Lesley Shane

Oliver Passingham was a British comic artist born in London in 26 Jan 1925. In 1950 he met Conrad Frost who was about to begin producing strips for the Kemsley newspaper chain. He drew a number of newspaper comics with Frost including Rick Martin (western), Jane Fortune (detective). Sally Marsh (glamour), and Zoe Fair for the Weekend Magazine. ‘Lesley Shane’ was produced from about 1953 to 1955 with scripts by Frost. The exact dates of the run were impossible to find.

Female detective Lesley Shane owed a big debt to Alex Raymond’s Rip Kirby. Leslie herself resembled Kirby’s gal Honey Dorian. Frost and Passingham often gave a wink and a nod to popular British cultural icons with tips of the hat to famous thriller writers and the comic strip Jane (see 27 Feb 1953, third panel, below Jane and her dog Fritzi passing through the strip) .

In 1953 Amalgamated began publishing ‘Lesley Shane’ in Super Detective Library digests and the comic strip daily was syndicated in a few North American newspapers. When Frost discontinued his production of comic strips Passingham went on to work for Amalgamated Press where he contributed to the fondly remembered science-fiction strip ‘Rick Random.’ At D. C. Thomson he contributed regularly to the line of girl comics which included Mandy, Bunty, Judy, Romeo, and Diana. Passingham retired in 1993.