cartoonist and comic strip writer, was born in New Zealand. In the 1920s he shared a room in Sydney with fellow Kiwi,
Cecil ('Unk’) White, drawing cartoons for
Smith’s Weekly and the
Bulletin. His
Smith’s cartoons include: 'Foreman (to worker): “Now, don’t you take no risks, me lad. Think of your wife – brokenhearted, if anything was ter 'appen to yer – yer kids grievin’ – and me! I’d 'ave ter put in two blanky reports about it”’ 1 November 1924, 23.
The first of Cook’s many popular comic strips,
Roving Peter (late 1920s), was drawn for the
Sunday Times. His strip
Bobby and Betty, published in the
Daily Telegraph from August 1933, was initially old-fashioned in style with text below each panel, but it became more modern under the influence of US artists Alex Raymond and Burne Hogarth. Cook was also interested in the science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and drew sci-fi comics in the 1940s, eg
Pirate Planet and
Peril Planet for the
NSW Bookstall Co. and
The Blue Ray for K.G. Murray publications (1946).
Noel Cook also created adventure strips for Frank Johnson publications, eg
Boris of Mars and
Hawk Larse – in the Year 2000 AD. Undated (c.1940s) originals in ML include gag cartoons like (man about to be grilled by cops) “Well boys, what’s it to be? – Humor? Pathos? Fiction?” (Px*D69/no. 789, used in
SLNSW 1999 b/w exhibition) and (woman in funny hat in surgery) “I’m obsessed with the idea, doctor, that people are looking at me!” (Px*D69/ no.737). Late in 1947 Elmsdale Publications introduced Cook’s
Kokey Koala and his Magic Button for young readers.
Later Cook was a staff artist with Associated Newspapers and
ACP in Sydney. He also produced children’s comics. In 1950 he left Australia for London. He became art director of children’s magazines for Fleetway Publications in 1964.
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2007
