Ron Smith (comics)

Ronald George Smith (1928 – 10 January 2019)

In 1963 he was sent to South Africa by The Scotsman newspaper to find Jeannie Stewart of the anti-apartheid group Black Sash, who had been sending the paper material but had been stopped by the South African authorities. Because his passport gave his profession as "artist", rather than "journalist", it was felt he would arouse less suspicion. He found her and, after going on safari in the Kruger National Park to maintain his cover as a tourist, was able to bring some material back for the paper.^[10]

In 1972^[5] he left D. C. Thomson's staff and went freelance, moving to Surrey,^[10] although he continued to draw for Thomsons' comics, primarily Hotspur. Strips he drew included "The Cowboy Cricketer", and "Nick Jolly", a fantasy story about an eighteenth-century highwayman brought forward in time by well-meaning aliens to fight the sinister arch-villain Simon Death on his robotic, jet-powered horse Bess. He pushed for Thomsons to publish superhero strips, and was eventually given the go-ahead to create "King Cobra",^[10] who first appeared in Hotspur in 1976^[15] and ran until 1980. Other titles he drew for include humour titles The Topper, The Dandy and The Beezer, and boys' adventure titles The Victor^[11] and Warlord, for which he drew "Drake of E-Boat Alley" and "Codename Warlord". He also did some uncredited work for Marvel Comics in the USA.^[10]

2000 AD

In 1979 he began drawing "

Amongst the more grotesque characters created by Smith was Otto Sump, Mega-City One's ugliest man, with Smith excelling himself in "The Otto Sump Ugly Clinic" depicting the horrific length citizens of the metropolis go to in making themselves look as physically repulsive as possible. Smith was responsible for the majority of ugly-spin-off stories including "Gunge", "Who Killed Pug Ugly?" about an ugly pop star and "The League of Fatties" about over-eaters gone to extremes (although the first Fatty story was actually drawn by McMahon in a previous Annual). The "Get Ugly!" 2000AD cover has been used at least twice as a T-shirt design. Other Dredd stories which featured Smith at the peak of his powers were the

Smith drew the weekly Dredd strip for the Daily Star newspaper.

Bibliography

D. C. Thomson

• Warlord
  • "Codename Warlord", No. 3, 10, 17, 22, 29, 59, 68, 75, 95, 116
  • "Drake of E-Boat Alley", #20–36
  • Cover, No. 12
• Hotspur
  • "Nick Jolly", #787–816, 819
  • Covers, Hotspur Annual, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982
• The Victor
  • "The Menace in Pit 19", #29–36

IPC/Fleetway

• 2000AD
  • "Judge Dredd", No. 104, 106–108, 111–112, 117–119, 121–25, 128–29, 131–32, 134–35, 137, 140–43, 148, 152–54, 157–59, 164–65, 167–69, 173–75, 179–81, 186–89, 192, 197–200, 202–03, 206–07, 209–223, 233–35, 237–244, 273–74, 280, 289–290 & 295, 300–03, 315–18, 329–330, 335–341, 346–49, 356–58, 366–68, 377–383, 387–89, 393–407, 414–15, 421–22, 430–33, 436, 442, 445–46 & 448–49, 499, 700–701, 824, 835–836, 855, 873–879, 895–896, 899. (1979–1994)
  • "Survivor", #639–644 (1989)
  • "Tales from the Doghouse: Moosey", #649 (1989)
  • "Chronos Carnival"
  • "Rogue Trooper", #712–723, 776–779(1991–1992)
  • "Harlem Heroes", #776–779 (1992)

Marvel UK

• ISBN 1-60010-148-8
  )