Syd Miller (cartoonist)

Sydney Leon Miller, was born on 24 December 1901 in Strathfield, New South Wales,[1][2][3] the son of a newsagent.[2][4] Miller attended Fort Street High School until the age of fifteen[5] when he left to work briefly at a pharmaceutical importer[1] and then as a trial apprentice in the process engraving department of The Bulletin.[1][2][4] Inspired by the work of The Bulletin's artists, he took art classes at night at the Royal Art Society of New South Wales.[1][2][5]

In 1917 Miller joined Harry Julius and was associated with his company Filmads,[5] which produced the first animated cartoons made commercially in Australia.[2][3][4] As a freelance artist he contributed to many periodicals, including the Bulletin, Aussie[2][4] and in 1920, Smith's Weekly.[4] Miller was employed by Smith's for the next twelve years, to draw political, sports and general cartoons, as well as to write and illustrate film and stage reviews.[3][4][5]

In 1923 he married Susan Austin and they had two children, Robn in 1928 and Peter in 1930.[2] Miller was a founding member of the Black and White Artists’ Club in 1924.[4][6]

During the 1930s Miller continued to create newspaper comic strips, such as Curiosities, in Melbourne's The Herald[2] and Nature Notes and Weird and Wonderful in Sydney's The Daily Telegraph.[2] In 1938 he collaborated with Ted Maloney of the J. Walter Thompson agency to create Chesty Bond,[3][4] designed with the idea of promoting the Bonds clothing company's singlets.[2][5] Miller handled the advertising strip until he joined the Herald and Weekly Times in 1945[3] and the strip passed to another artist, Francis 'Will' Mahony.

From 1942 to 1945 Miller published numerous comic books, with his single column spot, Animalaughs,[5] which started in 1948 appearing throughout Australia, as well as being syndicated in England, Scotland and South Africa.[1][2] Between 1945 and 1956 he worked for The Herald, where he created the strip, Rod Craig,[2] in 1946 which ran until 1995[5] (a record for a continuity strip in Australia at that time).[1] In 1955 he created a new daily strip, Us Girls,[4] which appeared in The Herald on 3 December 1955, and ran until he resigned from his job in 1957 to enter into a partnership at Ajax Films,[1] in the production of television animation and sound-slide films.[2][4][5] In the mid-1950s he created a second advertising comic, A Little Bear Will Fix It,[3][4] promoting the sale of adhesive tape for Behr-Manning. Miller retired in the mid-1960s.[2]

Miller's wife, Susan died in 1978 and five years later, he suffered a severe stroke and was admitted to Sydney Adventist Hospital, where he died on 31 December 1983.[2]