: The King's Demon by Graham Staplehurst, 1987; The Sword of the Templar by Paul Mason, 1987. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Russ Nicholson art
Top of Page

Will Nickless biography
Will Nickless (1902 - 1977; UK)
Will Nickless began his career as an artist working for an agency at the age of 18, having left school at 14. He joined the staff of Motor magazine in 1920, producing technical drawings and, later, general figure work. He left to become a freelance artist, illustrating books and occasionally writing them himself. His work has been described as "very detailed . . . his pen and ink work looks like engraving."

William Nickless was born in Brentwood, Essex, on 4 April 1902, the son of William Thomas Nickless and his wife Ada Caroline (née Bayliss), married in London in 1899. He was the second eldest of five children and grew up in north St. Pancras, where his father worked as a builder's clerk.

Although interested in drawing from an early age, he followed his father's wishes and first worked at an engineering factory in Acton; however, he kept up his drawing and eventually found work as an artist at Gameges department store, where he drew illustrations for their mail order catalogues. He then joined Temple Press, working on their magazines The Motor, Aeroplane, Motor Cycling and Commercial Motor. It was whilst working on the staff at Temple that he met Nellie Agnes Carter, two years his junior. They married in 1927 and a son, named Will, was born the following year.
Nickless went freelance in 1940, working for various magazines, including the Radio Times, and advertising agencies. He also set up his own press, printing limited editions of his poetry and a series of anti-war etchings which were reproduced in New Leader in 1939.

During the war years he developed an interest in music and took up the violin, which led him to making several himself. His other hobbies included making model engines and astronomy, for which he used a reflecting telescope he had constructed himself.

After the Second World War, Nickless became a popular illustrator for children's books and annuals (including Eagle and Swift annuals). Between the 1940s and 1970s he illustrated the Worzel Gummidge books of Barbara Euphan Todd and classics by John Buchan (The Thirty-Nine Steps), Thomas Hughes (Tom Brown's Schoolday's) Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels). H. Rider Haggard (Allan Quatermain, King Solomon's Mines, Ayesha, She, Nada the Lily) and George Macdonald (The Princess and the Goblin), as well as contemporary adventure and historical adventure novels for both boys and girls, school stories and fairly tales.

As a writer, Nickless penned a series of books about anthropomorphised animals, beginning with Owlglass in 1964; these area said to have been inspired by his living at Heathfield House, a Victorian house hidden within the Wealden Forest.

Nickless lived in Rotherfield, Sussex, for many years where he died in early 1977, aged 74. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Will Nickless art
Top of Page

Patrick Nicolle biography
Patrick Nicolle (1907-1995, England)
Pat Nicolle was the supreme Medievalist of the British Adventure Strip. His life-long passion for Arms and Armour (the title of his well-known Puffin book) - he was a founder member of the Arms and Armour Society at the Tower of London - found superb expression in his great strip of Norman Invasion, Under the Golden Dragon, together with his Robin Hood and Ginger Tom/ Firebrand strips. Later he found himself in his element working for Look and Learn, illustrating, in his inimitable, highly detailed style, countless historical articles and series, as well as painting a glorious full-colour version of Conan Doyle's historical novel, Sir Nigel. Patrick Nicolle was born in Hampstead, London, but the family moved to Birmingham when he was still very young and he spent his boyhood in the Midlands. His elder brother, Jack, was a well-known artist and book illustrator of whom Pat was justifiably proud.

The earliest of Pat's work for boys' papers so far discovered was for the Boys' Own Paper in the mid 1930s - he even painted a cover for one issue - and probably his earliest work for the Amalgamated Press was the cover painting for The Modern Boy's Book of Pirates, published in 1939. His earliest strip appears to be Astra, The Mystery Air Ace, the cover strip for Zoom, a one-off comic published by The Children's Press in 1947. In 1950, his illustrations for a Robin Hood book were seen by Leonard Matthews in a Woolworth's store and he was commissioned to draw a two-page complete Robin Hood strip for Knockout. The rest, as they say, is history! Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Patrick Nicolle art
Top of Page

Robert Nixon biography
Robert Nixon (7 July 1939 - 22 October 2002; UK)
Robert Nixon was a regular contributor to The Beano for many years, best known for his work on the likes of Roger the Dodger and Lord Snooty. Nixon's clean line and storytelling talents meant that word balloons were scarcely necessary for readers to follow the action. Nixon had a talent for ghosting styles, whether they were Ken Reid, Leo Baxendale or Dudley D. Watkins, but brought to his artwork a distinctive cuteness. Nixon's editor at The Beano told The Guardian that Nixon would have been able to illustrate a note to the milkman and still make it look appealing.

Robert Thomas Nixon was born in South Bank, near Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire, on 7 July 1939, the fifth of six children born to Arthur W. Nixon, a steelworker, and his wife Phyllis (nee Thompson), who had married in 1931. He was educated at Cromwell Road School and the Central Secondary Modern School, both in South Bank, where his youthful artistic talents were encouraged. He won several art competitions and earned himself a scholarship to Middlesbrough Art College in September 1954 but he became disillusioned with the course and dropped out. Instead, he found work as an apprentice lithographer and photo-retoucher at a printing factory. That same year, 1955, his father died at the early of 49.

Nixon married Rita M. Kelly in Middlesbrough in 1961 and had four children: Paul H. (1962), Anthony R. (1964), Wendy Anita (1966) and Catherine Ann (1968).

A fellow student encouraged him to try cartooning and he began trying his hand at cartooning, submitting samples to D. C. Thomson. His first success was to produce three fill-in episodes for The Beano's Little Plum, the first published in April 1964. Later that year, Ken Reid departed from The Beano and Nixon took over his "Roger the Dodger", which he continued to draw until 1973. He turned freelance and 1965, soon after which the family moved to Guisborough, Cleveland.

In 1968, Nixon inherited "Lord Snooty" from Dudley D. Watkins. Later strips for Thomsons included Esky Mo (1969) and Captain Cutler (1972) for Sparky and Grandpa for The Beano (1971).

Nixon was offered work – and the higher page rate of £17 as opposed to £12 a page – by IPC Publications, who were expanding their range of humour titles following the success of Whizzer & Chips and he began contributing "Hire a Horror" and "Ivor Lott and Tony Broke" to Cor!! in 1972 and "Soggy the Sea Monster" and "Frankie Stein" in Shiver & Shake in 1973. This work enabled him to work full-time for IPC, who soon added Whoopee!, Monster Fun and Krazy to their line-up of titles, to which Nixon contributed King Arthur and His Frights of the Round Table (1974), Kid Kong (1974) 12½p Buytonic Boy (1976).

Nixon drew The Gems, written by Trevor Metcalfe, for The Sun newspaper for eighteen months in 1976-78, but his main output continued to be weekly strips for IPC. He took over "Gums" for Buster and "Kid King" for Jackpot as well as creating Laser Eraser for the latter (1979); Elephant on the Run (1978) and Stage School (1979) ran in Cheeky Weekly and Ossie (1982) and Family Trees (1983) in Wow!. During this period, he also drew Parkie (1982) for a local newspaper, the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette. At his peak he was producing nine pages a week.

After fifteen-years, the newly appointed editor of The Beano, Euan Kerr, tried to tempt him back but without success. Later that same week, the editor of IPC's humour titles called with the news that mergers would leave him with fewer pages to work on; Nixon contacted Kerr and asked if the offer of work was still open.

Nixon was tempted back to D. C. Thomson, where his first "Roger the Dodger" strip appeared in January 1985. Nixon's favourite amongst the characters he created debuted in The Beano later that same year: "Ivy the Terrible",followed by "Willie Fixit" (1985) in Topper and "Polar Blair" (1985) for the newly launched Hoot.

Nixon took over the artwork for both Korky the Cat (The Dandy) and Beryl the Peril (Topper) in 1986, and continued to draw various other strips for The Beano, including "Little Monkey" (1987) and "Roger's Dodge Clinic" (1989). Nixon also illustrated related merchandise, including jigsaws and Easter egg boxes.

As an artist, Nixon had already illustrated cartoon greetings cards for the Noel Tatt Company and joke books written by Gyles Brandreth. In his spare time, he enjoyed painting fantasy landscapes in oils, pastels and watercolours.

Nixon continued to draw until his death on 22 October 2002, aged 63, his final page – the cover for the Beano Summer Special (2003) – arriving the day before he died. His longest-running strip, "Roger the Dodger" was continued by Barrie Appleby for some years and a series of Nixon reprints were introduced in 2011 before Appleby returned the following year.
From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Robert Nixon art
Top of Page

David Nockels biography
David Nockels (UK)
David Nockels was a prolific contributor to magazines and books, specialising in nature, animals and the environment. His illustrations began appearing in Look and Learn in around 1967 and he was also a regular contributor to World of Wonder in the early 1970s, at which time he was living in Shooter's Hill (London) and also acting as an occasional agent.

David Nockels contributed illustrations to many books on wildlife subjects between 1967-79, amongst the many titles he contributed to including Arthur by Ernest Dudley (1970) and the Atlas series from Heinemann (Atlas of Wildlife, Atlas of Plant Life, Atlas of the Sea, 1972-74); Young World Productions, Hamlyn, Bodley Head, Salamandar and Ward Lock also published his work.

In 1980 he began working for Methuen Children's Books and wrote and illustrated a series of pop-up books entitled Animals in Action (1981) as well as two children's story books, Hungry Little Chimpanzee and Little Lost Duckling, both published in 1982. Nockels also wrote and illustrated the Naughty Pets Board Book series for Deans International (1985), which included such titles as Percy and Katie in Trouble, Billie and Bertie at the Seaside, Bobby and Tom have a Feast and Beckie and Jamie on the Farm. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. David Nockels art
Top of Page

Harry North biography
Harry North
For an artist so widely admired, there is surprisingly little to be found about Harry North.

North would appear to have begun his career as an art assistant at IPC in the late 1960s before finding regular work as an artist at Look-In where his first work (a fill-in) appeared in February '71. He soon established himself with the colour strip On the Buses which ran until 1974 and he remained a Look-In regular until 1988, drawing Doctor in Charge (1974), Doctor on the Go (1975-76), It's Madness (1981), Super Gran (1985), No.73 (1986-87), Gilbert (1987-88) and Alf (1988).

Strips in other papers included The Michael Jackson Story in Valentine (1973), the James Bond strip Doomcrack (Daily Star, 1981) and contributions to News on Sunday (1987) and Heavy Metal (1981/82/93).

Parallel to his work in comics and newspapers, he was a regular illustrator and cover artist for MAD Magazine in both the UK and US. Because of a difference in publishing schedule, the UK edition of MAD had to include newly originated material, including covers. North provided 26 covers between 1976-88, beginning with an image of Ping Pong (King Kong) and including along the way Coronation Street, Apocalypse Now, Charles & Diana, the Oscars and EastEnders. For the American magazine, where he contributed between 1976-94, he drew satirical strip version of "Star Roars" (1978), "Moneyraker" (1980) and "Purple Acid Rain" (1985) as well as contributions to "The MAD Nasty File".

North was also known outside the UK (his work appearing in Pilote and Zona 84) and also illustrated a number of books, including The Shocking Book of Records by Martin Guinness (1983) and The Twitmarsh Files; or, The Barmy Army by R. T. Fishall (1985). From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Harry North art
Top of Page

Kevin Nowlan biography
Kevin Nowlan (b. 7 February 1958; USA)
American artist Kevin Nowlan has been active in the comics' fan press since the early 1980s. Born in Chandron, Nebraska, Kevin C. Nowlan graduated from High School and attended the Salina, Kansas Area Vocational-Technical School, where he learned the basics of art, layout and design. After two years he took a job with a local printing firm creating and designing brochures, letter headings and adverts.

He submitted illustrations to The Comics Journal and was commissioned by editor Gary Groth to produce a number of covers, beginning with an X-Men cover for issue 68 (November 1981); Nowlan went on to produce covers and spot illustrations for both The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes (including a fully-painted Supergirl cover for the latter) over the next couple of years.

His work was noticed by inker Terry Austin and Nowlan found himself pencilling a fill-in issue of Doctor Strange (#57) before taking over Moon Knight from Bill Sienkiewicz. This proved to be a disaster and he quit after only three-and-a-half issues; however, the work proved popular and he was offered more work with Marvel (Daredevil, a Nightcrawler or Long Shot mini-series) and by DC (Star Trek, a Batman graphic novel, an Aquaman mini-series), all of which he turned down. Instead, he drew strips for National Lampoon and concentrated on posters and covers for the major comics' publishers, which allowed him to draw strips such as "Grimwood's Daughter" (a back-up strip in Dalgoda) for Fantagraphics.

He has subsequently worked for both DC and Marvel, drawing The Outsiders and Green Lantern Corps for the former and New Mutants for the latter. Complaints from readers that he had made the Mutants too cartoony led to Nowlan working primarily as an inker from 1988. In this role he has continued to work for Marvel, DC. Wildstorm and Image.

Some of the highlights of this work includes Batman: Sword of Azrael (1992), Aliens: Salvation (1993), Superman vs. Aliens (1995) and Superman: Distant Fires (1997). In 1999, he began drawing the adventures of young boy-genius Jack B. Quick for Alan Moore's Tomorrow Stories.

More recently he has been involved in the Batman Confidential series and Metal Man in DC's weekly Wednesday Comics, inking the pencils of José Luis García-López, and the one-shot Hellboy: Buster Oakley Gets His Wish (2011), written by Mike Mignola.

Nowlan was the subject of Eric Nolen-Weatherington's collection, Modern Masters Volume 4, published by Twomorrows Publishing in 2004. He lives in Kansas with his wife, Deanne. Kevin Nowlan art
Top of Page

O

Brian O'Hanlon biography
Brian O'Hanlon
Little is known about Brian O'Hanlon. He was a painter and illustrator whose career seems to have extended over at least 55 years. A search of auction records reveals a number of oil paintings and watercolours sold over the past 15 or so years, the earliest being a watercolour of Crookston Castle, built in the Pollok district of Glasgow in around 1400AD. This was dated 1931.

