Scrapbook: Daily Mirror strips (7 April 1992)

A page from my scrapbook, featuring comic strips from the Daily Mirror on 7 April 1992. Who else remembers Tina Turner appearing in the 'Garth' strip?

Scrapbook: Daily Star strips for June 1, 1987

Scrapbook: Roscoe Moscow

Scrapbook: a random collection of strips

In chronological order. The Jimbo set dates from the 14 May 1988 issue of Radio Times, the Daily Star set from 11 March 1991 and The Metro from 16 February 2004.

Newspaper strips of the Nineties

Today's post is a random selection of newspaper strips from 1990s newspapers. Examples are from Today (2 July 1994), Daily Star (2 November 1996), Daily Mirror (28 November 1996) and Daily Mail (10 May 1997, 17 February 2000). Yes I know the last one is from 2000.

Three from the Evening News

I picked up some old newspapers recently, including a couple of copies of the Evening News, the London evening daily which featured Paul Temple amongst others. I'll come to Paul at some point, but I thought I'd post examples of a few other strips that appeared.

The first is 'Little Panda', created by the famous Dutch artist Marten Toonder. It ran from 1946 until 1991 in several Dutch newspapers and was written and drawn by members of Toonder's studio, which included the British artist Harry Hargreaves. An obituary claims that Hargreaves was the artist of the strips that were reprinted in the Evening News but I'm not convinced that is the case as it would depend on when the strip began appearing in the UK and whether it began by reprinting older stories. Hargreaves didn't join the studio until 1953. This example is from June 1953.

Next up, an episode of Matt Marriott by Tony Weare from September 1956. We have attempted to cover this series back in 2006 so I can do no better than to direct you to that post.

The third and final strip is the classic Moomin strip by Tove Jansson. What surprised me, when I went to research this little note (i.e. looked her up on Wikipedia) was that the stories were original to the Evening News, for which Jansson wrote and drew 21 serials between 1954 and 1959. Some of the stories were co-written with her brother, Lars Jansson, who took over the artwork on the strip, which continued until 1975. Eight volumes of comic strip reprints have been published by Drawn & Quarterly (more details about the original serial titles and which strips have been reprinted can be found here)

Ronald Niebour (Neb)

"Mr. Midge" was unknown to me until last week when I picked up a 1950s issue of the Evening News daily newspaper. Nor had I heard of "Neb", but a little digging turned up a bit of background on the artist, although I have to confess that the above strip looks... unusual. "That white paper on the tensile properties of fungus"? Who was Mr. Midge that his visit might be inconvenient to Mr. Slipstone? The strip dates from 1956 and Google turns up an original art board from 1957 (below), so the strip lasted at least some months.

Ronald Niebour was born in Streatham, London, on 4 April 1903, the son of Herbert Henry Niebour (1875-1943), who worked in his father's family business as a musical dealer in Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey. Herbert was married to Ada Mary Williams from Wachet, Somerset, in London in 1902. However, the couple separated, with Herbert listing himself as single in the 1911 census. Ada and their son Ronald were by then living in Llanishen, Glamorgan, just north of Cardiff.

Niebour was a childhood friend of Leslie Illingworth, the two attending grammar school Barry County School (also attended by another cartoonist, David Gwilym John, creator of 'Dai Lossin'). Illingworth went on to join the Western Mail, published in Cardifff, and attended Cardiff School of Art. Niebour instead joined the Merchant Navy and in 1920-21 served as a Laundry Boy aboard the Ormonde.

Ronald Niebour, circa 1920

He was persuaded by his family to become a teacher and, encouraged by his uncle, a superintendent of handicraft teaching, he studied metalwork and woodwork, and then spent three years teaching handicrafts at schools in Birmingham, Weymouth and Kendal.

He was self-taught as an artist and began selling caertoons, producing football cartoons for the Barry Dock News and Cardiff Evening Express. He also worked for the Oxford Mail, drawing local sporting cartoons, caricatures and a daily children's strip, before moving onto the staff of the Birmingham Gazette and Birmingham Evening Despatch. Here he tackled numerous jobs from retouching photographs to sketching any illustrations required.

