I'm digging into the vaults for this one.Vincent S. Daniel was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1874 and, after training as an art student, was to be found working as an engraver around the turn of the century. Soon, he became a freelance illustrator, his work appearing in The Story of Jesus for Boys and Girls (Sisley's, 1907) and the "Daily Mail" Sixpenny Novels series as well as story papers published by the Amalgamated Press. The earliest work I have been able to trace dates from 1904 when he began working regularly on Union Jack, shortly before that paper became the permanent home for Sexton Blake's adventures.
Towards the end of the Great War, Daniel switched from story headings and illustrations to crude but effective adventure strips for the company's penny comics. His earliest known strip work was "Juliet the Office Girl" in The Jester (1917), followed by contributions to Rainbow, Puck, Comic Life, Lot-o'-Fun and Crackers during the 1920s. For a period between 1922-24 he took over—from the strip's creator, Walter Booth—as the artist of Britain's first adventure strip, "Rob the Rover", later assisting Booth in the mid-1930s on the same strip as well as taking over "For the King!" and "The Adventures of Captain Moonlight". Solo, he produced many other adventure strips for Puck, Crackers, Merry & Bright and Golden during the 1930s.
Daniels' career seems to come to an end with the collapse of the penny comics in the early months of the Second World War, although he was still listed as living in London in 1944-45, shortly before his death, aged 71. Daniel was married to Ethel Martha Dixon in 1902 and had at least two daughters, Monica (later Dewey) and Pauline (later Kenway).
I've heard that Daniel is said to have owned a farm in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, although the only early (1929) address I've been able to trace is in Leigh, in Kent, and I believe he spent most of his life living in Brentford, London.Another, more intriguing, story, told to me by Bill Lofts, was that Daniel's father was a well known card sharper on the London to Brighton race train and Daniel ended his life by shooting himself in the offices of the Daily Mirror. I strongly believe that Bill got this wrong (Daniel's father was an accountant and his death is registered at Brentford)—so who was the artist Bill was mistaking Daniel for?
(* artwork © IPC Media; with thanks to Jose Pires)
Seems Daniels art form was the embodiment of the yesteryear comic form where the illustration is often accompanied by a detail script....
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing info on this unknown artist/creator, Steve.
By the way your blogging speed is much more faster than my blog-hopping time pass... So excuse me if I miss out from commenting on all posts... but rest assured I would be here to pitch in whenever possible.
Cheers !!!
ÇómícólógÝ
Hi Steve: you posted a "Tom All-Alone" page published in 1938. Was the series continued by Arthur Mansbridge in the 1940s or was it discontinued after Vincent Daniel left? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the series continued into the 1940s, but I *think* that Mansbridge was the first artist on the strip and Daniel took over.
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Steve! I ask because of the series' reprinting in the Portuguese magazine O Mosquito, namely on its 1948 run. The publishers may have picked up the series on either artists run, I guess (these artists could all fit in a very specific "house style"). Your "Tom All-Alone" page is the only one I could find on the Internet. These old fashioned British series have a charm of their own. O Mosquito also published "Rob the Rover" and "Basil & Bert, Our Very Private Detectives", along with many others like Reg Perrott's "The Golden Arrow". It had its Spanish phase, the British phase and the American phase with "Prince Valiant", "Tommy of the Big Top" and Knerr's "Katzenjammer Kids". By the way, do you know if the artists wrote their own scripts or did they work with writers we know nothing about?
ReplyDeleteI know humour strips tended to be written by their artists in that era, but I think a lot of the content and strips were written in house by editorial staff. There may even have been more than one writer involved, one writing the scenario that the artist illustrated and a second writing the captions that appeared below the pictures.
ReplyDeleteHi again Steve: I'm sorry for bothering you with questions! Do you know where Daniel's series "Cowboy Tracker" was published? Thanks!
ReplyDeletePuck, 1936, but I don't have any more accurate dates.
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