Wally Fawkes
Wally Fawkes | |
---|---|
Born | Walter Ernest Pearsall 21 June 1924 Vancouver, Canada |
Died | 1 March 2023 London, England | (aged 98)
Nationality |
|
Other names | Trog |
Occupations |
|
Notable work | Flook |
Spouses | |
Children | 6 |
Walter Ernest Fawkes (
After emigrating with his family to Britain from Canada when he was 7 years old,[1] he taught himself the clarinet, and first joined a revivalist jazz band with George Webb in 1944.[2] He later created a new, more mainstream band with friend Humphrey Lyttelton, and it soon became one of the leading British jazz bands of the 1950s.[3]
Fawkes also achieved success illustrating cartoons under the pen name "Trog". His most notable work in this business was
Early life
Fawkes was born on 21 June 1924,[5] as Walter Ernest[6] Pearsall[7] in Vancouver, British Columbia.[5][4] His father, Douglas Pearsall, was a Canadian railway clerk whom his mother, Mabel (née Ainsley), later left for Charles Fawkes, a British printer. Mabel took her children with Charles to Britain in 1931.[7]
Enthused by comic books from a young age, Fawkes left school at 14 with a scholarship to study at Sidcup Art School,
Career
As a jazz musician
It was during the war years that Fawkes began playing in jazz bands. In 1947, he took a weekly course at the
As a cartoonist
Of all his talents, there is none I admire more than his outstanding skill as a caricaturist. Very few artists can see a likeness the way he can, and catch it so completely. He doesn't develop a hieroglyph for each politician and then simply reach for it each time it is needed. Every Trog caricature is carefully recrafted.
In 1942, he entered an art competition that was judged by the
In 1949, Fawkes's comic strip
Fawkes also produced political cartoons for The Spectator with George Melly as his author.[5] The two also contributed occasionally to Private Eye and, beginning in 1962, to the New Statesman. Despite producing larger political cartoons for the Daily Mail, his future role as Illingworth's successor as lead cartoonist was threatened by the paper's preference for the work of Gerald Scarfe. Fawkes therefore began submitting work to other publications, and he began contributing political cartoons to The Observer. At The Observer he fell foul of the readership when readers complained that some of his cartoons about the British royalty were "grossly discourteous to the Queen".[3] In 1967 Scarfe left the Mail and Fawkes' position at the paper became more secure, and in 1968 he stopped writing for The Observer to focus solely on the Mail.[3]
Fawkes became the Daily Mail's political cartoonist when Illingworth retired in 1969. That year he also replaced Illingworth as political cartoonist of Punch. In 1971, the Daily Mail absorbed the Daily Sketch, and the role of transforming the old paper from a broadsheet into a tabloid fell to the old Sketch editor Sir David English,[3] who gave the role of political cartoonist to Stan McMurtry and Fawkes was dropped from his old role.[3] Fawkes returned to The Observer in 1971 and continued to work for Punch. After Flook was cancelled in 1985, Fawkes worked briefly for Today and then served a short stint at the London Daily News. During the 1980s he continued to contribute to Punch and Private Eye, and for The Observer he drew a pocket cartoon named "mini-Trog". In 1996 he left The Observer and joined The Sunday Telegraph, where he remained until failing eyesight forced him to retire in 2005.[1]
In 2013 his work was celebrated with an exhibition at the
Personal life
In 1949 Fawkes married the journalist Sandy Fawkes, who later became known for surviving an affair with the American serial killer Paul John Knowles.[15] They had four children together,[10] one of whom died of SIDS.[15] In 1965, he married Susan Clifford and they had two children.[4][10]
Fawkes died in London on 1 March 2023, at age 98, following a short illness.[16][10]
References
- ^ a b c d e Wilson, Giles (17 August 2005). "Farewell blues". Retrieved 7 September 2013.
- ^ a b c d e "Happy 95th Birthday to Wally Fawkes!". The Oldie. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Biography: Wally Fawkes (Trog)". British Cartoon Archive. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
- ^ a b c d e "Wally Fawkes". Vintage Music. Archived from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ ISBN 0-85112-580-8.
- ^ a b Gardner, Peter (20 June 2022). "Happy Birthday to Wally Fawkes". Dawkes Music. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ a b Melly, George (7 March 2023). "Wally Fawkes obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
- ^ a b Smith, Adam (11 September 2013). "Looking back at Flook: An interview with Wally Fawkes". The Comics Journal. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
- ^ "Cartoonist and jazz musician Wally Fawkes, who used the pen name Trog, dies aged 98". Metro. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Cartoonist and jazz musician Wally Fawkes dies aged 98". The Irish News. 3 March 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
- ^ "John Chilton: Trumpeter and admired jazz historian". The Independent. 27 February 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
- ^ Wright, Matthew (7 March 2023). "Obituary: Wally Fawkes". Jazz Journal.
- ^ "Newspaper Comics: Trog's Rufus and Flook". Animationresources.org. 21 August 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- ^ Chilton, Martin (7 January 2013). "Celebrating the great cartoons of Trog". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
- ^ a b "Sandy Fawkes: The Reporter and the Serial Killer". 4 April 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ Crick, Margaret (3 March 2023). "RIP the great Oldie cartoonist Wally Fawkes at 98". The Oldie.
External links
- Lambiek Comiclopedia biography
- Wally Fawkes discography at Discogs
- Wally Fawkes at IMDb