Larry Yaroslav Horak b. 1927

Also known as Yaroslav Horak, Larry Horak
  • Artist (Painter),
  • Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)
Late 20th century Manchurian born Sydney comic strip cartoonist. Horak later gave up comics and took up painting.
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strip cartoonist, was born in Harbin, Manchuria, son of a Czech father and Russian mother. The family migrated to Sydney just before WWII. In 1948 Horak’s first accepted strips for a comic book (by H. John Edwards) were Rick Davis (a detective adventure) and The Skyman (a mysterious costumed flyer). He then moved to Syd Nicholls’ Publications where he got double the price (i.e. $4 a page) for Ray Thorpe (adventure series) and Ripon – the Man from Outer Space (sci-fi). Also did strips for other Sydney publishers, then moved to Melbourne where he drew for Atlas Publications including Brenda Starr . In 1954 he created The Mask – The Man of Many Faces , which was banned in Queensland. He drew an adaptation of the popular children’s TV program Captain Fortune for Fairfax publications in Sydney in 1957-62 and the full page Mike Steele – Desert Rider for Woman’s Day . (Lots of original strips are in ML (Pic Acc 3088), presented by the Sydney Morning Herald c.1979.) He continued to supply the latter after he moved to England, where he also drew adventure stories for D.C. Thomson of Scotland, the scripts being supplied by others. In 1965 he began a 14 year stint drawing the newspaper comic strip James Bond for the Daily Express (and widely syndicated). He left England in 1973 and lived in Spain and Holland.

After returning to Sydney in the early 1980s, Horak began a Sunday strip of the TV series Cop Shop , which also appeared as a one-off comic book. Later gave up comics and took up painting.

Writers:
Kerr, Joan
Date written:
1996
Last updated:
2007

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