Robert Forrest (born circa 1905, died late 1968; active 1951-1968)
Robert Forrest came into the comic business quite late in life (well into his forties), after a career with the Inland Revenue. He had never drawn professionally but was taken on by Ted Holmes for Comet, drawing Kit Carson for the front page. With his action-packed, free style, Forrest was a natural, at home in all adventure genres but, when Leonard Matthews used him for The Lyons Mail, he found his true metier, as one of the finest of all the historical Thriller Comics Library artists. As well as working for the TCL, Forrest continued to draw Western strips for its companion title, Cowboy Comics Library. He contributed to its Kit Carson and Buck Jones issues early on and later, towards the end of the run, full-length adaptations of Western novels, which can stand among his best work.


Forrest even tried his hand at science fiction, with The Martian, a strip version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Princess of Mars", for Comet.

He drew a fine strip for Knockout in 1960 - The Mad Emperor - which vividly conveyed the opulence and decadence of the Russian court in the 18th century. As with his masterpiece, The Picture of Dorian Gray (TCL 148), even the architecture, massive, opulent and overpowering, seemed to evoke the atmosphere of horror and terror. He also drew a splendid version of R.L. Stevenson's famous story, Jekyll and Hyde, which was originally destined for the Thriller Comics Library but, the policy by then having swung against historical fiction if favour of War stories and Westerns, it was decided to use it as a serial strip in Top Spot late in 1959. Forrest was also one of the 'Karl the Viking' artists for Lion magazine.

Forrest's strip adaptations of Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of Four for Look and Learn are recognised as the best Sherlock Holmes picture strips ever produced. For the same magazine, Forrest produced his only colour strip - a serialisation of the story of Richard III -, which shows what a master colourist he was. Incidentally, the last chapter was drawn and painted by Eric Parker, indicating perhaps an illness or even, perhaps, Forrest's sudden death. Certainly the present authors can find no further work by this artist after that date.