BIOGRAPHIES

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

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Demons, a 4-issue mini-series penned by Simon Jowett; a second collaboration with Jowett, entitled 'Bloodrush', went unpublished.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 (b. 1935, Spain) Alonso was a Spanish artist who after working for several publishing houses in his own country during the 1950s and 1960s, predominantly on adventure strips; went on to work for both Fleetway (IPC) and D.C. Thompson during the 1970s on titles including Air Ace, Battle Action, Commando, Eagle, Victor and Twinkle. He eventually left the field to concentrate on painting. 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

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

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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 William (Bill) G Baker Bill Baker is one of many talented British artists lost to anonymity. Active between the 1950s and 1970s, Baker worked via the Temple Art Agency for a wide range of boys' and girls' titles, yet his name is almost unknown and I have been unable to track down any biographical information beyond the fact that his name was William G. Baker. His earliest traced appearance is in the pages of Top Spot, where he drew one-off strips in 1959. A year later he could be found in the pages of Girl, drawing the strip New Rider at Clearwater. This was the start of a fairly long association with that paper, as Baker went on to illustrate 21 Newlands Park, a long-running text serial that ran between 1961 and 1964. Baker remained within the pages of girls' comics for at least 15 years, contributing to Princess Tina (Life with Tina), June (Call Me Cupid, Wedding in the Family) and providing illustrations for Pixie Annual 1974. Abridged 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 (1901-2000, USA) Known as the "Good Duck Artist" for his work on Donald Duck in the days before artists were credited. He drew his first duck story Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold in 1942 after leaving the Walt Disney studios where he worked as an in-betweener. Barks is now recognised as one of the greatest ever comic book artists, and amongst many others was responsible for the Adventures of Uncle Scrooge and Scrooge McDuck, the world's richest duck. He retired in 1965, but continued to produce paintings and lithographs on commission, with the secondary market in his early lithographs being very active. His originals occasionally surface at major auctions at Sotheby's and Christies and fetch thousands of dollars. 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

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

Harry Bishop biography Harry Bishop (b. 1922) One of the very best artists of the Western genre, Harry Bishop is best known for his long-runnign newspaper strip Gun Law (based on the U.S. TV series, "Gunsmoke", starring James Arness) in the Daily Express which ran from April, 1957 until August, 1978. Very much influenced by Derek Eyles - "I loved his work", he once said, "and as a boy collected it and copied it whenever I could" - Harry Bishop became one of the great horse artists. Jesse James (no.151), his only piece of work for Thriller Comics Library, was one of his earliest strips. Another of Leonard Matthews' discoveries, he had been working for Amalgamated Press' Sun on the occasional Billy the Kid strip before being given the TCL assignment. It was soon after this that he was snapped up by The Daily Express to draw Western strips for Junior Express Weekly. For the early issues, he drew the front page true life strips about Wyatt Earp and Red Cloud in red and black followed by fictitious Western strips in full colour featuring Rex Keene- Texas Ranger and later a "junior" version of Gun Law - all done with great style and expertise as well as a tremendous sense of drama and composition. He also drew Tarna the Jungle Boy for the cover of Hulton's Swift for some years and, in 1963/4 for A.P.'s Lion another excellent jungle strip Morg of the Mammoths. Harry Bishop was born in Gloucestershire and trained at the Wimbledon College of Art. He has illustrated a number of books, including 24 editions of classics for children. Biography courtesy of David Ashford and Norman Wright. Harry Bishop 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 Monterde 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

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

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

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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

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) Son of the painter Richard Caton Woodville Snr. (1825 - 1855), he was born in London. A painter of battle scenes, he studied in Dusseldorf, St Petersburg and Paris. He settled in London and worked for The Illustrated London News and went as an artist to the Turkish War of 1878 and the Egyptian War of 1882. He was elected RI in 1882 and ROI in 1883. From 1887 he turned mainly to oil painting. 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 (b.1926) 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

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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

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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

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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 IDave 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

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

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

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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

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

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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

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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

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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

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

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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

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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

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

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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

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 Gir) biography Moebius (Jean Giraud) (b. 1938, France) Born in Paris, in the 1960s Jean Giraud (also known as "Moebius" and "Gir") worked with Jije on the Western character Jerry Spring. When he teamed up with Jean Michel Charlier, they created the hugely popular Lt Blueberry series, which have been successfully translated into English editions. Moebius has long been a Sci Fi fan, and began drawing in a more experimental style under the name Moebius. In the 1970s, the ground-breaking French magazine Métal Hurlant (later an English language version Heavy Metal) proved to be the perfect vehicle for this new style of art and story-telling, including his famous Arzach. He moved to Tahiti, and then to America, and has been involved with movie storyboards and animation. Much of his work has been translated into English, both as regular priced soft cover editions and deluxe limited collectors' editions. Many extremely high quality lithographs and prints have been produced over the years, especially by Starwatcher Graphics and Stardom. We also have a wide selection of books about Jean Giraud (Moebius) and his work. Moebius art Top of Page

Sheldon Moldoff biography Sheldon Moldoff Sheldon 'Shelly' 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 art Top of Page

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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

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Jose Ortiz biography Jose 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

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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

Eric Robert Parker biography Eric Robert Parker (1898-1974) 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

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

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

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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

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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

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

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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

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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 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

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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

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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

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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) Later he went on to draw 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

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 (1938- ) 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

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

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

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