Biggles comics created in Australia initially by John Dixon and subsequently by Albert De Vine were reprinted in England by Stratos Publications Ltd during the 1950's. These reprints of the quintessentially English character of Biggles were packaged into 68 page collections with John Dixon's original Australian creations Tim Valour and The Crimson Comet filling up the pages alongside another of Albert De Vine's Australian comics works Gimlet who was also created by Biggles creator W. E Johns.
Australian Cartoonists Art Dump #3
Above: Maurice Bramley cover for In Battle Action No. 72
Below: Peter Chapman's Sir Falcon.
Below: John Dixon's Crimson Comic. When I was about eight years I bought a Crimson Comet comic from a carboot in a muddy paddock at a flea market in provincial New Zealand. Unbelievably one hundred and fifteen years later I still have that comic.
Every day I wake up and wonder is this the day Nat Karmichael announces he'll be publishing the complete Tim Valour by John Dixon? A phone book collection of these tight adventure stories would be a gift to mankind...
These King Size Comic anthologies have stunning covers by an unknown artist. They chiefly contain American reprints but invariably would have an Australian comic like Stan and Reg Pitt's Silver Starr. A smarter person than me like Kevin Patrick or Daniel Best could have written about these in a smarter way.
The Adventures of Flash Cain No. 3 collects comics from Cavalcade magazine by Phil Belbin, cover by Devil Doone mainstay artist Hart Amos.
Even when guesting in other heroes comics the Phantom Ranger could oddly be relied upon to find a Mexican to punch in the face.
Kent Blake of the Secret Service #18? There seventeen issues before this one? Nat, while you're assembling that Tim Valour phone book can I please also get an inch thick collection of Monty Wedd's Kent Blake comics?
Wanda the War Girl - Kathleen O'Brien (1914 - 1991)
From Perth Sunday TImes 11th July 1943:
INTRODUCING "WANDA THE WAR GIRL "
Her admiration for the fine qualities of the Australian Service girls inspired Sydney artist Kathleen O'Brien to create "Wanda the War Girl." Miss O'Brien's weekly strip of Wanda's adventures will begin next week in "The Sunday Times."
"Few Australian artists have tried to give Australian service girls credit for the marvelous job they have been doing.'' Miss O'Brien says,
"The Australian service girl has got everything-daring, beauty wit, charm, and a fresh, open-air
outlook. "I am delighted that The Sunday Times' will bring her to the public."
Miss O'Brien was born 28 years ago in her grandfather's hotel in Mackay, Northern Queensland.
Since then she has traveled all over Australia with her parents while her father prospected for
gold, broke-in horses, and worked for years in the outback. Her mother, who models aboriginal subjects in clay and is an expert in hand-weaving, inspired her to become an artist.
Miss O'Brien first studied art at the Brisbane Technical College. She went to Sydney six years
ago to study for three years with the late J. S. ("Wattie") Watkins, great art teacher. She has never been abroad, but she can read and speak both French and Italian.
"Wanda is not a portrait of any real person, but she represents the spirit of Australian girls I know, who have done such wonderful work in uniform." says Miss O'Brien. "I first thought of Wanda when I was watching a march of service girls. I spent days and nights sketching girls before I was satisfied I had found a true type of real Australian girl."
The comics below are rare examples of full colour tabloid size Australian produced newspaper comics. In common with her contemporaries Moira Bertram and Stanley Pitt, O'Brien often used large bold figures and layouts breaking from the more traditional grids employed in comics of the time.
Brodie Mack and Peter Amos Publications
Above: Page from Rangers Comic #23 published by Fiction House, June 1945.
As well as collaborating on the first Australian comic reprinted in the US, Kazanda, New Zealand cartoonist Brodie Mack and Australian writer Archie E. Martin (under pseudonym Peter Amos) produced a series of publications published in Sydney combining Mack's drawings and Martin's prose.
Phantom Pants - A Fantasy in Silk - 28 pages of Illustrations by Brodie Mack and prose by Peter Amos. Published by Ballards Pty Ltd, Sydney 1938.
If It's Not A Rude Question, 32 pages, published by NSW Bookstall Company, Sydney in 1938.
Hooey! 38 pages, published by NSW Bookstall Company, Sydney 1944.
Australian Cartoonists Art Dump #2
Written and drawn by Paul Wheelahan, Panther Comics.
Paul Wheelahan's The Raven.
Maurice Bramley cover on Marc Brody No. 3
Royce Bradford cover for Marc Brody no. 1
Stanley Pitt cover for True Stories of Australian Crime No. 2
Phil Belbin cover for Australian publisher Gredown reprinting US comic The Fly. I suspect Belbin never got to see the actual comic his cover was going on.
Will Donald's The Brass Vulture
Doug Maxted's Real! Comics
