Garth is an adventure character created by Stephen Dowling whose stories across time and space ran once in the Daily Mirror (now, simply The Mirror). The strip features in the newspaper as reprints, coloured by Martin Baines.
Contributors down the years included Frank Bellamy while Peter O’Donnell of Modesty Blaise fame contributed some stories.
Origins
Garth was the brainchild of strip cartoonist and writer Steve Dowling and BBC producer Gordon Boshell. Both were working on the British national newspaper The Daily Mirror and were asked to create a new strip by its editor. The pair came up with the concept of a "strong man" strip, loosely modelled onDC Comics superhero Superman and the first daily strip appeared inthe Mirror on Saturday 24th July 1943.
Recurring Characters
Publication History
• Daily Mirror Story Checklist
A full checklist of all the Garth stories published to date, detailing first publication in the Mirror only. Synopses of stories will be linked to from this page.
• Garth - Norwegian Publication Checklist
Garth has also been re-published in France, India and Australia.
Creators
Listed alphabetically
Angus Allan - Writer
John Allard - Artist
Martin Asbury - Artist
Frank Bellamy - Artist
Gordon Boshell - Co-creator
Steve Dowling - Co-creator and Artist
Jim Edgar - Writer
Don Freeman - Writer
Dick Hailstone - Artist
Philip Harbottle - Writer
Hugh McClelland - Writer
Peter O'Donnell - Writer
Tim Quinn - Writer
James Tomlinson - Writer
Ken Roscoe - Writer
Peter Tranter - Writer
Collections
In spite of the acclaimed talent that worked on the strip, until the Noughties just five official dedicated Garth books have appeared over the years; a flip book (with Romeo Jones on the reverse) in horizontal format in the late 1950s or early 1960s; The Daily Mirror Book of Garth (1975; a softback annual with Frank Bellamy art which had topless girls censored/bikini tops added, and also in 1976; a horizontal format, Frank Bellamy art uncensored, nipples aplenty) and two Titan Books collection in the late 1980s, Cloud of Balthus and Women of Galba.
Details of the collections feature here on a web site devoted to Frank Bellamy.
John Dakin also reprinted some great Steve Dowling/ John Allard/ Frank Bellamy complete strip collections in the 1970s.
Web Links
• Garth on the Mirror web site
• Garth profile on downthetubes.net
• Yesterday's Papers: A Daily Mirror comic strip list
A guide to all the newspaper strips published in the Mirror, including Garth