The most recent dated work is from 1988. This later work, in oil, is primarily of rural scenes — fields of poppies, river estuaries, the Fenlands. One painting is described as looking through the window of a fisherman's cottage out onto a beach, possibly near the Suffolk coastal town of Aldeburgh.

Armed with this connection to Suffolk, it is possible that O'Hanlon is (or was) Brian Francis O'Hanlon, whose death, at the age of 77, was registered in Bury St Edmunds in 1991. Brian Francis O'Hanlon was born 23 June 1914. The only other official trace would appear to be a marriage (in Croydon, Surrey) in 1944 to Margaret Watson. I believe he was born in Scotland, which would make sense if the teenage O'Hanlon was painting Scottish scenery in the 1930s. This should be considered speculation only.

In the late 1960s, O'Hanlon would appear to have been producing romantic illustrations in colour for women's magazines and at least one cover for June and School Friend (1968). How extensive O'Hanlon's contributions in these areas were is unknown. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Brian O'Hanlon art
Top of Page

Alexander Oliphant biography
Alexander George Oliphant (2 May 1911 - 1971; Scotland)
Alexander George Oliphant was a Scottish artist who was exhibiting paintings in the 1930s at which time he was living in Grangemouth. Oliphant was living in London (at 30 Bedford Chambers, Piazza, City of London) at least as early as 1945 and moved to 9 Graham Terrace, Westminster around 1948, then 23 St George's Court, Brompton Road, South Kensington, around 1949.

For at least a decade [1952-62], Oliphant had a studio at 4 Cavaye Studios, Cavaye Place, Kensington SW10. Around 1962, he moved to 55 Crompton Court, Brompton Road, South Kensington, SW3, where he was to live until his death in the autumn of 1971, aged 60.

He contributed to Eagle Annual, Daily Mirror Book for Boys, and was the artist who illustrated Sea Change, Richard Armstrong's award-winning novel, and the series Sink the Scharnhorst!, in Ranger in 1965-66. He was subsequently a prolific contributor of Second World War illustrations to the early issues of World of Wonder shortly before his death.

He was married to Thora M. Goldsmith (nee Clee), the former wife of William L. Goldsmith, in Paddington in 1947. Thora, born in Kings Norton, Worcestershire, in 1911, died in London in 1968, aged 56. Alexander Oliphant art
Top of Page

Giorgio Olivetti biography
Giorgio Olivetti (b. 20 April 1908; Italy)
Giorgio Olivetti was born in Bologna on 20 April 1908. Little seems to be known about his career outside of his work on cinema posters. One imagines that he began his professional career as an artist in the 1920s, although the earliest work I have been able to trace dates from 1942, a film poster promoting the release of Il Bacio della Pantera [Cat People] starring Simone Simon.

Olivetti produced a steady stream of film posters starring everyone from Charlie Chaplin (Luci della Ribalta [The Great Dictator], 1952) to John Wayne (A Cavalieri dei Nord Ovest [She Wore a Yellow Ribbon], 1949; La battaglia di Alamo [The Alamo],1960). His posters include La foresta Incantata [The Enchanted Forest], 1945; Forza Bruta [Brute Force], 1947; Singapore, 1948; L'Ambiziosa [Payment on Demand], 1951; Seduzione mortale [Angel Face], 1952, Rancho Notorious, 1952; Il Forestiero [The Million Pound Note], 1953; Vortice, 1953; Vera Cruz, 1954; La Ragazza del Secolo [It Should Happen to You], 1954; Riccardo III, 1955; Tempesta sul Nilo [Storm Over the Nile], 1955; Il Cacciatore di Indiani [The Indian Fighter], 1955; Quado la citta dorme [While the City Sleeps], 1956; Trapezio <Actinic:Variable Name = 'Trapeze'/>, 1956; L'Alibi era perfetto [Beyond a Reasonable Doubt], 1956; Una Strega in Paradiso [Bell, Book and Candle], 1958; A qualcuno piace caldo [Some Like It Hot], 1959; La dolce vita, 1959; Un maledetto imbroglio, 1959; Il Mattatore (aka Love and Larceny), 1960; Viva L'Italia, 1961; I cannoni di Navarone [The Guns of Navaronne], 1961; Il conquistatore di Corinto, 1961; Invito ad una Sparatoria [Invitation to a Gunfighter], 1964; Una Pistola per Ringo, 1965; Io, io, io... e gli altri, 1965; Doringo [The Glory Guys], 1965; Gambit, 1966; A Sud-Ovest di Sonora [The Appaloosa], 1966; I Professionisti [The Professionals], 1966; Casino Royale, 1967; Emmanuelle, 1969.

In Italy, he also illustrated covers for Films in Anteprima [Filmes in Review] (1947) and at least one calendar (Calendario di Frate Indovino, 1965). Beginning in the late 1950s, in common with a number of leading Italian cinema poster artists, Olivetti worked briefly for British publishers in the late 1950s, producing cover illustrations for the Sexton Blake Library (1958-59) and True Life Library (1960) via Cosmopolitan Artists. An illustration featuring Joan of Arc appeared in an early issue of Look and Learn in 1962. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Giorgio Olivetti art
Top of Page

Olivia (Olivia De Bernardinis) biography
Olivia Amanda De Bernardinis (b. 29 Nov 1948; USA)
Olivia has described herself as "a painter of women, sexualized, surreal women. People always ask me how I got into the business. What they really want to know is why I am such an anomaly, Which I'm not ... I think its strange that women aren't known for this genre, since it is ours to know."

Her first book was introduced by Hugh Hefner, who noted, "Male artists tend to do the predictable in erotica. Olivia surprises. She works with patterns — from the natural to the quasi-natural, from the intricate traceries of lingerie to the startling lines of a tattoo. None of the women in this collection are simply nude: They are contained by lace, by metal, by satin, by leather. Beneath the designs, beneath the artifice is the feminine form."

Born in Long Beach, California, on 29 November 1948, Olivia Amanda De Bernardinis grew up primarily on the the east coast. She began drawing at the age of three or four, developing an early interest in drawing a Barbie-like character based, she says, on her mother. After attending the New York School of Visual Arts (1968-70), she worked at numerous bars and clubs as a waitress or barmaid whilst she began producing artwork — minimalist designs, some of which were exhibited at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in the early 1970s.

From around 1974, she began drawing for adult magazines and established herself as a leading erotic artist, publishing the first of numerous portfolios and illustrations for Playboy in 1984. She married Joel Beren in 1979, a photographer who also acts of agent for Olivia's paintings, which were sold and licensed through their own companies O Card Company and Ozone Productions. They moved to Malibu, California, in 1987, where they continue to live and work.

Olivia's books have included Let Them Eat Cheesecake: The Art of Olivia (1993), Second Slice: The Art of Olivia II (1997), Cheesecake Chronicles Vol. 1 (2000), American Geisha: The Art of Olivia III (2003), Bettie Page by Olivia (2006) and Malibu Cheesecake (2011). As well as producing prints, calendars and note cards, she recently collaborated on a limited edition print which featured a poem by Neil Gaiman. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Olivia (Olivia De Bernardinis) art
Top of Page

Jose Ortiz biography
José Ortiz
Jose Ortiz has had a long and varied career in Spain, the USA and UK markets; where has worked on titles such as The Eagle (Smokeman, UFO Agent), 2000AD (Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper) and for both Fleetway and D.C. Thomson's pocket libraries as well as working on the Caroline Baker, Barrister at Law newspaper strip for the Daily Express.>!! Jose Ortiz art
Top of Page

Leopoldo Ortiz biography
Leopoldo Ortiz Moya (b. 11 September 1930, Spain)
Leopoldo Ortiz was the older brother of the more famous — at least in the UK — artist Jose Ortiz. Born Leopoldo Ortiz Moya in Cartagena, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, on 11 September 1930, like his brother, with whom he worked closely, Leopoldo was educated at the Escuela Valenciana.

His first big success was the historical swashbuckler El Principe Pablo [Prince Paul], set in the mythical country of Chon-Chon, ruled by a once powerful king whose life had been blighted by the loss of his wife and young son. Unknown to the king, or the powerful enemies he has, his son Paul is still alive, believing himself the son of a merchant and it is only as her wedding approaches that Paul's sister, Rosalia, learns that she has a brother. The series ran to 25 issues from 1953 and was followed in 1954 by Terciopelo Negro [Black Velvet], in which another prince, Marco Scipio, dons a black mask as he tries to restore his father's fortunes, battling the Doge of Venice who has seized power.

Leopoldo's early comics, published by Editorial Maga, had covers by Jose, and their working relationship also led Leopoldo to write 47 issues of Dan Barry, el Terremoto [Dan Barry, Earthquake], drawn by Jose (with one episode by Miguel Quesada); at the same time, he wrote and drew Carlos de Alcátena and El Caballero de la Rosa [The Cavalier of the Rose] for Maga.
Leopoldo subsequently drew a number of other series for the same publisher, including Jungla, Audaces Legionarios-El Capitán Rey [Bold Legionnaires - Captain King], and two series of Bengala (a Tarzan-like character from the jungles of India), often working with scriptwriter Pedro Quesada.

Leopoldo Ortiz was one of the earliest contributors to the famous Commando pocket library published by D. C. Thomson in 1961, but his main output for the UK was for rivals Air Ace Picture Library and War Picture Library, drawing over two dozen issues between 1961 and 1969. This was still something of a sideline to his work in Spain, which included Espia, El Libertador, El Gran Cazador, Flecha Roja (in Pantera Negra) and Policía en acción (in Españolin) during the 1960s.

Leopoldo Ortiz continued to work into the 1980s, his later strips including The Secret Files of the Luftwaffe for Warlord, Shi-Kai in the Spanish magazine Kung-Fu and Metropol. He subsequently retired from drawing comics. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Leopoldo Ortiz art
Top of Page

R F Outcault biography
R F Outcault (14 Jan 1863 - 28 Sep 1965; USA)
R. F. Outcault was the creator of The Yellow Kid, often cited as "the hero of the first true comic strip" (to quote The World Encyclopedia of Comics, ed. Maurice Horn). The Yellow Kid was a fad that lasted only briefly but proved culturally significant and left enough ephemeral detritus behind that he was not forgotten.

Richard Felton Outcault was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on 14 January 1863, the son of Jesse Pugh Outcalt (1833-1910), a cabinet maker who owned a furniture business, and his wife Catherine Ann (nee Davis). He was born with the surname Outcalt and known to his family and friends as Dick.

Dick Outcalt showed an early talent for drawing. At school in Lancaster he would sketch teachers and scholars in class. At the age of 15 he travelled to Cincinnati and enrolled in the McMicken University's School of Design where he studied for three years. Returning to Lancaster, his father established him with a studio and he became a portrait painter. This did not particularly suit his talents as he preferred to produce more humorous drawings. Instead, he found work as a painter with the Hall Safe and Lock Company in Cincinnati.

At the same time, he used his talents to produce illustrations for local newspapers and worked on the Cincinnati Graphic and later on the Cincinnati Enquirer as a cub reporter. It was a story he wrote and illustrated for the Enquirer about an exhibition of the work of Thomas A. Edison that brought him to the attention of the famous inventor. Edison needed a technical illustrator for the 1888 Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Middle Atlantic States, which was to be held in Cincinnati that year, and hired Outcalt. Impressed by the drawings, Edison employed Outcalt as a technical illustrator at his West Orange, New Jersey, headquarters and sent him to Paris to prepare for the Exposition Universelle, held between May and October 1889. Whilst in Paris, Outcalt — by now signing himself Outcault — found time to study art in Paris's Latin Quarter and developed the habit of wearing a beret and cape.

Outcault returned to New York to work on the staff of Electrical Magazine, owned by one of Edison's friends. In Lancaster he married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Jane ("Mamie") Martin, the 20-year-old daughter of a local banker, on 25 December 1890. The newly married couple settled in Flushing, New York, and Outcault began freelancing cartoons and jokes to Truth, Judge and Life magazines where they were well received. It was here that he developed the style and characteristics that would make his name; his cartoons were highly detailed and many featured the street kids who lived in the slum tenements of New York. Eventually, Outcault settled on one location for his cartoons, Hogan's Alley.

Outcault was hired in 1894 to produce technical illustrations for the New York World, but continued to sell cartoons. It was in the pages of Truth that he introduced a bald, snaggle-toothed young character in a nightshirt on 2 June 1894. The background character appeared three more times over the next ten months. This fourth cartoon, originally published on 9 February 1895, was reprinted in the New York World and Outcault began producing new cartoons for the paper. From 5 May 1895, Outcault's cartoons began to expand in size and appear in colour and the bald little kid — his nightshirt blue in that first colour cartoon — developed from a background character on the sidelines of the cartoon and began to feature more prominently.

On 5 January 1896 the kid's nightshirt became yellow for the first time and, whilst the character was never named, he was from then on referred to as the Yellow Kid. Over the next few months the silent Kid began to issue irreverent messages to his readers on his nightshirt, usually commenting on the subject of the day's cartoon. The growing popularity of the character — a 'type' that Outcault would see around the slums on his newspaper assignments — earned him the notice of advertisers; the bright yellow shirt proved an attractive billboard and before long there was a great deal of Yellow Kid merchandise available, ranging from buttons to booze.

The growth in popularity of the Kid coincided with a newspaper war that raged between the New York World, published by Joseph Pulitzer and the New York Journal, founded by William Randolph Hearst, who raided the World for some of its best artists and writers, including Outcault. Outcault's final cartoon in the New York World appeared on 17 May 1896... but it was not the end for the characters of Hogan's Alley, as the page was continued by George B. Luks.

