Saturday, June 15, 2013

Les Tanner 15 June 1927 – 23 July 2001


Today marks 86 years since the birth of Les Tanner, Australian cartoonist and journalist. After his death, the Black and White Society of Australia described him as follows: "Les Tanner was pre-eminent as a social commentator in the medium of black and white art in 20th Century Australia."

I first heard of Tanner on tram ride when an elderly passenger spotted me reading a cartoon book and related the tale of Tanner's clash with media magnate Sir Frank Packer. In the employ of The Bulletin Tanner drew a cartoon featuring Sir Henry Bolte, then premier of Victoria, to illustrate Editor Peter Coleman's article on capital punishment. Packer ordered the entire print edition pulped but did not account for subscription editions and airmail delivery copies which nevertheless reached their many readers. Packer also banned the screening of a BBC program on capital punishment scheduled to air on one of his television stations. ABC television seized upon these events and ran a program about the cartoon and editorial Packer's efforts to censor the press further cementing Tanner's reputation for social commentary.

Happy 39th Birthday, Christopher Downes

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Mandrake the Magician - Feature Productions

New Zealand comics publisher Feature Publications operated out of Petone, Wellington from the early 1940's with a line up of comics primarily reprinting King Feature Syndicate newspaper strips such as Popeye, Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom, The Katzenjammer Kids, Bringing up Father and others.

Lee Falk's creation Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip in American newspapers on June 11th, 1934, with a colour Sunday strip following on February 3, 1935. Mandrake the Magician is one of the last surviving adventure strips still being produced in America with Mandrake artist of the last forty years Fred Fredericks assuming writing chores after the passing of Falk in 1999.

Feature Productions produced 222 issues of Mandrake the Magician from the late 1940's until the early 1960's. The Phantom, another creation of Falk is the only other New Zealand published comic to surpass Mandrake the Magician with 556 issues produced by Feature Productions.

The gallery below features covers of the first twenty issues of Mandrake the Magician. Feature Productions' cover artists were not credited, and covers typically featured a redrawn panel from the interior comic.





















Source:http://www.mandrakewiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page