"Spoilsport", from Cor!!, 1973
Graham Allen was born in 1940, the son of variety performer Clive Allen. He joined Fleetway's staff, where he was working as an art bodger on Cowboy Comics Library by 1957. He drew comic strips for IPC titles from the mid 60s on, including "Sir Munchkin" (1965) for Lion and "One Man and his Dog" for Buster. He also drew a weekly strip, "Lord Elpus" (1965), for the Sunday Extra newspaper. He then moved to Odhams Press, where he drew in a frenetic Leo Baxendale-inspired style for Wham!, Pow! and Smash!, including "Tuffy McGrew" and "The Nervs" for the latter.
When Odhams merged into IPC, Allen became a regular artist on their humour comics, drawing “Give a Dog a Bone” (1969) for Whizzer and Chips, "Mutt 'n' Chops" (1969), "Fiends and Neighbours" (1973, later in Cor!!), "Scruffy Dog and Shaggy Dog" and "Clarence Stringbean" for Buster, and “Eddie” (1970) and "Spoilsport" (1973) for Cor!!. Other IPC titles he worked on include TV21, ("Mickey's Moonbugs"), Look-In ("Please Sir!" and "The Fenn Street Gang" [1972]), Score 'n' Roar ("Trouble Shooter"), Whoopee! ("Spy School" [1974]). He also worked for DC Thomson, drawing "Copycat" for Magic and "Digby the Human Mole" for Plug, and Polystyle's TV Comic, drawing "Nellie and her Tellie" (1974).
From 1981 he drew the daily strip Pub Dog for the Daily Express, and later the Evening News. Other newspaper strips he drew in the 80s and 90s include King Kat for the Daily Star, One Boy and his Dog for the News of the World and Rocky Starr in People Magazine. He also tried his hand at political cartooning for the London Daily News and Daily Express. He has also drawn for Viz, and is a prolific book illustrator.
References[]
- Alan Clark, Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors, The British Library, 1998, p. 2
- Steve Holland, Graham Allen, Illustration Art Gallery, 6 October 2010