Hearst, meanwhile, advertised heavily that the New York Journal was now the home of the Yellow Kid, appearing in the Sunday colour supplement each week in a series of full-page panels under the title "McFadden's Row of Flats". The war between the Journal and the World was still in full force and stories became more and more sensational in the battle for readers — to the point where stories were of dubious veracity. To distinguish between the two papers, Hearst's was often referred to as the Yellow Kid Paper, but at that time both papers were featuring the Yellow Kid, who was still appearing in Hogan's Alley in the World. Because of this, the two were inexorably linked and as early as 1897, the New York Press was referring disparagingly to the "yellow journalism" of the two papers.

One apparent myth regarding the Kid is that Hearst and Pulitzer went to court over ownership of the character. According to Richard D. Olson, "The weak link in the myth is that there doesn't appear to be any record of such a decision, and I know a lot of people who have looked for it." Elsewhere, we learn that Outcault tried to apply for copyright of "The Yellow Dugan Kid" in September 1896, but due to an irregularity in his application, copyright protection was never granted.

The lack of control he could exercise over his creation led Outcault to abandon the Yellow Kid. Hearst employed him as the editor of the comic page of the New York Evening Journal where he created Casey's Corner and The Huckleberry Volunteers, the Yellow Kid occasionally popping up in both strips. Outcault left Hearst to create Poor Li'l Mose for the New York Herald in 1901 and, around the same time, produced Shakespeare in Possumville for Judge.

However, it was his next creation, Buster Brown, launched in the New York Herald on 4 May 1902, that put Outcault back in the public eye. The main character was a young child of wealthy parents who dressed him like Little Lord Fauntleroy; however, Buster Brown was actually a practical joker, breaking windows or playing pranks which usually ends with him receiving a 'licking' from his mother.

The character again proved very popular and Outcault was again tempted by money to take the strip to Hearst's New York Journal. "Buster Brown" was continued in the Herald by other artists until 1911; Outcault, meanwhile, launched his own nameless version in the Journal, which would run until 1921 (with reprints continuing to appear in some papers as late as 1926). In this instance, Outcault made sure he retained all the merchandising rights to the character and benefited from the countless spin-offs into advertising and theatre. Outcault rapidly became a rich man and as early as 1905 was earning more from selling clothing and merchandise than he was from the syndication of the comic strip.

In 1909, he set up the Outcault Advertising Company to exploit the success of his creations, although he continued to draw the Sunday (now nameless) Buster Brown strip until 1921. He retired, passing control of the Outcault Company to his son, Richard F. Outcault Jr., who became its new president.

Outcault concentrated on painting for the next few years, exhibiting widely. He also reprinted volumes of his Yellow Kid and Buster Brown comics. In the summer of 1928 he fell suddenly ill and died on 28 September at the age of 65. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. R F Outcault art
Top of Page

Arthur Oxenham biography
Arthur Oxenham
Arthur Oxenham was a prolific artist and illustrator who was particularly associated with the Read About It series of children's educational books published by Wheaton in the 1960s. Although relatively short (usually 24 pages), Oxenham illustrated 72 volumes in association with series authors Olive Gregory and Eileen Everett in five years; the series eventually lasted some 120 books (the later ones with other artists) and many of the early titles were subsequently reissued in the 1970s with different artwork. There was also a Welsh language series (published in 1967) which reprinted nine of the early titles.

Although the series included a wide range of geographical and historical subjects, Oxenham was primarily a wildlife illustrator, contributing many animal-related covers and dozens of colour illustrations to the Peeps at Nature series which featured animals from around the world. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Arthur Oxenham art
Top of Page

P

Keith Page biography
Keith Page
Keith has been involved in comics since 1976, being represented by The Temple Art Agency. He has worked on most Fleetway and DC Thomson titles over the years including Thunderbirds, Sonic the Comic, Eagle, Mask, Supernaturals, Wildcat, Football Picture Library, Dandy, Starblazer, 2000AD, Starlord and Revolver. He also worked on Mighty Max for Marvel UK.

He is currently working for DC Thomson on Commando. He has produced science fiction book covers and has worked on a variety of book illustration commissions. Keith occasionally works on scripts and writes magazine articles. Keith Page art
Top of Page

Stefan Pajaczkowski biography
Stefan Pajaczkowski (b. 29 Jan 1900, Poland; d. 2 June 1978, Edinburgh)
Stefan Pajaczkowski was a Polish artist who illustrated books in his native Poland, and was known primarily for his expertise on Polish military subjects.

Born in Lviv (now part of the Ukraine) on 29 January 1900, the son of physicia Vladimir Pajaczkowski, who was the director of the General Hospital in Sanok for many years, and his wife Wanda Sekowskich Pajaczkowska. Stefan Pajaczkowski graduated from the Gimnazjum Sanockim in 1918 and then aided soldiers returning from the front, earning a silver medal from the Austrian Red Cross. It was during the war, and a visit to Vienna's museums and galleries, that his passion for art grew, although at the end of the war — and with it the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire — he joined the Military Academy in Wiener-Neustadt.

Pajaczkowski joined a reserve cavalry squadron but was admitted the following year to the Old Riding School and spent some time in hospital in 1920. He studied at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lviv but abandoned the notion of becoming a lawyer in favour of drawing and painting in the studio of war artist Zygmunt Rodakowski.

He graduated from the Lviv Landowners Agricultural course in 1926, he settled in Wankowicach and ran a farm as well as being appointed a lieutenant in the general militia. He was married in 1927. At the outbreak of World War II, Pajaczkowski took up a position as steward of an estate in Kostarowcach in the county of Sanok. At the end of the war he was to be found with military units in Przemysl in the south east of Poland. He was demobbed in 1946 with the rank of captain.

After the war he settled with his family in Poznan where he worked in real estate until 1950, later taking a job with the Krajowym Zwiazku Spóldzielni Przemyslu Ludowego i Artystycznego [National Co-operative Union of the Folk and Art Industry]. In 1951 he became a member of the Zwiazku Polskich Artystów Plastyków [Association of Polish Artists and Designers].

Although he painted extensively from the 1920s on, his best period is considered to be the 1950s when he made numerous paintings and watercolours of battle scences and uniforms. In 1956, he helped re-establish and became curator of the Wielkopolska Military Museum which had existed in Poznan in 1919-39; the collection was first exhibited at the pavilion at Old Market Square in Poznan in February 1963. In 1965, he helped establish the Stowarzyszenia Milosników Dawnej Broni i Barwy [Association of Friends of Old Arms and Colours].

"1,000 Years of Polish Arms" was a major exhibition of Stefan Pajaczkowski's paintings that visited many Polish cities; his expertise at depicting Polish military uniforms, especially those of the Polish Cavalry, can be seen in the 1980 collection Jazda Polska.

Pajaczkowski died suddenly in Edinburgh on 2 June 1978 whilst visiting the UK and Scotland. His ashes were returned to Poland where they were buried at Junikowskim Cemetary, Poznan. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Stefan Pajaczkowski art
Top of Page

Francesco Palma biography
Francesco Palma
Palma was a contributor of a double-page feature about Spartacus to a 1970s Tell Me Why annual but is otherwise unknown. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Francesco Palma art
Top of Page

Eric Robert Parker biography
Eric Robert Parker (1898-1974; UK)
Eric Parker is probably best known as the Sexton Blake artist, being responsible for hundreds of full-colour covers for the Sexton Blake Library as well as countless covers and interior black and white illustrations for Union Jack and Detective Weekly. He was a consummate draughtsman, at home illustrating any period of history, and the few strip stories he drew for Thriller Comics Library are amongst the best in the entire series. With the exception of The Children of New Forest (no. 38), which was mainly a reprint of his 1945 Knockout strip with some new material added, and The Secret of Monte Cristo (no. 14), which originated as a superb Parker Sexton Blake strip in Knockout but which for the Thriller Comics Library version was so extensively re-drawn by Reg Bunn that it could scarcely be classified as a Parker strip at all, Parker's contributions were all especially drawn for the Library.

His artistic ability was discovered early on and the young Eric had an article about his talent and the scholarship it had won for him, together with his photograph, in the Boy's Own Paper in 1913. From the outset of his career in illustration, he was prolific and his work can be seen in a wide variety of publications throughout the 1920s and '30s. His first strip work was for Knockout, starting with whimsical fantasy strips such as The Queer Adventures of Patsy and Tim, before going onto a Western strip, The Adventures of Bear Cub. This was followed by a long series of excellent adaptations of adventure classics including Gulliver's Travels (1942-3), Kidnapped (1945-6), "The Black Arrow (1948) and The Three Musketeers (1946).

The work of Parker can be seen in many publications other than those of the Amalgamated Press, notably the evocative historical illustrations, painted in two-tone colour, for the Daily Mail Annual for Boys and Girls. Latterly he worked for the educational magazine, Look and Learn, writing and illustrating such superb historical series as The Scrapbook of the British Army and The Scrapbook of the British Navy, and also producing "visualisation" - sketched-out roughs detailing composition, etc - for other artists to complete. At the time of his death he left the full-colour artwork for an uncompleted series he had created called A Thousand Years of Spying. An unfinished Napoleonic strip of excellent quality was also never published. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Eric Robert Parker art
Top of Page

Reginald Parlett biography
Reginald Parlett (1904-1991, England)
Born in London, Reginald, with his brother George, inherited the artistic talents of his father. His father, Harry Parlett, was a prolific artist for many Victorian publications and drew for Film Fun, Funny Wonder, Chuckles and Chips. Reg soon followed his father into comics, working on Jester Annual, Crackers, Funny Wonder Tip Top and Jingles. In 1932 Parlett started drawing Charlie Chaplin, also for Funny Wonder. His first newspaper strip work was for the Daily Mirror with Just Jake. He followed this with work for most of the Amalgamated Press titles such as Eagle, Lion, Swift, Buster, and Film Fun. He continued with contributions for Cor, Wow, and Whoopee well into his 80s, and his humorous strips are still much loved. Reginald Parlett art
Top of Page

Antonio Parras biography
Antonio Parras (1929-2010; Spain)
Antonio Parras was born in Barcelona February 2, 1929. Before turning to comics, Antonio Parras had several jobs, such as assistant chemist, secretary of a lawyer and as a retoucher in a printing house. His first comics were published in the Spanish magazines El Globo (El Duende) and KKO (La Dama del Antifaz), both of the publishing house De Haro. He also worked for Bruguera for a while.

He moved to Paris in 1955, where he began associations with the World Press and Édi-France agencies. He drew several historical stories in the series Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul (in Spirou) and Grands Noms de l'Histoire de France (in Pistolin), both scripted by Jean-Michel Charlier. In 1956, he drew Alerte au Gabon in Risque-Tout, and he contributed illustrations to Line, Sonia, Ici-Paris, Bonjour Bonheur and Vaillant. He appeared in Hello Bédé with La Dernière Lune in 1992 (text by Rodolphe and Le Tendre), and he co-operated on the collective album Transports Fripons at Les Humanoïdes Associés. In 1993, he teamed up with Patrick Cothias, and created La Lièvre de Mars at Glénat.

Ten years later, Parras began Le Méridien des Brumes with text by Eric Juszezak at Dargaud. Two books have appeared, in 2003 and 2007. Antonio Parras is furthermore the cover illustratior of 34 Bob Morane books for Libaririe des Champs Elysées. He passed away in Paris in June 2010. Antonio Parras art
Top of Page

Peter Partington biography
Peter Partington
Peter Partington is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists. His work appears in many British bird books. Peter Partington art
Top of Page

Oliver Passingham biography
Oliver Passingham
Oliver Passingham worked on the strips Leslie Shane (a female detective modelled on Alex Raymond's famous Rip Kirby strip) and the science fiction classic Rick Random which appeared in Super Detective Library. From the early 1960s through to around 1990 he work on a variety of DC Thomson comics. Oliver Passingham art
Top of Page

Jordi Penalva biography
Jordi Bosch Peñalva (b. 1927, Barcelona, Spain)
Jordi Penalva was one of the leading artists for Fleetway's War and Battle picture libraries in the 1960s. In the seven years between 1963 and 1969 he provided about 75 covers for each title, marked by their quality. David Roach describes Penalva's work as combining "a wonderful, gritty sense of the dramatic with a textural, highly accomplished painting ability." and "his heroes ruggedly handsome soldiers often striking dramatic poses, usually surrounded by blazing guns, smoke, explosions and vast swathes of colour."

Penalva was born in Barcelona in 1927, the younger brother of Antonio Bosch Peñalva, who was also a notable artist, providing covers for many issues of Schoolgirls Picture Library and June & School Friend Picture Library). His full name was Jordi Bosch Peñalva, the Spanish tradition being to retain the mother's surname as well as his father's family name. However, as his older brother signed his work 'Bosch Penalva', Jordi used his mother's maiden name when signing his work.

In the mid-1960s, Penalva also began working for D. C. Thomson's rival Commando pocket library and over the next decade produced 180 covers, averaging just over one a fortnight between 1969 and 1974. Penalva was also supplying illustrations and cover for Scandinavian magazines—notably for Semic's newspaper strip reprints of The Saint, James Bond, Modesty Blaise and others—and for the German publisher Bastei.

Penalva, like many other Spanish artists, could also be found contributing to James Warren's magazines, providing covers for Eerie, Vampirella, 1984 and The Rook in 1978-82—his cover for Eerie 96 was voted the best cover of 1978. During the same period he was painting covers for DAW Books and Playboy Press.

In the late-1970s to mid-1980s he was also painting covers for Josep Toutain's magazine 1984 (later Zona 84), Comix Internacional and Thriller in his native Spain as well as comics from other publishers, including Blue Jeans, Super Bumerang and Kung-Fu.

