By Les Lilley & Anthony Hutchings (Millbank Books)
ISBN: 978-0-95198-980-7
I’m always banging on about how British creators have been slighted and cursed with anonymity in our industry so I’m going to use this review to shine a light on one of the most egregious examples of that practise. Leslie Alfred Joseph Lilley was born in Dartford in 1924. After Navy service in World War II he joined the burgeoning pool of demobbed servicemen selling cartoons to the news trade. At a time when publications were toiling under paper restrictions, “pocket cartoons†were ubiquitous as column breaks in text-heavy papers (a practise pioneered by Osbert Lancaster). As the restrictions eased periodical magazines returned and flourished. Digests and magazines could expect to publish upwards of 40 gags and panels per week and many artists found them a vital source of income.
Lilley was never the world’s best artist, and as the newspapers adopted the US model for strip continuities, he moved from pencil to typewriter and became one of the most prolific scripters of cartoons and strips in Britain. With Ian Scott he formed an agency for cartoon scripting and began a lifelong career as writer, promoter and ambassador for the narrative arts. He founded the Cartoonists Club of Great Britain and was president of the Federation of European Cartoonist’s Organisations. He was instrumental – with Frank Bellamy – in creating the Society for Strip Illustration (which became the Comics Creators Guild in 1993).
Among his many works were the strips Jane, Choochi and Twink, Tiffany Jones, Scarth and hundreds of others. For IPC comics he wrote The Tin Teacher, Fiends and Neighbours, Son of Sherlock and much, much more, as well as an uncountable number of single panel gags. He also wrote entire Christmas annuals (128 pages of mirth and mayhem every Christmas!) for Wham! and Pow!
In 1964 he and Scott produced the scripts for the legendary BBC television series Vision On, and later ATV’s Golden Shot, and many others. Latterly he wrote Robbin’ Hood and Christopher Columbus for the Mail on Sunday; this last drawn by the award-winning cartoonist Anthony Hutchings.
Columbus was produced in 1992 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the epic voyage of discovery and is a gently comedic situation-spoof with plenty of laughs, a dash of satire and a great deal of heart. It’s a strip in the Grand British Tradition designed to raise a chuckle amongst everyday folk and does it very well indeed.
Credit never paid bills and modern creators have a much better time being noticed and acclaimed, even if the job opportunities are less than the industry heyday. Les Lilley died in 1998 so he got to see the changes occur, and in the long run the best way to celebrate a cartoonist’s work is to read it; and so you should.
© 1992 Grand Prix Productions. All Rights Reserved.