Dandy Artist John Mason

[philcom55]

Having recently acquired a piece of 1940 Magic artwork by John Mason I found myself wanting to know more about this early DC Thomson artist, and was surprised to discover how little information seems to be available. According to The Art and History of The Dandy he was already 'an accomplished newspaper cartoonist' when he drew the nasally-challenged tramp Barney Boko for the first issue of the Dandy, and he often kept up spirits in the studio by producing humorous caricatures of the editors for his colleagues' amusement. Beyond that, however, I know nothing else apart from the fact that he was a regular contributor to Dandy during its early years, drawing series like Barney Boko, Grandma Jolly, Inky Poo ('the Cute Hindoo'!) and Willy Woodpecker, until he suddenly disappeared from its pages in 1944.

This particular piece features the Magic strip Old Father Time (a character more often associated with Sam Fair) and I really like the madcap expressions and wildly exaggerated movement of the skaters. What's more, with his expressive linework I can't help feeling that Mason's style would have been every bit as popular in the 60s and 70s as it was in the 30s and 40s. To my mind it's a real shame that such a marvelous artist should be so little-known today and I'd love to know if Kashgar or anybody else can add any details about his career or point to any further examples of his work.

[philcom55]

Just discovered this short piece on John Mason by the late, great Bill Ritchie which appeared in a 2007 issue of the Jester. With fans like that I guess he must have been pretty special - it's a shame he didn't carry on working for the Dandy after the war, though it's good to know that he lived right up to 1986. Also interesting to hear of yet another British artist who was born in Australia.

[philcom55]

Incidentally, does anybody know anything more about the 'Bank Street Art Studio' mentioned by Bill Ritchie? Was this separate from the main Thomson building, and did many of the comic artists work there on a regular basis?

[Kashgar]

Hi Phil,

The Bank Street art department was located in the Thomson/Leng newspaper offices which ran along the whole north side of Bank Street. They had originally been the offices for the John Leng publishing empire and were built in the Victorian period.
The Bank Street art dept housed the artists who, in the main, provided work for the Thomson/Leng adult publications newspapers, magazines etc rather than those that worked on the juvenile output.
That being said a select few Thomson comic artists did work in the Bank Street rather than the Meadowside art dept, most famously Jimmy Crighton, Jimmy Clark and Davey Law as well as, of course, John. R. Mason. The head of the Bank Street art dept for over thirty years was the women's magazine illustrator Norman Lee who was the father of the girls paper artist (Judy, Spellbound etc) of the same name.
As for John. R. Mason he joined Thomson/Leng in 1924 and his forte, for much of his career, was the sporting caricature, he being a regular sight at many a Scottish sporting fixture, be it football, golf, cricket etc, with his binoculars and sketch pad in hand.
Perhaps his most famous cartoon creation came in the early 1930's when he devised the long running moustachioed, bow-tie wearing philosopher 'Andy Mac' for the 'Dundee Courier'.
During WWI he first served in the Lovat Scots before transferring to the Camerons and he was member of the Home Guard during WWII before becoming heavily involved with the Army Cadet Force reaching the rank of Major with the 1st Dundee Battalion of the ACF.
In 1936 when the editorial staff at Meadowside decided to inaugurate a yearly drunken bash they titled 'The Last Supper' John . R. Mason was chosen to provide the before and after illustrations of the banqueting revellers for the bill of fare/events menu that was produced to accompany the evening. These illustrations would subsequently be used on the 'menus' of all eight 'Last Suppers' that were held up until 1943. Dudley Watkins providing the main illustrations which changed year by year.

[philcom55]

Gosh! - that's wonderfully informative (as ever). Thanks Kashgar!

[Kashgar]

You're welcome Phil. I should point out that the reason Messrs Crighton, Clark and Law all worked from Bank Street rather than Meadowside was that they were all originally employed as artists for newspapers and magazines and that by the early 1950's they were all working from home.
The Bank Street art dept members always felt they were 'a cut above' the 'rabble' who worked at Meadowside.

[philcom55]

For anybody who's interested here's the final panel of that Old Father Time strip. I love the idea of him being able to 'turn back time' with his hourglass, though I suspect that the stories must have started to repeat themselves before long. I also like the rhyming quatrains he uses to invoke its power; in those days an ability to knock out lines of jolly doggerel at the drop of a hat seems to have been a necessary skill for all comic writers and sub-editors!



Incidentally, I'm always fascinated by the freehand colouring you find on old DC Thomson artwork (this piece even has some blue as well as the red). Did the original artist submit the strip in this form, or was the colour added afterwards by somebody in the production department? And however did they photograph the black lines without picking up some of the red areas at the same time?