More cartoons from the other Royston

"Sometimes, Phillips, I just like to sit at home and look at the four walls."

I managed to get round to scanning a few cartoons by the other Royston, the pseudonym of Victoria Cowdroy, who worked as a cartoonist in Australia in the 1940s.

I posted her excellent Disney cartoon a few weeks ago, and here are three more. Like all the cartons from the 1941 Man annual, they're full-pagers, hence the captions appear small here. Click to enlarge.

They're mostly in a "saucy" style, as above, though the one below appears to be making a comment on bankers, who were clearly held in as high esteem then as they are now.

"Eleven o'clock, an appointment with the Consul. Lunch at one with Sir Basil Binge. The Russian Ambassador at four, and report to the Parole Board at five."

This one, though is definitely in a more saucy vein. It's pretty racy stuff, as this couple have clearly been up to something naughty. The look on the face of the patient is brilliant, although, slightly disconcertingly, he does look rather a lot like Ronald Reagan.

"Well, you said to pacify him, didn't you?"

The bad crop, which turns Royston into "oyston", is the fault of the publishers, by the way, not my scanning. Thanks again to Denise Miles for sending me the book.

Click here for cartoons from the male Royston!

The Other Royston takes on Walt Disney

Regular readers will recall that I blogged about the Other Royston, who worked as a cartoonist in Australia in the 1940s and who turned out to be a woman working under a pseudonym.

Well, Denise Miles, my correspondent in Australia who brought Other Royston to my attention, was kind enough to send me the 1941 Man annual in which she found the Royston cartoons. "I always like things to go where they will be enjoyed", said Denise, rather marvellously.

And this certainly has been enjoyed by me today. Each page (just under A4 size) is a full-page cartoon! Imagine something like that being printed today. And from the elegant cover by Jack Gibson, father of the UK's own John Jensen (who revealed to me that "Royston" was a woman) to the advert on the back, also by Gibson, it's beautiful artwork and cracking gags all the way. And there are loads by Other Royston (aka Victoria Cowdroy).

I'll post some more here in due course, but in the meantime, I just had to put this one up, as it made me laugh out loud (click the image to enlarge it):

My sincere thanks to Denise for sending me this, you made my day.

Royston's portfolio website

Another cartoonist called Royston: Update

When I found out last week that there was another cartoonist called Royston, working in Australia in the 1940s, I knew I would need to uncover more about my namesake.

After numerous emails to cartoonists in the UK and Australia, primarily John Jensen and Lindsay Foyle, consultations in reference books on artists, and a fair bit of poking around in dusty corners of the internet, I found out a lot more. And here’s the headline news: Royston was a woman!

“Royston” was the pen-name of Victoria Ethel Cowdroy, better known as Vic Cowdroy, an Australian cartoonist, painter, sculptor, illustrator, filmmaker and commercial artist. I feel like a bit of an underachiever compared to this Royston.


A poster I found in an online auction, credited as the work of Vic Cowdroy, circa 1965. Intriguingly, it is signed “Royston Cooper”.

Cowdroy was born in 1908 and moved to London after the Second World War. She married cartoonist Arthur Horner, creator of the strip Colonel Pewter. They lived and worked in Britain until the mid-1970s when they returned to Melbourne. She died on 26 June 1994.


From The Age, Melbourne, Dec 31, 1977. Note the reference to Horner working on a Colonel Pewter film with his wife.

You can find out all you need to know about Vic Cowdroy here. The article states: “From January 1938 Cowdroy contributed numerous joke cartoons and elegant line and watercolour drawings to Man, Man Junior, Cavalcade and other semi-salacious publications under the pseudonym ‘Royston’.”

I couldn’t find any more "Royston" cartoons online (if you have any, please do scan them and send them to me) but this piece does contain some very entertaining transcriptions of her Man cartoons, which were more than a little risqué for the time.

Old woman to young woman going out: “Be a good girl and have a good time.”/ “Make up your mind mother.” November 1938

Young woman to customs officer checking her luggage: "Oh, don't worry with that one. It's only some marihuana I'm smuggling in." December 1938

Woman with knickers round her ankles but hat intact: “Huh! I thought you said this stuff would knock your hat off.” January 1939

So, lots of information uncovered on Victoria Cowdroy, but one mystery remains: Why earth did she chose the name Royston?!

*********
Many thanks to cartoonist John Jensen for being the first to tip me off that "Royston" was a woman. John's father was Jack Gibson, one of the key artists at Man, and John met Vic Cowdroy a few times.

Thanks also and to Lindsay Foyle in Australia for a heroic amount of research, finding out info from colleagues and looking Cowdroy up in reference books on Australian art. And cheers to Matt Buck, Andy Davey, Jason Chatfield and Nik Scott.

And this is me! THIS Royston's portfolio site