DAILY MIRROR — Comic Strip Images, Part 1

[1] The Cost of Living by W.K. Haselden, April 6, 1915.

      

by John Adcock

   

 T  HERE is very little information to be found on British newspaper comic strip history. Hugh Cudlipp devoted a few chapters to the Daily Mirror titles in his 1953 book Publish and Be Damned! The astonishing story of the Daily Mirror, and in his 1962 book At Your Peril; a mid-century view of the exciting changes of the press in Britain, and a press view of the exciting changes of mid-century. George Perry and Alan Aldridge included a chapter on British strips in The Penguin Book of Comics, a widely read and reprinted book of 1967.
 

[2] Denis Gifford in 1976.

 ★  Denis Gifford — British cartoonist-historian — provided the most thorough background in his little book Stap me! The British Newspaper Strip (1971) and contributed columns to Maurice Horn’s The World Encyclopedia of Comics (1976). Finally John Allard, a one-time cartoon editor of the Daily Mirror, published a thorough 6-page account of Daily Mirror strips in Denis Gifford’s Comic Cuts (the Association of Comics Enthusiasts’ newsletter) Vol. 13, No. 6 (No 118) (Oct/Nov 1990).

[3] Introducing Pip, Squeak and Wilfred in The Children’s Mirror, by Uncle Dick and Austin B. Payne, May 12, 1919.

 ★  Pip, Squeak and Wilfred was written by Uncle Dick (real name Bertram J. Lamb) and drawn by Austin B. Payne, “an old Comics Cuts man from Wales.” The strip debuted on May 12, 1919. From 1938 it was written by Don Freeman. Hugh McClelland took over as artist in 1953. McClelland was the first head of the Daily Mirror strip department and creator of the comic strip Jimpy. 

[4] July 8, 1930.

OVERSEAS. When Pip, Squeak and Wilfred: Their "luvly" Adventures was published in the United States in 1921, available through E.P. Dutton & Co. for one dollar(the British edition was issued the same year by Stanley Paul & Co., London, the American edition is still unknown in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, almost a century later) the advertising blurb read,

“Uncle Dick and the cartoonist A.B. Payne, in daily ‘comics’ have so appealed to children — and their elders — that when this series was first brought out in book form, the first day’s sale was 100,000 copies. A second hundred thousand was sold within three weeks, and nearly four hundred thousand to date in England.” — E.P. Dutton advert

[5] by Harold C. Earnshaw, July 8, 1930.

 ★  The Pater, a strip by Harold Cecil Earnshaw (1886-1937), made its debut on December 10, 1928, and ended on February 28, 1931. There is a brief, moving profile on the too short life of Harold Earnshaw who was Mabel Lucie Attwell’s husband, HERE. The artwork for this series bears a close resemblance to that of John Miller Watt, the artist of the popular comic strip Pop (1921-1949) which ran in the Daily Sketch newspaper.

[6] by Dart, Nov 21, 1931 (debut strip).

 ★  Tich was a comic strip written by Frank Dowling and illustrated by “Dart.” The original “Dart” was a man named Martin, although it is uncertain if this was a surname or a last name. Tich ran in the Daily Mirror from November 21, 1931, to November 25, 1933. The second “Dart”, Stephen Phillip Dowling (1904-1986), fell into strip work in a startling manner, as related to Denis Gifford in a 1976 interview,

[7] by Dart, July 29, 1932

“It started by my going riding with a friend who did a strip called Tich in the Daily Mirror, the ideas for which were supplied by my brother Frank. Coming back from this event, rather full of liquor, unfortunately there was a car accident, and the artist, Martin, died. And so I had to step into his shoes and was plummeted into the strip business in a rather shaky condition, having gone through the roof of a car! Tich ran for some years.” — Ally Sloper, No. 1, 1976

[8] Jane’s Journal by Pett, the first Jane strip, Dec 5, 1932.

 ★  Jane is probably the most famous British comic strip character. She became widely known around the world for her skirt-dropping exploits during World War II. She appeared in overseas newspapers and in troop journals like The Maple Leaf — begun in Italy in 1944, ended in Germany in 1946 — and the American-based Stars and Stripes.

[9] An ‘au revoir from Jane’ by Pett. It is to the 200,000 Canadian readers of The Maple Leaf that Jane bids farewell, in March 1946.

JANE started with the longer title Jane’s Journal – The Diary of a Bright Young Thing on December 5, 1932, with William Norman Pett as its sole author, signing as ‘PETT.’ The strip’s title changed to simply Jane on April 1, 1938. Don Freeman wrote it from December 1938. Michael Hubbard took over the drawing, in print from May 1, 1948. The final episodes were written by Ian Gammidge until Jane was discontinued on October 10, 1959. 

[10] Home Notes by [?], a one-shot, July 29, 1932.

[11] Jane’s Journal by Pett, Mar 11, 1935.

[12] by Fitz, a one-shot, Mar 11, 1935.

[13] Pip, Squeak and Wilfred by A.B. Payne, Mar 11, 1935.

[14] Our Weekend Guests by W.K. Haselden, Nov 21, 1931.

CONTINUED IN OUR NEXT:
Ruggles and Belinda Blue-Eyes…

Meanwhile, any additional information is welcomed, especially missing names of WRITERS and ARTISTS, gathered in our DAILY MIRROR comic strip series index, compiled and researched by Leonardo De Sá, spanning the years 1904-2016, HERE.