Subsequently, Penalva was able to concentrate on painting, in oils, watercolours and acrylics, with occasional more commercial diversions, such as producing paintings for commemorative plates, providing background paintings for the Spanish animated movie Katy, Kiki y Koko (1988). Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Jordi Penalva art
Top of Page

Glenn Pepple biography
Glenn David Pepple (b. 1960; USA)
A high school contemporary of Jon J. Muth, Glenn Pepple contributed illustrations to Epic (1985) and a one-page painting to Clive Barker's Hellraiser issue 4 (1990). Pepple was also one of six contributors to Night, a collection of six prints published by Peter & Pan Publishers (1985) in a limited edition of 1,000 copies, each plate signed and numbered.

Pepple lives in New York. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Glenn Pepple art
Top of Page

Malcolm Poynter biography
Malcolm Poynter (b. 1947; UK)
Malcolm Poynter was born in Croydon in 1947 but grew up in Southampton. He is related to the painter Sir Edward Poynter which helped develop his interest in artwork, as did his boyhood reading of The Eagle. He attended Winchester School of Art (1965-67) and St Martin's College of Art (1967-70) where he was a contemporary of Gilbert & George, Richard Long, Bill Woodrow nad John Goto.

His comics work began to appear in the 1970s in underground newspapers, including Eddie Trunker and Rip Toph in Oz and International Times. He also contributed to Xozmic Comics, It's All Lies, Rock 'n' Roll Madness Funnies, Animal Weirdness and Ally Sloper.

He worked for a wide range of magazine and book publishers, including Radio Times, Time Out, Image, Science Fiction Monthly (NEL), Pan Books and several top shelf magazines. He also did advertising for Levi jeans and Octopus Books and album artwork for Peter Gabriel.

He became art director for Mecanic, a high street fashion manufacturer and t-shirt printer and then produced graphics for many years for ITN, Thames TV and Meridian TV.

In 2000 he returned to painting and subsequently had exhibitions in New York, London, Dorset and Wiltshire. He has also worked in embroidery.

A few years later, Poynter moved from his studio in Dalston, London, to Aigen, Austria, where he bought a former garden centre which he has turned into a gallery. Aigen is also the home of Nick Treadwell, Poynter's agent, who moved to Dalston some years before Poynter and bought a 500-year-old prison which he also turned into a gallery. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Malcolm Poynter art
Top of Page

Q

Miguel Quesada biography
Miguel Quesada (1933- )
Spanish artist, born Miguel Quesada Cerdán in Albacete on 4 January 1933. Became interested in drawing cartoons whilst at school and, in late 1945, began assisting Manuel Gago, a family acquaintance, on his strip La Pandilla de los 7. He then collaborated with his brother Pedro on a number of strips for Valenciana and Bruguera publishing houses. For the publisher Maga he created Pacho Dinamite and Tony y Anita as well as briefly taking over the popular Pentera Negra strip.

He worked with his one-time school friend Luis Bermejo in Valencia through whom he began working for British comics. He was a regular contributor to Air Ace Picture Library and Commando as well as producing occasional weekly strips, including a run of stories featuring The Iron Man for Eagle and The Trigan Empire for Look and Learn. In later years Quesada concentrated on book illustration. Miguel Quesada art
Top of Page

Nadir Quinto biography
Nadir Quinto (1918-1994)
Nadir Quinto's contributions to the Thriller Picture Library were strips featuring the adventures of Robin Hood. Nadir Quinto was born in Milan and attended the Accademia di Brera and, immediately after the War, began contributing picture strips to most of the top Italian comic journals such as Dinamite, Albi di Salgari, Festival and L'Intrepido. In 1946 he began drawing and lettering strips for Corrieri dei Piccoli. After his brief time drawing Robin Hood strips for the TPL, he left comics to concentrate on illustration, only to return to drawing strips for the Italian comic journals in the 1970s. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Nadir Quinto art
Top of Page

R

Arthur Ranson biography
Arthur Ranson (born 1939, Essex, UK)
Arthur James Ranson is an English illustrator whose fine line penwork and attention to visual detail has led to the misapplied epithet 'photo-realistic'. Ranson has been appearing in British comics since the early 1970s. Amongst many accomplishments, his works include Anderson: Psi Division, Button Man, Mazeworld and other 2000AD strips.

Ranson also produced a series of comic-strip biographies of well-known music stars and bands, including ABBA (1977), Elvis Presley (1981), The Beatles (1981-2), Haircut 100 (1983) and The Sex Pistols (1983).

Arthur has also contributed to Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight and X-Men and TV-based strips such as Sapphire and Steel, Dangermouse, Worzel Gummidge, Michael Bentine's Potty Time and Duckula. arthur Ranson art
Top of Page

Fred Ray biography
Fred Ray (1920 - 2001; USA)
American artist Fred Ray made his name in the 1940s with Superman before spending the next two decades working on Tomahawk for DC Comics. Fred Ray art
Top of Page

Basil Reynolds biography
Basil Reynolds
Basil Reynolds wrote and drew the popular Wonders of the Wild comic strip for many years for a variety of publications including Mickey Mouse Weekly (1952-1954), Express Weekly and Express Annuals (1955-1962) and Playhour Annual (1957-1958). Basil Reynolds art
Top of Page

Fred Roe biography
Fred Roe (1864 - 1947; UK)
Fred Roe was an English painter and illustrator specializing in large historical scenes with period costumes. He was also a collector of, and authority on, antique furniture, writing A History of Oak Furniture (1920). Roe was elected to the Royal Institute of British Painters in 1909. Fred Roe art
Top of Page

Enric Romero biography
Enric Badia Romero (b. 1930)
The celebrated Spanish artist launched the comic Alex in 1953 and in 1970 took over the illustration of Modesty Blaise, the long running syndicated newspaper strip of Peter O'Donnell's adventurous sexy heroine, for longer than any other artist. He is also famous for his full colour and pen and ink illustrations of the scantily clad heroine Axa. Enric Badia Romero art
Top of Page

Harry Rountree biography
Harry Rountree (1878-1950)
Rountree was born in New Zealand but emigrated to the UK. He contributed paintings and drawings to many magazines including Punch. He also illustrated many children's books including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1908. During the 1930s he contibuted to Radio Times. His style is instantly appealing both to children and adults. Harry Rountree art
Top of Page

John Ryan biography
John Ryan
John Ryan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Aged 7, he wrote his first book 'Adventures of Tommy Brown' and sold it to his mother for two pennies.

After service in Burma he went to study at the Regent Street Polytechnic. Ryan created the character Captain Pugwash in 1950 for The Eagle. He was also the creator of 'Harris Tweed, Extra Special Agent', a would-be private eye, and Lettice Leefe, the Greenest Girl in School (for Girl magazine), but 'Captain Horation Pugwash' was his most endearing character.

Although listed as an illustrator, John Ryan has written and illustrated 20 books such as The Very Hungry Lions, Mamel and the Tower of Babel and Giantkiller. John Ryan art
Top of Page

S

Septimus Scott biography
Septimus Edwin Scott (1879-1965)
In the course of a long and varied career, Sep Scott exhibited in the Royal Academy and was a member of the Royal Watercolour Society. He became a book illustrator and one of the highest paid and respected of all British poster artists. Towards the end of his life, during a period when his style had gone somewhat out of vogue, he began working for Leonard Matthews and his trio of comics, Knockout, Sun and Thriller Comics Library.

At first, Scott was used for picture strips, drawing all the adventures of the pirate hunter, Captain Flame, and proving to be a natural born strip artist. Then, when Matthews took over Thriller Comics Library, Scott began to paint the covers. He drew scores of full colour cover paintings, which would, as Leonard Matthews commented, "grace the walls of any stately home", and were, in all probability, largely responsible for the success of the Library and the fact that these comics are so valued today amongst collectors.

Scott also drew a number of short Robin Hood strips for the Library and some fine full-length adventure picture stories including Jane Eyre (no. 31), Pride of the Ring (no. 53), Secret Operator (no. 73) and the splendidly atmospheric, The Dark Shadows of London (no. 156). For a short period, he also painted the occasional cover - and back page - for Comet and Sun and also contributed some paintings for the first Buck Jones Annual (colour plates as well as the cover) and the covers for both issues of the Billy the Kid Book of Picture Stories. Toward the end of his life, Sep Scott drew occasionally for Look and Learn. Biography extract courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Septimus Scott art
Top of Page

Eustaquio Segrelles biography
Eustaquio Segrelles del Pilar
Eustaquio Segrelles is a Spanish (watercolor) painter and comic artist. He began his career in Valencia as an assistant to Eduardo Vaño in doing Roberto Alcázar. It was for the publishing house Maga where he created his best known comic, Los Imbatibos (1963). He also made episodes of other series, including Aquiles, La Cuadrilla and Johnny Pacífico. For the collection Joyas Literarias Juveniles he made a comic adaptation of Nuevas Aventuras de Dick Turpin in 1973. He is a cousin of comic artist Vicente Segrelles. Eustaquio Segrelles art
Top of Page

Charles Sheldon biography
Charles Sheldon (1889-1961)
Charles Sheldon art
Top of Page

Barry Windsor Smith biography
Barry Windsor Smith
One of the superstars of the comics industry, he was born in London and travelled to America in 1968 to get work with Marvel Comics. Much influenced by Jack Kirby, his early work was on X-Men 53 and two Daredevil issues. Starting work on a brand new title Conan the Barbarian, he developed his own unique style. Conan became highly acclaimed critically and an award-winning best seller but, disillusioned with the editorial restrictions imposed by Marvel at the time, he left after issue 24.
Founding his own publishing company Gorblimey Press, he published a series of his own limited edition prints, lithographs and portfolios. During this period away from comics, Smith joined with Mike Kaluta, Jeff Jones and Bernie Wrightson in a loose association producing lithographs and prints from The Studio, culminating in the book of the same name.

Returning to the comics field in 1985 Smith drew the Machine Man mini series, X-Men and the Weapon X story. Leaving Marvel again, he helped to put Valiant on the map with the origin to Solar Man of the Atom and Archer & Armstrong.In 1993 he left Valiant due to contractual differences and moved to Malibu to create Rune. Since the demise of Valiant he continues to work in comics and has produced two volumes of his autobiography (Opus 1 and Opus 2, both available here) featuring many of his superb paintings. Nearly all of his prints and portfolios are now long out of print and much sought after by collectors. Barry Windsor Smith art

See also our selection of BWS books.
Top of Page

John S Smith biography
John Stephen Smith
John started drawing from as long back as he can remember. He went to art school just prior to WW2 when he was called up and joined the Royal Navy. He served on the Cruiser HMS Niagara on the Malta and Russian convoys. After the war he continued his art studies and career. His work has been commissioned by most shipping companies and railways companies and his art has been used by many leading publishers in the UK and USA.

Although now in his 80s he still greatly enjoys painting and he is available for commissions. If you are interested, please c/o the Gallery. John S Smith art

Top of Page

Reg Smythe biography
Reg Smythe (1917-1998)
Born in Hartlepool, the son of a boat builder. He left school at 14 and worked as a butcher's delivery boy, joined the Northumberland Fusiliers in 1936, submitting cartoons to Cairo magazines during the war. He worked as a post office telephone clerk before freelancing as a cartoonist for the Daily Mirror in 1954.

Influenced by his mentor Leslie Harding ("Styx") he produced a regular feature Laughter at Work before creating Andy Capp in 1957. Syndicated worldwide to 1400 newspapers in 31 countries, read by 175 million people in 13 languages, the strip based on the flat-capped Northerner has become an institution. Reg Smythe art
Top of Page

Dave Stevens biography
Dave Stevens (1955-2008, USA)
Born in California, his first work in comics was a back up feature in Starslayer called Rocketeer, a character and theme nostalgic for the 1940s. Subsequently made into a full length feature film by Disney, it propelled Stevens into the limelight. Never a prolific artist, he takes great care to produce fascinating art, and his superb portrayals of cheesecake are justly admired. Dave Stevens art
Top of Page

Andrew Stock biography
Andrew Stock
Andrew Stock is the President of the Society of Wildlife Artists and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) and is a highly accomplished watercolourist. Andrew Stock art
Top of Page

David Sutherland biography
David Sutherland (UK)
Long associated with The Beano, David Sutherland took over responsibility for the Bash Street Kids in 1963 and created the popular strip Billy the Cat. Sutherland took over Biffo the Bear following the death of Dudley Watkins in 1969, followed by Dennis The Menace in 1970. David retired from Dennis in 1998, after 27 years, and continued to draw the Summer Specials and Annuals, as well as the occasional strip, for the comic. David Sutherland art
Top of Page

T

Ferdinando Tacconi biography
Ferdinando Tacconi (b. 1922, Italy)
Of all the European artists to contribute to British comics in the 1950s and '60s, two stand out as being the most popular: Jesus Blasco and Ferdinando Tacconi. Although Tacconi became known as a really first-rate War strip artist, it was for his superb rendition of the famous Charles Chilton radio serial, Journey Into Space in Express Weekly (in which all the main characters were based on actual likeness of the radio actors) which first brought him to prominence here.

