We’re sorry to report the passing of cartoonist and caricaturist Colin Whittock, who died on 14th February, aged 84. Colin worked for Birmingham’s newspapers for 40 years, drew cartoons for a huge variety of titles until recently, and, between 1971 and 1989, comic strips for titles such as The Beano and Whizzer and Chips.
He was also a BBC commissioned writer for Radio 4’s The News Huddlines.
Born in Birmingham on 25th February 1940 in Alum Rock, despite failing his O-level art exam at Central Grammar School, his determination and talent shone through, leading to a successful self-taught career in freelance cartooning. A self-taught artist, his influences included Leo Baxendale, Giles, Davy Law, Terence Parkes (“Larry”), and Bill Tidy. He worked as a shopfitter before turning full-time freelance cartoonist, becoming Editorial Cartoonist on the Birmingham Evening Mail in 1969, working alongside Bert Hackett, cartoonist on its sister paper the Birmingham Post until 2008, continuing to draw cartoons into his eighties.
In a tribute, the Mail notes that, during that time, he wrote cartoons about moments as relevant today as they were 20 years ago, such as spiralling gas prices and charging for green waste.
It was also through his pen that many people learned about the introduction of Spaghetti Junction and bringing speed cameras to our roads.
“I suppose the Mail was my first big break, but I’d been selling single gags around the considerably much larger market that was around in those days,” he told Toonhound in 2022. “I’d even sold my first cartoons to Punch, which was our biggest target.
“But then one of those things happened that you cannot anticipate. My predecessor on the paper suddenly decided to sell-up, draw out his pension pot, buy a Land Rover and caravan and drive to Australia to seek his fortune in opals. This was 1969 and he’d been on the paper since 1948. He left on the Friday and on the following Monday, I left three finished topical cartoons with the commissionaire at the front desk together with a spiky letter to the editor saying, ‘I am going to send you cartoons every day, use them if you like them or spike them if you don’t.’
“I look back and wonder where on earth the idea for that aggressive attack came from, because honestly, at that time I was a fairly mild character, but something or somebody drove me into doing it and it worked. Cartoons were published that day and thereafter and so I had started my first regular job.”
He was also sports cartoonist for the Sunday Mercury, drawing “Kev”, signing it as “Andy”, as it was originally a project for his son; and another Mail cartoon strip, “Chipper”, originally created in 1949 by the late Len Pardoe, who died in 2002. The dog was under Colin’s guardianship for more than 7000 editions.
Colin’s many cartoons include a strip for Police Magazine, the Police Federation magazine, until October 2022, and providing gags for a huge range of newspapers and magazines during a long and successful career.These included the Daily Mirror, the Daily Sketch, The Oldie, Private Eye, Punch and The Spectator, and a variety of advertising clients, including TNT, British Telecom, Jaguar, and Powergen, as well as greetings cards for Rainbow Cards.
He caricatured dog and cat toys for Armitage Pet Products, and politicians, including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and William Hague.
Colin’s hugely popular books included The Perils of Pushing 40, first published in 1986, reprinted eleven times) The Perils of Moving House, The Perils of Parenthood (1987), The Perils Of Getting Married (1988), and The Perils of Motoring (1989), all selling in excess of 400,000 copies.
He also contributed to books such as More Bedside Golf by Peter Alliss (1982), Bedside Snooker (Ray Reardon, 1983), Positively Vetted and Vet on the Set by Eddie Straiton (1984 and 1985), It’s a Dog’s Life: The Story of Birmingham Dogs’ Home by Noel Blackham (1992), and Rotten Haystacks (1999), Rather Rottener (1999), Multiple Buttocks (2000) Verse Places (2000) and Fred First (2002), all with journalist John Stim, the co-creator of “Slimericks”, with Clive Moore.
Whizzer and Chips, and more…
He’ll also be remembered for his contributions to Fleetway’s humour comics, starting in 1971, taking over “Champ” from Leo Baxendale for Whizzer and Chips, from episode 50 in 1970 through to episode 341 in April 1976, over 300 sets in all, including Annuals and Summer Specials.
