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.

Maurice Dodd (25 October 1922 - 31 December 2005; Hackney, London)
Born in Hackney, London, Maurice Dodd was an English writer and cartoonist best known for his years spent working on The Perishers comic strip published in the Daily Mirror.

During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force as a Servicing Commando, alongside Bill Herbert. After the war Dodd was demobilised and began to study art. He then found work in advertising and, after he won a competition to write a slogan for Time, Bill Herbert, by then the cartoon editor at The Daily Mirror, offered Dodd the chance to take over the writing of a comic strip he had created, The Perishers. Working with the artist Dennis Collins, Dodd provided rough layouts, which Collins then drew from.

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. Ben Witham moved on to write gags for the popular single frame cartoon Useless Eustace.

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.

Dodd continued to work in advertising, such as on the Clunk Click Every Trip series of public information films intended to remind drivers of the benefits of wearing a seatbelt. It was while he was working on this campaign that Dodd came into contact with FilmFair, a company responsible for the creation of television programmes based on The Wombles and Paddington Bear. Dodd collaborated with the company in bringing The Perishers to television. Dodd left advertising in 1980 and subsequently wrote a number of children's books.

In 1983 Collins retired, leaving Dodd to write and draw The Perishers alone until 1992, when Bill Mevin began doing all the art work for the strip. Dodd continued working on the strip until he died, from a brain haemorrhage, in Shepperton on 31 December 2005.