John Richardson’s artwork in girls’ comics

[Goof]

Thanks, Jim. I've amended the last copy of the list above.

[jim244]

Thanks, Jim. I've amended the last copy of the list above.

Pleasure mate,glad to be of service.

[DavidKW]

I finally found some time to sift through my comics and update by got lists (following a few cases of snap! - ie duplications) and checked those June comics to confirm:

John Richardson's first "Lucky's Living Doll" was in the 30/09/72 edition of June.

One interruption during JR's tenure was in the 21/10/72 edition where it's a one episode Robert McGillivray strip complete with front cover artwork ("Tina makes a potion!").

The 16/12/72 edition features the Richardson LLD ("Te clown with a broken heart") on the cover art, his only June front cover.

On the 24/02/73 edition, interestingly there is a McGillivray LLD cover artwork with Tina finding an old genie lamp, but the strip itself is a Richardson one. This would be the start of Richardson's final LLD strip serial.

JR's final LLD strip and conclusion to the above story was in the 10.0/3/73 edition of June.

Robert McG returned permanently to LLD the following week until the both the strip's and June's 1974 cancellation.

[DavidKW]

I also took another butcher's through my Sandie collection:

"Jeanie And Her Uncle Meanie" was definitely NOT drawn by Robert McGillivray when it first started. The artist's work looks familiar and has illustrated many other girls' comic strips I'm sure, but can't name him. Is a very good artist I'll add.

I've got a 05/08/72 Sandie with unidentified artist, then the 19/08/72 has "Jeanie..." drawn by John Richardson. The next Sandie I have is 23/09/72, which is now drawn by Robert McGillivray, which he would continue for both of the strip's runs, making it his own like Rob McG did with "Maisie's Magic Eye" in Sally.

"Jeanie..." originally ended with her Aunt Martha marrying her uncle on 24/02/73, but was popular enough to revive and continue where it left off on 01/09/73, coinciding with Rob McG's dire "Annie's Army" ending in June. Alas it could not stop an ailing Sandie and soon after it was swallowed by Tammy, where Jeannie... would continue on Tammy's pages until, I think, 15/03/75.

So I'm guessing John Richardson drew "Jeannie and her Uncle Meanie" from August 1973, to perhaps around September 1973.

[Goof]

Many thanks, David, for the helpful information about John Richardson's work on Lucky and Jeannie, I've amended the latest list on the previous page.

I'm afraid I don't have the Sandie issue which had the first episode of Jeannie (1 July 1972?), so I can't help with whoever might have been the artist for that issue.

[stevezodiac]

I picked up the 1980 Misty annual in Saturday which I'm now indexing onto Grand Comics Database. There is a John Richardson six page story titled A Little Night Music which I cannot see mentioned here. Is this a reprint under a different title? It's full colour so more likely from an annual if it is a reprint.

[Goof]

The artist for this story was actually John Armstrong. You can see his "JA" monogram in the bottom right hand panel of the first page.

[stevezodiac]

Silly me, yes I saw the JA signatures, recognised it from the Bella strips. The names are similar hence my mix up. Did Armstrong also draw "A New Leaf For Nancy' in that annual?

[stevezodiac]

Just checked and I did index the story as being by John Armstrong on GCD.

[Tammyfan]

Just checked and I did index the story as being by John Armstrong on GCD.

A New Leaf for Nancy is reprinted from Tammy. It first appeared in 1973. The Misty annuals reprinted several John Armstrong stories from Tammy.

[Ronnie]

"Jeannie and Her Uncle Meanie" started in 1st. July 1972. It replaced "Bonnie's Butler". I believe the same artist drew the first few issues although I'm missing the 5th. August 1972 issue. The last issue he drew was the 12th. August 1972. John Richardson drew "Jeannie and her Uncle Meanie" for the 19th. August 1972, the 26th. August 1972 and the 2nd. September 1972 issues. The 9th. September issue and all I see afterwards was drawn by Robert McGillivray. While I'm not an artist expert, I'm sure about the John Richardson issues.

[Goof]

Thanks, Ronnie, I've amended the latest copy of the list (previous page).

I don't have any of the July/August 1972 Sandies, so don't know for certain who the artist is for this period. However, I see that the Lastdodo website attributes some of these to Robert MacGillivray. It also prints several covers from July 1972 which showcase that issue's Jeannie story, and prints a page from one of these. The artist for these is MacGillivray.

[Ronnie]

I looked more closely at the earlier "Jeanie and Her Uncle Meanie" stories. The 1st. July issue looks like a different artist than the others. The 8, the 15th, the 22nd, and the 29th of July looks like MacGillivray was the artist. I can't tell whether the 12th of August was drawn by him or not, although I think it was.

[Ronnie]

I looked at the Lastdodo website and all I saw was the 1st July issue. The page there was from that issue. I'm wondering if MacGillivray could not draw "Jeanie and Her Uncle Meanie" for a few weeks and they had John Richardson draw those three issues.

[Goof]

I've had another look at the page from 1 July. The images on Lastdodo are exasperatingly small, but personally I would say (I'm also not an expert) that this is MacGillivray. He was an enormously prolific artist in every kind of girls' story, and his style could be quite flexible.

Yes I think you're right that Richardson probably substituted for his three issues because MacGillivray wasn't available. He was a practised and skilful filler artist, and I would guess that his style suited Jeannie quite well.