{{Short description|Australian cartoonist and art teacher}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox comics creator | image = | imagesize = 150 | caption = | birth_name = Lloyd William Piper | birth_place = Cassilis, New South Wales, Australia | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1923|10|31}} | death_place = Australia | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1983|09|05|1923|10|31}} | nationality = Australian | alias = | notable works = ''Catman''<br />''Wolfe''<br /> ''Ginger Meggs'' | awards = | website = }}
'''Lloyd Piper''' (31 October 1923 – 5 September 1983) was an Australian cartoonist and art teacher, best known as the third artist to take on the iconic Australian comic strip, ''Ginger Meggs'', which he drew from 1973 until his death in 1983.<ref>{{Cite book | title=There's Always More to the Story | author1=John Laws | author-link=John Laws |author2=Christopher Stewart |publisher=Pan Australia |year=2007 |page=262 |isbn=9781742625652 }}</ref>
==Biography== Lloyd William Piper was born on 31 October 1923 in Cassilis, New South Wales to Thomas William Piper and Alice Mabel née Byfield. He grew up in rural New South Wales during the Great Depression.<ref name="DAAO">{{Cite web | url=http://www.daao.org.au/bio/lloyd-piper/biography/? | title=Lloyd Piper | publisher=Design and Art Australia Online | last=Kerr | first=Joan | year=2007 | accessdate=20 November 2013}}</ref> At age nineteen Piper enrolled in the Australian Army, serving in the 2nd/2nd Australian Field Regiment in New Guinea from 1942 until 1946, he was discharged in November 1946.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=5617438 | title=War Service Record – Piper, Lloyd William | publisher=National Archives of Australia | accessdate=20 November 2013}}</ref> Following his war service he completed a Rehabilitation Training course and moved to Sydney.<ref name="DAAO"/>
Piper illustrated comic strips including ''Catman'' and ''Kalar the Caveman'' for Frew Publications' comic book, Super Yank Comics.<ref name="Lambiek">{{Cite web | url=http://www.lambiek.net/artists/p/piper_lloyd.htm | title=Lloyd Piper | publisher=Lambiek Comiclopedia | accessdate=20 November 2013}}</ref> ''Catman'' was a feline-styled caped crusader who, unlike the original American version of the character, had no secret identity or powers. The other noticeable difference was that Catman's sidekick was changed from a young girl, Kitten, to a young boy, Kit. ''Catman'' ran for 19 issues, between 1951 and 1952. According to Jim Shepherd (the late publisher and managing director of Frew Publications), "[Frew co-founder], Ron Forsyth had an almost strange habit of changing things in the imported titles he published. He didn't like females having or sharing top billing, hence his request to replace Kitten with Kit – but he probably also thought it might be some sort of plug for the young Phantom character, also known as Kit."<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://comicsdownunder.blogspot.com.au/2007/04/catman-transplanted-superhero.html | title=Catman – The Transplanted Superhero | publisher=Comics Down Under | last=Patrick | first=Kevin | date=17 April 2007 | accessdate=20 November 2013}}</ref>
Piper also created ''Steel Barr'' for OPC's Hurricane in 1946 and ''Lemmy Loo'' as a filler strip for K.G Murray's Captain Triumph Comics<ref name="Lambiek"/> (October 1949 – February 1950). ''Steel Barr'' was resurrected by Young's Merchandising in 1950, under the title ''Steel Barr and The Phantom Man''. Australian comic book researcher, Kevin Patrick, describes ''Steel Barr'' as being "a granite-jawed District Commissioner who patrolled the African jungles, battling myriad threats while searching for his elusive opponent, The Phantom Man."<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://comicsdownunder.blogspot.com.au/2008/05/interview-kevan-hardacre.html | title=Interview: Kevan Hardacre | publisher=Comics Down Under | last=Patrick | first=Kevin | date=26 May 2008 | accessdate=20 November 2013}}</ref>