Born in Milan, Tacconi has had two great interests in life, both of which he has been able to indulge throughout his career: drawing and aeroplanes. His first comic strip, published in 1947, was not typical of the work he was to pursue later, being a story of Morgan il Pirata. In the mid '50s, Tacconi began working for British comics. Besides his work for Express Weekly, he drew the war strips, War Eagle and Commando One for Comet and Battler Britton for Sun as well as scores of War libraries. His work was wide-ranging and included a great amount of full colour work, both strips and covers, for Look and Learn.
His most famous European strip is Gli Aristocratici ("The Gentlemen") which features a group of bowler-hatted English crime fighters in London's "Swinging Sixties". In 1989, he wrote and drew, together with Gino D'Antonio, an eight volume series of books on the Second World War. Tacconi continues to produce high quality artwork for the adult comics market in Italy. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Ferdinando Tacconi art
Top of Page

Geoff Taylor biography
Geoff Taylor (b. 1946, England)
Born in Lancaster, England, Geoff worked as an "Adman" for 5 years before turning to illustration and bookcover art. His first commission was in 1976 for Counter Clock World by Philip K. Dick. In turn this has led to him doing covers for some of the top Science Fiction and Fantasy writers of our time, including Jack Vance, Isaac Asimov, M.K Wren, David & Leigh Eddings, Raymond E. Feist, Jane Welch, Katharine Kerr, Robert Holdstock, Juliet E McKenna and J.R.R Tolkien. He was one of the illustrators for Jeff Wayne's legendary War of the Worlds album.

Since 1994 Geoff has added to some of the rich imagery of Games Workshop Warhammer World, who are probably the largest hobby war games company in the world. Their monthly magazine White Dwarf sells 250,000 copies worldwide!

Reflecting his passion for painting and photographing wildlife, Geoff has published several fine art prints of wolves including The Last Wolf, based on a local story of the supposedly last wolf in England, reputedly killed at Humphrey Head, Cumbria in the 14th Century. Geoff Taylor art
Top of Page

Simon Thorpe biography
Simon Thorpe, UK
Simon's portraiture featured on the set of James Bond The World is Not Enough, and he has published work based on Stargate and Star Trek amongst many credits. Look out for his work in the Harry Potter movies, in which he painted many distinguished Wizards' and Witches' (moving) portraits! Simon Thorpe art
Top of Page

Bill Titcombe biography
Bill Titcombe
A very prolific and talented comic strip artist with many styles, Bill Titcombe has been illustrating children's comics since the late 1950s. Bill's work captured the essence of many of our favourite TV and film characters into comic strips that today still delight the eye with their clean lines and bright colours.

One of Bill's longest contracts was with the TV Comic weekly, where he often had as many as four different strips on the go at once.

The Telegoons, one of Bill's earlier comic strips, far exceeded the norm for a TV series tie-in, in that it outlived the television original by more than two years; witness Eccles, the original goon, as drawn by Bill Titcombe.

Over the years, Bill Titcombe has worked on more than 60 different comic strips, including Inspector Gadget, Scooby Doo and Woody Woodpecker. Bill Titcombe art
Top of Page

Frederick Henry Townsend biography
Frederick Henry Linton Townsend (1868 - 1920, UK)
Born in London and studied at the Lambeth School of Art. He contributed to Punch and became its art editor in 1905.

He illustrated many books prior to this appointment, including Jane Eyre (1896), Rob Roy (1897), The Scarlet Letter (1897), The House of the Seven Gables (1897) and many more. Frederick Henry Linton Townsend
Top of Page

Ron Turner biography
Rowland "Ron" Turner (1922-1998, England)
Perhaps the most imaginative of all British sci-fi artists, Ron Turner is mostly renowned for the series of marvellous futuristic covers he did for Scion and Tit Bits paperbacks in the early 1950s; his ground-breaking strip work for the Tit Bits Science Fiction Comics, for which he wrote the scripts; his Space Ace strips for Atlas' Lone Star Magazine and, in the late 1950s, the Rick Random strips in Amalgamated Press' Super Detective Library. Although he only drew two Thriller Comics Libraries, these Jet Ace Logan adventures - Times Five (no. 418) and Power from Beyond (no. 442) - are amongst the most collected of the later issues because of his brilliant artwork.

Ron Turner was born in Norwich but grew up in Romford and became a trainee artist at an early age at Odhams studios in London. In 1939, he began contributing to Odhams' Modern Wonder but it was not until after the War that he drew his first picture strips: for Scion's series of Big comics. When Scion entered the paperback market in the early 1950s, it was logical for them to offer Turner their science fiction covers to paint - and Turner the science fiction master was on his way to lasting fame. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright Ron Turner art
Top of Page

Simon Turvey biography
Simon Turvey
Simon Turvey is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists. His work appears in many British bird books. Simon Turvey art
Top of Page

U

Clive Uptton biography
Clive Uptton (12 March 1911 – 11 February 2006; UK)
Clive Uptton, a widely regarded British illustrator and painter of landscapes and portraits, was born in Islington, London, the son of Clive Upton, who worked for Swain's, the engravers, as a touch-up artist and later for the Daily Mail newspaper.

Clive Upton was educated at Brentwood Grammar School and Southend Art School before moving to London to attend Central Art School and, later, Heatherley's School of Art. He began contributing professionally at the age of 19 before graduating from Central Art School.

When he noticed another artist named Upton was working for the Evening Standard, he added a second "t" to his surname so that their work was not confused.

From his studio in Cheapside, Uptton contributed illustrations to most of the major magazines of the day, including the Strand Magazine, Tit-Bits, Good Housekeeping, John Bull and The Sphere.

Between 1940 and 1942, Uptton was the political cartoonist of the Daily Sketch and Sunday Graphic; during the war he also worked for the Ministry of Information producing cartoons and posters.

After the war he had a varied career as an illustrator and painter, and created many illustrations for the popular magazine Look and Learn during the 1960s and 1970s. He was a member of the Chelsea Arts Club, the Savage, and the London Sketch Club.

Clive Uptton lived in west London where he died shortly before his 95th birthday. Based on article in Wikipedia. Clive Uptton art
Top of Page

V

William Vance biography
William Vance (b. 8 September 1935, Belgium)
William Vance is the pen-name under which William van Cutsem worked for many years, his distinctive, realistic style finding favour across Europe, although, until recent years, his work was little known in the UK, a situation that has begun to change thanks to the reprinting of the series XIII, eleven volumes of which have appeared in the UK since May 2010.

Born in Anderlecht, near Brussels, Belgium, on 8 September 1935, Van Cutsem performed his military service in 1955-56 before studying art for three years at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, graduating with a First in drawing. He worked in advertising before making an impression with his comics in the pages of Journal de Tintin, at first, from 1962, with complete short stories, many of them historicals written by Yves Duval, and then with the character Howard Flynn, a young British naval officer, also written by Duval. The stories were collected in three albums in 1966-69.

In 1965-68, he drew the western strip Ringo, but it was with his next two strips that he found his biggest success to date. Bruno Brazil, published in Tintin from 1967, featured the exploits of an elite group of American secret service agents known as the Cayman Commandos, whose hair-raising exploits appeared in a number of short stories before their first full-length serial, "Le requin qui mourut deux fois" ("The Shark who Died Twice"), collected in album form in 1969. Written by Michel (Greg) Regnier under the pen-name Louis Albert, a further eight albums appeared between 1970 and 1977, plus the collection Dossier Bruno Brazil; in 1995, La Lombard published a final volume, La Fin...!??.

Parallel to this, Vance met even greater success as the artist of Bob Morane. The strip was based on a series of adventure novels by Belgian novelist Henri Vernes (Charles-Henri Dewisme) which ran to over 200 titles. Morane's adventures were adapted into comic strips in the pages of Femmes d'Aujourn'hui, beginning in 1959; they subsequently moved to Pilote, drawn by Gerald Forton who was succeeded by William Vance in 1967. The first series by Vance (Operation "Chevalier Noir") was reprinted as an album by Dargaud in 1969, the first of 18 series — serialised in Pilote and Tintin — that Vance would illustrated over the next decade. In 1979, he left the strip in the hands of his former assistant, his brother-in-law Felicisimo Coria, who continues to draw the strip to this day.

Vance launched a number of new series in the 1970s, Ramiro, set in medieval Spain, which ran for ten albums, Roderic, which lasted only two, and Bruce J. Hawker, another series about a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, which ran to seven volumes.

In 1984, Jean Van Hamme approached him with the idea for XIII, the violent, contemporary action story of a man who awakes with no memory of his past (it was inspired by Robert Ludlum's 1980 novel, The Bourne Identity). Serialised in Spirou, the series has inspired video games and two television series (one starring Val Kilmer). Set in America, the story follows XIII — named after a tattoo he finds on his collarbone — as he sets about discovering who he is and before long finds himself being hunted by assassins and the FBI and involved in a plot to kill the President.

In 1991, Vance took over the artwork for Jean (Moebius) Giraud's Marshall Blueberry, but produced only two albums; another brief series was XHIG-C3 — Le vasisseau rebell, which proved to be a one-off. However, "XIII" continued with increasing success through the 1990s and early 2000s until Vance and Jean Van Hamme brought the series to an end after 19 volumes (one drawn by Jean Giraud), the final volume bringing the story full circle and revealing the true identity of XIII.

In 2005, Vance was awarded the Bronzen Adhemar by the Flemish Ministry of Culture for his work on "Bob Morhane" and "XIII". In October 2009 he was made an Honorary Citizen of the City of Brussels by Mayor Freddy Thielemans. Vance, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease, announced in 2010 that he was retiring from drawing comics. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. William Vance art
Top of Page

Gerritt Vandersyde biography
Alfred Gerritt Vandersyde (9 January 1898 - 10 November 1970, b. London, UK)
The oddly named Gerritt Vandersyde was a British artist of remarkable talent whose work appeared in advertising and on prints that were widely distributed through Boots and Woolworths stores. One of his prints has gained a small measure of fame as it was briefly featured in the background of Stanley Kubrik's A Clockwork Orange. The picture, a portrait entitled Nina, was a commercial success, although Vandersyde is said to have had little business sense and sold the copyright on many of his most commercially popular paintings for only a few pounds.

Alfred Gerritt Vandersyde was born in Camberwell, London, on 9 January 1898, the son of Gerrit Willem Vandersyde, who (along with his younger sister) had been bought to England in the 1860s. Gerrit Willem had married Caroline Bell in 1888 and had seven children (six of them boys), Alfred being the fifth child.

Alfred was raised in Enfield and volunteered for the army at the outbreak of the First World War. He lied about his age in order to join the Army Service Corps. He was drafted to the Medical Corps, driving carriages for medics and caring for the horses, and served in Mesopotamia.

In 1918 he married Grace Collings in Hackney and had two children, Basil (b.1921) and Derek (b.1923). He was married a second time in 1942 to Dorothy Ellen Wood in Wandsworth and had two daughters, Wendy (b.1943) and Gillian (b.1947). The family lived at 4 Hepworth Road, Streatham, S.W.16, which is where Alfred died following a sudden heart attack on 10 November 1970.

Gerritt Vandersyde, as he signed his work, was tall (over 6' 4"). His advertising work included popular images for Ovaltine whilst his illustrations appeared in the London Illustrated News. In the 1960s he illustrated stories for books and for the magazine Once Upon a Time, drawing covers and illustrations on a range of subjects from young children to flamingos. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. Gerritt Vandersyde art
Top of Page

W

George Wakefield biography
George Wakefield (13 Novermber, 1887 - 12 May 1942; UK)
Better known as Bill or Billy Wakefield, George William Wakefield was one of the stalwarts of the Amalgamated Press story papers and comics of the early 20th century.

Born in Hoxton, London, on 13 November 1887, he was the son of George Thomas Wakefield, a house decorator, and his wife Maria (nee Thorpe), who worked as a charwoman. He was baptized at St Leonard's, Shoreditch on 11 December 1887. Bill grew up in Bethnal Green, his family including a younger sister, Nellie, and was educated locally before winning a scholarship to the Camberwell School of arts and Crafts.

Wakefield began submitting cartoons of Edwardian papers and sold his first to Ally Sloper's Half Holiday in 1906; from 1907 he began appearing regularly in Scraps and other papers published by James Henderson. His earliest comic strip, "Baron de Cuff and the Hon. Samuel Shiney" appeared in The Comic Companion (a supplement of You and I magazine) in 1908, followed by Tap Room Tales in Scraps.

Until he was established, Wakefield was also a part-time boxer: big (5' 8 1/2", 158 pounds) and thickset he fought amateur heavyweight matches and exhibitions at funfairs. Despite his size and ham-like fists, his speciality soon began to develop: young, sweet but sexy girls for serials in the saucy magazine Photo Bits. Introduced to Frederick Caldwell of the Amalgamated Press, Wakefield found himself drawing flappers for Caldwell's story paper Fun & Fiction ("Gertie Goodsort and her Little Sister Sue"), Merry & Bright ("Gertie and Gladys"), Firefly ("Gertie Gladeyes") and The Favourite Comic ("Flossie and Phyllis, the Fascinating Flappers"). At the same time he was drawing cherub-faced young lads for The Penny Wonder in 1912.

Wakefield married Anne Beatrice Cordwell in 1908 and began raising a family in Stoke Newington with the birth of Poppy Marie (later Bott, 1909-1996) and Terence George (1911-1989).

During the Great War, Wakefield enlisted in February 1916 to serve with the 6th Battalion City of London Rifles and was mobilized in June. However, he was discharged in November 1917 suffering from chronic gastritis and duodenal ulcers — a condition he had suffered from prior to his war service — which would require hospital treatment. He returned to drawing comics with Carrie the Girl Chaplin in Merry & Bright.

In 1918, he began a long association with The Boys' Friend illustrating the Rookwood stories of Owen Conquest (Charles Hamilton) until 1926. It was, however, in the pages of Film Fun that he made his greatest mark, his talents for capturing a likeness without turning it into a caricature setting the style for Fred Cordwell's new paper when it was launched in 1920. Wakefield's contributions featuring stars of the silent movies ranged from child star Baby Marie Osborne to comedian Ben Turpin. The paper proved so popular that Kinema Comic was launched four months later, with Wakefield contributing Fatty Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, Larry Semon and Walter Forde to the new title.

