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Secondhand Paperback in Worn Condition. Pages yellowed and 1st one almost loose
96 pages
Born Reginald Smyth (without the "e"), the son of Richard Oliver Smyth, a shipyard worker, and his wife, Florence (Florrie) née Pearce, he left school at 14. After some years unemployed he joined the Northumberland Fusiliers, serving ten years and rising to the rank of sergeant.
During World War II, Smyth saw active service in North Africa, where he developed a talent for cartoon drawing through creating posters for amateur dramatic productions.
After being released from active duty, he settled in London and worked as a clerk for the GPO. He continued to draw poster art but in the 1950s moved to cartoon work, operating through an agent and using the pseudonym Reg Smythe.
By the mid-1950s, he was working for the Daily Mirror, where his "Andy Capp" cartoon strip had its debut in 1957. It made its way to the United States in 1963. Smyth described Andy Capp as having been born "on the A1 road at 60 mph" after he had received, during a visit to West Hartlepool, a request from the Mirror Group chairman Hugh Cudlipp to create a cartoon to boost northern readership. The characters Andy and Flo were based on Smyth's own parents.
