Down the Tubes reports British artist John Allard, an artist on the classic comic strip “Garth,” and the former Cartoon Strips Editor at the Daily Mirror, died on November 7th at the age of 90.
Allard was born in 1928. In 1943, despite only being 15, Allard became the assistant to Steve Dowling, the creator of the Mirror‘s new action-adventure comic strip, “Garth.” In the role, Allard was crucial in sharing the workload of Dowling – he did the initial pencilling for the strips, and then inked the backgrounds once Dowling had refined and inked the main characters. After doing national service, Allard returned to the role of assistant on “Garth” in 1948.
Don Freeman took over the writing of the strip shortly after, and took it away from the mystical direction Dowling had set for the series. The combination of Freeman and Allard brought one of the most significant developments for the character: Allard had his own personal interest in history and often drew historical scenes for his own amusement, so when Freeman came to Allard with an idea for a historical story, Allard was incredibly enthusiastic. This led to ‘The Seven Ages of Garth,’ the first time travel adventure for the titular hero, and they became a mainstay for the title.
As “Garth” remained popular, different writers rotated in the role, but Allard continued to work on the artwork up until Dowling’s retirement in 1969, which left the artwork solely in Allard’s hands. In 1971, Frank Bellamy took over the artwork and Allard started providing the scripts instead. In 1986, Allard then became the Cartoon Strips Editor for the Daily Mirror and created another successful strip, “Scorer,” and oversaw “Garth” up until his retirement in 1992.
In 2011, some of the classic “Garth” stories began to be reprinted, and Allard’s fifty-year involvement contribution to these classic stories, and indeed the entire character, will not be forgotten.
