The English cartoonist Peter Maddocks died in Malaga (Spain) on 20 November.
It was his son, Guy Maddocks, who announced the death on his Facebook account with a long message.
I post this here simply because many of my/our friends are scattered across the world and I know they would want to know of the passing of my father (...) the great Peter Maddocks, passed away after a short illness at the age of 96 while sleeping peacefully in hospital in his beloved Spain.
Born on 1 April 1928, Peter was one of the most prolific and respected Fleet Street cartoonists of the 20th century. He created cartoons for The Daily Sketch, The Daily Express, The Sunday Express, The Daily Mail, The Evening Standard, The Times, The Daily Mirror, Private Eye and the men's magazine Mayfair. He was also famous for his collaborations with the BBC on animated children's films and short stories.
Finally, after writing several books on how to become a cartoonist (quite basic, it must be said), which were also distributed in Spain, and publishing"Condomania, 101 uses for a condom" (1992), Peter decided that the time had come to retire to Spain to devote himself to another of his passions, painting.
In the year 2000 he settled in a property between Alhaurín el Grande and Coín (Málaga), although he never stopped drawing jokes and collaborated for a while with a pocket cartoon* for the Malaga newspaper SUR when he was already over ninety years old.
*The English call "pocket cartoon" a format that usually consists of a topical political joke appearing in a single panel in a single column. This format, although already popular in France, was introduced in England by Osbert Lancaster in 1939 in the Daily Express.
In 2022, Peter's paintings were hung in a group exhibition at the Artsenal Inoxis art space in Alhaurín el Grande (Málaga).
Some biographical information about Peter Maddocks (Source: Guy Maddocks)
At the age of eleven, Peter Maddocks won a scholarship to the Moseley School of Art in Birmingham, where one of the tutors was Norman Pett, creator of the Daily Mirror comic strip "Jane".
Pett would sit and draw naked women, Maddocks recalls, while we drew daffodils and milk bottles. I thought it would be a wonderful way to learn cartooning, but it was not.
Known simply as Maddocks, he joined the Daily Sketch in 1953, where he drew a daily cartoon until 1954. The following year he moved to the Daily Express, where he created the daily strip Four D. Jones (1955-65), Horatio Cringe for the Glasgow Evening Citizen, "The Bouncers" (1959) for Swift, No. 10 (1970-1991) for the Sunday Express, A Leg at Each Corner (1970-73) for the Manchester Evening News and Sunday Telegraph, Cop Shop for the Daily Record, and Useless Eustace, replacing Jack Greenall, on the Daily Mirror from 1975.
He drew pocket and sports cartoons for the London Evening Standard (1966-70), and a regular "Slightly Maddocks" cartoon for the London Evening News (1974-77). He also contributed to the Daily Star, Manchester Evening News, Mail on Sunday, Private Eye, Daily Telegraph, Mayfair and Woman's Own.
He was cartoon editor of Express Newspapers between 1965 and 1966, and special features editor of King Magazine in 1968-71, which later became Mayfair, where he remained its cartoonist.
He was a founding member, along with Carl Giles and Osbert Lancaster, of the British Cartoonists' Association in 1966, of which he was the first honorary secretary, and of which he remained co-chairman. In 1977 he founded the London School of Cartooning, which ran correspondence courses and directed it until 1987, although in 1990 it briefly reverted to the name The Cartoon School. He also produced animated commercials for Halas & Bachelor and founded Maddocks Cartoons, where his sons joined him in creating children's cartoons for television, including The Family Ness, Jimbo and the Jet Set, Penny Crayon and Caribou Kitchen, as well as making many cartoons for other studios, including The Mr Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
In his own words, he fled Birmingham, where he was born, to join the merchant navy, lying about his age at 15.
He spent six years at sea travelling the world and supplying military convoys, a time that he says made him a man. Maddocks served in the Merchant Navy from 1943 to 1949. At the age of twenty-one, he set up his own advertising agency in London, designing film posters and developing his own style of illustration.
He had his first success in 1955 with the comic strip Four D Jones, which ran in the Daily Express for 10 years.
The story of this time-travelling cowboy gave Maddocks legendary status, with a following ranging from prime ministers to racing drivers, and acquired cult author status.
Racing legends Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins were big fans and even greeted each other with the Four D phrase "Mon Ami Mate", as mentioned in Chris Nixon's biography simply titled Mon Ami Mate.
Maddocks was an inveterate freelancer and never gave himself to a single newspaper, but drew for all those who wanted him, and there were many.
Related links and sources consulted:
Archive copy of what used to be his website petermaddocks.com
John Freeman, editor of Downthetubes, wrote this comprehensive article in his memory.
The Daily Cartoonist / Peter Maddocks - RIP
Mike Lynch, Spotlight on Cartoonist Peter Maddocks
