Editing Hugh McNeill (1910-1979)

'''Hugh McNeil''' was born on [[13 December]] 1910 in Moss Side, Manchester. He won prizes for art at school, and as a teenager he drew comic postcards and was the official cartoonist for a local boxing club. He left school at 16 and was apprenticed to the Kayebon Press, a local art studio, where he drew advertisements and show cards, while taking evening classes at the Manchester School of Art.

He drew cartoons for [[DC Thomson]]'s ''Topical Times'', starting in 1927, and when ''[[The Beano]]'' was launched in 1938, he was part of its opening line-up with "[[Ping the Elastic Man]]". His best know creation for ''The Beano'' was "[[Pansy Potter, the Strongman's Daughter]]", which first appeared in issue 21, and he also drew "[[Puffing Billy]]".

He was soon poached by [[Amalgamated Press]] editor [[Leonard Matthews]], starting with "[[Professor P. Nutts]]" on ''[[The Jolly Comic]]'', before joining the new weekly ''[[Knock-Out]]'' in 1939, where he created "[[Deed-a-Day Danny]]" and "[[Simon the Simple Sleuth]]" in the first issue in 1939, and later drew "[[Our Ernie]]" and "[[Handy Andy]]" (1940-).

He served in the Royal Army Service Corps and the Royal Engineers during the Second World War, seeing service in North Africa, where he was a cartographer for Montgomery, and Italy, while submitting his weekly "Deed-a-Day Danny" strip on airmail notepaper.

After the war he continued to draw for ''Knock-Out'', including "[[One-Eye Joe and Two-Toof Tom]]" (1946-47), and branched out from funnies into adventure strips, starting with "[[Tough Tod and Happy Annie]]" in ''Knock-Out'' in 1947, and "[[Thunderbolt Jaxon]]" for a comic published in Australia. Other strips he drew included "[[Deadshot Sue]]" (1949-50), "[[Lancelot Lake]]" (1949-51), "[[Young Joey]]" (1949-51), "[[The Fighting O'Flynn]]" (1949-50) and "[[Dick Turpin]]" (1951-52) in ''[[The Sun]]''. He also worked for ''[[Comet]]'' ("[[Shorty the Deputy Sheriff]]", 1949-53; "[[Claude and Cuthbert]]", 1951-53) and ''[[Cowboy Comics Library]]''. His style was adopted as the AP's house style for adventure strips, and new artists like [[Geoff Campion]] followed in his footsteps.

In 1953 he was recruited by [[Percy Clarke]] to draw for the AP's nursery comics, including ''[[Playhour]]'' ("[[The Wonderful Adventures of Peter Puppet]]", 1954; "[[Sonny and Sally of Happy Valley]]", 1956-), ''[[Jack and Jill]]'' ("[[Jack and Jill of Buttercup Farm]]", 1954-; "[[The Happy Days of Teddy and Cuddly the Baby Bears]]" (1954-70), "[[Harold Hare]]"),  ''[[Harold Hare's Own Paper]]'' ("[[Flopsy Flufftail]]", 1959-63) and ''[[Tiny Tots]]'' ("[[Bunny Cuddles]]", 1958-).

In the 60s he drew "[[Buster (strip)|Buster]]" and "[[Tim & Vicky, the TV Twins]]" for ''[[Buster]]'', "[[Our Village]]" in ''[[Jack and Jill]]'', "[[The Funny Adventures of Nutty Noddle]]" (1961-69) for ''[[Robin]]'', "[[Life with Uncle Lionel]]" for ''[[Princess]]'', and "[[The Trolls]]" (1967-73) and "[[Willy the Wily Wolf]]" for ''[[Tina]]'', training an assistant, [[Pamela Cooper]], do do his inking. He continued to draw "Harold Hare" into the 70s, and also drew "[[Giggles Galore]]" and "[[Gussie the Girl Guide]]" for ''[[Pixie]]'' and "[[Meet the Beans]]" (1974-75) for ''[[Bonnie]]''. He suffered a stroke in 1976, which left him unable to draw, and died in Worthing, Sussex, on [[22 November]] 1979.

==References==
*Alan Clark, ''Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors'', The British Library, 1998, pp. 103-104
*Denis Gifford, ''Encyclopedia of Comic Characters'', Longman, 1987
*Steve Holland, [http://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2006/12/hugh-mcneill.html Hugh McNeill], Bear Alley, 15 December 2006

===Online reference===
{{lambiek|m/mcneill_h.htm|Hugh McNeill}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mac Neill Hugh}}
[[Category:Creators M]]
[[Category:Artists]]
[[Category:Born in 1910]]
[[Category:Died in 1979]]
[[Category:Biographical Dictionary of British Comics: M]]
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−	[[File:Mcneill hugh ourernie.jpg\|thumb\|right\|300px\|"[[Our Ernie]]" from ''[[Knock-Out]]'']]
	'''Hugh McNeil''' was born on [[13 December]] 1910 in Moss Side, Manchester. He won prizes for art at school, and as a teenager he drew comic postcards and was the official cartoonist for a local boxing club. He left school at 16 and was apprenticed to the Kayebon Press, a local art studio, where he drew advertisements and show cards, while taking evening classes at the Manchester School of Art.		'''Hugh McNeil''' was born on [[13 December]] 1910 in Moss Side, Manchester. He won prizes for art at school, and as a teenager he drew comic postcards and was the official cartoonist for a local boxing club. He left school at 16 and was apprenticed to the Kayebon Press, a local art studio, where he drew advertisements and show cards, while taking evening classes at the Manchester School of Art.