As I re-read The Victor and Hornet comics a pattern is emerging of artists being associated with various strips. For example, Sutherland with Alf Tupper (although in this artist's case he enjoyed drawing the Tough of the Track and had an affection for the character), Keith Shone with the Braddock strips, Fernandez with the William Wilson strips, Ted Rawlings with The Red McGregor, the artist who drew The Greenhorn strip below, drawing many of the football stories for The Victor. All of the other artists appear to have avoided being 'typecast' and drew war, adventure and sporting strips. Josep Marti being the best example.
Another unknown artist. Can anyone identify him or her please? Artwork from Marmadukes Commandos, which is a humorous World War Two strip, published in The Hornet.
The above is an example of the work of another unknown artist. Artwork from They Joined the Legion. This dramatic strip told the stories of individual soldiers lifes.
This artist also drew the following series:- The Moaning Minnie, The Men Behind the Barbed Wire, The Barge that went to War, The Wavy Navy, The Monster of Loch Neill and The Battleberg all strips for The Victor.
Another unknown artist's work. I think this artist also drew The Bombs of the Purple Stripe, The Matchbox Marvels, The Saving of the Citadel and Licence to Steal.
The above unknown artist mainly drew humour strips for The Victor. Strips include Charlie the tester, Cecil - the stone age scrapper, Lord of the Yukon, Stokehold Joe, Feuding Finnegan, Slaves of the Evil Eyes and Keeper of the Apes.
Denis McLoughlin (artwork above), is another well known and respected British artist. He's probably best known in the UK for his work on the Commando books. (He provided the artwork for over 150 issues. His first issue was no.1623, published in 1982). As far as I am aware the only strip he drew for The Victor was Steelhead Sam, but he provided the artwork for a dozen or so longer strips (forty pages plus) for D.C. Thomson's The Wizard in the mid to late seventies. (Wizard stories includePower - the Danger Ranger, Terror of the Tall Tower, It's only Zeke, Wolf Boy and The Frozen Man featuring Jake Jeffords - secret agent, to name a few). Early in his career McLoughlin had provided artwork for dustcovers and paperbacks of Boardman Books, (1950's/1960's). These books are highly valued today by book collectors. Other work included the Swift Morgan Science Fiction series, the gang-buster Roy Carson and the Buffalo Bill annual.
'McLoughlin ranks as probably the most seriously studied of British comics' artists, with four books and numerous articles having been written about his comic and book cover art; [his] career spans over fifty years, his earliest comic work appearing in the one-shot Lighting Comics from Kangeroo Books in 1946'.
HOLLAND, Steve d. mcloughlin In Achtung! Commando.- No.2 Winter/Spring 2000.- Privately published by Peter Richardson.- (Note- The book Achtung! Commando is due to be published by Book Palace books at some point soon. This book is being billed as the ultimate guide to Commando books including interviews with artists (including I hope McLoughlin), writers and editorial staff.
The above artwork is by Keith Shone, the artist who drew many of the Braddock strips for 'The Victor'. Somehow Keith found the time to illustrate many other strips, such as Shark Squad, The Bring 'em Back Boys, to name a few. Please follow the link for my interview with Keith Shone
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Is the above artwork by Yaroslav Horak? The artist is famous for drawing the daily James Bond newspaper strips for various British newspapers. He drew his first Bond strip in 1966. Horak lived in Australia for several years, drawing a popular comic series The Mask. He next drew his daily adventure strip Mike Steele. In the early sixties he left Australia to live in Great Britain. He possibly also drew Johnny Hop for The Victor. Hop was an Australian policeman operating in the Outback. For further information about the artist please visit Lambiek.net.
Bill Graham, who worked as a sub editor on The Hornet has identified this artist as Joan Giralt, a Spanish artist who specialised in football stories. The Blitz Kid tells of the adventures of Arnold Tabbs as a young boy during the Second World War. The Tabbs character as an adult would go to appear in other football stories in The Hornet usually as an assistant to Nick Smith, the famous international footballer.
As far as The Hornet is concerned Edmundo Fernandez is associated with the William Wilson strips, of which there are several. He also drew other strips for The Hornet. This artist was known to Bill Graham (a Hornet sub editor) as Ripoll.
