Ron Vivian (19 February 1914 – 5 September 1973) was an Australian cartoonist who is perhaps best known as having drawn Ginger Meggs after the original creator, Jimmy Bancks died in 1952.
Biography
Ronald Charles Vivian was born on 19 February 1914 in Sydney, New South Wales,[1] to Charles Cecil Vivian and Vida Francis.[2]
He worked as an artist for Sir Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press (ACP), drawing political cartoons for The Daily Telegraph, illustrations for The Australian Women's Weekly[4] and other Consolidated Press publications. When Jim Bancks died suddenly of a heart attack in 1952, Packer held a competition among several artists to select a suitable person to continue to draw Ginger Meggs.[5][6] Numerous artists submitted trial pages and in the end Vivian's entry was chosen over others including Dan Russell[7] (whom Packer thought that his brother Jim Russell had drawn instead).[8] He then drew the comic for ACP's Sunday Telegraph from April 1953 for the next twenty one years, until his death in early 1973.[6] Vivian remained true to the Bancks style and concept[7] and the only difference was the signature, with the strip carrying the identification 'Created by Bancks', as he was not permitted to put his name to the drawings.[8][9]
References
^ abKerr, Joan (19 October 2011). "Ron Vivian". Design and Art Australia Online. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
^The World of Comic Art. Vol. 2. Hawthorne, California: World of Comic Art Publications. 1966. p. 34.
^ abLaws, John; Stewart, Christopher Robert (2004). There's Always More to the Story : John Laws' Favourite Australian Stories. Sydney, NSW: Pan Macmillan. pp. 261–262. ISBN978-1-4050-3628-3.
^ abRyan, John (1979). Panel by Panel – An Illustrated history of Australian Comics. Cassell Australia. p. 78. ISBN978-0-7269-7376-5.