We’re sorry to report the passing of cartoonist Roger Mahoney, who died on 5th November, aged 89.
He’s perhaps best known for his work on “The Gambols”, a strip he continued after the death of Barry Appleby, and “Andy Capp”, which he drew for many years.
Born in Portsmouth in 1933, Mahoney studied art at the Southern College of Art, Portsmouth from 1947 to 1951, selling his first cartoons to the Daily Sketch and Daily Mirror, while also working as a professional musician – a drummer.
Mahoney sent some of his drawings to Barry Appleby, creator of the “The Gambols” strip, along with his wife Dobs, in the Daily Express, in 1954. Barry encouraged him to continue, and they would go on to became lifelong friends.
A biography on the British Cartoon Archive notes Mahoney created his first strip, “Mopsy”, for the weekly girls comic, Princess, and afterwards contributed strips and jokes to a number of publications including the Scottish Daily Record (“Agony Is” and “Sammy the Caterpillar”), Woman’s Realm (“Mum”), the Daily Mirror (“Millie”, “The Greens”, and “Mandy Capp”), Sunday Express (“L”) and Daily Star (“What’s in a Name?” and “Last of the Summer Wine”, the latter published between 26th January 1987 to 24th March 1990, created by Iain Reid).
His Lambiek profile notes Mahoney also cooperated on the relaunch of Norman Pett’s “Jane” strip in the Daily Mirror, and worked with Jim Henson on a cartoons version of The Muppets.
When Barry Appleby died in 1996, Mahoney took over the writing and drawing of “The Gambols” for Express Newspapers, and continued to work on the strip, in flawless imitation of Appleby’s style, when it transferred to the Mail on Sunday, after the Express dropped the strip in 1999.
Mahoney recalled later that “if I could get through the first six months I knew it would be all right, but living up to the Applebys remained the challenge.”
He also continued “Andy Capp” in the Mirror, after the death of the character’s creator, Reg Smythe, in 1998, working with writer Roger Kettle.
“Ken Layson approached Roger Kettle, who was already writing ‘A Man Called Horace’ for the Mirror’s strips page and asked him if he’d be interested in taking over the writing on Andy’s strip too,” notes Paul Slade, describing how Roger came to draw Andy Capp after Smythe’s death.
“Layson’s next stop was Roger Mahoney, the artist he’d commissioned to draw ‘Mandy Capp’, with writer Carla Ostrer… [his] chameleon skills Layson needed in anyone drawing Andy, so he must have been relieved when Mahoney said ‘yes’, too. He set his new team to work, and began slowly feathering their contribitions in with the pile of Smythe strips he was still using.” (At first, the new strips were uncredited, Kettle and Mahoney finally getting a byline in 2004).
Mahoney himself was very aware of the weight of Andy’s history as he studied Smythe’s style and taught himself to copy its smallest quirks. “It’s a tremendous responsibility taking over a world-class cartoon strip like Andy Capp,” he told fellow cartoonist Lawrence Goldsmith, who took over writing the strip when Roger Kettle resigned in 2010. “You need to remember that, with all one’s experience in this field of work, and all the strips of your own that you’re created and sold, you have never achieved the success that Reg Smythe did.”
Mahoney retired from working on “Andy Capp” in 2020, aged 87, his last credited daily strip published in the UK in the Mirror on 14th November 2020, and final Sunday strip on Sunday 13th December.
Paying tribute to the cartoonist on Sunday, Mail on Sunday Editor David Dillon said “Roger’s work brought joy – and a chuckle – to millions of our readers.”
“He was an extraordinary man,” noted Roger’s daughter Sandra Mahoney, speaking on behalf of the family. “He was still drawing right up to ten days before he died.”
Roger is survived by his wife, daughter, three sons. We wish them all the best at this time.
• Roger Mahoney Biography at the British Cartoon Archive
• Roger Mahoney art at the Illustration Art Gallery
• Paul Slade’s in-depth look at Reg Smythe and Andy Capp
• Andy Capp at 50: Celebrating Half a Century of Laughs – published in 2006
• Andy Capp: The 60 Years of Thinking About the Big Issues – published in 2017
This article has been updated to correctly identify Barry Appleby, not Dandy artist Barrie Appleby
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics - Newspaper Strips, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Features, Obituaries
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