Dennis Collins (died 1990; Warwickshire, UK)
Dennis Collins is probably best known for his work on the comic strip The Perishers, which started in the Manchester edition of The Daily Mirror in 1958.

In 1957 or so, having sketched a few cartoon characters, he shopped them around Fleet Street and was taken on board by Bill Herbert, the cartoon editor of The Daily Mirror. He developed his characters, with the aid of writer Ben Witham, into a daily strip, The Perishers.

Soon afterwards Maurice Dodd took over from Ben Witham. Maurice didn't work in the usual way of producing a written script from which the artist worked, but worked out his own ideas in rough pencilled layouts with action and dialogue in situ, while Dennis continued to execute finished drawings for the script.

The Collins - Dodd combination was successful and the Perishers moved into the national editions in October 1959. The partnership lasted until Dennis retired in 1983. Maurice then took on the complete execution of the strip, from idea to finished artwork, until 1992, when he once again went into partnership, this time with Bill Mevin who now executes the finished work.

Dennis Collins came from Warwickshire. He joined a commercial art studio in Birmingham and studied at Birmingham Art School, before moving to Liverpool. During the Second World War he drew maps for the Royal Engineers' Survey and the War Office, and created identity papers to help smuggle British agents out of prisoner-of-war camps for the Secret Service. After the war he worked freelance in advertising.

Collins retired in 1983, and was awarded a plaque for Humourous Strip Cartoonist of the year by the Cartoonists' Club. Dodd then wrote and drew the strip until 1992, when Bill Mevin took over the art. Collins died in 1990.