Ross Gore - Levins 1841 - 1941

New Zealand artist Ross Gore's history of the first hundred years of Levin and Company LTD was published as a handsome hardcover book in 1956 by Levin and Co and printed by printer/publishers Whitcombe & Tombs in Wellington. Comprehensively researched from archival sources at the Alexander Turnbull Library, the company itself, and other Wellington institutions, Gore used his artistic talents to provide chapter illustrations from the various eras of the company.

Ross Gore's background and connections with the 'Baby Face Artist' behind comics Patsy Kane, Victory Comics and Meteor Comics feature on this previous post. I'm now convinced Gore was an associate of the unidentified 'Baby Face Artist' and confident some further research will reveal their connection.

Dick Hudson's Adventures, a back up story in Victory comics circa late 1944, appears to be the uncredited work of Gore.

 Victory Comics featured a cover story by the 'Baby face artist'.

Samples of Ross Gore's newspaper strip It happened in New Zealand here.

Photos from Ross Gore's wedding to Barbara Standish appeared in the Evening Post, 10 February 1939.(Gore second from left).

Gallery of Ross Gore Illustrations from Levins 1841 - 1941

Victory Comic scan provided by Allan Kemp, Ross Gore wedding photo from paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

Illustrations copyright 2013 estate of Ross Gore.

Cappicade 1948 - Snooper Girl

I previously wrote in a post here about 'the baby face artist' from the golden age of New Zealand comics and my suspicion that he was the artist Ross Gore more commonly known for his newspaper strip It Happened in New Zealand.

Recently further examples of work by the 'baby face artist' turned up which I would again attribute to Gore. The following comics and illustrations are from the 1948 Victoria University capping magazine, Cappicade. Two pages are signed 'D' which I theorise was Gore signing the initial of his middle name, Digby.

Snooper girl is particularly interesting as one of the earliest examples of a super-heroics in a New Zealand comic.

Selection of It Happened in New Zealand strips here.

Former Christchurch comics retailer Allan Kemp sent me the image below, a back up feature from Victory Comic. This strip resembles the style used in Ross Gore's It Happened in New Zealand and perhaps offers more evidence of Gore's evolution from the clean style exhibited in comics like Patsy Kane and Meteor Comics towards his more rendered work in newspapers.

Acknowledgements:  Allan Kemp, Tim Bollinger, and Geoff Harrison