William Giles Baxter (1856–1888) was a British

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 ...

and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

. His most noted work, from 1884 until his death, was for the weekly comic ''

Ally Sloper's Half Holiday ''Ally Sloper's Half Holiday'' was a British comics magazine, first published on 3 May 1884. It is regarded to be the first comic strip magazine to feature a recurring character. Star Ally Sloper, a blustery, lazy schemer often found "sloping" th ...

''. Baxter had previously worked for the Manchester-based

satiric Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

magazine '' Momus/Comus'' before joining the staff at ''Judy'', whose editor,

Charles Henry Ross Charles Henry Ross (1835 – 12 October 1897) was an English writer and cartoonist. Biography Ross created the fictional character Ally Sloper for the British magazine '' Judy'' in 1867, the popular character was spun off into his own comic, ''Al ...

, had created

Ally Sloper Alexander "Ally" Sloper is the eponymous fictional character of the British comic strip ''Ally Sloper''. First appearing in 1867, he is considered one of the earliest comic strip characters and he is regarded as the first recurring character in c ...

, considered the first comic hero,"Scope and highlights."
The British Comics Collection at

The British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. Retrieved 6 July 2014. in 1867. When Ross sold the rights to Gilbert Dalziel, Baxter was taken on to further develop the character. After his death, the illustrations were continued by W. F. Thomas.

References

English illustrators English cartoonists English comics artists 1856 births 1888 deaths {{UK-illustrator-stub