Garth

Garth was a comic strip in the British newspaper Daily Mirror that ran from 24 July 1943 – 22 March 1997. It belonged to the action-adventure genre and followed the exploits of the title character, an immensely strong hero who battled various villains throughout the world and in different eras. It was widely syndicated in English-speaking countries. 1960s Australian fast bowler Garth McKenzie was nicknamed after its hero. Book collections of the strip were first published in 2011. Publication history Steve Dowling and Gordon Boshell were the originators of the Garth character. Dowling wanted to create a British adventure comic strip and took inspiration from the American comic strips Superman, Flash Gordon and Terry and the Pirates. Dowling and Boshell hired 15-year-old John Allard to work on Garth, who stayed with the strip for its entire run. After 69 adventures, Dowling retired and handed Garth over to Allard, which he carried on until 1971, when Eagle comics' Dan Dare artist, Frank Bellamy, took over the art with Allard writing. Garth's longevity had been established by Don Freeman, who created almost every basic Garth plot on which it was built. Peter O'Donnell, Jim Edgar, and Angus Allan also wrote extensively for the strip during its decades-long existence. Philip Harbottle, a leading Garth expert and collector of the strips, wrote several of the stories during the 1990s. Martin Asbury became Garth's artist after Frank Bellamy's death in 1976, drawing the strip and writing many of the stories until its final episode in 1997. In 1993, Bill Storrie produced a dozen or so 60-page photocopied magazines titled The Gopherville Argus Special Edition No. 1 featuring Garth as a tribute to the writers and artists who had been involved with the strip. Most (if not all) Garth strips are now owned by Mirror.