He submitted sketches to the Daily Mail and, in 1938, was offered the opportunity to illustrated the paper's woman's page and gardening notes. He joined the staff in September 1938, moving from his home in King's Heath (199 May Lane, King's Heath 14) to London. After the outbreak of war he switched to drawing pocket cartoons, which proved to be his metier, and he was named by London Opinion in 1942, as one of the most popular pocket cartoonists in the national press. In 1945, a cutting of a "Neb" cartoon from the Daily Mail was found in the ruins of Hitler's Chancellery.

Sh! Gremlins by H.W. [Ernest Leslie Howard Williams] was illustrated with humorous drawings by "Neb" and published (by Bognor Regis-based John Crowther) in 1942, some months before Roald Dahl popularised the creatures in his book The Gremlins (1943).

Niebour continued to draw for the Daily Mail until 1960. He also contributed to Punch and produced advertisements for Winsor & Newton.

He was married to Evelyn Mary Ursula Kavanagh in 1942 in Glamorgan, Wales. He died at his home in Benajarafe, near Malaga, Spain, on 19 July 1972, aged 69.

Caroline Baker, Barrister at Law part 5

The final episode of our romantic adventure, written by Willie Patterson with artwork by Jose Ortiz. Scroll down if you've missed any of it.

(* © Express Newspapers Ltd.)

Caroline Baker, Barrister at Law part 4

The penultimate part of our adventure serial, written by Willie Patterson and drawn by Jose Ortiz. If you've missed any of the episodes so far you can catch up by scrolling down the page.

(* © Express Newspapers Ltd.)

Caroline Baker, Barrister at Law part 3

Part 3 of a story by scriptwriter Willie Patterson and artist Jose Ortiz. You can catch up on earlier episodes by scrolling down the page.

(* © Express Newspapers Ltd.)

Caroline Baker, Barrister at Law part 2

Further adventures written by Willie Patterson and drawn by Jose Ortiz. If you missed yesterday's opening episode, scroll down the page.

(* © Express Newspapers Ltd.)

Caroline Baker, Barrister at Law part 1

"Caroline Baker, Barrister at Law" is an almost-forgotten romance/adventure strip that appeared in the Daily Express in 1962, drawn by Jose Ortiz, who was one of the finest Spanish artists to work for British comics.
As the strip originally appeared in the Daily Express I tried asking them about it some years ago, but they appeared to have no record of it whatsoever. It was said to have been written by a "famous barrister" but the real author was Willie Patterson, a favourite scriptwriter of mine who also wrote Jeff Hawke for the Express. Ortiz is said to have come over to the UK especially to draw sketches at a magistrates' court.

This particular adventure was reprinted in the Action Book for Girls (1967) and I'll run the whole thing over the next few days.

(* © Express Newspapers Ltd.)

Tony Weare's City Under the Sea

A pre-Christmas treat. Franco Giacomini has very kindly sent over scans of a sequence from an early strip drawn by Tony Weare, shortly before he began the strip on which his fame rests, "Matt Marriott". "City Under the Sea" was published in 1954 in the Daily Herald. Enjoy!

(* The City Under the Sea © possibly News International who eventually took over The Sun under which title the Herald was relaunched in 1964. From the "Believe It Or Not" files: the Herald was once edited by George Lansbury, grandfather of the recently deceased Oliver Postgate.)

George Stokes - Wes Slade

Originally published 25 July 2007; see below for an update.

A while back I was asked about the 'Wes Slade' strip drawn by George Stokes for the Sunday Express. Unfortunately, I didn't even have the basic information of when it started and finished and a phonecall to the Express didn't help as, I was told, they didn't have any information on the strip.

As luck would have it, I was recently contacted by Germund von Wowern from Sweden, himself a comic book editor, who very generously sent me some copies of the strip. From these I've worked out that the strip must have started on Sunday, 29 January 1961. Not sure when it ended but the last strip Germund sent was for a story that ended on 13 February 1972, although the strip may have continued beyond that date.

The stories ran for around 13 to 16 weeks so the example at the top of the column was approximately the 7th story to appear. The last strip is numbered 567, implying that there were some 39 or so stories up to that point.

There is still very little known about the strip or its artist. George Stokes had worked for Mick Anglo in the early 1950s (prior to that I believe he had served with the Canadian Air Force) and then produced some strips for Fleetway. But the bulk of his career seems to have been dedicated to Wes Slade which he originally wrote and drew; later stories were written by Jim Edgar.

