Frederick Thomas (Freddie) Adkins (1894 – 1986) was a British comics artist who worked for the

Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...

from the 1920s to the 1950s. Born in

Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End. ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, on 7 December 1894, he joined ''

The Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the highest circulation of paid newspapers in the UK. Its sister paper ''The Mail on Sunday'' was launch ...

'' as an office boy after leaving school, his father being an old acquaintance of its proprietor,

Lord Northcliffe Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...

. In 1908 he transferred to the Amalgamated Press's comics division,Alan Clark, ''Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors'', The British Library, 1998, p. 1 where as a self-taught artist, he started off drawing gag cartoons and ghosting for other artists, including the prolific Bertie Brown,Freddie Adkins on Lambiek Comiclopedia
/ref> on titles like ''

Butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

''. His first strip in his own right was ''Nougat the Nig'' in '' Funny Wonder'' in 1920. Other strips he drew in the 1920s included ''Spick and Span'' in '' Comic Life'', ''Sammy Sample'' in '' Lot-o'-Fun'', ''Reggie Rambler'' in '' Jolly Jester'', ''Professor Botany'' in ''

Sunbeam A sunbeam, in meteorological optics, is a lightbeam, beam of sunlight that appears to radiate from the position of the Sun. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains and buildings, these beams of light scatter ...

'' and ''Danny and Domino'' in ''Funny Wonder''. In the 1930s, he drew ''Bobby Blue'', ''Timothy Topknot'' and ''Bimbo the Clown'' in '' Tiger Tim's Weekly'', and ''Flips'' in '' Playbox''. He drew ''Mississippi Max'' for '' Wonder'' in 1942, and was still illustrating for the AP's comics as late as 1956, when he drew ''Our Dolliwogs'' in '' Tiny Tots''. He also contributed as a scriptwriter and letterer. He retired in 1959, and died in 1986.

References

1894 births 1986 deaths British comics artists British comics writers Comic book letterers People from Knightsbridge {{UK-comics-creator-stub