Jim Holdaway
Born	1927 London
Died	1970
Nationality	British
Area(s)	artist
Notable works	Romeo Brown Modesty Blaise

Jim Holdaway (1927 - 1970) was a British illustrator, who was famous for his illustrations of numerous comic strips. His most famous contributions was to the Modesty Blaise comics written by Peter O'Donnell. This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Cover of the first Modesty Blaise novel. ... Peter ODonnell (born 1920), British cartoon writer and author and creator of Modesty Blaise. ...

Cover of a Modesty Blaise novel, illustrated by Jim Holdaway

Download high resolution version (645x942, 158 KB)Cover of Modesty Blaise by Peter ODonnell - first US edition (hardcover), Doubleday, 1965. ... Download high resolution version (645x942, 158 KB)Cover of Modesty Blaise by Peter ODonnell - first US edition (hardcover), Doubleday, 1965. ... Cover of the first Modesty Blaise novel. ...

Art career

Jim Holdaway was born in 1927 in Barnes Common, London. On completing schooling in New Malden, Surrey, Holdaway attended the Kingston School of Art. After spending two years of National Service from 1945 with the East Surrey Regiment, Holdaway went to Italy, Austria and Greece before returning to art school on an ex-Serviceman's grant.

Jim Holdaway eventually left to work in France where he secured numerous advertising opportunities. Returning to England soon to take care of his widowed mother, Holdaway went to work for Scion Books in Kensington, doing a variety of artwork, book jackets, comic books and advertising.^[1] He then became freelance, working from home. He was drawing for Odhams and Farringdon Press doing 64-page comics including: Captain Vigour, The Football Comic, Steve Samson, Dick Hercules, Reveille, Tit-Bits, Comic Cuts, Junior Express (The Red Rider and Joanna of Bitter Creek, 1955), Mickey's Weekly (Davy Crockett, 1956), and Swift Comic (Cliff McCoy, 1956).^[1]

In 1957, Holdaway replaced the artist Alfred Mazure on the strip Romeo Brown, leading to the key association of his career - with writer Peter O'Donnell. The two were a perfect match and in 1963 Holdaway started drawing for O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise comics strips.

Jim Holdaway died in 1970 from a heart attack

References

External links

• Jim Holdaway biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia
• Jim Holdaway artwork at Illustration Art Gallery