Colin Arthur Merrett (14 October 1914 - March 2005; Croydon, Surrey, UK)
Colin Merrett began work as a comic strip artist in 1936 for Amalgamated Press with Chang the Pirate for Joker. In the late 1940s, Merrett was used extensively by P.M. Productions for their splendid series of short-run comics printed in two-tone photogravure such as Flash, Zip and Sky High.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, for Associated Press's Chips, he drew his longest running strip, Paul Power and his Speed Shell. Merrett was very much at home with the Western and The Outlaw Orphan (TCL no. 17) contains some of his finest work; as does his Buffalo Bill and Billy the Kid work for Comet and Sun and for The Billy the Kid Book of Picture Stories.

In the early 1950s he contributed to AP's "picture library" titles, including Cowboy Comics Library ("Buck Jones", "Billy the Kid, "The Kansas Kid", 1951-59), Thriller Picture Library ("The Outlaw Orphan", "Dick Turpin", "Battler Britton" 1952-57) and Super Detective Library, ("The Black Abbott", 1953). He also drew "Billy the Kid" (1954) for Sun, and "Buffalo Bill" (1955) and "Strongbow the Mohawk" (1956) for Comet.

His historical strips are also of interest, particularly his versions of Treasure Island and Westward Ho for Amex's A Classic in Pictures in the early 1950s (for which he also did the cover paintings). Merritt's Dick Turpin strips for the library (appearing in nos 2 and 8) are great fun, despite the somewhat inaccurate period flavour.

In the 1960s and '70s he drew for Look and Learn, including an adaptation of Robinson Crusoe (1972), IPC's girls' titles, including "Surprise Corner" (1963-64) for Poppet and "Ross - Student Nurse" (1970) for Princess Tina, "Our Janie"(1971) for Tammy and boys' titles, including "Danny Jones - Time Traveller" (1965) for Hurricane. In the 1980s he found work with DC Thomson, drawing strips including "Belle of the Ball" for Bunty, and continued working into the 1990s. He died in Eastbourne, Sussex, in March 2005.