Sad news of another passing in the world of comics and cartoons, cartoonist Terry Willers died on November 9th, aged 76.
Although born in the UK, Terry lived and worked in Ireland for over 40 years. He began his drawing career aged just 15, working for a Disney studio in London. He went on to draw newspaper strips for various European newspapers including strips from the Dutch Toonder studios in the 1960s. It was also during the Sixties that Terry became an artist on Odhams' Wham! weekly as one of the people brought in to "ghost" the look of Leo Baxendale's work. Willers' own style was still evident in those pages though and he was allowed to sign his work. He also worked on strips for other comics, such as The Dandy and The Beano.
In Ireland Terry drew cartoons for The Sunday Independent, The Farmers Journal, The Evening Herald and The Wicklow People. He also worked in television, producing cartoons for Hall's Pictorial Weekly (for which he won an award) and The Mike Murphy Show. He was also a founder and chairman of the International Cartoon Festival in Rathdrum during 1992 - 94. (The 1992 event attracted over 30,000 people!)
Here are a couple of the strips he drew for Wham! General Nitt and his Barmy Army appeared in issue 86 (5th Feb. 1966) and Georgie's Germs appeared in issue 88 (19th Feb. 1966):
For more information on Terry Willers and a better sampling of his work visit these sites:
http://www.wicklownews.net/Post/2011/11/498/rathdrum-saddened-at-death-of-cartoonist
http://www.ecc-cartoonbooksclub.blogspot.com/2011/11/terry-willers-passed-away-1935-2011.html#!/2011/11/terry-willers-passed-away-1935-2011.html
http://lambiek.net/artists/w/willers_terry.htm
I believe Terry was also instrumental in setting up the Cartoon festival in Rathdrum some years ago.They had a good line up of guests, including Mort Drucker from Mad Magazine.Ian Knox used to go regularly to them.
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