Superman 74 1953.

Hart Amos—A 1977 profile

Preface by Kevin Patrick

Despite his long association with the K.G. Murray Publishing Company, very little is known about the late Hart Amos (2/12/1916 – 8/6/2000), a talented and prolific artist who produced countless covers for Murray's range of American reprint comics. However, as the following 1977 profile¹ written by Australian comics' historian John Ryan demonstrates, this was just one aspect of Amos' lengthy and diverse career. Amos was apparently averse to being recorded for interviews², so this article, largely unseen for thirty years, provides a valuable insight into his life and work.

Hart Amos

By John Ryan³

The Mighty Comic Annual 1957.

For the best part of 25 years, the odds favoured that almost any of the publications which came from K.G. Murray Publishing Company contained artwork by the man with that bold signature... Hart Amos. And for those of us who are students of the comics medium, his crisp style, clean accurate drawings were instantly identifiable—with or without that signature. Whether drawing an adventure strip, funny animals or straight magazine illustrations, Hart Amos could be relied upon to produce a thoroughly professional job. In an industry where we have come to expect the journeyman cartoonist to produce work of varying standards, the consistent high standard of his work ranks him as one of the best comic strip artists to work in Australia.

Hartley Vincent Amos was born at Lindfield NSW in 1916, the son of an insurance company manager. He attended Artarmon Public School and then North Sydney Boy's High School before joining the brewing firm of Tooth & Co., Ltd. in 1932. While his position only encompassed clerical duties in the firm's advertising department, his interest in art lead him to enroll at the East Sydney Technical College in 1933. Here he studied life drawing and oil painting until the end of 1937, while submitting odd cartoons to any publication likely to be interested.

The Lost Patrol Having never drawn comics before, Amos took on the full length "Lost Patrol" as one of his first jobs with KG Murray.

For a brief period Hart decided to break into the freelance art field. When he tired of lugging his portfolio around the disdainful advertising agencies, he would visit his cousin, who was a lift boy at a big shipping company. While Hart would sit on the lift stool, resting his weary feet, his cousin would tell him about his aspirations to become a writer or they would talk about one of their mates: a skinny, unhappy bloke who wanted to become an actor. Hart's cousin went on to write six best-sellers including The Dambusters, Reach For the Sky and The Great Escape. He was of course, Paul Brickhill. The would-be actor made something of a name for himself in the field—winning an Academy Award. This was the late Peter Finch.

In 1938 the work situation was far from strong and Hart decided to follow the lead of many others in joining the army. He enlisted as a signaller in the 7th Field Artillery and by the time he was discharged he had attained the rank of Lieutenant. During the war years Hart served in New Guinea and Dutch Borneo, but prefers only to talk about the humourous side of his service. Perhaps this has something to do with the death of his brother while in action in 1943.

The Lost Patrol Even in this first comic work by Amos, his distinctive style and flair were evident.

Discharged on 21 December 1945 (Hart says he has no intention of ever forgetting the date!), he still wanted a career in the art field and was soon trying to peddle his work to the publishers of the day. He sold cartoons to Rydges, Quiz and other magazines before starting work as a freelance for K.G. Murray.

Despite the fact that he had never drawn a comic strip before, one of his first jobs was to produce a full comic book. The book was titled The Lost Patrol and, not surprisingly, it dealt with the fortunes of Australian soldiers fighting the Japanese. Though crude in execution, the artwork displayed a distinct flair which was a harbinger of things to come. There was an obvious understanding of the medium, even if the intricacies had not been fully grasped. The strip displayed the fascination for detail on weaponry and mechanical things which were to become something of an Amos trademark. In short, he appeared to be a natural comic strip artist.

Queen of the Green Men A glimpse of Amos' beautiful women, from an early issue of KGM's early colour Climax series.

Soon Amos was involved in producing comic books, covers and magazine illustrations for K.G. Murray almost exclusively, even though he was always a freelance and never a company artist. Such titles as The Moon Mirror and Stark, The Stoneage Man preceded Kidnap Cavern, the first story in KGM's series of Climax full-colour comics. For this same series he drew Queen of the Green Men (which gave us a glimpse of the beautiful women he could draw) and Hurricane Hardy⁴.