Below is a very rough schedule of stories based on the scattered examples I now have: if anyone can fill any gaps, please feel free to drop me a line.

Update: 27 July 2008: I've been able to add quite a bit of detail thanks to an e-mail received from Franco Giacomini who sent me a listing of Italian reprints. I ringraziamenti, Franco. [I hope that's "thanks, Franco".] I've retained the Italian titles as they may help i.d. further story titles in the future.
Further Update: 23 May 2011: My thanks to Torbjörn Svensson (see Comments) for much additional information about the end of the run. Torbjörn tells me that Jim Edgar is credited as the writer on the strip from the story 'Green Lebanon' in 1979 and that Harry Bishop took over as artist during the run of the story 'The Territory' in 1980.

1 The Living Dead ( )______________29 Jan 1961-?? [Lo Scefiffo Slade]
2 Fast Gun in Carrizal ( )______________________[Corruzione a Carrizal]
3 Ambush at Ochoa Springs (37-41)______________[Agguato a Ochoa Springs]
4 [Il padrone di Banjo Crossing] (42-54)
5 [La fine della pista] (55-68)
6 [I defradati] (69-80)
7 The Nesters (81-93)______________12 Aug-4 Nov 1962 [I coloni]
8 The Night Riders (94-103)_________11 Nov 1962-??
9 [La carovana della morte] (104-115)
10 [non individuata] (116-127)
11 [Una manciata di fango] (127-140)
12 Border Town (141-153)___________06 Oct 1963-?? [Citta' di frontiera]
13 [Il selvaggio] (154-167)
14 The Desperadoes (168-180)_______12 Apr 1964-??
15 [Il giocatore di Placerville] (181-192)
16 [non individuata] (193-206)
17 [La lancia di guerra] (207-220)
18 [El caballero] (221-236)
19 [non individuata] (237-250)
20 The California Road (251-264)_____21 Nov 1966-??
21 [Il rinnegato] (265-278)
22 [Penitenziario di stato] (279-292)
23 [non individuata] (293-306)
24 [Cacciatore di taglie] (307-319)
25 [Dodge City] (320-333)
26
27
28
29
30 A Day in Chandler's Fork (390-403)_15 Sep-15 Dec 1968
31 The Dude (404-419)_______________22 Dec 1968-6 Apr 1969
32 Affairs of Honour (420-434)            13 Apr-20 Jul 1969
33 Men's Company (435-447)             27 Jul-19 Oct 1969
34 The Pipes of Wrath (448-460)         26 Oct 1969-18 Jan 1970

36 News from Shiloh (475-490)_______03 May-16 Aug 1970
37
38 Johnny Pueblo (507-520)_________13 Dec 1970-14 Mar 1971
39
40
41 The Maverick (552-567)__________24 Oct 1971-13 Feb 1972
___* No issue dated 26 December 1971.
XX
XX Much Hombre (616-630)
XX The Gentle Gaffer (631-647?)
XX Blood Brother (648?-661)
XX Hard to Handle (662-678)
XX Fleckner's Territory (679-693)
XX The Medicine Man (695-710)
XX The Good Father Damien (711-726)
XX The Man From Loredo (727-742)
XX The Golden Widow (743-755?)
XX Corrigan's Kid (757?-772)
XX Uncle Shad (773-778)
XX Flowers for Maggie (789-806)_____23 May 1976-19 Sep 1976
XX Eye for an Eye (807-823)_________26 Sep 1976-23 Jan 1977
XX Day of Reckoning (824-842)______30 Jan 1977-5 Jun 1977
XX The Loner (843-860)_____________12 Jun 1977-9 Oct 1977
XX Seed (861-877)__________________16 Oct 1977-12 Feb 1978
XX Ballad of Moses (878-895)________19 Feb 1978-18 Jun 1978
XX The Moonshiners (896-911)_______25 Jun 1978-8 Oct 1978
XX Little Brother Crow (912-927)______15 Oct 1978-28 Jan 1979
XX Viva Montanez! (928-943)_________4 Feb 1979-20 May 1979
XX Green Lebanon (944-961)_________27 May 1979-23 Sep 1979
XX Witch-Brood (962-978)____________30 Sep 1979-20 Jan 1980
XX The Territory (979-995)___________26 Jan 1980-18 May 1980
XX Day of Wrath (996-1012)__________25 May 1980-14 Sep 1980
XX The Grafter (1013-1032)___________21 Sep 1980-1 Feb 1981
XX A Debt of Honour (1033-1041)______8 Feb 1980-5 Apr 1981
XX The Wild One (1042-1052)_________12 Apr 1981-28 Jun 1981

