Yaroslav Horak

Another Mike Steel Desert Rider instalment from Australian magazine Woman’s Day by Yaroslav Horak and Roger Rowe. Mike Steel Desert Rider ran for almost a decade in Woman’s Day during the 1960’s. I like the gag in the second panel where the Facemaker who is bald says, “…another ten seconds and Mike Steel is out of my hair!”. I also love the gestural nature of Yaroslav’s drawing at this point of his career. Where his early work on comics like Jet Fury could be staid and stiff, the characters in Mike Steel have a dynamic feel and often look composed of lines put down quickly. This style he had created served him well on strips he worked on in the decades to come.

When I was young lad in the early 1980’s I would avidly read my Nana’s women’s magazines for those three panels of Mandrake the Magician in The Australian Woman’s Weekly and the Star Wars newspaper strip in the New Zealand Women’s Weekly. By the mid nineties I was a fully grown adult and had discarded childish pursuits such as comics and skateboarding and thus missed the Channel Eleven comic that featured in New Idea magazine for several months during 1995. I’m not too familiar with Australian television but I believe it is a soap opera based around fictitious characters who interact with Australian celebrities of the time. I can find no mention of this comic online but Google tells me scripter Adrian S. Tame is a veteran reporter and author whilst artist Vasja Koman is a Slovenian educated Illustrator and Melbourne resident.