Hugh McNeill

[philcom55]

I can't remember where it was but Peter recently asked about the artist on a largely forgotten strip called 'The Trolls'. Based on a line of rather grotesque dolls that enjoyed surprising popularity with young girls for a brief time during the 1960s this series ran from 1967 until the mid seventies, first in the pages of Tina and subsequently in Princess Tina, as well as being translated into various languages throughout Europe.
The artist in question was Hugh McNeill, and it occurs to me that he deserves to be remembered amongst the select few giants of British Comic Art, right alongside Wilson, Watkins, Parlett, Reid, Law and Baxendale - yet in spite of this I can't recall his name even being mentioned on this site before now.

Unfortunately his very versatility probably counts against him in this respect as his long career encompassed at least three separate genres, each of which appealed to different sections of the comics audience. His first phase began in 1938 when he was on hand to illustrate 'Ping the Elastic Man' for the very first issue of Beano and 'Simple Simon' for Dandy, before going on to draw the first appearance of the famous DC Thomson character 'Pansy Potter'. Not content with this he moved to AP the following year where he created the classic strips "Deed-a-Day Danny" and "Our Ernie - Mrs. Entwhistle's Lad" for Knock-Out.

Throughout the 1940s he continued as one of the most successful 'Funny' artists in the business, but then in the 1950s he gained a whole new reputation by drawing a succession of brilliant adventure strips, including classic serials like 'Black Beauty' and 'King Solomon's Mines' as well as one of the first very British superheroes - 'Thunderbolt Jaxon', packaged as US-style comicbooks for the Australian market. However the strip he's best remembered for from this period is Dick Turpin, who starred in a long-running series of wonderfully atmospheric thrillers for Sun set in a creepily gothic version of eighteenth century England.

Finally, work on characters like 'Harold Hare' and 'Jack & Jill' led to yet another change of direction as he became the pre-eminent supplier of nursery comic strips for numerous titles throughout the 1960s - though this still didn't prevent him from being on hand as one of the earliest artists to draw Buster in his own comic.

If you get chance Peter I'd strongly recommend this relatively underrated comic strip genius for early inclusion in your blog.

- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

Thanks for the info..I'll look for his work in my comic collection..

[stevezodiac]

Just found a Harold Hare's Own on ebay, here tis:

BTW it always pays to look in a couple of other categories on ebay for British comics, one is under Magazines-Childrens and the other UK comics-Other comics. Some people list comics in these categories.

[wigwam]

There is a lot of information on McNeill on Steve Holland's blog: http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2006/12/hugh-mcneill.html and http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2007/08/water-babies.html.
The new book by Norman Wright & David Ashford, Masters of Fun & Thrills, contains an essay on McNeill as well, with lots of examples of his work and a selected bibliography. Their original article from Book and Magazine Collector, No. 225 (December 2002), features a load of different illustrations.

[philcom55]

Hugh McNeill's Buster tends to look a bit lanky and gormless in comparison to other artists' versions (though it was considered definitive enough to be used on the covers for most of the early Annuals). However, one trademark that makes his work stand out to me is his characteristic use of small animals to heighten the mood of a scene or in some way 'comment' on the action - often to the point of near hysteria! The small pup shown in this panel was a constant fixture in his Buster stories even though, as far as I'm aware, it never featured in the actual script - nor do I remember other artists ever including it. The interesting thing is that this technique was once an essential part of the 'language' of all classic cartoonists such as Roy Wilson and McNeill, along with more familiar conventions such as speed lines and word balloons - indeed it could be argued that they actually constituted a form of visual 'punctuation' similar to the more modern use of sound effects. Personally I can't help but feel that the comic strip medium lost something valuable when the practice died out during the 1960s (though the introduction of Gnasher into 'Dennis the Menace' could be seen as a late echo).

Oddly enough I was recently reminded of these cartoon creatures while reading Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' books where it seemed to me that the 'demons' of Lyra's world fulfilled a similar narrative purpose, and it occurred that they may well have been in the writer's mind when he came up with the concept (I seem to recall that Pullman was a fan of comics like Dandy and Beano when growing up, as well as having since become a comic strip writer himself for DFC!).

Here's a prime example of McNeill's work on the fabulously zany 'Our Ernie - Mrs. Entwhistle's Little Lad' from a 1953 issue of Knockout, showing the technique in action:

...note how numerous cats, birds and fish (as well as Ernie's ubiquitous pet caterpillar!) are all drafted into service - not to mention a collection of human beings doing similar double-takes.

..."Daft, I call it!"

- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

look and learn have loads of Hughs work..



will put a link to this on the blog when I do a post on Hugh..

have you got a Deed-a-Day Danny Phil I could use..?
thanks I've found my only Knockout 1951 Nov 17th...which has our Ernie But not Deed a day..

[Peter Gray]

Did Hugh work for Bimbo comic? It looks like its drawn by him..

[Peter Gray]

http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... areer.html

Here you are Phil..
The top adventure strip I have at the blog might be wrong..please can someone check it for me..I know he did draw it 1947.the example I'm showing is 1951.

[Lew Stringer]

Did Hugh work for Bimbo comic? It looks like its drawn by him..

I see what you mean but I don't think it's his work. Steve Holland did quite a thorough biog of him but Bimbo wasn't mentioned:

http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2006/12/hugh-mcneill.html

Lew

[philcom55]

Nice work Peter. To be honest I can't be sure about the Tod & Annie page - the characters do look a bit like his version but I'm not 100% convinced, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't the only artist to work on the strip. Also, to my eye, that black & white Buster strip has rather more of Reg Parlett's style about it than I'm used to from O'Neill (though the pup is spot on). If it's any help I'll try to find a page of his Dick Turpin to post as an example of his straight adventure work.

As far as Bimbo is concerned I don't think O'Neill ever returned to DC Thomson after 1940 so I doubt if it's him - on the other hand his nursery strips were so popular during the 50s and 60s that the artist responsible may well have been influenced by his style.

- Phil R.

[AndyB]

It's a Parlett Buster for sure, by the lettering and the other characters.

[Peter Gray]

ok I removed the Buster one.kept the cover of the annual which is signed by Hugh..

If it's any help I'll try to find a page of his Dick Turpin to post as an example of his straight adventure work.

look forward to it..thanks Phil.

[Kashgar]

Hi Peter. Just to add my two penn'orth. The Todd and Annie strip is not by Hugh McNeill. Like a lot of strips with very long runs T&A was drawn by a fair few artists including this sadly anonymous one.
Neither is Pussy Willow HM's work either. It was drawn in his slightly adapted nursery style by Ron 'Little Plum' Spencer who did quite a bit of work for Bimbo.

[philcom55]

Three very different versions of 'realistic' art by the amazingly versatile Mr. M:

Dick Turpin vs. his nemesis 'Creepy' Crawley (from Sun no.226, June 6th 1953)

The Wind in the Willows from Womens' Pictorial (As reprinted in Sun no.76, July 22 1950)

Thunderbolt Jaxon (From Knockout Annual 1960 )

- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

Thanks Phil for those great scans...I've used it for another post on Hugh..

Never seen the Sun comic interesting that he worked for that..
also reprinted from a Womens' Pictorial..