Somewhere I've got a copy of the little Wes Slade reprint put out by Express Newspapers in 1979 (which makes me think that the strip probably carried on well beyond 1972). The book contained three stories and I'll fill in the details when the book surfaces from whatever nook or cranny it's hiding in. Update: David Simpson filled in the story titles for me back when this was originally posted. We can now see from Franco's list that it reprinted the first three stories and the third tale was indeed rather short.

(* Wes Slade © Express Newspapers)

Fishing With Mr Crabtree

Slightly off the beaten track and inspired by John's mention of the strip here.

Mr. Crabtree was a comic strip all about fishing that ran in the Daily Mirror for years. Originally, Crabtree hosted a gardening strip but, during the winter when things went quiet in the garden, Venables persuaded the editors to let him send Mr. Crabtree fishing. This was in the 1940s and the strip ran for many years.

A brief biography of Venables appears at Bookseller World:

Bernard Venables was born on 14th February 1907 in Kent England and few people in recent history can have done more to encourage people to go angling, along with Richard Walker and BB he has hugely influential in the post war boom in fishing. After leaving school he worked for several newspapers, it when he produced his first cartoon strip for the Daily Mirror that he really made his mark. It was so popular that it soon extended to a column as well and eventually books. In 1963 he was one of the people behind the magazine Creel which brought new levels of quality and production to the market. His works are still enjoyed and collected today.

Bernard Percival Venables, who was awarded an MBE in 1995, died on 21 April 2001, aged 94. An obituary which expands greatly on the information above can be found here (Daily Telegraph, 24 April 2001).

Cover by Glenn Steward

Books by Bernard Venables
Tanks, Their Place in Modern Warfare. London, Country Life, 1942.
Fish and Fishing. Harmondsworht, Penguin (Puffin Picture Book no. 53), 1948.
A Fisherman's Testament, illus. by the author. London, Adam & Charles Black, 1949.
Mr. Crabtree Goes Fishing. London, Daily Mirror, 1949; as Mr. Crabtree Goes Fishing. A guide to fishing round the year, London, Unwin Paperbacks, 1990; as Mirror Features Presents... Mr. Crabtree Goes Fishing (50th Anniversary edition), London, Map Marketing, 2000.
Fishing, illus. by the author. London, Batsford, 1953.
Guide to Angling Waters, illus. by the author. London, Daily Mirror Newspapers, 1954.
The Gentle Art of Angling, illus. by the author. London, Max Reinhardt, 1955.
The Angler's Companion, illus. by the author. London, Allen & Unwin, 1958.
Fishing for Pike with Mr. Cherry and Jim, illus. by the author. Peterborough, Angling Times, 1961.
Fishing for Roach with Mr. Cherry and Jim, illus. by the author. Peterborough, Angling Times, 1961.
Fishing for Perch with Mr. Cherry and Jim, illus. by the author. London, Angling Times, 1962.
Fishing for Trout with Mr. Cherry and Jim, illus. by the author. London, Angling Times, 1962.
Fishing with Mr. Crabtree in All Waters. London, Daily Mirror, 1964.
Freshwater Fishing, illus. by the author. London, Jenkins, 1967.
Baleia! The whalers of the Azores. London, Bodley Head, 1968.
Mr. Crabtree's Book of Fishing for Boys. London, Daily Mirror, 1968.
Mr. Crabtree's Guide to Good Fishing Tackle. London, Daily Mirror, 1969.
Coming Down the Zambezi. London, Constable, 1974.
The Piccolo Fishing Book, illus. by the author. London, Piccolo, 1981.
The Illustrated Memoirs of a Fisherman. Ludlow, Merlin Unwin, 1993.
A Rise to the Fly. London, Robert Hale, 2000.

