'When Night Draws In' (comic strip for MAD).
Clive Collins was a British cartoonist and caricaturist, with a long association with Punch magazine, The Sun, Playboy and the Daily Mirror. His longest-running comic series was 'Lucky Jim' (1972-1982), which ran in the Sun. Collins' cartoons have often received awards.
Early life and career
Clive Collins was born in 1942 in Weston-super-Mare, a seaside town in South West England. His brother was the famous pop singer and drummer Phil Collins (formerly a member of the band Genesis and not to be confused with American cartoonist Phil Collins). Clive Collins studied graphic design at the Kingston School of Art. Among his graphic influences are Carl Giles, Leslie Starke, George Price, Charles Addams, Charles Grave, R.B. Wilson, Mike Williams and George Booth. After graduation, Collins worked in marine insurance and appeared as a film extra. He contributed both to the establishment of a film and an art studio.
'Brad & Alf', cartoon strip for Fletcher Schlaefli Media.
Cartooning career
Between 1964 and 2002 Collins worked as a cartoonist for Punch magazine. He also had a long association with tabloid paper The Sun, where he published almost uninterrupted from 1969-1970 and from 1971 until 1982. In their pages ran his comic series, 'Lucky Jim' (1972-1982), about a tipster for horse racing. He was also a standby fill-in for his colleague Stanley Franklin. Between 1969 and 1999 Collins was also a cartoonist for The People, where he worked under the pseudonym "Collie". He was additionally an occasional stand-in for Jak in The Evening Standard. In this latter newspaper he signed with the name "Ollie". In 1982 Collins left the Sun and three years later he said goodbye to the Evening Standard too.
Cartoons by Clive Collins.
In 1972 Clive Collins made his debut as a one-panel gag cartoonist for Hugh Hefner's Playboy. His work appeared both in the U.S. editions as well as the German edition. His work could be read in the newspaper The Daily Mirror between 1985 and 1996, where he illustrated the sports pages for Mike Langley's column (1991-1996). He also illustrated David Ashforth's Saturday column (1994-1999) in The Sporting Life. From 1985 on he illustrated the Reader's Digest 'Buy-Lines' advertising feature. In 2000 Collins had a short-lived comic strip named 'Baby Blair', published in The Daily Mail.
Collins has additionally published in Mail on Sunday, Oldie Magazine Sunday Express, Oui, Mad Magazine (the UK version), Odds On, The Sporting Life, Squib, Duck Soup, Printing World, Reader's Digest and Penguin. He also made caricatures and designed greeting cards. Clive Collins also drew a 12-page "autobiography" cartoon booklet sleeve for his brother's first solo single 'In The Air Tonight' (Virgin, 1981).
First and eighth cartoon from the 'In The Air Tonight' sleeve, by Clive Collins for his brother Phil Collins.
Book illustrations
Collins illustrated various non-fiction books, such as Stephen Pile's 'The Book of Heroic Failures' (Penguin, 1979), Gerry Bel's 'The Book of Moving House/Handbook of Sailing & Watersports' (Mondria, 1989), Graham Sharpe's 'Coups & Cons' (Aesculus Press, 1991), 'The Idiot Guide to Sex' (Why Not, 1991), Paul Hancock's 'Is That You Mean?' (Why Not, 1995), 'Dillons Bookseller Induction Manual' (Dillons, 1995), 'Stranger than Fiction' (Penguin, 1996), 'The Language of Love' and 'The Language of Rugby (Linguaphone, 1999), David Albert's 'The A to Z of IT Bullshit' (Athena Press, 2002) and several titles in the 'Funny Book of...' series.
Cartoon in a series for directory enquiries provider 118-118.
Recognition
In 1982 Collins won the first prize at the Wereldkartoenale in Knokke-Heist, Belgium. His winning cartoon - which depicts a business man flying back to a bird's nest full of squeaking brief cases - sported the official cartoon festival exhibition poster. The Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain voted Collins "Cartoonist of the Year" three times, namely 1984, 1985 and 1987. He also received the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun award eight times, five in a row from 1980 to 1984 and again in 1986, 1990 and 1994. In 2011 Collins was honored with an MBE medal by Queen Elizabeth II. His brother, Phil Collins, was present during the ceremony.
Clive Collins was vice-president of the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain and Secretary of the British Cartoonists' Association, as well as a member of the Cartoonists' Guild, the London Press Club, The Federation of European Cartoonists' Organisations and the Advisory Board of The International Journal of Comic Art. In 2012 he was one of many cartoonists who showed support of Iranian cartoonist Mahmoud Shokraye, who was sentenced to a lashing after making an offensive cartoon of local politician Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani.
Death
Clive Collins passed away in 2022, at age 80.
Collins' winning cartoon appeared on the flyer of the 1982 Wereldkartoenale in Knokke-Heist.