Ernest Michael Hubbard (1904-1976) was born and trained in Dublin before joining Dean's Studios. He drew illustrations for The Thriller in the 1930s, including covers. He was assistant to Norman Pett on the Daily Mirror cheesecake strip Jane, drawing backgrounds and male characters, and took over the strip from Pett in 1948, drawing it until it finished in 1959.
He drew adventure strips for Amalgamated Press' Knockout in the 1940s and Sun in the 1950s. In the 1960s and 70s he painted colour adaptations of classic stories like H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines and R. M. Ballantyne's Coral Island for The Ranger (he had drawn another version of Coral Island for Knockout in 1946) and Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden for Princess Tina. He also drew "Jane Bond, Secret Agent", for Princess Tina (1967-70), and strips for nursery title Hey Diddle Diddle (early 70s). An unfinished adaptation of Richard Doddridge Blackmore's Lorna Doone, intended for Princess Tina, was probably his last work before he died.
He also excelled as a portrait painter, and was an expert in the history of architecture.
Comics bibliography
- "Treasure Island" (Knockout, 1945', reprinted in Thriller Picture Library, 1951)
- "Coral Island" (Knockout, 1946)
- "Robin Hood" (Knockout, 1947)
- "Sindbad the Sailor" (Knockout, 1947)
- "Marco Polo" (Knockout, 1948)
- Jane (Daily Mirror, 1948-1959)
- "Red River" (Knockout, 1949)
- "The Adventures of Marco Polo" (Sun, 1954)
- "King Solomon's Mines" (The Ranger, 1965-66)
- "Jane Bond" (Tina, Princess Tina, 1967-1970)
- "Coral Island" (The Ranger)
- "The Secret Garden" (Princess Tina)
Strips in:
- Hey Diddle Diddle
- June
- Pixie
- Poppet
External links
- Mike Hubbard, Michael Hubbard galleries at Look and Learn
- Mike Hubbard art at The Book Palace
- Jane Bond on WikiPF (in French)
- Mike Hubbard art at Illustration Art Gallery
- Biography at Illustration Art Gallery
References
- Alan Clark, Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors, British Library, 1998, pp. 81-82