Piper subsequently became an advertising layout artist, working in the advertising industry for the next twenty two years. He also taught Graphic Design part-time, from 1970 until 1983, at the National Art School.<ref name="DAAO"/><ref name="Ryan"/><ref>{{Cite news | title=Ginger's 60 Years Old | publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald | last=Yardley | first=Nick | date=22 November 1981 | page=13 }}</ref>
In October 1972 the Sunday Telegraph commissioned Piper to draw a comic strip, ''Wolfe'',<ref name="Lambiek"/> for which ran for six years before it was dropped in favour of a syndicated American superhero.<ref name="DAAO"/> ''Wolfe'' was a wandering adventurer. According to John Ryan, in his Australian Comic anthology, ''Panel by Panel'', "''Wolfe'''s strength was its strong story line and the fact Piper restricted his wanderings to Australia, giving readers an opportunity to identify with the various suburbs and country towns – and it was these aspects that attracted a large following for the strip."<ref name="Ryan">{{Cite book|title=Panel By Panel: an Illustrated History of Australian Comics|author=John Ryan|publisher=Cassell|year=1979|pages=104–105|isbn=0-7269-7376-9}}</ref> Following the death of Ron Vivian Piper was invited by Jimmy Bancks's family to take over the role of writing and illustrating Ginger Meggs,<ref name="DAAO"/> which was also published by the Sun Telegraph. Piper was the first of Bancks' successors permitted to sign his name to the strip.<ref name="GM">{{Cite web | url=http://www.gingermeggs.com/history.htm | title=Ginger Meggs – History | last=Foyle | first=Lindsay | publisher=Jason Chatfield | accessdate=20 November 2013}}</ref> On 27 August 1977 the Ginger Meggs strip moved back to Sun Herald replacing long time rival comic strip, Fatty Finn. Piper claimed he kept as close as he could to the Bancks style with Ginger Meggs, and in an interview in 1983, stated "I have worked 30 years in advertising. I understand all the aspects of other peoples wants. I have striven to maintain Bancks' character, but admit that his sense of humour was so individual, his successors can hope for, but never really match it."<ref name="GM"/> He also told friends it was "just a job", and that "they don't pay me much and they get what they pay for".<ref name="GM"/>
==Personal life== In 1953 Piper married Essie Gwendoline 'Gwen' Armstrong<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/IndexSearch?form=IndexingSearch&SessionID=25076269&event=marriages&sname=PIPER&gname=Lloyd&fname=armstrong&mname=&frange=1788&trange=1959&place=&submitBtnOnce.x=0&submitBtnOnce.y=0|title=Piper – Armstrong|publisher=NSW Register of Births, Deaths & Marriages|accessdate=19 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903105405/http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/IndexSearch?form=IndexingSearch&SessionID=25076269&event=marriages&sname=PIPER&gname=Lloyd&fname=armstrong&mname=&frange=1788&trange=1959&place=&submitBtnOnce.x=0&submitBtnOnce.y=0|archive-date=3 September 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> and they had one son, John William Piper (born 1956). Piper died in a car accident on 5 September 1983.<ref>{{Cite news | title=Cartoonist Dies | publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=9 September 1983 | page=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116406224 |title=In Brief – Ginger Meggs |newspaper=Canberra Times |location=ACT |date=12 September 1983 |accessdate=19 November 2013 |page=10 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2708306 Cartoons] – manuscript collection held by the National Library of Australia * {{Cite web | title=Biographical cuttings on Lloyd Piper, artist, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals | location=National Library of Australia | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35910623 | accessdate=19 November 2013 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Piper, Lloyd}} Category:1923 births Category:1983 deaths Category:20th-century Australian artists Category:20th-century Australian male artists Category:20th-century Australian educators Category:Australian art educators Category:Australian comics artists Category:Australian comic strip cartoonists Category:Road incident deaths in Australia