John Ryan (cartoonist)

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For other persons named John Ryan, see John Ryan (disambiguation).
A John Ryan panel from the 1959 Eagle Annual No. 8: Harris Tweed in Man Eater!
A John Ryan panel from the 1959 Eagle Annual No. 8: Harris Tweed in Man Eater!

John Gerald Christopher Ryan (born 4 March 1921 (86), Edinburgh) is a British animator and cartoonist, best known for his character Captain Pugwash.

Ryan expressed his love of writing and drawing early in life, creating his first book, Adventures of Tommy Brown at the age of 71. Ryan attended Ampleforth College, a Catholic boarding school. After completing his national service in Burma, Ryan studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic, although he only completed one year, as he felt at 24 he was too old to be studying.2

Whilst teaching art at Harrow3, Ryan first created Captain Pugwash as a comic strip for The Eagle in 1950, although the strip was dropped after three months as it was felt to be too young for the target audience. Unperturbed, Ryan created Harris Tweed, Special Agent. However, when The Radio Times commissioned him to provide a strip he resurrected the Captain Pugwash strip, and in 1957 he was commissioned by the BBC to produce a series of animation shorts featuring the character2, originally running from 1957 to 1958. The animation of these films was done in real time (rather than by the stop-frame animation method) using an ingenious system of cut-out characters and boats, moved by hidden cardboard levers. Further episodes were commissioned almost twenty years later in 19744, and in all 86 episodes were made with the last airing in 1975. Ryan also wrote and illustrated a number of children's books featuring the character, and in the 1980s created three new comic albums featuring the character.

Through his animation studio, John Ryan Studios, he also created The Adventures of Sir Prancelot (1971-1972) and Mary Mungo & Midge (1969) for the BBC. 4

In 1981 Ryan presented The Ark Stories for Yorkshire TV, the series being produced by Anne Wood. Each episode saw Ryan present and illustrate a story about Noah's Ark, either prior to or during the Great Flood4.

He also created Lettice Leefe, the Greenest Girl in School, a comic strip for Girl magazine1.

Ryan also provides illustrations and cartoons for Catholic newspapers, notably The Catholic Herald, and several collections of these cartoons were published as books.

He now lives in Rye5.

There are a number of Ryan's original book illustrations on permanent loan at the Centre for the Study of Cartoons, University of Kent7

In addition to the 24 books in the Captain Pugwash series and the 11 in his Noah's Ark series, he produced a further 24 books.8

[edit] Endnotes

[edit] External links

  • Jedis Children's TV Captain Pugwash page, contains a 1974 interview with Ryan on the animation of Captain Pugwash