Syd Nicholls
| Sydney Nicholls | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sydney Wentworth Jordan 20 December 1896 Frederick Henry Bay, Tasmania, Australia |
| Died | 3 June 1977 Potts Point, New South Wales, Australia |
| Pen name | Syd Nicholls |
| Occupation | Cartoonist, illustrator |
| Nationality | Australian |
Sydney 'Syd' Wentworth Nicholls (20 December 1896 – 3 June 1977) was an Australian cartoonist and commercial artist, best known for the long-running comic strip Fatty Finn.
Syd Nicholls was born in Frederick Henry Bay, Tasmania on 20 December 1896, the son of a watchmaker Hubert George Jordan and his wife Arabella Cluidunning, née Bartsche. He adopted his stepfather's surname when his mother remarried in 1907. The family moved to New Zealand and Nicholls attended a wide variety of schools in New Zealand and New South Wales before taking his first job with the printing firm of W.E. Smith in 1910. He studied for seven years under Norman Carter and Antonio Dattilo Rubbo at the Royal Art Society of New South Wales.
His first published work appeared in the International Socialist in 1912, at the age of sixteen and by the time he was eighteen he was having cartoons accepted by The Bulletin, Australian Worker and Australasian Seaman's Journal. Politically committed, Nicholls contributed cartoons to Direct Action, the publication of the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1914 one of these cartoons was instrumental in the paper's editor, Tom Barker, being sentenced to 12 months in jail for 'publishing material prejudicial to recruitment'. Nicholls's art titles for Raymond Longford's film, The Sentimental Bloke in 1919, brought him work for other films. In 1920 he visited the US to study art-title designs for motion pictures. On his return to Sydney, he joined the staff of the Sydney Evening News in 1923 as senior artist. Sir Errol Knox, the editor, asked him to create a comic in colour for the Sunday News supplement to compete with Us Fellers drawn by Jimmy Bancks for the rival Sydney Sunday Sun.
Nicholls produced Fat and His Friends, first published on 16 September 1923. 'Initially presented as a Billy Bunterish comedy figure, complete with straw boater, Fatty Finn evolved . . . into a knockabout schoolboy innocently living out his days in a never-never urban world'. On August 1924 the title of the strip was changed to Fatty Finn, heralding a change in the strip's direction and the role of the main character. Fatty Finn came to be recognised as one of the best-drawn comics in Australia and vied with Ginger Meggs in popularity.
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