Syd Miller's Red Gregory and The Little People
I wrote about Kolynos Dental Cream advertising here, suggesting their print campaign was likely the work of an Australian cartoonist. Comics Historian Kevin Patrick has suggested it may have been the work of Syd Miller who produced an early fantasy series for Smith's Weekly, Red Gregory and the Little People, which was collected as two comic books in the 1940's. Stylistically the work on Red Gregory is very similar to the Kolynos advertisements. Miller also had a strong record in doing comic strip advertisements, most notably as co- creator of "Chesty Bond", in the mid-late 1930s. Kevin suggested Miller as a the likely artist, "... Based on similarity of linework, depiction of curvaceous women, etc."
Syd Miller's Fatty Finn's Comic
Red Gregory and The Little People Page 5
In response to a suggestion from myself about the disparity between lettering/calligraphy styles in Red Gregory and the Little People and Kolynos work, Kevin commented, "The quality of lettering/calligraphy would have to have been of higher standard for a business advertisement client like Kolynos. Comic books/strips would have been a nice sideliner earner for Nicholls, no doubt, but wouldn't have paid as much as advertising work, I suspect."
Red Gregory and the Little People comic circa 1940's
Red Gregory and The Little People Page 4
Samples of Kolynos advertisements from the Australian Woman's Weekly
Red Gregory images sourced from the Rare Books Collection, Monash University Library (Melbourne, Australia) [http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/
