EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 29 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

49 Roy Wilson One of the zaniest British comic artists from the Golden Age of the 1930s, Roy Wilson’s slapstick humour, combined with an uncanny sense of motion, made him one of the greatest exponents of his art, as David Ashford relates. The British pre-war comics were celebrations of fun and jollity, packed full of innocent slapstick humour and visual inventiveness. They were published by the mighty Amalgamated Press and their top artist was Roy Wilson. He was not only the most highly rated and influential of their artists but also one of the most prolific, turning out many thousands of pen and ink drawings as well as scores of watercolour paintings for annual covers and frontispieces. And they were all characterized by unerring skill and a joyous sense of knockabout fun. RoystonWarnerWilsonwas born on 9 July 1900 inKettering, Northampton- shire. The family, which included three younger brothers and an elder sister, later moved toNorwich where, at the age of 12, young Roy won his first painting competition, run by the Norwich firm of Jarrolds, the printers and publishers. When theFirstWorldWar broke out,Wilsonwas appointed junior draughtsman on the Air Board Staff but, owing to his youth, was not called up until 10th November 1918—just one day before the Armistice. He was later sent abroad as part of the Army of Occupation and, stationed near Cologne, spent much of his time sketching and painting the surrounding villages. By the time he was demobbed on 13 March 1920, the young Wilson had not yet decided what to do in life. Then a chance meeting in a Norwich pub with a man named Don Newhouse changed all that. Newhouse, some 20 years Roy Wilson’s senior and well established as a regular contributor to the comics of the Amalgamated Press, recognized his talent and offered to take FACING PAGE: At Chimpo’s Xmas Party , cover for Happy Days , December 31, 1938. ABOVE: Gertrude and Roy. BELOW: Private Billy Muggins , pen and ink on board. Plus an unfinished panel. This strip originally appeared in The Wonder between 1944-45.