EXTRACTS: The Modesty Blaise Companion Expanded Edition © 2018 The Book Palace (425 PAGES in Full edition)

T H E M O D E S T Y B L A I S E C O M P A N I O N I I JIM HOLDAWAY Born in London in 1927 and educated at New Malden Secondary School, from which he won a scholarship to the Kingston School of Art at the age of fourteen. His studies were interrupted in 1945 by National Service in the East Surrey Regiment, with which he served in Italy, Austria and Greece. Demobilised from the army in 1948 he resumed his studies on an ex-serviceman’s grant but soon became restless. He and a fellow student went to look for work in France and his very first published art work was in advertisements for a French shoemaker. Unfortunately the pair ran out of money so it was back to England and back to study. Leaving art school in 1950 he worked for a short time as a rubber engraver making dies for printing advertisements and logos on to boxes and cartons. He joined the Reed Paper Group, at that time one of the largest manufacturers of cardboard boxes in the country, doing much the same work. It was while working at Reed that he made his earliest attempts to become a freelance artist. In 1952 a small publisher, Scion Books engaged him to draw their picture strips “Inspector Haydon” and “Lex Knight” both of which appeared in their publication Gallant Detective . With his increasing success he was able to become a full time freelance artist and his work was to be seen in Captain Vigour and Steve Samson among other titles put out by a new company, Sports Cartoons. He was also drawing for Tit-Bits and Science Fiction Comics and over the next few years drew for all of the major publishing houses. His work included “Cal McCord” in Comic Cuts for Amalgamated Press, “Cliff McCoy and Slicker” and “Red Rider” for Hulton’s Swift, and “Davy Crockett” in Odham’s Mickey Mouse Weekly . In 1956 he was called in to take over over the Daily Mirror strip “Romeo Brown” and it was there that he met and first started working with Peter O’Donnell. They were to continue to work together for the next six years on “Romeo Brown” and when O’Donnell was asked to create a new strip character for Express Newspapers, there was no question about who the artist would be. He provided the visual realisation of Modesty Blaise and the sundry supporting characters created by O’Donnell and although the strip was initially rejected by the Express it was snapped up by the Evening Standard and made its first appearance in May 1963. During the next seven years he was to draw just over two thousand Modesty Blaise strips. His work was hugely admired by his fellow artists and his sad and sudden death in 1970 at the age of only forty three was a tragedy. He also illustrated four of the twelve hardback Modesty books published by Souvenir Press, his final contribution being the cover of “Cobra Trap”, the last Modesty Blaise. Even today, more than thirty years after his death work is still greatly admired and his original artwork is sought after by collectors the world over. The late lamented Jim Holdaway XII