James Charles Bancks or Jimmy Bancks (10 May 1889 1 July 1952) was an Australian cartoonist best known for his comic strip Ginger Meggs

Ginger Meggs

Ginger Meggs, a popular long-run Australian 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 household....

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Born in Enmore, New South Wales

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 south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of Marrickville Council.-History:...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, the son of an Irish railway worker, Bancks left school at the age of 14 and found employment with a finance company. The Arrow published his first illustration in 1914. Bancks worked at The Bulletin

The Bulletin

The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...

until 1922.

He created Ginger

Ginger Meggs

Ginger Meggs, a popular long-run Australian 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 household....

(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.

Bancks also contributed to The Comic Australian.

Bancks died on 1 July 1952, from a heart attack in Point Piper, New South Wales

Point Piper, New South Wales

Point Piper is a small, harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located six kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area known as the Municipality of Woollahra....

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Selected Writings

• Ginger Meggs
  Ginger Meggs
  Ginger Meggs, a popular long-run Australian 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 household....
  
  (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 (1934) - musical

External Links

• Jim Bancks at Australian Dictionary of Biography
  Australian Dictionary of Biography
  The Australian Dictionary of Biography is a national, co-operative enterprise, founded and maintained by the Australian National University to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's history....
  
  

Sources

• 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. ISBN 0-7269-7376-9
• Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. ISBN 0-9700077-0-1.