Terry Willers
Terry Willers (1935 – 9 November 2011) was a cartoonist and comics artist in Ireland. He was born in
Willers worked as an errand boy at a film studio in London when he was 15, then he joined British Disney magazine Mickey Mouse Weekly. At the age of 17 he was contributing the four-panel cartoon 'Tich' to TV Comic (1952–53). In 1959, he also contributed the cartoon Zip to Jack & Jill.[1]
Around this time, Willers began working for the Marten Toonder Studio in the Netherlands, drawing '
Willers contributed in the 1970s and 1980s to the RTÉ television programmes, Hall's Pictorial Weekly, hosted by Frank Hall, and The Mike Murphy Show. He was also a prolific contributor to magazines, including the Farmer's Journal, Sunday Independent, Evening Herald and Wicklow People. In the 1990s, Willers contributed to The Yellow Press, an Irish anthology comic, and The Beano, drawing 'Minder Bird' in 1995. He also illustrated several books, including Brian Power presents 'It's All Happening' (1970), The TV Generation by Desmond Forristal (1970), Gift of the Gab! The Irish Conversation Guide by Tadhg Hayes (1996, later reprinted as The Wit of Irish Conversation), Twelve Days Of Chaos by Frank Kelly (1997) and Stop Howling At The Moon by Eamon O'Donnell (2007).[1]
When he died aged 76, a posthumous appreciation in the Irish Independent said, "Nobody who encountered Terry in full flight in his persona as Rathdrum's cartoon ambassador to the world is likely to forget him...Terry must have had three hands because despite having a cigarette in one and a glass in the other, he was always drawing on any surface that held still -- even the walls of his beloved Cartoon Inn in Rathdrum village where so many of his exuberant productions are still proudly displayed." Willers was described as "a stylish and dapper dresser" who was never seen without a shirt and tie and "the sort of pastel blazer favoured by the gameshow host that he so resembled".[3]
Writing in the
References
- ^ a b c d e Knudde, Kjell (2011). "Terry Willers". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
- ^ O'Keefe, Alan (10 November 2010). "Our revered cartoonist Willers dies". Herald.ie. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
- ^ Terry Willers Irish Independent, 0011-11-13.