His favourite strip was “Lazy Bones”, drawing the madcap adventures of Benny Bones from March 1978 through to July 1986, but his credits also included “Catnaps”, “Mizz Marble” “Coronation Street School” in School Fun, and sundry episodes of “Rolf and his Magic Brushes”, for WOW!, the latter inspired by the subsequently disgraced Rolf Harris, sponsored by the toy company who sold Magic Brushes.
Commissioned by editor Bob Paynter, he moved to “Coronation Street School”, based on child versions of all the popular ‘Street’ characters of the time, which started in Whizzer And Chips in September 1983 and ran until August 1984, continued in School Fun. The strip Whittock noted to Toonhound, was “not as popular as the real thing”.
He also drew “Clever Dick”, for Buster, and “The Swots and the Blotts”, and drew cover sets for a variety of Fleetway holiday specials, for “Mustapha Million” (Cheeky), “Speed Squad”, “Snooper” (Jackpot), “Full O’ Beans” (Jackpot) and Sweeny Toddler” (Whoopee), “Nellyphant”(Buster) and “The Katts”.
For DC Thomson he drew “Ivy the Terrible” for The Beano, and more.
“My career with Fleetway was only ever a part-time career,” he told Toonhound. “I was enjoying drawing gag cartoons with steady success, but had always been, like most of my generation a terrific fan of comics. Particularly Davy Law and Baxendale’s breakthrough in The Beano during the mid-fifties. I really wanted to see if I could draw for the comics.
“During the Cartoonist Club convention at Pwhelli in May 1970, I chatted to Roy Davis about it. Roy worked for Fleetway and was also a successful gag cartoonist for Punch with a very distinctive style. He said the best approach was to choose a current character whose style I thought I could match, draw up an episode and send it in. I chose a character called ‘Spoilsport’, worked up a story and sent it to Roy in June 1970. I later rang him and he said the comments he’d heard were favourable.
“I heard nothing till mid-July when Bob Paynter, the Whizzer and Chips editor (amongst many others) rang me and offered me a ‘Champ’ script to try out. This I drew and he immediately said he would use it and started sending me scripts weekly. I was up and running.
“Like many things in life, I’d picked a lucky moment. I applied just at a time when Mr Baxendale was under so much pressure, that they were looking for artists to pick-up some of his work. This was emphasised when I received a call from another editor, Len Wenn, who asked me if I could draw an episode of another Baxendale cracker, ‘The Swots and the Blots’. Again, I drew this double-pager and received a telegram asking if I could take over the feature. At the time I was determined to continue with my other regular and gag cartoon work, so I turned it down. It would have been a lot of work drawing a two-page spread with all the characters.”
Colin’s work in comics ended in 1989, when, he recalled, “comics were on the blink… and mine and many other artists’ work fizzled out.” His last such work was for The Beano.
Tributes to Colin
Commenting on his passing, Graeme Brown, editor of the Birmingham Mail and BirminghamLive, paid tribute to Mr Whittock as a proud part of the news title’s history.
“Colin Whittock is a legend in our newsroom to this day,” he told the paper. “His ability to convert the issue of the moment into a succinct, often biting, cartoon always blew us away.”
Writer and film maker Simon Sheridan described Colin as a friend and “a lovely man,” and that they had recently been collaborating on a new project.
“Was very saddened to hear of the passing of the brilliant cartoonist Colin Whittock,” noted fellow Private Eye cartoonist Dean Patterson, aka DeAn Cartoons, on X. “Thank you for the work you left behind and the words of encouragement.”
Colin is survived by his wife Sue and children Phil, Andy, Jo and his six grandchildren.
Our sympathies to family and friends.
Colin Whittock, 25th February 1940 – 14th February 2025
Further Reading
• BirminghamLive: Tributes after ‘legend’ Birmingham Mail cartoonist Colin Whittock dies
Birmingham Mail editors past and present have queued up to pay tribute to a talented cartoonist
• Colin Whittock: British Cartoon Archive Profile
• The Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain: Colin Whittock Gallery Page
• Colin Whittock: Lambiek Profile
• Cartoons by Colin Whittock for The Birmingham Mail
• Professional Cartoonists Organisation: Colin Whittock items
• Great News For All Readers Story File: Coronation Street School
• Colin Whittock – Official Website (Wayback Archive)
• Colin Whittock – 2022 Toonhound Interview (Wayback Archive)
With thanks to Andy Boal
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Features, Obituaries
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