This artist has been identified by Bill Graham as Freddie Sturrock. The artist mainly drew cricket strips for The Hornet.
This artwork I have recently discovered was drawn by a Spanish artist Josep Marti. Was his artwork influenced by the American lifestyle?
This theory is based on the style of clothes drawn for civilians and the U.S. style cars that appeared in his strips.
Artwork from The Victor front cover issue 611. He also drew Bill and Ben, the fighting Tennis Men, The Whirler,
Duke Farlow, Crazy Fred Kay's Railroad, The Seventh Mission and many other wonderful strips.
Thanks to Steve's Holland's website for the information. Bear Alley.
See also Lambiek.net. A useful site providing a listing of artists with brief
biographical information and examples of their comic work. Lambiek.net is also a famous comic shop in Amsterdam, Holland.
Colin Noble has identified the above artwork as that of Ted Rawlings. Does anyone else have any information or photographs about this artist please? This artist also drew The Red MacGregor and a couple of Alf Tupper strips. Artwork from The Victor cover issue 619
Artwork from a story in The Victor. He also drew most of the football and cricket strips for example, The Team that Jack Built, Gorgeous Gus, Johnny Gets the Runs and so on. The last strip title refers to an Australian batsman scoring runs and not, sadly, an Australian cricketer suffering from another set of runs!
Artwork from 'The Man with a Donkey’ (Victor Summer Special 1970).
The above artwork is the work of Henricus "Harry" Farrugia, an artist from Malta. Steve Holland (his website can be found at) Bear Alley says that, 'Henricus "Harry" Farrugia wasn't Spanish, he was from Malta. Born 1919, died 1970. He started working in comics for the Amalgamated Press in the late 1940s and was quite a prolific artist for TV Fun, Radio Fun and the war libraries. He seems to have first worked for D. C. Thomson in 1961, drawing the true-life war strips for Victor and then moving on to strip stories with The Purple Trumpet (in issue 10). He kept up a prolific output right up until the time of his death, working for Victor, Hornet, the Fleetway war libraries (as far as I'm aware we list all of his output for them in our book) [War Libraries Index] and some features in Jag, also for Fleetway.'
Farrugia also drew the Men from Camp Z, Last Boy in Singapore for The Victor. And for The Hornet he drew The Limping Man, The Hover Rovers, Sergeant Sixty and other strips.
Artwork from The Victor Summer Special 1970. Also the artist for The Galloping Gunners featuring Tom Holliday and The Queen's Cowboys (The North West Mounted Police).
I think the above artwork is by Matias Alonso, a Spanish artist. Artwork from a Shiwa Sands story. Also drew Johnny Ghurkha, The Coming of the Bugaboo, Task Force with Tusks, Joe Coleman’s Guerrilla’s, The Wild Colonial Boy to name a few. All of these strips appeared in The Victor.
Artwork from a Victor Annual The Man in the Mine featuring Capt. Tom Neilson and his mine in a dramatic situation. Also drew the second series of Sniper Dennison, Suddenly, The Raiders Were There!, The War of the Second Best Guns and The Sands of Sudden Death.
Artwork from The Sabre-toothed Slinker (The Victor). Also drew The Bubble, Island of No Return and many strips featuring Sergeant Bob Millar set during WW1.
I believe the above artist is Frederick Alan Philpott. If so Philpott is probably best known for his artwork on the V for Vengeance strips in The Hornet. He also drew strips for The Victor.
The above is probably artwork by the artist Ted Kearon. My thanks to Colin Noble for the information. Colin warns however, that Kearon's artwork was ghosted. And the above example might be in case in point. Kearon drew the Robot Archie strip for The Lion. See also Lambiek.net.
Steve Holland also has some interesting information about the artist, '(I'm reminded of a story I heard about Ted Kearon, the artist of Robot Archie, who lived down on the south coast. Anyone visiting Ted to collect artwork was kept waiting on the doorstep by Mrs. Kearon who was keen never to have her husband distracted from his work. If they needed to talk to him, they weren't invited in; instead, Kearon -- wearing a smock to keep his clothes clean -- was allowed onto the doorstep to quickly deal with any business.)' Bear Alley
This artist also drew Stone of the Secret Service and numerous Morgyn the Mighty strips for The Victor.
© Adrian Banfield, 2008.
