Mick Anglo

Michael 'Mick' Anglo was born Maurice Anglowitz on 19th June 1916 in Bow, London. Educated at the Central Foundation School and the John Cass Art School, he freelanced in fashion and commercial art until 1939, then drew cartoons for SEAC (the South East Asia Command) in 1942 and for newspapers in Singapore in 1945. He became an author for a small publishing company, Martin & Reid, producing crime, Western and romance stories in the late '40s under the pen name Johnny Dekker, but also began producing occasional comic strips for various companies. Having drawn attention to his talent for this kind of work, he worked for the comics publishing arm of Martin & Reid for two years from 1948-1950 editing, writing and drawing various strips and titles. At the same time, he also worked on comics for Paget Publications, among other things creating the superhero Wonderman, who featured in 24 issues of his own title between 1948 and 1951.

Between 1950 and 1952, Anglo worked on strips for the Arnold Book Company, owned by Arnold Miller, including Captain Valiant and Ace Malloy of the Special Squadron, while also producing Space Commando Comics featuring Space Commander Kerry for L. Miller and Son, the company run by Arnold Miller's father Leonard. In 1954, Anglo stated his own company, Gower Studios, in Gower Street in London, and Mick Anglo Limited was incorporated on 21st August the same year. Anglo's staff of artists included Ron Embleton, Don Lawrence (who broke into comics through Anglo), Denis Gifford, George Stokes and Bob Monkhouse. In 1954, Anglo was asked by Len Miller to create the character he is best remembered for, Marvelman, as a replacement for Miller's Captain Marvel Adventures reprint title (which had had to be cancelled following Fawcett Comics in America losing their infamous legal battle with DC Comics over similarities between Captain Marvel and Superman). Anglo replaced the Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr and Mary Marvel characters whose adventures Miller had been reprinting with original stories featuring Marvelman, Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman, scripting 736 issues featuring the characters before leaving Miller's employ in 1960. After this, he set up Anglo Comics in 1960, publishing several titles including Captain Miracle (which used reprinted Marvelman stories with alterations to the art). The company folded, however, in June 1961.

Anglo subsequently worked for Thorpe & Porter, Top Sellers, John Spencer & Co. and City Magazines on various titles in the late 1960s (including Super DC), and contributed to IPC's war comics between 1979 and 1983 before retiring. He sold the rights to the Marvelman characters to Marvel Comics in 2009, and died aged 95 on 31st October 2011.