Hurricane, with his bright, red hair crashing down over his forehead like a Bondi breaker, appeared in two colour comics as well as a black and white back-up feature in a number of other reprint comics. Magicat (the mightiest cat in the Universe!) was Hart's contribution to the funny animal field and represented a very slick drawing performance. At the same time, he was also drawing 1-2 page fillers such as Fore & Aft, Hambone The Hunter and Doc Foozle.

Queen of the Green Men KG Murray broke into the Australian comics with a spash, using colour and stunning work by Australian artists such as Hart Amos.

If you want a job done, ask a busy man. Hart was asked to take over the drawing of Devil Doone, a comic strip which ran each month in the girlie magazine, Man Jr.⁵ Doone was the brainchild of Brisbane radio copywriter and short story author, Ron Carson Gold. Handled briefly by Carl Lyon and then June Mendoze⁶ [sic], the first Doone story to carry the Amos signature appeared in August 1946. Hart continued to draw the strip until the middle of 1969. Apart from appearing in the magazine each month, Devil Doone was reprinted in comic book form; running 47 issues in various formats before Man Jr. folded. All issues up to number 44 contained work by Amos, with this last issue also carrying contrasting examples of the pathetic attempts of two local artists to try and fill Hart's shoes. The shoes were far too big.

The Adventures of Devil Doone 2 An early Devil Doone comic from about 1948 in landscape format, with the trademark Amos signature—and artwork.

Devil Doone owed as much, if not more, of its longevity to Hart's smooth, professional approach and page appreciation as it did to Gold's basic script. Because of the restrictive nature of the 12-panel format and Gold's tendency to overwrite, Amos was given carte blanche to alter the script as he saw fit. It is an option that he exercised regularly and, often, quite severely. Many years before he left the strip, Hart had Devil give up smoking... yet Gold never noticed and continued to script Doone taking a puff. It was his work on Devil Doone with which most readers on both sides of the Tasman [Sea] would identify Hart Amos. But he saved his best work until last.

After leaving the K.G. Murray scene, and after much persuasion, Hart agreed to draw the Sunday Air Hawk page for John Dixon⁷. While the early pages were stiff, overworked and somewhat Doone-ish in appearance, the collaboration was a masterstroke on Dixon's part. Amos' work blossomed as he gained confidence... with the result that imparted to the strip a quality that made it one of the most visually pleasing Sunday pages produced by a local artist since the days when Stanley Pitt's Silver Starr was in flight. Because they have different techniques, it is difficult (and perhaps foolish) to make comparisons, but I am sure that John Dixon would be well-satisfied if he could match Hart's performance on this page. Not knowing that it was handled by Hart Amos, many overseas fans have commented on the fine job that 'John Dixon' was doing on the Sunday page... which speaks for itself.

Adventures of Devil Doone 36 Published in the late 1950s.

Devil on the Snow A Hart Amos spread from Devil Doone in Man Junior Vol. 26 No 14, June 1953. Click the image to see the full double page spread.

With the Air Hawk page, Hart's penchant for detail was tested to the limit. Not only was he called upon to draw planes, guns, sea crafts, vehicles, etc in far more detail then previously, but he had to pay considerably more attention to the buildings, animals, sand dunes, jungles and varying landscapes that make up the background of this strip. In adding variation to his panel layouts, he had to examine his composition with an eye towards the bottom level of speech balloons, to allow for cropping by some newspapers. But Hart conquered these and other problems to make the Sunday page his own.

When his work had reached a standard acceptable to both Dixon and himself (with great emphasis on the latter), he was allowed to place "H.A." in one of the panels. However, this only lasted until the Sun-Herald (Sydney) decided to print part of their comic section in three colours. The resultant choice of colours and attempted blending of added half-tones almost gave Amos apoplexy! He refused to add his initials to the strip as long as this colour scheme continued. Unfortunately, it is still being used to this day.

Hart's first Air Hawk pages appeared in March 1970 and his last one was published in June 1977. Somewhat indifferent health and the strain of meeting a constant deadline for three decades made Hart decide to retire and catch up on all those things he has been putting aside for years. One of those things is oil painting. A perfectionist in matters of art, Hart is going through all the agonies of frustration which follow any attempt to adapt to a medium after having spent a lifetime working in an entirely different medium. But given Hart's talent and dedication, there is not the slightest doubt that he will make the transition... and make it successfully.

Air Hawk and the Flying Doctor 1975. This image is from the published version of Ryan's article in Strips.

