Peter Maddocks – RIP

English comic strip cartoonist Peter Maddocks has passed away.

From The Telegraph:

Peter Maddocks, who has died aged 96, was a cartoonist whose whimsical, humorous style appealed to audiences ranging from readers of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph to the Daily Star and from Private Eye to Mayfair and Woman’s Own.

A Maddocks cartoon was instantly recognisable, typically featuring characters with goggle-eyes and splayed fingers, and while he brought out the absurd in the news and poked fun at politicians, his satire was never savage. “As far as my own work goes, I want people to laugh at it,” he said in 1986.

From The Sun:

A BELOVED TV cartoonist known for hit BBC children’s cartoons has died aged 96.

The news was announced in a post by the cartoonist’s son on Facebook.

It confirmed Peter’s death in hospital in Spain on 20 November following a short illness.

The tribute read: “My Dad, the late, great Peter Maddocks passed away peacefully last Wednesday in hospital in Spain after a very short and sudden decline aged 96.

“He was one of the most prolific and respected Fleet Street cartoonists of the twentieth century.”

John Freeman at Down the Tubes gives a fine rundown of Peter’s career:

He remained in service until 1949, travelling the world and supplying military convoys – a time which he said made him a man. He then got a job adding the lettering to Amalgamated Press strips such as Kit Carson and The Saint, and, at the age of 21, set up his own advertising agency in London, designing cinema posters and writing some western series.

In 1953, while writing a cowboy series for Amalgamated Press, he was told there was a position as a cartoonist for the Daily Sketch, a job he would hold for two years, drawing a daily cartoon, earning £20 a week.

The following year he moved to the Daily Express, and, having always enjoyed reading comics as a child, suggested the newspaper should include strip cartoons. He created the daily strip, “Four D. Jones“, which ran in the Daily Express for ten years between 1955 and 1965, a tale of a time travelling cowboy.

Other strips include “Horatio Cringe” for the Glasgow Evening Citizen, a surreal strip of similar style to “Four D. Jones”; “The Bouncers” for Eagle stablemate, Swift, which ran between September 1959 and December 1960; “No. 10” (1970-1991) for the Sunday Express, taking readers behind the scenes at the Prime Minister’s London residence; “A Leg at Each Corner” (1970 – 73) for the Manchester Evening News and the Sunday Telegraph, offering a more traditional comic approach to our four legged friends; “Cop Shop” for the Daily Record, and “Useless Eustace“, taking over from Jack Greenall, in the Daily Mirror from 1975; and “Jimbo and the Jet-Set” for the Mail on Sunday in the 1980s and 1990s, based on one of the animated series he created with his sons.

He also drew pocket and sports cartoons for the London Evening Standard (1966-70), drawing pocket and sports cartoons, and a regular “Slightly Maddocks” cartoon for the London Evening News (1974 – 77). Other publications he contributed cartoons to included the Daily Star, the Manchester Evening News, the Mail on Sunday, Private Eye, the Daily Telegraph, Mayfair and Woman’s Own.

Maddocks also illustrated a Woman’s Own cookery book, even though he confessed to not being “able to boil a bloody egg”.

In addition to his role as cartoon editor for Express Newspapers, he was also special features editor for King Magazine between 1968 and 1971, later to become Mayfair, where he continued to be their cartoonist. He was also author of humour books for adults, such as Condomania, and Hard Times.

In 2022, he told SUR that the most enjoyable period of his career was when he went into animation. After producing animated commercials for Halas & Bachelor, he set up Maddocks Cartoons, where he was joined by his sons to create children’s animated cartoons for television, including The Family Ness, Jimbo and the Jet-Set, Penny Crayon and Caribou Kitchen, while also making many cartoons for other studios, such as The Mr Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Paul Hudson lists his comic strip work as Four D. Jones (1955-1965); Horatio Cringe (1963); A Leg at Each Corner (1970-1973); No. 10 (1970-1991); Useless Eustice aka Eustice ((1978-1980) and Jimbo and The Jet Set (1980s-1990s).

Rod McKie presents a Four D Jones story.

15 Years ago Mike Lynch put a Spotlight on Cartoonist Peter Maddocks.