James L. Kemsley was born in Sydney, Australia in 1948. He started his career in comics in 1967, when he became editorial cartoonist for the Traralgon Journal. He worked for children's television as a host and actor for a while in the 1970s, before moving to the UK, where he studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and became art director and cartoonist for magazine In Focus. He created his first comic strip 'Frogin' in the 1980s, for magazine The Decker from Top Deck Travel, for which Kemsley worked as a world-wide tour guide.
He was asked to take over the classic Australian comic strip 'Ginger Meggs' in 1983, following the death of Lloyd Piper who had continued the strip that was created by Jimmy Bancks in 1921. In 1993, Kemsley added a daily 'Ginger Meggs' strip to the long-running Sunday strip. The strip is syndicated by Atlantic Syndication in more than 20 countries since 1999. The current artist is Jason Chatfield.
James Kemsley has been president of the Australian Cartoonists' Association and has won several awards, among which the prestigious Stanley Award for Best Comic Strip. He died at his home on Bowral, New South Wales, on Monday 3 December 2007, after a two-year struggle with motor neuron disease. His father was James H. Kemsley, the writers of comic strips like 'Ballantyne' with Peter Foster.