Apart from a number of sportsmen given similar treatment in the pages of the short-run Sports Fun, and The Jolly Rover strip for the cover of My Favourite, Wakefield's main output continued to be for Film Fun, where he drew the comical adventures of Jackie Coogan, Wesley Barry and Grock (Charles Adrien Wettach), the "king of clowns", before achieving his most long-lasting success drawing the adventures of Laurel and Hardy, which he drew from 1930 until his death.

Other sets in Film Fun in the 1930s included Joe E. Brown, Wheeler and Woolsey, Shirley Temple, George Formby, Max Miller and Lupino Lane. Wakefield also drew story paper headings for Bullseye and Surprise, contributed complete dramatic adaptations of movies to the early issues of Film Picture Stories and humour strips "Chubby and Chirpy" and "The Flighty Pranks Freddie Flip and Uncle Bunkle" to Sparkler and "Teacher Trotter" to Comic Cuts.

Wakefield died in Norwich Hospital in Norfolk on 12 May 1942, aged 54. His influence on the style of British comics was profound, with artists on Film Fun — then the best-selling comic in the UK — told to work in his style. Some of his sets, including "Laurel and Hardy", were continued after his death by his son, Terry. Abridged from biographical notes by Steve Holland. George Wakefield art
Top of Page

Myron Waldman biography
Myron Waldman (23 April 1908 - 4 February 2006; USA)
Myron Waldman was an American animator and illustrator who worked on dozens of cartoons featuring some of the most celebrated characters in animation, including Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman and Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on 23 April 1908, he graduated from the Pratt Institute and was hired as an inker and fill-in artist by the Fleischer Studios in 1930. At that time, the Times Square studio was considered the pre-eminent animation workshop in the US, although its status was soon to be challenged by Walt Disney.

Waldman was promoted to animator for the 1931 Screen Songs cartoon By the Light of the Silvery Moon. His second short, Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1932) featured the proto-Betty Boop, then a character with dog-like features and floppy ears. Betty was originally an anthropomorphised poodle (voiced by Mae Questel), based on singer Helen Kane, but was given human features in the cartoon "Any Rags" (1932), although her development owed as much to her animators, including Waldman, as it did to brothers Max and David Fleischer. Waldman's other early successes included episodes of the Color Classics series, which was launched as a rival to Disney's Silly Symphonies in 1934. He was head animator on two cartoons nominated for Academy Awards: Educated Fish (1937) and Hunky and Spunky (1939).

Waldman remained with the Fleischers when the studio was moved to Miami and worked on the modestly successful Gulliver's Travels feature film. He was one of the principal animators for the Fleischers' Popeye the Sailor colour series and, in 1941, was principal animator on Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy.

After a disastrous second feature film, the Fleischers regrouped back in New York as Famous Studios, under the control of Paramount, which Waldman joined after serving three years in the US Army. Here he worked on numerous shorts featuring Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip, Little Lulu and Casper the Friendly Ghost. He also had a sideline drawing comics, including Happy the Humbug in 1940 and one of the first graphic novels, Eve: A Pictorial Love Story in 1943.

He left Famous in 1957 to become animation director of Hal Seeger productions where he helped revive the Out of the Inkwell series, starring Betty Boop and Koko the Clown, and worked on the Milton the Monster TV series until his retirement in 1968.

According to a New York Times obituary, "In later years he travelled and lectured, creating paintings for galleries and working on a musical feature that never came to fruition. In the 1990s he was honored with retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of the Moving Image and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art." He was rewarded with the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Award in 1986 and the Winsor McCay Award for his lifetime achievements in animation in 1997.

Waldman, who lived in Wantagh, New York, died of congestive heart failure at New Island Hospital in Bethpage, NY, on 4 February 2006, aged 97. He was survived by his wife, Rosalie, who was an animation checker at the Fleischer Studio in the early 1940s; two sons and three grandchildren also survived him. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Myron Waldman art
Top of Page

Mark Walker biography
Mark Evan Walker (b. 1956, USA)
This Texas-born artist was a stage designer and scenic artist before becoming an illustrator in the late eighties. His career has included murals and fine art, advertising, story boards for commercials and films, illustration for books, comics, magazines and newspapers. Look for his graphic novel Fishhead in the near future. He is proud of his long association with Ellery Queen, the world's oldest Mystery Magazine. We are pleased to present some of the forty pulp illustrations Mark has produced for EQ. All are handsomely matted, and each comes with the original Ellery Queen edition in which the illustration appeared. Mark Evan Walker art
Top of Page

Ivy Lillian Wallace biography
Ivy Lillian Wallace (October 7, 1915 - March 13, 2006)
British artist, actress and authoress, best known for writing the Pookie series of illustrated children's stories.

She was born in Grimsby. She started drawing as a child with the encouragement of her parents, who recognised her talents and thought that she might become an artist. However when she left school, she joined Felixstowe Repertory theatre as an actress. When the Second World War broke out she joined the British film industry to make educational films. Later in the War she moved to doing support work for the police and it was while working for them that she first thought of Pookie, the winged rabbit.

While working in a police station during the war, manning a police switchboard, she doodled a picture of a fairy sitting on a toadstool with a little rabbit in front. She then decided that fairies were "two a penny" and so rubbed out the fairy and gave the rabbit wings. After naming the rabbit Pookie she wrote a story about him: "This is the story of Pookie, a little white furry rabbit, with soft, floppity ears, big blue eyes and the most lovable rabbit smile in the world," were the opening lines.

So confident was she that in 1946 Ivy took a train from Grimsby to London and arrived at the offices of the publishers Collins without a prior appointment. But the response was less than encouraging and she returned home crestfallen, leaving her manuscript behind.

A few weeks later she was contacted by William Hope Collins and asked to attend the Glasgow office where the Children's book section was based. Not only did William accept the book he also fell in love with its author. Their relationship met with strong disapproval because William was married with children. But in 1950 Ivy and William were married and went to live near Biggar in the Scottish borders. They had two daughters, Heather (b.1952) and Cherry (b.1956). She gave up writing upon the death of her husband in 1967 and Collins eventually stopped publishing the books. However they were revived in 1994 when Ivy and her daughters re-printed the stories for their own publishing company.

In 1997 Ivy Wallace was the subject of a documentary on BBC Scotland and an exhibition of her drawings was held in Glasgow during that same year. In addition to the Pookie books she wrote two other series, one of which, The Animal Shelf, was later adapted for television and released as 13 animated episodes. Ivy Lillian Wallace art
Top of Page

William Ward biography
William (Bill) Ward (1919-1998)
Bill Ward drew Marvelman and Blackhawk amongst other great comic heroes. After World War II, in the 1950s he went on to become famous for his pinup and glamour work. Bill Ward art
Top of Page

Donald Watson biography
Donald Watson
Donald Watson, born 1918, is well known for his lovely bird paintings. Donald Watson art
Top of Page

Claire Wendling biography
Claire Wendling (b. 6 December 1967; France)
Claire Wendling is a French artist whose graphic novels, illustrations and prints have proved hugely popular in Europe and the USA during the past twenty years. Born in Montpellier on 6 December1967, she studied for a BA in art and philosophy before enrolling at L'école des Beaux Arts d'Angoulême in 1989, During her final year she won the Alph'Art future prize at the Angoulême comics festival. That same year she began working for the French publisher Delacourt, contributing to the anthologies The Children of the Nile and Entrechats.

Her first graphic novel, Les lumières de l'Amalou [Lights of Amalou], written by Christopher Gibelin, was published in 1990. The second volume of the series won the Press Award at Angoulême in 1991 and she was further rewarded as Best Young Illustrator at Angoulême the following year for her covers for Player One magazine. In 1993 she illustrated a series of stamps, under the title 'le plaisir d'écrire' [the pleasure of writing] for the French Post Office and, in 1995, was one of the first illustrators invited by the CNBDI, Angoulême's museum of graphic art, to produce an image in the cement of the museum's forecourt.

With the completion of the Lights of Amalou series (five volumes published 1990-96), Wendling's next release was the graphic novel Iguana Bay (1996). She was then hired by Warner Brothers to work on their film The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot and other projects, but spent only eight months with the Los Angeles-based animation studio before frustration over creative constraints led her to quit and return to France, where she continued her work on graphic novels, game design — she was involved in the designs for the computer game Alone in the Dark IV (2000) — and illustration. Her books include Desk (1999), Drawers (2001) and Daisies: Affogato all'Amarena (2010) as well as producing illustrations for various book projects, including the short story collection Sales petits contes [Dirty Little Stories], written by Yann (1997), Aphrodite (2000) and Vampires (2001). Numerous portfolios of her work have also been published. Claire Wendling art
Top of Page

Mike Western biography
Mike Western (b.1925)
Although Mike Western only did one full-length strip for the Thriller Picture Library it is an excellent example of his work. Western is probably best known for his two aviation series - Johnny Wingco in Knockout and Biggles in Express Weekly (taking over from Ron Embleton). He had no formal art training but began work at the age of 14 as an apprentice in the photographic studio of the Amalgamated Press process works in Southwark.

After the War, Western worked in an animation studio run by the Rank Organisation before starting work in 1952 for Associated Press, drawing the World War II secret agent, Captain Phantom in Knockout. Mike Western became one of the major strip artists of the A.P. and his work can be found in practically every one of their comics which features adventure strips, from Film Fun to Valiant and from Buster to Battle Action. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright Mike Western art
Top of Page

Michael White biography
Michael White
Mike White has had a career in comics that has lasted almost forty years. Interested in drawing comics, he began sending samples off to companies before moving to London and visiting agencies. His earliest work appeared from Micron in around 1963/64 in their schoolgirls' libraries. As White recalls, the company would accept artwork from artists who were still learning their craft and he is not especially proud of these early efforts.

White first major strip was Jackaroo Joe for Valiant in 1965-66 and his talents for adopting the styles of other artists led him to working in the style of Mike Western in Champion where he took over the artwork for School for Spacemen. Other strips for Fleetway in the late 1960s/early 1970s include The Lords of Lilliput Island, Cannonball Craig, The Team Terry Kept in a Box, Whiz-Along Wheeler, The Test Match Terrors; at the same time he was working for D. C. Thomson, usually working on one-off strips rather than series.

White was a regular on Action in 1976, filling in on episodes of 'The Running Man' and 'Death Game 1990' before taking on the series 'Hell's Highway'. In the revised Action he drew 'Hellman of Hammer Force'.

He then found regular work in 2000AD, drawing many episodes of Tharg's Future Shocks, Ro-Jaws Robo Tales and Tharg's Time Twisters. He notably drew the Abelard Snazz stories written by Alan Moore and stories by Steve Moore and Grant Morrison. He drew a run of The Mean Arena in 1981-82, written by Tom Tully. He teamed up with Tully again to draw Sintek in Tiger in 1982-84.

He continued to draw for D. C. Thomson, his strips including 'Deep Sea Danny's Iron Fish' and 'Roul the Warrior' in Buddy and We Are United in Champ.

After drawing Dexter's Dozen for Roy of the Rovers, he took over the lead strip and drew 'Roy' for six years. During White's tenure, Roy broke the record for the most goals scored in league and cup games when, in May 1992, he scored his 436th goal.

White was convinced that comics were not going to last and began requesting that his agents find him illustration work and by the time the boys' adventure comic ground to an end, White was already established. In recent years he has drawn illustrations for historical educational books published by various firms, amongst them Thalamus, Templar and Miles Kelley Publishing.

He continues to draw comics, most recently for Commando, having drawn his first cover in 1997 and his first interior artwork in 2003. His latest story appeared in March 2011. Taken from biographical notes by Steve Holland Michael White art
Top of Page

Michael Whittlesea biography
Michael Whittlesea (b. 6 June 1938; England)
Born in London on 6 June 1938, Michael Whittlesea was educated at Harrow School of art before beginning a career in publishing.

Whittlesea was a regular book cover artist in the 1960s and 1970s working for Heinemann, Newnes, Young World, Macdonald and Oxford University Press amongst others. He was a regular contributor to World of Wonder and Speed and Power in the 1970s, for the latter producing a series of stunning paintings based on the science fiction stories of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov in 1974-75. In the early 1980s, he illustrated the Make Science Magic series for Purnell.

Although he was painting whilst working commercially, he did not begin exhibiting until 1985 when his work appeared in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. In that same year he was elected a member of both the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour and the New English Art Club, and won the Painter Stainers Award. In 1989 he was Ken Howard's Artist of Choice for an exhibition at the Art's Club, Dover Street, London and Tom Coates' Choice at the Mall Gallery in 1991. In 1991 he was a prize-winner at the Singer/Friedland/Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition, where he had been selected on a number of occasions. In 1998 he was commissioned to paint the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship.

Many further exhibitions have followed at the Royal Academy, Bankside Gallery, Mall Gallery, Langham Fine Art, Alresford Gallery, Royal West of England Academy, Royal College of Art, Chelsea Arts Club, Richard Hagen Gallery, Lennox Gallery and RONA Gallery. In 2002, he won the Jans Ondaatje Rolls Award for Drawing at the NEAC Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London.

Whittlesea has also written two books: The Complete Book of Drawing (Michael Beazley, 1983; reprinted in 1992 as The Complete Step-by-Step Drawing Course) and The Complete Watercolour Course (Windward, 1987; reprinted in 1992 as The Complete Step-by-Step Watercolour Course).

He has said of his work: "I use oil or watercolours for painting and pastels and charcoal to draw. I work on primed canvas or good watercolour paper using a variety of hog hair and sable brushes. I have a very traditional way of working. I often work on 6 or more paintings at a time and I draw regularly and work from paintings. Drawings can be around for years before I think of using them in a painting...

