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, and other 15th to 18th century strips, Bert Vandeput who drew The Greenhorn strip below, drawing many of the football and cricket 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.

My thanks to Ray Moore, Jeremy Briggs, Steve Holland and Jim Croasdale for providing information about various artists.

The above two pieces of artwork are by artist Anthony Coleman. The first strip is from the Battle comic dated 03/11/84. The second image The Secrets of Section Six is from The Victor. Other Victor strips this artist drew include The Moaning Minnie, The Men Behind the Barbed Wire, The Barge that went to War, The Wavy Navy, The Monster of Loch Neill, The Battleberg and many others.

I also believe that Coleman worked for a short period in America, working at the Wood Studio with Wally Wood, the well known comic artist. Coleman's biography in the collected T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents volumes mentions that the tall artist was born in 1932 and travelled to Canada, 'but lost his portfolio and money whilte en route to DC Comics in New York. On the basis of his work for British digest war comics, DC's Joe Orlando sent him uptown to the Wood Studio.' (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, volume one, DC Comics, 2002). He worked with Wood on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents from issues 2 to 5. He inked Gold Key's, Fantastic Voyage, drew illustrations for Galaxy Science Fiction and on Warfront for Harvey Comics. After six months though Coleman returned to England. Unfortunately, it is not possible from the artwork T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents to easily identify his work. Possibly Coleman only inked Wood's artwork. Is this the one and same person?

The above artwork by Ian Kennedy the Scottish artist, needs no introduction for those readers who are avid fans of The Victor or D.C. Thomson's Commando booklets. For those who aren't familiar with his work, Kennedy is regarded as one of the finest of British comic artists. His drawings of aircraft and vehicles are accurately drawn, right down to the smallest detail. And his colourful Victor annual and Commando cover artwork is stunning! For Other examples of Kennedy's artwork please visit the following pages - Victor Annual and Victor Summer Special pages.

Please follow the link for two interviews with Ian Kennedy.

The above artwork is by Harry Winslade (1901 - 1980) and is from The Diggers Were There series published in The Hornet, issue 192. The following edited information is from an article that appeared on Steve Holland's website blog Bear Alley. My thanks to Steve. Harry Winslade was born as Harry Redvers A. Winslade, in Farnham, Surrey. (Winslade has also been known as Redvers Blake). Winslade's career in the comics industry appeared to have begun in 1950, drawing episodes for Eagle. Between 1951 and 1952 he drew the Judy and Pat strip for Girl. In early 1958 he drew for the Zip comic The Brainy B's strip and for the Express Weekly Battle Brothers. Between 1958 and 1962 he illustrated the adventures of the explorer Sir Nigel Tawny which started life in Zip and later continued in Swift. But it was within the pages of The Hornet, that Winslade contributed many pieces of artwork drawing front and back cover stories, complete one issue and series stories. He also drew for the Diana and Wizard comics.

The above artwork has been identified as Arnau, this by the famous western writer J.T. Edson (who wrote stories about the western character Dusty Fog and other characters), who wrote many scripts for The Victor as well as other D.C. Thomson comics. But can anyone provide me with any other information about this artist?

The above unknown artist drew the final four issues of the series Fred Kay's Crazy Railroad, for The Victor. He also drew Slim Jim, the Fighting Cook; Star Spankled Banger; Just add Water and various Victor front covers.

The two pieces of artwork above are I believe the work of Jim Bleach. The artist had a difficult act to follow in drawing the Tupper series. (For me, Peter Sutherland rules supreme), but Bleach's work for Gladiators of the Desert and other Victor strips is excellent.

The above artwork is I believe by Mike Dovey. If anyone has any information about this artist please contact me. The above artwork from Is it Cricket? The artist also drew the second series Howzatt??

I believe this is artwork by John Richardson who these days runs his own comic art business, The Richardson Studio. 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 lives.

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 artist, C.D. Bagnall, 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, Danny Dixon's Crazy Railway 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 for D.C. Thomson's The Wizard in the mid to late seventies. (Wizard stories include Power - the Danger Ranger, It's only Zeke, Wolf Boy, Terror of the Tall Tower, The Secret of Black Island and The Frozen Man featuring Jake Jeffords - secret agent, to name a few. Note the last three strips were collected and published by D.C. Thomson under the Red Dagger banner). 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, Bring-'em-Back Boys, to name a few. Please follow the link for my interview with Keith Shone.

The above artwork is by Yaroslav Horak, from issue 99 of The Hornet. 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 The One Pip Wonder and several complete one issue stories for The Hornet and Johnny Hop (The Victor), and The Bent Copper for The Hornet. The Johnny Hop series is about a policeman operating in the Australian 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, another famous Hornet footballing character.

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 Ripol.

This artist has been identified by Bill Graham as Freddie Sturrock. The artist drew many cricket and other 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? D.C. Thomson's also kept this artist very busy drawing front/back covers and strips for the Victor. Examples of series he drew include The Red MacGregor, Hounds of the Cheviot Mists, The Front-Line Bus, The Hammer Man, The Hot-Air Hussars, Stark of the Samurai, a couple of Alf Tupper strips and many other stories. Rawlings also provided artwork for the D.C. Thomson text comics for example, Rover and Wizard. Artwork from The Victor cover issue 619.

Artwork by Bert Vandeput from a Victor story. Vandeput also drew most of the Victor football and cricket strips for example, Behind The Crimson Door, 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!

Bert (Albert) Vandeput was born in London, England in 1915 of Dutch extraction. Prior to drawing for comics, Vandeput was an art teacher in a Catholic school in Liverpool. He began drawing comic stories for the Roy of the Rovers strip in the late 1950's. By the early 1960's he was drawing mainly sport strips for D.C. Thomson. Bert died in 1973. My thanks to Kashgar for the above biographical information.

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 many other strips.

Artwork from The Victor Summer Special 1970. Is the above artwork by Vicente Ibáñez Sanchis? 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 story, Neilson in the Floating Mine, featuring Capt. Tom Neilson and his mine in a dramatic situation. Believed to be the work of a Spanish artist Diaz, although more information is required about this artist. (Thanks to Ray Moore for supplying the information). 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). The artist Leo Rawlings (no relation to Ted Rawlings), also drew The Bubble, Island of No Return and many strips featuring Sergeant Bob Millar set during World War One.

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 possibly drew Stone of the Secret Service, (confirmation required) and numerous Morgyn the Mighty strips for The Victor.

© Adrian Banfield, 2008.