Hart has nothing but praise for John Dixon, both as an employer and a friend... and once he has come to grips with his oil painting problems, he will be looking at some daily strip sequences to assist Dixon [in widening] his deadline buffer. The painting world will be gaining a very warm, talented, literate man with a keen sense of humour. It will be the comic world's loss.

Text copyright © 1977-2007 the estate of John Ryan. This article was prepared for online publication by Kevin Patrick, with the generous assistance of John Clements. Additional artwork scans courtesy of Mick Stone, Camberwell Books & Collectibles. Kevin Patrick would also like to thank Greg Ray for his additional research assistance.

Kevin Patrick writes the 'Comics Down Under' column for Collectormania magazine. He can be contacted at PO Box 1055, Camberwell, Victoria 3124 Australia; or via email at Kevin Patrick

Amber Insect Hart Amos from Cavalcade Volume 14 No. 3, August 1951.

Footnotes

This article was originally published in Strips No.4-5 (combined issue, 1977), a New Zealand comic magazine published by Colin Wilson, which showcased new work by local artists and published installments of John Ryan's column, "Bidgee".
Despite his reluctance to be interviewed, Hart Amos did write a brief autobiographical sketch for Cartoonists of Australia (View Productions, Pty. Ltd., Sydney, 1983), which was edited and published by Richard Rae.
John Ryan (1931-1979) was a pivotal figure in the history of Australian comics' fandom. Not only did he publish Australia's first comic "fanzine", Down Under, in 1964, but his pioneering article, "Down Under—with the Comics", earned him an American "Alley Award" for Best Article (Fan Category) in 1965. Ryan's ongoing column, Bidgee (after an Aboriginal word meaning "the wind that tells"), was widely circulated in American and Australasian fanzines throughout the 1960s and '70s. Ryan was asked to write entries on key Australian comic artists and characters for The World Encyclopedia of Comics (Chelsea House Publishers, New York, 1976), before writing his own pioneering book, Panel By Panel: An Illustrated History of Australian Comics (Cassell Australia Limited, Stanmore NSW, 1979). Sadly, Ryan died in December 1979, just months after his book was published. Since his death, Ryan's comic book collection (along with his related papers and manuscripts) has been formally acquired by the National Library of Australia in June 1981, where it remains housed to this day.

Hurricane Hardy in the Sub-Micro World from Superman All Color Comic 5.

Prior to illustrating Devil Doone, Amos' major comic works for KG Murray were as follows: The Lost Patrol ("A Climax Comic" – Unnumbered, 1946); "The Crystal Ball" (appearing in Blue Star All-Australian Comic – Unnumbered, 1947); "The Moon Mirror" (appearing in A Climax All Australian Comic – Unnumbered, 1947); "Kidnap Cavern" (appearing in the first, unnumbered issue of Climax, 1947); "Queen of the Green Men’ (appearing in the third, unnumbered issue of Climax, 1947); "Hurricane Hardy" (appearing in Climax Color Comic No.8, 1948); and Magicat (Nos. 1-3, circa 1952).
Man Junior (later renamed Man Jr) was launched by KG Murray Publishing in 1937, as a pocket-sized companion to its successful predecessor, Man, which had debuted in December 1936. The Devil Doone comic strip continued to appear in Man Jr until June 1973, when the magazine ceased publication.
The Devil Doone comic strip was originally illustrated by June Mendoza (b.1927), who signed her work "Mendoza". She was briefly followed by Carl Lyon (1903–1982), who drew several "Devil Doone" installments before Hart Amos took over as the feature's permanent artist.
John Dixon's outback adventure strip, Air Hawk and the Flying Doctors, debuted as a Sunday newspaper comic strip in Sydney's Sun-Herald newspaper in 1959, and was gradually picked up major metropolitan newspapers in other Australian states. Dixon was eventually commissioned by the Herald and Weekly Times newspaper group to produce a daily newspaper strip version of Air Hawk in 1963. Dixon continued to write both strips, but hired Mike Tabrett as an assistant, who took over illustrating the Sunday version, while Dixon drew the daily Air Hawk strip. Towards the end of 1969, Tabrett left the strip to become a newspaper staff artist, after which he was replaced by Hart Amos. When Amos retired in 1977, the Sunday version of Air Hawk was passed on to Keith Chatto (1924–1992), who had previously "ghosted" the daily Air Hawk strip for Dixon in 1972.