Robert Nixon

ROBERT T NIXON [1939-2002] is revered mainly for his highly-accomplished comics works for D C Thomson and IPC, in which he established his highly appealling, cheery style that was intensely commercial and attractive. His work appears to have been inspired greatly by the style of the great Roy Wilson, whose work had so graced the comics of Amalgamated Press as the young Bob was growing up.

'Bob' was a native of Middlesborough, and after attending Art College [sadly cut short due to the death of his father] he entered the Lithography business, however, the lure of the nib proved powerful enough for him to prepare art samples to mail into D C Thomson in 1965, who were suitably impressed enough with his considerable potential to try him out 'ghosting' established one-off pages [the normal route for a beginner within this field] which included Little Plum. This led to Bob being given the regular Roger the Dodger spot after Ken Reid had vacated this position after defecting to Odhams. Bob's early strips featuring this character were accomplished but somewhat ill-at-ease in some respects, as if he was not fully comfortable in trying to emulate Reid's unmistakable style [no mean feat!]: however, come late 1968, and his own natural style shone through brightly, and the look of the strip benefitted greatly after the shackles of slavishly trying to embue Ken's trademarks were cast aside.

By 1969, his work was immensely polished, and he began alternating with Dudley D Watkins' Lord Snooty, eventually taking the strip over completely on a weekly basis.