James Charles Bancks (10 May 1889 – 1 July 1952) was an Australian

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

best known for his comic strip ''

Ginger Meggs ''Ginger Meggs'', Australia's most popular and longest-running comic strip, was created in the early 1920s by Jimmy Bancks. The strip follows the escapades of a red-haired prepubescent mischief-maker who lives in an inner suburban working-class ...

''.

Biography

James Charles Bancks was born in

Enmore, New South Wales Enmore is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Enmore is located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of Inner ...

, Australia on 10 May 1889, the son of an Irish railway worker, John Spencer Bancks. Bancks left school at the age of 14 and found employment with a finance company. His first illustrations were accepted and published by ''The Comic Australian'' in 1913, followed by ''The Arrow'' in 1914. This encouraged Bancks to submit work to '' The Bulletin'', where he was offered a permanent position, which he accepted and remained until 1922. Throughout this period he was studying art under

Dattilo Rubbo Antonio Salvatore Dattilo Rubbo (Napoli 21 June 1870 – Sydney 1 June 1955) was an Italy, Italian-born artist and art teacher active in Australia from 1897. Rubbo, or Dattilo-Rubbo, was born in Naples in 1870, and spent his early childhood i ...

and

Julian Ashton Julian Rossi Ashton (27 January 185127 April 1942) was an English-born Australian artist and teacher. He is best known for founding the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney and encouraging Australian painters to capture local life and scenery '' ...

and supplying freelance cartoons to the ''Sunday Sun''. He created ''

Ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...

'' (later ''Ginger Meggs'') for the ''Sunday Sun'' and ''Sun News-Pictorial''. Bancks created ''The Blimps'' for the ''Melbourne Sun'' in 1923, and this daily strip ran until 1925, the year when he launched ''Mr. Melbourne Day by Day'' for the ''Melbourne Sun-Pictorial''.

Personal life

On 15 October 1931 Bancks married Jessie Nita Tait (daughter of theatrical entrepreneur, Edward Joseph 'E.J.' Tait) at

Darling Point Darling Point is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, Australia. It is 4 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of Woollahra Council. Darling Point is bounded by Sydney Harbour to t ...

. She first worked as fashion adviser to her father's enterprise, since 1933 she published the column "Fashion Parade" in

The Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by ...

. Jessie died in childbirth on 22 November 1936. In 1938 he married Patricia Quinan in

Yuma, Arizona Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...

in the United States. They adopted a daughter, the artist Sheena Bancks, who married the actor

Michael Latimer Michael James Latimer (6 September 1941 – 25 June 2011) was a British television stage and film actor who later in his career turned to writing, directing and producing. Early life Latimer was born in Calcutta, where his father had a busines ...

. Bancks died on 1 July 1952 from a heart attack at his home in

Point Piper, New South Wales Point Piper is a small, harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, east of the Sydney CBD, in the local government area known as the Municipality of Woollahra. Point Piper has been historically regar ...

.Jim Bancks
at

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...

On 26 July 1997 the Mayor of

Hornsby, New South Wales Hornsby is a suburb in the Northern Sydney region, or Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia, approximately north-west of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local ...

formally named a park in Hornsby after Bancks's character Ginger Meggs. The area had an association with Bancks because he used to spend time there in his childhood. The park is located in Valley Road, adjacent to a creek that was named Jimmy Bancks Creek.

Selected writings

*''

'' (1922–1952) – cartoon *''Impressions of the Artists' Ball : In Line and in Rhythm'' (1922) – poetry *''The Sunshine Family : A Book of Nonsense for Girls and Boys'' (1923) – children's fiction *''Party Impressions'' (1929) – short story *''The Man Who Knew Mailey'' (1930) – short story *''

Blue Mountains Melody ''Blue Mountain Melody'' (also seen as ''The Blue Mountains Melody'') is a 1934 Australian musical comedy. It was a rare local musical produced by J. C. Williamson Ltd. The firm commissioned it following the success of ''Collits' Inn''. ''Bl ...

'' (1934) – musical

References

External links

*Bancks, James Charles. ''The Golden Years of Ginger Meggs, 1921–1952'', edited by J. Horgan. Medindie, S.A.: Souvenir in association with Brolga, 1978. *Ryan, John. ''Panel by panel: a history of Australian comics.'' Stanmore, N.S.W: Cassell Australia, 1979. *Strickler, Dave. ''Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index.'' Cambria, California: Comics Access, 1995. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Bancks, Jimmy 1889 births 1952 deaths Australian cartoonists Australian comic strip cartoonists Australian comics artists People from the Inner West (Sydney) Australian people of Irish descent