James Charles Bancks, or Jimmy Bancks for short, was born in 1889 as the son of an Irish railway worker in New South Wales, Australia. He left school at the age of fourteen, to start working for a finance company. His first illustration was published in 1914, in The Arrow, after which more publications followed and Jimmy Bancks was employed at The Bulletin, where he stayed until 1922.
At the same time he submitted cartoons to the Sydney Sunday Sun, where he published 'Us Fellers', in 1921. Bancks developed it into 'Ginger Meggs', which became one of Australia's most popular comic strips. In 1923, Bancks created 'The Blimps' for the Melbourne Sun; this daily strip ran until 1925, when he came up with 'Mr. Melbourne Day By Day' for the Melbourne Sun-Pictorial. Len Reynolds and Harry Mitchell wrote the texts for this strip.
Jimmy Bancks mostly worked on the Sunday page of 'Ginger Meggs' which is still running as a daily strip. Bancks died on 1 July 1952, from a heart attack in Point Piper, New South Wales. 'Ginger Meggs' has since been continued by artists like Ron Vivian (1953-1973), Lloyd Piper (1973-1982), James Kemsley (1983-2007) and Jason Chatfield (since 2007).
