We’re sorry to report the passing of cartoonist Peter Maddocks, whose death has been announced. He died peacefully in his sleep, after a short illness, aged 96, in his beloved Spain.
Born on 1st April 1928, Peter was one of the most prolific and respected Fleet Street cartoonists of the twentieth century. He created cartoons for The Daily Sketch, The Daily Express, The Sunday Express, The Daily Mail, The Evening Standard, The Times, The Daily Mirror, Private Eye, and the men’s magazine, Mayfair – and even later in life, after retiring to Spain in 2000, he drew a pocket cartoon for SUR until his early nineties.
Peter won a scholarship to the Moseley School of Art in Birmingham aged 11, where one of the tutors was Norman Pett, creator of the “Jane” strip cartoon for the Daily Mirror.
“‘He would sit there drawing naked ladies,” Maddocks later recalled, “while we sat there drawing daffodils in milk bottles. ‘I thought it would be a wonderful way to learn cartooning, but it wasn’t.”
Feeling he was learning little about cartooning, in 1943, Peter lied about his age in order to join the Merchant Navy, something, he told Tony Bryant at SUR in 2022, was “the best thing I ever did.
“It set me up for life,” he said, drawing on his experiences in his book, The Grey Ghost. “All of my storylines for children’s films and short stories came from the adventures I had during this time.”
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.
Four D. Jones, and much more
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. Gaining cult status, with fans from prime ministers to racing drivers, when the strip was briefly dropped, there was public outcry. It was quickly reinstated and Maddocks was promoted to cartoon editor – two events, Paul Hudson notes in his book, The A to Z of British Newspaper Strips, were not unrelated.
(Racing legends Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins were huge fans, and even greeted each other with Four D’s catch phrase “Mon Ami, Mate”, mentioned in their biography by Chris Nixon, also titled Mon Ami Mate, published in 1991).
A die hard freelancer, he never gave himself to just one paper, preferring to draw for as many as wanted him – and many did.
“I took my life as a cartoonist very seriously,” he told Crikey! magazine in 2009. “To me it was everything, holidays were a bore, my poor wife would watch me mooch about walking up and down anywhere but the beach, passing away time until I could return to my drawing board in Fleet Street.”
Above: the opening episode (5th September 1959); the second (19th September 1959); the first issue of the larger format Swift (9th April 1960); and the final episode (3rd December 1960) | With thanks to David Slinn
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.
He was a founding member of the British Cartoonists’ Association in 1966, along with Carl Giles, Osbert Lancaster and Ken Mahood, and was its first Honorary Secretary, and remained joint president. He also set up the London School of Cartooning, running correspondence courses, in 1977, and ran it until 1987, briefly reviving it as the The Cartoon School in 1990.
Animation Ace
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.
A Move into Fine Art
At the age of 72, wanting to “escape the grey skies” and hubbub of London, noted in his own biography on his archived official website, Peter moved to Alhaurín el Grande in 2000 and moved into painting in acrylics on canvas in various styles, noting how Fleet Street was by then a pale shadow of what it was.
“I wanted to forget cartooning and instead of the pen, turn to a brush with paint and canvas.” Some of his art exhibited in galleries in Spain such as the Artsenal Inoxis art space, in Alhaurín el Grande.
“Besides, the lights had gone out on my beloved Fleet Street. When you live in Spain as I now do, you soon realise why they can boast of so many great and famous artists… The light here is just fantastic, the sun shines for ever and if you use acrylic paint as I do, it almost dries as the brush hits the canvas… I’m sure, had Jackson Pollack lived here with his drip style of painting, he could have dripped one every ten or twenty minutes.
“However, I now experiment in every style imaginable with a hope to find one of my own. As a cartoonist I had a recognisable style of drawing, so now I search for my very own painting style, and in the words of the late great Pablo Picasso… in Art. If there is something to be stolen, I steal it!”
The move to painting away from cartooning, which he was still doing into his 90s, was also because he began to suffer with his eyesight. He experimented with painting in acrylics in many different styles,
“Working under a lamp in my studio for all that time damaged my eyesight, so I found the lighting in Spain just perfect.”
