Mike Higgs

Mike Higgs is a British comic book artist, writer, designer, and editor. He is the creator of the oddball humor strip The Cloak and the daily comic strip Moonbird.

Higgs' inaugural British Comic Art Convention badge, produced in 1968.

In the late 1960s, Higgs wrote and drew "The Cloak" for the British comics weeklies Pow! and then Smash! The Cloak was the top agent for Britain's Special Squad, nominally a part of Scotland Yard; but he usually operated from his personal headquarters, known as the Secret Sanctum. His ingenuity and never-ending supply of gadgets and secret weapons gave him the edge over his somewhat odd enemies (some were very odd, including Deathshead and various other agents of G.H.O.U.L.). The Cloak had some equally odd colleagues. Assisted initially by Mole (the tall one with the bald head, big nose and specs) and Shortstuff (the short squirt with the hairy nut and big eyeballs), he then began having adventures in which he found himself also alongside the sexy and flirtatious Lady Shady, the shady lady. The strip benefited from Higgs' unusual, idiosyncratic drawing style, whose overt inclusion of pop culture imagery made the strip seem extremely modern.[1]

Higgs designed the convention badge for the inaugural British Comic Art Convention ("Comicon") in 1968. He was a regular attendee of early editions of Comicon, with his art being included in the convention booklets. He also helped with the first London Comic Mart, organized by Nick Landau and Rob Barrow.[2]

After Smash! was cancelled, Higgs drew the strip "Space School" for Whizzer and Chips, and "Thundercap" for Buster, and contributed to British fanzines. His daily strip Moonbird was published for a time in various Associated Newspapers newspapers; they were later collected in a series of children's books.[3]

In July 1976, Higgs was a guest at "KAK 76" (Konvention of Alternative Komix), an underground comix convention produced by the Birmingham Arts Lab (Paul Fisher and Hunt Emerson), which was held in Birmingham.[4]

In the early 1980s, budding cartoonist Lew Stringer worked as Higgs' assistant.

In the late 1980s, Higgs shifted to becoming a designer and editor. He compiled and designed The Monster Society of Evil: Deluxe Limited Collector's Edition (1989, American Nostalgia Library, ISBN 0-948248-07-6), which reprints the entire "Monster Society of Evil" story arc that ran for two years in Captain Marvel Adventures #22–46 (1943–1945), in which Captain Marvel meets Mister Mind and the Monster Society of Evil. This oversized, slipcased hardcover book was strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies.[5] That same year, Higgs and co-author Denis Gifford published The Comic Art of Charlie Chaplin: a Graphic Celebration of Chaplin's Centenary (Hawk Books ISBN 0-948248-21-1).

Higgs also collected and designed reprint collection of Eagle's "Dan Dare" and "Comics at War."[3]

In 1995, he edited Popeye: 60th Anniversary Edition (1995), with contributions fro Denis Gifford and others (Book Sales ISBN 0-7858-0397-1).