Maurice Dodd (25 October 1922 – 31 December 2005) was an English writer and cartoonist best known for his years spent working on '' The Perishers''

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

published in the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

''.

Biography

Dodd was born in Hackney. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

as a Servicing Commando, alongside Bill Herbert. After the war Dodd was demobilised and began to study art. He then found work in advertising and, after he won a competition to write a slogan for ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', Bill Herbert, by then the cartoon editor at ''

The Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead ...

'', offered Dodd the chance to take over the writing of a comic strip he had created, '' The Perishers''. Working with the artist Dennis Collins, Dodd provided rough layouts, which Collins then drew from. Dodd continued to work in advertising, such as on the ''

Clunk Click Every Trip "Clunk Click Every Trip" is the slogan of a series of British public information films. They commenced in the summer of 1970, presented by Shaw Taylor, then from January 1971 to 1975 were presented by Jimmy Savile. The BBC adapted Savile's slog ...

'' series of public information films intended to remind drivers of the benefits of wearing a

seatbelt A seat belt, also known as a safety belt or spelled seatbelt, is a vehicle safety device designed to secure the driver or a passenger of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result during a collision or a sudden stop. A seat belt reduce ...

. It was while he was working on this campaign that Dodd came into contact with

FilmFair FilmFair was a British production company and animation studio that produced children's television series, animated television series, educational films, and television advertisements. The company made numerous stop motion films using puppets, cl ...

, a company responsible for the creation of television programmes based on

The Wombles ''The Wombles'' are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures created by Elisabeth Beresford and originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. They live in burrows, where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recycl ...

and

Paddington Bear Paddington Bear (though his name is just Paddington; the "Bear" simply serves to confirm his species; and also known as Paddington Brown for some sources) is a fictional character in British children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October ...

. Dodd collaborated with the company in bringing ''The Perishers'' to television. Dodd left advertising in 1980 and subsequently wrote a number of children's books. In 1983 Collins retired, leaving Dodd to write and draw ''The Perishers'' alone until 1992, when Bill Mevin began doing all the art work for the strip. Dodd continued working on the strip until he died, from a

brain haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

, in

Shepperton Shepperton is a village in the Borough of Spelthorne, Spelthorne district, in north Surrey, England, around south west of central London. The settlement is on the north bank of the River Thames, between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Tha ...

on 31 December 2005.

References

English children's writers English comics writers English humorists British comic strip cartoonists British advertising executives 2005 deaths 1922 births People from Hackney Central Royal Air Force personnel of World War II {{UK-comics-creator-stub