Maddocks goes digital
In recent years, Peter began on a new venture, bringing his many books to the eBook genre, publishing many of his acclaimed “How to” books for budding cartoonists, or just someone who wants to learn to draw, working with Marian Bonelli. Books such as How to be a Cartoonist and How to be a Super Cartoonist – the latter I still have on my shelf in its original printing – They are still available in English, Spanish and more recently, with Japan joining the Amazon ‘family’ he has included a How to draw eBook in Japanese.
Many of his short story children’s books, and a couple of old books were also reinvented, and lots of new ones – including delights purely for the over 18s!
Tributes to Maddocks
Leading many tributes to Peter, his son Guy, announcing his father’s passing and recalling his father’s career on Facebook, noting he excelled at political satire and praising him as “a loving husband and a wonderful father”, wrote: “He was a man of much fun with a mischievous streak and my time spent growing up as a boy and then working with him will be fondly remembered. I say growing up but he never did – and nor will I… A true Fleet Street legend – gone but not forgotten.”
“I am feeling the loss of this man in my life,” commented Marian Bonelli, who worked with Peter on many books. “Such a life and history.”
“He was so generous when a bunch of oiks approached him nearly 40 years ago with the news that they’d named their band after his character,” said the band Four D Jones in a statement on Facebook, and he kindly drew us a new picture to use as our logo which has graced our albums and merchandise ever since. Thank you, Mr Maddocks.”
Director/Animator and cartoonist Zane Whittingham described him on X as “A great influence. I still have his book that I treasure and bought in 1987 at the start of my career in animation!”
“My sincere condolences to his family,” commented cartoonist Alfred Reid. “He brought great joy with his creativity had a unique style simple but clever another great loss to the cartoonist community.”
“I for one have a couple of his How to be a cartoonist books,” said cartoonist Andrew Mitchell, “and I learned a lot from them when I first put pen to paper. His style just looks so loose and simple, but obviously so clever.”
“I have his book on cartooning still,” said cartoonist and publisher Marc Jackson, “and it was an invaluable resource to me growing up and learning how to make comic strips – and still is! In fact I shall have a refresh this evening in his honour.”
“Buying Peter Maddocks book So You want to be a Cartoonist? was responsible for me selling my first cartoon,” Neil Bradley recalls. “It told you what size to draw them. I had sent loads of A4 size to newspapers and within a few weeks of sending them in on spec, I sold one to The Sun and one to the Mirror.
“A few years later I met Peter at Frank Heathers office at the Daily Mail. I’d just sold a full page strip for a new Sunday comic they were doing and Peter walked in to Frank’s office and Frank introduced me to him. I said to Peter, if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be here. Even at the time I thought, he may not be as thrilled about that as I was, as I’m not sure Peter had any cartoons in the new publication. Either way, I’m sure he didn’t remember it, but I did. So pleased he led such a lovely artistic life. And so pleased to have met him. Condolences to his family.”
Peter is survived by his sister, Beth, sons Guy, Simon and Robert, and daughter Lorraine. His wife, Patricia, passed in 2019.
Our sympathies to family and friends at this time.
John Freeman
Peter Maddocks (1st April 1928 – 20th November 2024)
Further Reading
• The Daily Express – Obituary – “Newspaper Legend Quick on the Draw”
• Peter Maddocks – His Books on Amazon
• University of Kent: Peter Maddocks Profile
• Euro Weekly: Peter Maddocks – 65 years as a cartoonist and painter
A 2018 interview with Peter, reflecting on his life in Spain
• SUR in English – Taking a light-hearted look at the absurdities of life
A 2022 interview by Tony Bryant
• The A to Z of British Newspaper Strips by Paul Hudson
• Skwigly: The Weird World of 80s Filler Cartoons by Jenny Morrill
Further Viewing
• The Illustration Art Gallery – Peter Maddocks Art
• Comic Art Fans – The Art of Peter Maddocks
• Mike Lynch Cartons: Spotlight on Cartoonist Peter Maddocks
With thanks to David Slinn for scans of “Bouncers” from SWIFT
- About the Author
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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: Art and Illustration, British Comics, Comic Art, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Features, Obituaries, Other Worlds
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