Philip Zec

Philip Zec (25 December 1909 – 14 July 1983) was a British political cartoonist and editor. Moving from the advertising industry to drawing political cartoons due to his abhorrence of the rise of fascism, Zec complemented the Daily Mirror editorial line with a series of venomous cartoons. He was considered such an opponent during the Second World War that his name was on a list of persons to be arrested immediately if the Nazis had invaded Britain. His cartoon on VE-day was said to have been a key factor in the Labour Party's 1945 general election campaign.

Zec was born in George Street (now Gower Street), central London, one of eleven children of Simon Zecanovskya, a Russian Jewish tailor from Odessa who, together with his family, had fled oppression in Tsarist Russia.

At thirteen Zec won a scholarship to the Saint Martin's School of Art and, upon graduating, initially joined Arks Publicity, an agency specialising in advertising for radio companies, before establishing his own commercial art studio at only 19 working for advertising agencies including J. Walter Thompson. While working there he drew an illustration of the Flying Scotsman travelling at top speed at night.

In the early 1930s the Daily Mirror was relaunched along the lines of an American-style tabloid. Zec’s former copyeditor at Arks Publicity, William Connor, who was working for the paper, recommended Zec (who had been doing occasional work for the paper including on “Belinda Blue-Eyes”, a copy of the New York News’ cartoon strip “Little Orphan Annie” and scripted by Connor) for the role of political cartoonist. Zec joined the staff of the Mirror in 1937.

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