Others
The Angling Times Book, ed. with Howard Marshall. London, James Barrie, 1955.
A Fly Fishers Life [Pris sur le vif] by Charles Ritz; translated by Humphrey Hare; foreword by Ernest Hemingway; with an introduction by Bernard Venables. London, Max Reinhardt, 1959.
Fishes in Colour: Marine and Freshwater by Gwynne Vevers [translated from the original Danish Fisk i farver by Hans Hvass]; notes on angling methods by Bernard Venables; illus. Henning Anthon. London, H. F. & G. Witherby, 1963.

Illustrated Books
The Hunting of Zakaroff by W. B. Macmillan. London, Peter Lunn, 1946.
The Phantom by John Sylvester. London, Peter Lunn, 1946.
Silver. The life story of an Atlantic Salmon by Roderick L. Haig-Brown. London, A. & C. Black, 1946.
Fishing for a Year by Jack Hargreaves. London, Macgibbon & Kee, 1951.
For Poachers ONly, and the Giles stories by Jack Chance; illus. with Alex Jardine. London, Adam & Charles Black, 1955.
Fishing by George Clifford. London, Oxford University Press, 1968.
Farming Year by John Cherrington. London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1983.

Matt Marriott

Details of the Matt Marriott strip are sparse and a complete listing of stories in their original appearance (in the London Evening News) has never been produced. A certain amount of information about early strips can be derived from ADCCC reprints. Titles weren't printed in the paper but Tony Weare wrote story titles onto the scrapbooks he kept of the strips.

Thanks to Domingos Isabelinho I also have a list of the later 'Matt Marriott' stories that appeared in Portugal. Domingos has very kindly translated the titles into English but I've bracketed them in the list below.

MATT MARRIOTT

1 Vengeance Trail (19 Sep–5 Dec 1955)

     * reprinted (abridged) as 'Vengeance Trail' in Knockout, 24 Sep–24 Dec 1960.
2 Buffalo Hunters (6 Dec 1955–4 Apr 1956)
     * reprinted (abridged) as 'The Trouble-Shooters' in Knockout, 31 Dec 1960–10 Jun 1961.
3 Belle Benson's Daughter (5 Apr–1 Aug 1956)
4 Showdown in Dodge City (2 Aug–5 Dec 1956)
5 Wesley Greer Church (6 Dec 1956–27 Apr 1957)
6 Kansas Railroad part 1 (29 Apr–31 Aug 1957)
7 Kansas Railroad part 2 (2 Sep–14 Dec 1957)
8 The Sunbaugh Gang (16 Dec 1957–23 Jul 1958)
9 Springs of Death (24 Jul–22 Nov 1958)
10 Ghost Town (24 Nov 1958–20 Apr 1959)
?? Farmer Cobb
12 Marshall of Fireweed
?? Marshall of Ochre Flat
?? Overland 
?? Last Days of Augue Spencer
?? Sheriff Hayden
18 Powder's Nephew
?? Zincville Colorado
(The Great Iron Horse)
(A Man Called Jesse James)
(A Cheater’s Story)
(The Terrible Scotsman)
(A Fistful of Lies)
(The Madness)
(The King of Cheaters)
(Hard Confession)
(Cat Bayou)
(The Outlaw Sergeant)
(A Matter of Honour)
(The Strange Priest)
(The Great Herd)
(The Strange Nimbus McBride)
(Drama at Ochre Flat)
(Deathful Hate)
(The Third One Was Saved)
(The Deker Devils)
(The Accused Innocents)
(Zinc Bill’s Story)
(An Adventure in Mexico)
(Two Old Enemies)
(Ruthless Adventure)
(Calamity Jane)
(Runner Bear’s Vengeance)
(A Ten Dollar Bill)
(Wild Country)
(Roses to Sister Eulalia)
(Big Cotton)
(Old Hate Doesn’t Fade)
(A Quiet Man)
(Giants’ Duel)
(The Last Hunt)
(Gil Gatlin’s Gang)
(The Last of the Giants)
(Deathful Fight)
(The Kansas Renegades)
(Mortal Duel)
(Deathly Competition)
(Death’s Jump)
(The Last Resource)
(Mary The Preacher)
(The Witch's Recipe)
(The Power and The Glory)

Incidentally, since mentioning Jim Edgar in a previous post, I've found a note that John M. Burns drew the last episodes of 'Matt Marriott' for the Evening News in 1977 before reviving 'Danielle' for the same paper, briefly, in 1978.