"I still find painting a very difficult activity. Its unpredictable. At the start of each day. I am not sure that anything good will result and I have given up on achieving a style. Whatever develop, happens. There is no clear idea or vision of how a picture will look." From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Michael Whittlesea art
Top of Page

Pete Williams biography
Peter George Williams (b. 27 January 1937, UK)
Pete Williams is one of a seemingly thriving group of cartoonists from Merseyside who have filled the pages of our national newspapers with fun and humour over the years, amongst them Bill Tidy, Albert Rusling and Bill Stott whose works were celebrated alongside Williams at an exhibition at Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, in 1978.

Peter George Williams was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, on 27 January 1937, the eldest son of George H. Williams and his wife Margaret (nee Watterson). He had no formal training as an artist but sold cartoons widely for over forty years, his work appearing in magazines and newspapers both in the UK and abroad. The Dictionary of British Cartoonists and Caricaturists notes contributions to Punch, Private Eye, Daily Mail, Spectator, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, People, Men Only and Mayfair. He was rewarded for his work with numerous awards, including the Berol Cartoonist of the Year in 1987, Waddingtons International Cartoon Awards in 1988 and awards in Belgium and Japan. Exhibitions of his work have been held in the Colchester Gallery, Essex, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and the Library Theatre, Manchester.

Alongside his lengthy career as a cartoonist, Williams was also a part-time art teacher at the Alice Elliott and Watergate Schools in Liverpool.

Williams' younger brother, Mike, also became a cartoonist, selling his first cartoons to Punch in 1967. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Pete Williams art
Top of Page

Robert Williams biography
Robert L Williams (b. 2 March 1943, USA)
Robert Williams is recognized as a fine artist, despite the terminology he and others have applied to his work as "lowbrow art". Williams has explained how the term came to be when, as an underground comix artist working on Zap Comix, Gilbert Shelton — a fellow ZAP Comix contributor and part-owner of underground publishing company Rip-Off Press — suggested collecting Williams paintings into book form. Williams tells the story that "No other publishing company anywhere would dare to undertake such an unorthodox project. It was decided at that time, since no authorized art institutions would recognize this form of art, to call my book The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams."

Robert L. Williams was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 2 March 1943, the son of Robert Wandell Williams and his wife Betty Jane (nee Spink). Williams's father owned a drive-in restaurant in Montgomery, Alabama, popular with hot-rodders, which instilled an early fascination with cars in the young Robert. Williams had a generally delinquent childhood, involved in high jinx and gangs and was expelled from school in 9th grade.

At the age of 20, he travelled to Los Angeles and studied art at the Los Angeles City College, working on The Collegiate, the school paper. Here he met Suzanne Chorna, whom he married in 1964. After briefly attending The Chouinart Art Institute, Williams worked as a designer before joining the studio of Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth, custom car builder and creator of Rat Fink, an icon amongst hot-rodders.

In 1968 he joined the close-knit group of underground artists known as the ZAP Comix Collective, creating the character Coochy Cooty in ZAP Comix. At the same time he was also producing paintings and prints under the banner 'Super Cartoon'; much of this early work was subsequently collected in The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams (1979). During the early years of punk rock, Williams' Zombie Mystery Paintings proved popular with underground clubs and avant-garde galleries and were later collected (1986), where Robert Crumb, in his introduction, described them as "vivid American nightmares — a gaudy carnival midway of our seething, barbaric collective subconscious ... coarse, crude, yeah, ugly even ... they are also intense mind-boggling, eyeball feasts, revelations, visions, captured dreams."

Williams subsequent paintings (often signed Robt. Wms.) became more detailed and are often characterised by their vividly coloured psychedelic visuals incorporating realistic or comic vignettes His work has been further collected in Visual Addiction (1989), Views from a Tortured Libido (1993), Malicious Resplendence (1997), Hysteria in Remission (2002), Through Prehensile Eyes (2005) and other titles. Williams has also painted album covers, notably for Guns N' Roses, t-shirts, shoes, prints and posters. He has staged a number of one-man shows at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, including Conceptual Realism (2009).

Williams received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Beyond Eden Fair in 2010. He has been involved in the publishing of a number of publications promoting 'lowbrow' art, including ART? Alternatives and Juxtapoz. An essayist and lecturer, he was the subject of the 2010 documentary film Robert Williams Mr Bitchin. Now a highly respected and much sought after painter his paintings have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Robert Williams art

See also our selection of books featuring Robert Williams and his art.
Top of Page

Colin Wilson biography
Colin Wilson (b. 31 October 1949; New Zealand)
Although primarily known in the UK as a 2000AD artist, it would be fair to say that Colin Wilson probably has one of the broadest fan bases of any artistic contributor to Britain's longest running boys' weekly. Whilst many artists have found popularity in America, Wilson turned east and gained a strong following for his work in Europe before working in the USA.

Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 31 October 1949, Wilson attended Christchurch School of Art in 1967-68 before working as a commercial illustrator in advertising. He began contributing illustrations to a science fiction fanzine which led to an attempt in 1977 to edit his own comics fanzine, Strips, with the idea of promoting his own work (e.g. The Chronicles of Spandau, The Sound of Thunder) but which became a showcase for many other local talents. In 1979, he was one of the creators involved in the ecology-themed The Adventures of Captain Sunshine published in Simply Living.

Wilson moved to London in 1980 and found work on 2000AD, drawing Judge Dredd and various Future Shocks before becoming the regular artist on Rogue Trooper. Whilst still drawing the latter, he moved to Paris and spent six months approaching French publishers with a science fiction series he had created. He found a publisher in Jacques Glénat, who produced the series in three volumes — Rael (1984), Mantell (1986) and Alia (1989), the latter with writer Thierry Smolderen — under the overall title Dans l'Ombre du Soleil.

Wilson also took over the adventures of La Jeunesse de Blueberry (Young Blueberry) from artist Jean Giraud, drawing six albums: Les démons du Missouri (1985), Terreur sur le Kansas (1987), Le raid infernal (1987), written by Blueberry creator Jean-Michel Charlier, followed by three volumes scripted by François Corteggiani, La pousuite impitoyable (1992), Trois hommes pour Atlanta (1993) and Le prix du sang (1994). He also collaborated with Corteggiani on two volumes of Thuderhawks (1992-94).

Wilson returned to 2000AD and became an irregular contributor in 1998-2005, drawing Tor Cyan and Rain Dogs as well as further episodes of 'Judge Dredd'. He also began contributing to American comics with Point Blank (2002-03), written by Ed Brubaker and went on to draw Losers (2005), Battler Britton (2006) and Star Wars (various series, 2007-09).

He continued to also draw the dark crime noir series Du plomb dans la tête (Bullet to the Head) for French publishers Casterman, with three volumes — Les Petits poissons, Les Gros poissons and Du bordel dans l'aquarium — published in 2004-06. The series was optioned in 2008 and, at the time of writing, is in production under the title Headshot with Sylvester Stallone starring and Walter Hill directing.

Wilson continues to work on both sides of the Atlantic, his most recent work includes a collection of sketches, , published in France (2010), an issue of Gears of War (Wildstorm) and Jour J: Qui a Tué le Président? (2011), an alternative history tale built around the Kennedy assassination written by Fred Duval & Jean-Pierre Pécau. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Colin Wilson art
Top of Page

Gahan Wilson biography
Gahan Wilson (b. 18 February 1930; USA)
Gahan Wilson is an American cartoonist, best known for his work in Playboy and The New Yorker. A 2009 collection celebrating Wilson's Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons ran to 3 volumes and 942 pages. A master of the fanciful and macabre, Wilson has also contributed regularly to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Collier's and National Lampoon, which ran his comic strip Nuts.

Born in Evanston, Illinois on 18 February 1930, Wilson was the only child of a successful executive in a steel company and a talented artist in a Chicago advertising firm. He has described his upbringing as dysfunctional due to his parents' alcoholism, although he was also encouraged to draw. From an early age his drawings featured elements of horror and he became a fan of Chester Gould's 'Dick Tracy', with its many grotesque characters, and 'Little Orphan Annie' by Harold Gray. Radio also played an important part in his childhood love of the mysterious and macabre, as did Hollywood. Through a family friend he was able to visit Hollywood studios in the 1940s.

Wilson attended a number of commercial art studios whilst in High School and studied fine art at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was briefly in the Air Force but a bad leg excluded him from active duty. He then moved to Greenwich Village, selling cartoons to the major weekly magazines Collier's and Look.

Wilson attempted approach to Harvey Kurtzman following the launch of Trump resulted accidentally in his introduction to Hugh Hefner. He had spotted a Chicago address in Trump and visited the offices when he returned to Chicago to visit his parents over Christmas. Trump was, in fact, edited in New York, but Wilson found himself introduced to Hefner who began running his colour cartoons in Playboy in the mid-1950s.

Although best known for his single panel cartoons, Wilson produced Nuts for National Lampoon as a response to Charles Schultz's 'Peanuts' where children would philosophise about any subject; 'Nuts' was Wilson's response of what it was really like to be a little child. Wilson ended the strip when he discovered it was being sold abroad, although he did subsequently return to the paper. Wilson also produced a syndicated weekly strip under the title 'Gahan Wilson's Sunday Funnies'.

Wilson's first collection of cartoons appeared in 1965 as Gahan Wilson's Graveside Manner and was followed by many other books, including collections of short stories and novels for both adults and children. He was also a film reviewer for The Twilight Zone Magazine, a book reviewer for Realms of Fantasy and designed a computer game, Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House.

Wilson's cartoons have earned him a number of awards, including World Fantasy Convention Award in 1981, the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 and the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 from the National Cartoonists Society. He has also been President of the Cartoonist Guild. He was the subject of a documentary directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe entitled Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Gahan Wilson art
Top of Page

Maurice Wilson biography
Maurice Wilson (15 March 1914 - November 1987; UK)
Born in London on 15 March 1914, Maurice Charles John Wilson was best known as a wildlife artist whose work appeared in dozens of books and on cards given away with Brooke Bond tea. He was educated at the Hastings School of Art (under Philip Cole) and the Royal Academy Schools (under Malcolm Osborne and Robert Austin) and later taught anatomical and plant drawing. He worked with members of the Natural History Museum in reconstructing the look of dinosaurs from fossils and his work in this area was much respected, inspiring books such as A History of Primates (1949), Fossil Amphibian and Reptiles (1954), Fossil Birds (1958) and Human Evolution: An Illustrated Guide (1989).

Wilson wrote and illustrated Just Monkeys (1937). After the war he illustrated dozens of books, including Dogs (1946), Coastal Craft (1947), Zoo Animals (1948), A Guide to Earth History (1956), Birds and Beasts (1956), Mermaids and Mastadons: A Book of Unnatural History (1957), Elephants (1958), Animals We Know (1959), Fables from Aesop (1961), Donkey Work (1962), A World of Animals (1962), Animals (1964), Animals of the Arctic (1964), Birds (1965), The Origins of Man (1968), First Interest on the Farm (1969), A Long Time Ago (1969-70), Patch by Helen Griffiths (1970), Man, Civilzation and Conquest (1971), China Long Ago (1972), First Interest in the Wider World (1972), Double Trouble by Doreen Tovey (1972), Making the Horse Laugh by Doreen Tovey (1974), The Earliest Farmers and the First Cities (1974), The Quzzer Book About People (1975), Oh Those Cats by Frances Mann (1975), A Quorum of Cats: An Anthology ed. Elizabeth Lee (1976), Bambi by Felix Salten (1976), Prehistoric Animals (1976), A Closer Look at Arctic Lands (1976), Prehistoric Animals (1976), A Closer Look at Plains Indians (1977), A Closer Look at Eskimos (1977), Ponies (1977), Birds of Prey (1978), A Closer Look at Amazonian Indians (1978), A Closer Look at the Bedouin (1978), Cats in the Belfry by Doreen Tovey (1978), Horses (1979), Lions and Tigers (1979), A Closer Look at Aboriginies (1979), Birds (1979), A Comfort of Cats by Doreen Tovey (1979), A Closer Look at Grasslands (1979), Lifeclass (1980), The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1983), The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1984), All the Mowgli Stories by Rudyard Kipling (1984), Lions and Tigers (1985) and Deserts (1986).

Wilson's autobiography, The Wartime Adventures of B Squadron 'Corpse' (1997), was publishing posthumously, relating how he joined the 11th Battalion Royal Tank Regiment in 1941 and spent much of the war in a Matilda tank, weathering sandstorms in the Middle East, taking part in the landings at Walcheren and in the 'CDL' experiment which involved placing blindingly bright carbon arc lamps in the turrets of tanks to create a wall of light when the tanks were lined up—an idea that was never used in battle.

Many of his illustrations were produced to accompany displays at the Natural History Museum and many can be found in the Natural History Museum's Collection.

Wilson lived in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where he died in November 1987. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Maurice Wilson art
Top of Page

Bruce C. Windo biography
Bruce Carrington Windo (b. 20 March 1920; England)
Bruce C. Windo is an artist who, until now, has resisted discovery. I seem to return to him every couple of years, whenever I spot a book cover or illustration from his pen. Inevitably, new information always seems to come in just too late.

Back in 2009, when I mentioned Windo on my Bear Alley blog, it was a four-line note, the only known information being that he was born in Kent in 1920. An update a year later added a little information but nothing further about his career. I can now add a little more.

Bruce Carrington Windo was born in Kent on 20 March 1920, his birth registered in Strood, although he was probably born in nearby Meopham where his father was the head schoolmaster at Meopham Primary School between 1902 and 1934. Percy Carrington Windo had been born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in 1871, and married Emily Martin in Bristol in 1895; Percy was a school master in Bath, Avon, but, as his family grew, moved to Singleton, Sussex, where he ran Bay School.

Soon after, Percy and his family moved to Meopham, near Gravesend, Kent, and lived at The School House. Emily died in 1906, at the early age of 39, and Percy married Gertrude Mabel Melling two years later, who had been an organist in Singleton when Percy and Emily were at Bay School.

