Reginald Edward Parlett (2 August 1904 – 18 November 1991) was an

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

from England who had a career of drawing for

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

that lasted for 66 years. Born in London, his father Harry Parlett (1881–1971) was also a prolific artist whose work appeared in many publications, often anonymously, as well as on many picture postcards, which he signed as 'Comicus'. Reg Parlett's older brother George (1902–1981) also later became an artist. On leaving school Parlett became a clerk at Thomas Cook.Clark, Alan ''The Comic Art of Reg. Parlett'' Golden Fun Publishing (1986) pg 3 Realising that he was ill-suited to working for a travel agent, he was encouraged to draw by his father, who submitted his son's cartoons to Amalgamated Press (AP); such was his success that he left Thomas Cook and in 1923 became a permanent member of staff for AP. His work appeared in the '' Merry and Bright'' comic in 1926, and he would later go on to do

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

s for

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

s such as ''

Funny Wonder ''Funny Wonder'' was the name of a pre-War humorous comic published in the United Kingdom by Amalgamated Press. It was part of a long string of related titles which stretched from 1892 to 1953, known by a variety of additional titles, including ' ...

'', '' Radio Fun'', '' Film Fun'', ''

Knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

'', ''

Buster Buster may refer to: People First name *Buster Drayton (born 1952), American boxer *Buster Glosson, retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general *Buster Mathis (1943–1995), American heavyweight boxer *Buster Mathis Jr. (born 1970), American heavyw ...

'', '' Whizzer and Chips'', '' Cor!!'', '' Whoopee!'', ''

Jackpot Jackpot or Jackpot! may refer to: * A prize, such as a progressive jackpot * Gardena jackpots, a poker variant * Jackpot, Nevada, a community on the Nevada–Idaho state border Comics * Jackpot (comics), several comic book characters * ''Jack ...

'' and '' Wow!''. He became one of the top artists for Amalgamated Press in the second half of the 1930s, and stayed with the company until his death in 1991. Parlett served in the R.A.F. during World War II drawing maps, and in the late 1940s he became a writer and artist for

J. Arthur Rank Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank (22 December 1888 – 29 March 1972) was a British industrialist who was head and founder of the Rank Organisation. Family business Rank was born on 22 or 23 December 1888 at Kingston upon Hull in England into ...

's GB Animation 'Animaland' cartoons.Parlett on Lambiek Comiclopedia
/ref> He contributed to the 1954 animated film ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to crea ...

''.Clark, pg 5 In the 1960s Parlett worked on his first newspaper strip, when he took over ''Just Jake'' in the '' Daily Mirror''. On the death of Frank Minnitt in 1958 he became one of the artists who took over the drawing of the '' Billy Bunter'' comic strip in ''

''. Such was his popularity that the 2 August 1984 issue of ''Buster'' celebrated his 80th birthday, and a 1989 issue of ''

Big Comic Fortnightly Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show presente ...

'' celebrated his 85th. Parlett married in 1928, and with his wife Mary (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Carter), whom he had first met at a dance in 1921, had two sons, Malcolm and Grahame Parlett. A book titled ''The Comic Art of Reg Parlett'' () written by Alan Clark was released on 10 November 1986.

References

External links

*
Parlett on the Illustration Art Gallery website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parlett, Reg 1904 births 1991 deaths English cartoonists English comics artists Postcard artists