John Michael Butterworth (10 January 1924 – 4 October 1986) was a British

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

writer, best known for his

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 ...

The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire ''The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire'', later shortened to ''The Trigan Empire'', was a science fiction comic series written mainly by Mike Butterworth with artwork (initially watercolours, later gouache) by Don Lawrence, among others. It ...

'' in the British weeklies '' Ranger'' and ''

Look and Learn ''Look and Learn'' was a British weekly educational magazine for children published by Fleetway Publications Ltd from 1962 until 1982. It contained educational text articles that covered a wide variety of topics from volcanoes to the Loch Ness ...

''.

Life

Butterworth trained as an artist at

Camberwell College of Arts Camberwell College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. The college offers further and higher education programmes, including postgraduate and PhD awards. ...

and worked briefly as a tutor in drawing at Nottingham College of Art.Mike Butterworth (comic artists & creators)
www.comicvine.com After briefly working as a salesman, he joined the Amalgamated Press (later renamed

Fleetway Publications Fleetway Publications was a magazine publishing company based in London. History It was founded in 1959 when the Mirror Group acquired the Amalgamated Press, then based at Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London. It was one of the companies ...

) after submitting samples of artwork to them. Although these were turned down, he tried again, submitting a script for a sea-going adventure strip. This was accepted and Butterworth was hired as a scriptwriter, at first working primarily

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

strips featuring ''

Billy the Kid Henry McCarty (September 17 or November 23, 1859July 14, 1881), alias William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, was an American outlaw and gunfighter of the Old West who was linked to nine murders: four for which he was solely res ...

'' and

Buffalo Bill William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), better known as Buffalo Bill, was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. One of the most famous figures of the American Old West, Cody started his legend at the young age ...

. His interest in history (particularly naval history) led him to pen many historical

comic strips 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 ...

for '' The Comet'' and ''

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

'', including the Napoleonic era adventures of ''Max Bravo, the Happy Hussar'' and

World War II 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 ...

air-ace ''

Battler Britton Battler Britton is a British comics character created by Mike Butterworth and Geoff Campion.McNeil, Jamie"Battler Britton" ''The Slings & Arrows Graphic Novel Guide''. Retrieved April 7, 2021. He first appeared in Amalgamated Press' ''Sun'' in 1 ...

''. Aside from his writing, Butterworth was a gifted editor and created a number of new papers for the firm including Playhour Pictures (soon after abbreviated to

Playhour ''Playhour'' was a British children's comics magazine published by Amalgamated Press/Fleetway/IPC between 16 October 1954 and 15 August 1987, a run of approximately 1,700 weekly issues. ''Playhour'' contained a mixture of original tales for you ...

), Valentine and the teenage girls' magazine Honey. In 1965, he became one of the main script writers for '' Ranger'' where he penned the sprawling science-fantasy ''

'' which remains one of the most popular boys' adventure strips published in the UK to this day. Butterworth left

and turned freelance. His first novel, ''The Soundless Scream'', appeared in 1967 followed over the next few years by a number of well-received crime novels which appeared under his full name. His 1983 novel ''The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo'' was turned into the first musical by

Lynn Ahrens Lynn Ahrens (born October 1, 1948) is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Aw ...

and

Stephen Flaherty Stephen Flaherty (born September 18, 1960) is an American composer of musical theatre and film. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/book writer Lynn Ahrens. They are best known for writing the Broadway musicals ''Ragtime'', wh ...

, ''

Lucky Stiff ''Lucky Stiff'' is a musical farce. It was the first collaboration for the team of Lynn Ahrens (book and lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (music). The show is based on the 1983 novel ''The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo'' by Michael Butter ...

'', first performed off-Broadway for

Playwrights Horizons Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit American Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. ...

in April of 1988. His full name has led to some confusion between his work and that of

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

writer and Savoy Books publisher Michael Butterworth. Butterworth also turned his hand to Gothic romance novels under the pen-name Carola Salisbury. He died of a heart attack at the age of 62.

Books

* ''The Soundless Scream'' (1967) * ''Walk Softly in Fear'' (1968) * ''Vanishing Act'' (1970) * ''Flowers for a Dead Witch'' (1971) * ''The Black Look'' (1972) * ''Villa on the Shore'' (1973) * ''The Man in the Sopwith Camel'' (1974) * ''Remains to be Seen'' (1976) * ''Festival'' (1976) * ''X Marks the Spot'' (1978) * ''The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo'' (1983) * ''A Virgin on the Rocks'' (1985) * ''The Five Million Dollar Prince'' (1986) Novels as Carola Salisbury * ''The Pride of the Trevallions'' (1975; also published as ''Mallion's Pride'') * ''Dark Inheritance'' (1975) * ''Dolphin Summer'' (1976) * ''The Winter Bride'' (1978) * ''The Shadowed Spring'' (1980) * ''Count Vronsky's Daughter'' (1981) * ''An Autumn in Araby'' (1983) * ''Daisy Friday'' (1984) * ''A Certain Splendour'' (1985) * ''The Woman in Grey'' (1987)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butterworth, Mike English crime fiction writers British comics writers 1924 births 1986 deaths 20th-century English novelists English male novelists 20th-century English male writers