Mike Steel Desert Rider - Yaroslav Horak & Roger Rowe - Woman's Day 27 Feb 1967

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.

Mike Steel Desert Rider - Yaroslav Horak & Roger Rowe - Woman's Day 10 Feb 1964

Yaroslav Horak working on the Cop Shop newspaper strip adapted from the Australian television show.

Yaroslav Horak working on the Cop Shop newspaper strip adapted from the Australian television show.

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.

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Mike Steel Desert Rider - Roger Rowe & Yaroslav Horak - August 16 1965 Woman's Day

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An Instalment from the Mike Steel serial that ran for almost a decade in the Australian magazine Woman’s Day during the 1960’s. By 1965 artist Yaroslav had immigrated to England where he would take over art duties on the James Bond newspaper strip the following year. I presume most of his Mike Steel art was created in the UK and mailed over to Sydney.

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Jet Fury #17 - Yarolav Horak

Another New Zealand edition of Yaroslav Horak's Jet Fury, read No. 15 here.

Jet Fury was published by Times Printing Works in Auckland circa 1950's. Time Printing Works published thousands of comics from 1937 until 1954, when they were effectively shut down by import licensing introduced by the National Government. Times Printing Works published some New Zealand drawn material, primarily work by cartoonist Henry W. Bennett, but chiefly used material syndicated from foreign sources with Australian comics contracted by Young's Merchandising in Sydney.

Jet Fury creator Yaroslav Horak (born 1927) was one of Australian's most prolific cartoonists, producing thousands of pages of comics in Australia before moving to England in 1962. In England he worked on War and Battle Picture Libraries for Fleetway Publications. In 1966 he replaced John McLusky as the second artist on the James Bond newspaper strip which led to a lengthy run of 33 adventures between 1966 - 1984. I'll be posting some of Yaroslav's serialised magazine work, Mike Steele - Desert Rider from Woman's Day when I get around to scanning them, Sadly uncollected, hopefully an enterprising publisher can produce a book of these one day.