Herbert J. Kerby 1916-2008
Herbert Jonas Kerby [known to his mates as “Herby”] passed away over the weekend.
Herby began an art scholarship from a charity in Norwich at the age of 15 -though he pointed out that the charity also provided a scholarship in art for a 12 year old who “went on to become a very famous fine art painter…buggered if’n I can even remember his name now!”
At 17 years of age,Herby began drawing cartoons and illustrations for various magazines based in London. On a Summer trip to Dundee in 1938,Herby met one of the Thomson family and by December 1938 was working for D.C. Thomsons & Sons [Dundee Editions].
In 1940,Herby helped Sam Fair out by inking some pages of Addie & Hermy,understudied Jack Glass on The Amazing Mr X and even “moonlighted” for Amalgamated Press.
In 1941 [age 26] Herby joined the Merchant Navy but the ship he was on was torpedoed and sunk on its first night out. “I was buggered if I was gonner let them Nazies get away with that!” he recalled rather angrily in 1998,”So I joins the Royal Navy only I had to serve on a motor launch -a month after I joined the crew we went out looking for an RAF chap that had been hit by Jerry fire. We rescued him but we got our stern crushed by a German bomber that had been hit by flak!” The launch sank.
After several more scrapes,Herby was “honourably discharged” after a piece of shrapnel was removed from what he laughinly called his “chutney wagon” [uh,his bottom!].
Back in comic strip drawing,Herby did work for Gerald Swan and worked with Len Fullerton [”Nat Brand”] on a strip but also worked for Thomson and them Amalgamated Press again -until a Thomson editor mentioned to an AP editor friend over lunch that Herby was a fast worker. The AP man,being an idiot,responded,”Oh,I’ve a fellow working for me called Herbert Kerby -we call him “Herby!”
Thomson black-listed Herby.
‘John Spencer’ and Swan as well as a few other post-war publishers dabbling in comics kept Herby in work. There had been an opportunity to work with Frank Hampson but Herby was non-too-keen on the “space padre” idea being a confirmed atheist -this “space padre” was Marcus Morris’ idea and it later evolved into Dan Dare and The Eagle!
Training disabled ex-servicemen to paint and draw using their toes or mouths to hold pens or brushes,Herby hit on what he thought would be a great gag. He drew an entire Western strip for Amalgamated Press using only his feet! He handed over the art and was stunned to be praised “Your work is really improving” he was told.
Having lied about his age to new management,Herby continued drawing until he was 67 but then had to retire. Eye sight problems and arthritis finally taking its toll.
His son Jack has a list of strips Herby worked on plus a few old comics with the strips in. Hopefully,as time permits,this can all be properly catalogued.
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3 Responses
You forgot to mention Herby’s ill-fated flirtation with American comics back in the late-80s. Following the success of “Dark Knight” & “Watchmen”, DC headhunted Herby Kirby (Along with many other British talents) to work on a hard-hitting, psychologically realistic version of one of their classic titles. Unfortunately, the new, improved “Sugar & Spike” with graphic violence, foul language & incest never actually got published, and Herby’s Transatlantic comics career was killed off before it had even been born. As the great man was quoted as saying in an “Arkensword” interview in 1988, “Bloody Yanks! Who do they think won the bleedin’ war, anyway?”
R.I.P., Herb.
-D. “Cultural Historian” N.
Posted on March 26th, 2008 at 5:25 am
Herby is one of a legion of backroom freelancers used by DC Thomson and AP over the years, most of whom we will never know about. It would be good if some of his known artwork could be posted and maybe a list of his work from his son Jack so that Herby could be added to the current DC Thomson/AP/Swan indices that are out there and I believe some are in the process of being updated.
Posted on April 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 am
Hmm. It would be nice and I’ve been working on this for a while. Old Darron Northall,of course,has to joke!
Herbie WAS approached by DC at a time when lots of British creators were but he lucked out. He thought it might have been because he pencilled AND inked his strips but DC wanted one or the other -Herbie would not let someone ink his work.
Years later he said that he thought the real reason was his age! “They were getting all these young chaps and here was I - old Methuselah!”
Bless.
Posted on April 22nd, 2008 at 6:13 pm
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