Frank S. Pepper

Frank Stuart Pepper (8 February 1910 – 11 December 1988) was a British writer of comics and story papers for Amalgamated Press, best known as the creator of ''Roy of the Rovers'' and '' Captain Condor''.

Biography

Born in Ilford, North East London, on 8 February 1910, on leaving school he joined the staff of ''The Children's Newspaper'' as an office boy in 1926, under editor Arthur Mee.Alan Clark, ''Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors'', The British Library, 1998, p. 133 He started by writing captions, then longer pieces, and by 1930 was selling articles to other papers on a freelance basis.Steve Holland
''Look and Learn'': a History of the Classic Children's Magazine
2006 He went freelance full-time in 1931, writing for numerous newspapers and magazines.

In the mid-1930s he started selling stories to the boys' story papers, his first story being "Snapshot Sammy" for '' The Triumph''. Editor Reg Eves commissioned him to write a series about a boxing airman, "Rockfist Rogan", for '' The Champion'' in 1937, which he went on to write, under the pseudonym Hal Wilton, for the next 22 years. Also for ''The Champion'', he wrote football serial "Danny of the Dazzlers" under the pseudonym John Marshall, and "Colwyn Dane" as Mark Grimshaw. He also wrote "The Adventures of Beau Brummell" for '' Knockout'' and "The Return of Monte Cristo" for '' The Comet'', as John Morion. For ''The Children's Newspaper'', he wrote the adventures of twins "Bill and Jill", starting in 1948.

In 1952 AP launched '' Lion'', a weekly adventure comic designed to compete with Hulton Press' ''Eagle'', for which Pepper wrote the cover feature " Captain Condor", a space hero created to rival ''Eagle'''s " Dan Dare", for twelve years.Andrew Darlington, "Captain Condor: Space Hero in Search of an Artist"
''The Mentor'' 84
October 1994, pp. 5-8, 11 He also created the cover feature for AP's sports comic ''Tiger'', in 1953: editor Derek Birnage requested a more realistic football series than "Danny of the Dazzlers", and Pepper gave him "Roy of the Rovers",Race Against Time
, ''When Saturday Comes'', April 2004 illustrated by Joe Colquhoun, who took over writing the strip, from Pepper's outline, after four episodes, using the pseudonym Stewart Colwyn.Roy of the Rovers: Behind the Scenes - the Writers
Other series he wrote scripts for included " Dan Dare" for ''Eagle'', "Jet-Ace Logan" in '' The Comet'' and ''Tiger'' and "The Spellbinder" for '' Lion.

He retired from comics in 1983, and started compiling collections of quotations, including ''Twentieth Century Quotations'', ''Contemporary Biographical Quotations'', ''Dictionary of Biographical Quotations'' and ''Twentieth Century Anecdotes''. He died in Cornwall on 11 December 1988. He was married and had four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pepper, Frank S
1910 births
1988 deaths
British comics writers
British boys' story papers
Writers from Essex
People from Ilford