Mike Noble
Mike Noble (17 September 1930 – 15 November 2018) was a British comic artist and illustrator, best known for drawing strips like "Fireball XL5" for "TV Century 21". Biography. Noble's father was a stockbroker's clerk who had artistic talent himself. During the war he was evacuated, like many children, but returned to London and endured much of the blitz. After school Noble attended South West Essex Technical College and School of Art where he studied commercial, rather than fine art. At the age of 17 he joined an advertising studio but found the meticulous reproduction of every  day objects limited him in scope. In 1949 he was called up for National Service and for 18 months was in the 8th Royal Tank Regiment in North Yorkshire after which he spent three years in the Territorial Army, where his artistic talent came into good use producing graphics of military hardware. Returning to the same advertising studio he decided to move on and got a job at Cooper's Studio, London in 1950. Noble admits to learning a lot from Leslie Caswell, an artist whose figure work in 1950s romance magazines such as "Home Notes" and weeklies like "Everybody 's" and "John Bull", are renowned. Noble's first published comic strip (the field in which he was active for 5 decades) was "Simon and Sally", a strip for the comic "Robin" (from Hulton's line of children's comics). Noble stayed with Billy Cooper's studio and contributed spot illustrations to national magazines, such as "Titbits", "Wide World", "Woman", "Woman's Own", and "John Bull" as well as the regional newspaper "Birmingham Weekly Post". In 1958 he started a long run of regular work in comics, with the strip "Lone Ranger and Tonto" ("Express Weekly") followed by "Range Rider  for TV Comic". In 1965 he started work on "TV Century 21", illustrating "Fireball XL5" in colour and, later, "Zero-X" and "Captain Scarlet". He also contributed "Star Trek" to the later incarnation of "TV21" but the imminent demise of this comic led him to jump ship and follow Alan Fennell (his editor at "TV Comic" and "TV21") in illustrating "Timeslip" in "Look-In". Noble's use of bright colour made him a recognizable artist for his many UK fans. His work on the subsequent strips "Follyfoot" and "The Adventures of Black Beauty" showed his talent for dynamic figure work  as well as his ability to draw realistic animals. After a short run of other strips he was asked to draw, in black and white, another creation from the Gerry Anderson canon, "Space 1999". Although very capable in drawing hardware (from his work in National Service) he was most happy to be asked to draw the "Worzel Gummidge" strip. Noble retired from illustration but still contributed pieces to the Fennell revival of "TV21" strips in the 1990s and also enjoyed using his talents locally in illustrating a millennial celebration poster for his village as well as designing a lychgate and  stained glass windows for his local church Bibliography. Sequential comics work and illustrations include: "Note: Some Look-In annuals & specials reprinted abridged versions of Mike Noble strips:"