James Jewell was born in Dundee on 7 August 1897. Both his parents worked in textiles: his father, Alexander, was a calender worker, and his mother Mary, née Ross, was a jute spinner. In the early 1930s his work appeared in The Scottish Daily Express Children's Own, a newspaper comic supplement. He drew for The Beano from its first issue, illustrating "Wee Peem" (1938-40). He died in Dundee in 1971, aged 73.
Jewell's activity in the thirty years between his work for The Beano and his death, is not well documented. However, a cartoonist who signed himself 'J.Jewell' (and later, just 'Jewell') was a regular contributor to the large circulation Bristol Evening Post from the mid 1940s until the 1960s. Stylistic similarities suggest they may be the same person.
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References[]
- Alan Clarke, Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors, The British Library, 1998, p. 85
- Denis Gifford, Encyclopedia of Comic Characters, Longman, 1987