Philip Mendoza [Montague Phillip Mendoza]

Philip Mendoza has always intrigued me because I've never been able to find out too much about him yet he connects two of my favourite hobbies, British comics and British paperbacks. Mendoza was an artist for the Amalgamated Press dating back to to 1951. Prior to that he had been an illustrator for magazines, newspapers and books and had met Stephen Frances who invited him to produce covers for his publishing company, Pendulum Publications. Around 1979, I picked up a little short story anthology entitled Jinn and Jitters, which was possibly the first Mendoza artwork I ever saw. When Steve Frances came to write Hank Janson, it was Mendoza who supplied the shadowy Hank Janson silhouette as well as a couple of covers, the only two not drawn by Heade.

Some years later, a friend of mine gave me some rather tatty copies of Playhour nursery comic as they contained some strips by Jesus Blasco. On the back cover was a strip relating the adventures of Gulliver Guinea-Pig, with colour art by Philip Mendoza. Fast forward to now and I'm working for the company that owns the rights to Gulliver and those beautifully painted pages. (You can find a few hundred Mendoza images at the Look and Learn website by following this link.)

Something that is always mentioned about Philip Mendoza was the fact that he was related to Daniel Mendoza, the famous bare-knuckle boxer of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. There's a useful entry on Daniel at Wikipedia which will save me some time talking about his career.

As I don't have that startling fact to dazzle anyone with, I'll try to prove how Philip Mendoza is related to the comedian (and comic strip star) Peter Sellers via Daniel Mendoza, thus connecting Philip Mendoza with another favourite hobby of mine, old radio comedy and The Goons. You'll just have to go with me on this one as I've no intention of putting in a thousand footnotes.

Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers, the son of William Sellers and Agnes (Peg) Marks who were married in 1923. Agnes was the daughter of Solomon Marks and Welcome Mendoza who were married in 1877. Welcome Mendoza was the daughter of Isaac Mendoza who was the son of Daniel Mendoza the boxer.

A nice easy line to trace.

Philip, meanwhile, was the son of Alfred Moses Mendoza and his wife Annie (nee Dobby). Alfred was the son of Mordecai Mendoza and his wife Rosetta (nee Lesser) who married in 1856. Moderecai was the son of Moses Mendoza and his wife Mariam (nee Mattatya) who married in 1821. Moses was the son of Mordecai Mendoza and his wife Zipporah (nee Levy) who married in 1798. Mordecai was the son of Moses Mendoza and his wife Judith.

Now, Moses was the seventh child of Aaron Mendoza, who had been born in Spain in 1709 but came to England where he married Benvenida Tubi (also Spanish) in 1730. Aaron's second child was Abraham Mendoza, who married Esther Lopez in 1752 and their son Daniel -- the boxer -- was born in 1765. Which makes Philip Mendoza's great-great-great-grandfather the uncle of Daniel Mendoza.

Ta da!(*It's starting to get chilly... so the above is from 'Gulliver Guinea-Pig's Search for Summer' from Playhour, 24 January 1959. © Look and Learn Magazine Ltd.)