Percy is said to have been "very talented at handicrafts and drawing and his pupils craftwork reached a high standard." He also served as Parish Clerk. He died in Eastbourne, Sussex, in 1955, aged 83; his wife, Gertrude, died in Eastbourne in 1968, aged 93. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Bruce C. Windo art
Top of Page

Gerry Wood biography
Gerry Wood (b. 1938; UK)
Although his name is recognised amongst British comic fans, little is known about British artist Gerry Wood. He is probably best known as an illustrator, working in the 1970s in World of Wonder, Look and Learn and Speed and Power, which culminated in 1977 with his taking over the artwork for what was, by then, entitled 'More Adventures of the Trigan Empire'.

Wood seems to have begun working at Fleetway Publications in the early 1960s for Battle Picture Library, then drawing for Air Ace and Micron's Combat Picture Library. His book illustrations include Sky Carnival by W. F. Hallstead (1969). He returned to Air Ace in 1970 before producing his first comic strip in colour, 'A Leap Into the Future' for the early issues of World of Wonder.

He contributed heavily to Look and Learn, Treasure and Speed & Power in the 1970s, drawing mostly historical, military and transport subjects. He took over the artwork for the Trigan Empire in 1977 and continued the adventures until both it and Look and Learn came to an end in 1982. A later job was to draw a pull-out poster for Battle Picture Weekly in 1976.

He continued to illustrate educational books following the demise of Look and Learn, including Pyramids by Anne Millard (1989), Roman Fort (1996) and Ancient African Towns (1998) both by Fiona Macdonald.

Gerry Wood

Top of Page

Ken J Wood biography
Kenneth J. Wood (UK)
Kenneth J. Wood was a popular nature artist who was especially know for his detailed paintings of birds.

Little seems to have been published about Wood. He was a keen falconer and member of the British Falconers' Club and is remembered fondly by many in those circles. At some point in his career he lived in a caravan near Findon, West Sussex. He was the Hon Secretary of the Society of Wildlife Artists from 1983 until the 1990s. He died suddenly whilst still young: taken ill whilst hawking, he was diagnosed with cancer. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Ken J Wood art
Top of Page

Stanley L Wood biography
Stanley Llewellyn Wood (1867 - 1 March 1928; UK)
Stanley L. Wood was a hugely popular contributor to magazines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, chiefly remembered for his depictions of the wild west which graced many a boy's story paper. It was the perfect match of subject and talent as Wood was superb at depicting horses in action; He spent some of his teen years in Kansas and he returned to America in 1888 when he was sent to South Dakota by The Illustrated London News. An authenticity infused his illustrations — whether a realistic painting or a cartoon — and his colour plates of the wild west in Boy's Own Paper and Chums have helped keep their respective annuals collectable.

Stanley Llewellyn Wood was born in Maindee, near Newport, Monmouthshire, in 1867, the son of Stanley James Wood, a cement manufacturer, and his wife Charlotte (nee Atkins). He grew up in Christchurch, Monmouthshire, and travelled with his family to America at the age of 12, where his father had bought a ranch in Indian territory in Kansas. Legend has it that the bodies of the former owners, who had been murdered by a raiding party of braves, were buried in the garden. Soon after James Stanley Wood’s death, the house was surrounded by Ute Indians and, to scare them away, Charlotte had her children put on riding boots and spurs and they tramped up and down the stairs and from room to room, making as much noise as possible. The ruse worked and, believing the house to be heavily occupied, the natives retreated.

Charlotte and her family returned to St. Pancras, London and Wood went on to become a prolific illustrator of newspapers and magazines, including Black and White, Cassell’s Magazine, The Graphic, The Harmsworth Magazine, The Idler, The London Magazine, The Pall Mall Magazine, Pearson’s Magazine, The Penny Magazine, The Sporting and Dramatic News, The Strand Magazine, Wide World Magazine, The Windsor Magazine and Young England. Wood’s magazine and book illustrations included works by Cutcliffe Hyne (Captain Kettle), Dr. Nokola by Guy Boothby and Don Q. by Hesketh Pritchard. As a painter he also exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Wood married Mary Elizabeth Jenkins in Fulham on 21 February 1899. They had three children: Stanley Montague, Henry Lawrence and Jack Steward. The family lived in Palmers Green, Middlesex, where Wood died on 1 March 1928, aged 61. He had been ill for some weeks and, although he could not raise himself from his bed unaided, insisted that he continue working on his final illustration – for a 'Kettle' story – with his wife and son supporting him. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Stanley L Wood art
Top of Page

Edward Woodfall biography
Edward Woodfall (UK)
Edward Woodfall is a mystey artist of whom I can find no trace. The single known piece of artwork is dated 1906, and a check in census records for 1901 reveals only a single person of that name, and he was a 57-year-old domestic servant — a gardener — working in Huyton with Roby, Lancaster.

Three birth records might be relevant: Edward Woodfall, born 1846 in St. Saviour, Southwark; Francis Edward Tidd Woodfall, born 1847 in Thame; and Edward Woodfall, born 1866 in Kensington, London. Of these, the older Edward died in 1869, aged 22; Francis Woodfall became a clerk on the stock exchange; and the younger Edward Woodfall emigrated to America in around 1886 where he worked as a carpenter. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Edward Woodfall art
Top of Page

Patrick Woodroffe biography
Patrick Woodroffe (b. 1940, UK)
Patrick's unique art style is unmistakable. His vivid use of colour, his painstaking fine detailed work and infinite patience which goes into each of his creations. His enchanting characters and strange creatures are set together with a fairy tale innocence in surrealistic scenes of rich colours. He became a full time artist and illustrator in 1972 with the increasing demand for his paintings and book covers. He has held numerous exhibitions and his work attracts serious collectors often at leading auction house such as Sotheby's. His work has been collected in numerous books notably Mythopoekin, Hallelujah Anyway and The Second Earth. Born in Yorkshire, Patrick has lived in Cornwall since 1964. Patrick Woodroffe art

See also our Patrick Woodroffe books. Patrick Woodroffe art
Top of Page

Peter Woolcock biography
Peter Woolcock
Peter Woolcock has had two careers in art: firstly as a comic strip artist best known for his work in nursery comics; and secondly as a political cartoonist.

Peter Woolcock was born and raised in Argentina, and worked his passage on a cargo boat to England in 1953 in order to find work as an artist. He went from interview to interview and eventually arrived at the doors of the Amalgamated Press, where, he says, he was seen by the wrong man. Five months later he was persuaded to try them again and was immediately offered work by Leonard Matthews.

He created the frog character Anthony Rowley (named after the Frog who went a-wooing), but the name was changed and, as The Funny Tales of Freddie Frog it began appearing in Jack and Jill in 1954. Woolcock was to draw the strip — with a break in the late 1950s/early 1960s — until 1969. This was not his longest-running strip. In 1955, he drew the hugely popular The Wind in the Willows for Playhour which came to an end a year later. Woolcock revived the character of Mr. Toad in Harold Hare's Own Paper in 1959, and continued to draw that character for Harold Hare's Own and Playhour for 25 years. (Woolcock had drawn an earlier, similar character called Toby Toad for Playhour.)

Woolcock was kept incredibly busy for 38 years, his strips and illustrations appearing in Tiny Tots, Film Fun, Look and Learn, Treasure, Disneyland Magazine, Toby, Dickory Dock and Storyland. He retired from drawing strips in 1987.

His books published during the same period include Animal ABC (1980), One, Two, Three: A Book of Numbers by Leonard Matthews (1981), Big and Small: A Book of Opposites by Leonard Matthews (1981), Busy People: A Book of Work and Play by Leonard Matthews (1982), Busy Days: A Book of Time by Leonard Matthews (1982), ABC: A Book of Words (1982) and Rain or Shine: A Book of the Weather (1983).

Woolcock has lived in England, Spain and, since 1981, in Bermuda where, since 1983, he has become one of the island's leading humour and political cartoonists. Some of his early work has been exhibited at the Bermudan National Gallery and many of his cartoons for the Royal Gazette have been collected in the annual Peter Woolcock's Woppened for many years, the 23rd collection appearing in 2011. He has also illustrated children's books, including The Turtle Who Ate a Balloon (2007) and The Adventures of Bermuda's Toad with One Eye (2008). From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Peter Woolcock art
Top of Page

Steve Woron biography
Steve Woron (b. 14 January 1958; USA)
Steve Woron is an American artist best known for his female fantasy art featuring vampires, witches, warriors and mermaids. He was one of the early popularisers of 'good girl art' published through the comics distribution networks. Although they seem to dominate the comics' industry today, the kind of vampires and vixens Woron was drawing were less ubiquitous in the late 1980s. He was one of the first artists to tap into the nostalgia craze for Bettie Page as a pin-up icon in the 1990s, publishing two issues of Betty Page: The 50's Rage in 1993 (reprinted 1996 and 2001).

Steven J. Woron was born in Connecticut on 14 January 1958, the son of Alexander J. Woros and his wife Irene (nee Dabros). He received a BA in Fine Art from the University of Hartford Art School and subsequently taught in High School and privately as well as spending two years as a commercial illustrator as well as 'ghosting' for a famous New York commercial artist.

He attended his first comics' convention in 1978 and launched Spectrum Comics in 1982, producing four comic books, including the 4-issue The Survivors (1983-84) which he both wrote and drew; a year later, he launched The Illustration Studio. From 1984 he was the senior creative artist for a national printing company before turning freelance in 1987, when he began self-publishing prints and portfolios of exotic and erotic fantasy artwork.

He has since gone on to produce trading cards, t-shirts, jackets and other formats. His publications from Illustration Studio include The Art of Steve Woron (1991), The Complete Steve Woron Checklist (1991) and The Steve Woron Treasury (1992) and the comic book format Woron's World (1993-94). As well as illustrations, Woron is also a popular photographer of swimsuit models.

Woron was married Darla Addley, who has also been involved in the comics industry, in 1981 (divorced 1992); he married Laurie Maynard in 1993. He now lives in Vernon, Rockville, Connecticut. From biographical notes by Steve Holland. Steve Woron art
Top of Page

John Worsley biography
John Worsley (1919-2000)
John Worsley spent the early years of his life in Kenya before returning to England to be educated at Brighton College and Goldsmiths. He joined the RNVR on the outbreak of WW2 and served in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean, including Sicily and the Salerno Landings, and was the youngest Official War Artist, and only serving Naval officer,appointed by Sir Kenneth Clark (later Lord Clark of "Civilisation"). Examples of Worsley's wartime work may be found in The Imperial War Museum and The Maritime Museum in London.

Worsley was taken prisoner in Yugoslavia in 1943 and spent the rest of the War as a POW in Germany. Using materials from Red Cross parcels and papier-mache made from a German propaganda newspaper,Worsley created the successful escape dummy "Albert RN", whose exploits were subsequently developed into a stage play and film,starring Anthony Steel as Worsley. The dummy made for the film is on display at The Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth.

After the War, John Worsley illustrated PC49 for The Eagle comic and, by the early 1970s, he was an acclaimed illustrator of children's stories for television (Wind in the Willows, A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, The Little Grey Men) when the camera panned over his pictures while the story was told in voice-over. This innovative approach to children's television was the link in the chain between an actor reading a story and computer derived presentations. He also illustrated several classic children's books (Heidi, Black Beauty, Robinson Crusoe).

Worsley developed a "cabaret turn", devised when a POW, of drawing someone from a description, and turned it into a successful tool for police witnesses to translate a sighting of a criminal into an identifiable likeness, a technique which bridged the gap between the old "photofit" images and computer technology. The Scotland Yard Museum boasts probably the largest single collection of Worsley's work! The son of a serving Naval officer, John Worsley never lost his love of the sea, and his extensive post-War travels took him to North America, Asia, The Middle East, Africa and Europe. He was President of The Royal Society of Marine Artists for several years and the official artist for Sir Peter de Savary's two attempts to recapture the America's Cup.

John Worsley was an outstanding drafstmen, arguably one of the finest of 20th century, and examples of his work may be seen in The Imperial War Museum and The Maritime Museum in London as well as many provincial galleries, including the former Royal Yacht Britannia in Greenock and the WW2 Experience Museum in Leeds. Private collectors include HM The Queen, HM the late Queen Mother, The Royal Family of Dubai, the Saudi Royal Family, the Royal Zoological Society, HSBC Bank, The Savage Club and Brighton College as well as Sir Edward Heath, June Mendoza RA, Virginia McKenna and Sir Peter de Savary. John Worsley art
Top of Page

Bernie Wrightson biography
Bernie (or Berni) Wrightson (b. 1948, USA)
A fan of the EC comics of the 1950s, Bernie Wrightson started his comic career in 1969. His early work was for DC on such titles as Nightmaster and House of Secrets. While working at DC, along with Len Wein he created the hughly popular Swamp Thing. Although an award winning comic creation he left DC to work for Warren on Creepy and Eerie magazines, where his black and white atmospheric pencils and inks were seen at their best.

During the 1970s he joined Barry Windsor-Smith, Mike Kaluta and Jeff Jones in The Studio where they produced and published their own lithographs and portfolios, culminating in the release of the book The Studio. In 1977/78 he produced his most stunning work, a series of black & white illustrations for the Mary Shelley classic novel Frankenstein. This was followed by illustrations for Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf and Creepshow. More recently he has returned to comics on Batman and his own creation Captain Stern. The book A Look Back is still the best book ever produced on the career of a comic artist. We have many Wrightson books in stock! Bernie Wrightson art
Top of Page

Biographies are in alphabetical order by last name.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Illustration Art | ART ARCHIVESBIOGRAPHIES

	The world's largest selection of ORIGINAL illustration art Telephone 020 8768 0022 (+44 20 8768 0022) Email		Free Delivery on ALL orders over £250	Illustration Art Gallery Jubilee House Bedwardine Road Crystal Palace London SE19 3AP United Kingdom