Comics in Australian Advertising 1930's - 1940's Part Two

Part two of an irregular series showcasing comics in Australian advertising from the Australian Woman's Weekly circa 1930's and 1940's. Although uncredited it's quite possible the artists of these worked on comic books, illustration and commercial art as many artists of this era did.

Comic in Australian Advertising Part One.

  

 

Source: http://trove.nla.gov.au/

Cereal Adverts - Australian Women's Weekly

A selection of cereal adverts from the 1940's Australian Woman's Weekly. The first four Vita-Brits adverts are signed Hannan and are likely the work of Jim Hannan (John Thomas Hannan), a freelance commercial illustrator based in Melbourne, who was active during this period. Australasian distributors Gordon and Gotch were amongst Hannan's clients and he also illustrated books and produced recruitment posters during World War One.

 

 Source: trove.nla.gov.au

More Kolynos Toothpaste Advertising

  Syd Miller's Red Gregory and The Little People

I wrote about Kolynos Dental Cream advertising here, suggesting their print campaign was likely the work of an Australian cartoonist. Comics Historian Kevin Patrick has suggested it may have been the work of Syd Miller who produced an early fantasy series for Smith's Weekly, Red Gregory and the Little People, which was collected as two comic books in the 1940's. Stylistically the work on Red Gregory is very similar to the Kolynos advertisements. Miller also had a strong record in doing comic strip advertisements, most notably as co- creator of "Chesty Bond", in the mid-late 1930s. Kevin suggested Miller as a the likely artist, "... Based on similarity of linework, depiction of curvaceous women, etc."

 Syd Miller's Fatty Finn's Comic

 

Red Gregory and The Little People Page 5

In response to a suggestion from myself about the disparity between lettering/calligraphy styles in Red Gregory and the Little People and Kolynos work, Kevin commented, "The quality of lettering/calligraphy would have to have been of higher standard for a business advertisement client like Kolynos. Comic books/strips would have been a nice sideliner earner for Nicholls, no doubt, but wouldn't have paid as much as advertising work, I suspect."

 Red Gregory and the Little People comic circa 1940's

Red Gregory and The Little People Page 4

Samples of Kolynos advertisements from the Australian Woman's Weekly

 

Red Gregory images sourced from the Rare Books Collection, Monash University Library (Melbourne, Australia) [http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/rare/). Thanks to Kevin Patrick for additional information.

Noel Cook's Deeds that Thrilled Australia!

 

Deeds That Thrilled Australia! was an illustrated feature in the Australian Woman's Weekly that ran for fifteen weeks from it's first appearance on August 16 1941. Readers were encouraged to mail in their own wartime experiences and tales of unsung heroes to the magazine with a selection of them then vividly Illustrated by Noel Cook, a regular contributor of gag cartoons and painted illustrations to the Weekly.

November 22 1941

November 1 1941

November 15 1941

November 8 1941

October 25 1941

Deeds That Thrilled Australia © Estate of Noel Cook Source: trove.nla.gov.au

Wartime Advertising

Australasian magazines and papers were laden with advertising during wartime urging the populace to support the war effort through various means. The selection below are from World War Two are from the Australian Woman's Weekly. Though uncredited, it is possible regular weekly illustrators Virgil Reilly,  Wep, Noel Cook, Amandus Julius Fischer, Arthur Sharland Boothroyd, and  Wynn W Davies contributed to these campaigns.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/