John Ryan (cartoonist)

Ryan was born on 4 March 1921 in Edinburgh, the son of diplomat Sir Andrew Ryan. As a young child he had a fascination with pirates, every night looking out at his window wishing for some to appear. After serving as an officer in Burma during the Second World War, Ryan studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic, where he met his future wife Priscilla.^[2]

After meeting Marcus Morris at his wedding, Ryan first created Captain Pugwash as a comic strip for The Eagle in 1950, although the strip was dropped after three months as it was felt to be aimed at younger readers than the target audience. Unperturbed, Ryan created Harris Tweed, Special Agent for Eagle, which ran until 1962. However, in 1957, after seven years, his first Pugwash picture book was published, which then led to a long-running The Radio Times strip and a television series made using cutout animation.

He also created Lettice Leefe for Girl magazine, which ran from 1951 to 1965, crossing over with Harris Tweed,^[3] and through his animation studio, John Ryan Studios, he created Mary Mungo & Midge in 1969, which featured his daughter Isabel providing the voice of the titular character, and The Adventures of Sir Prancelot in 1972. In 1981, Ryan presented The Ark Stories for Yorkshire Television, the series being produced by Anne Wood. Each episode saw Ryan present and illustrate a story about Noah's Ark, either prior to or during the Great Flood, each starring a crocodile named Crockle.

Ryan made most of his livelihood visiting schools across the UK giving talks on Captain Pugwash,^[4] however following claims in the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian of double entendres in the names of characters in the series,^[5] they no longer asked him to visit.^[6][7] This urban legend led to the Pugwash books going out of print.^[8] Subsequently he successfully sued the two papers.^[5]

Ryan, a Catholic (his brother was the theologican Columba Ryan), provided illustrations and cartoons for Catholic newspapers, including the Catholic Herald, and several collections of these cartoons were published as books, and featured the recurring character of Cardinal Grotti.^[9] Towards the end of his life, he was resident in Rye, East Sussex.^[10] Ryan died in hospital on 22 July 2009 in Rye, East Sussex. He is survived by his wife Priscilla and his three children.^[11] Isabel now runs his archive, organising exhibitions and talks.^[12]

His brother was Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher Columba Ryan. His father was diplomat Andrew Ryan.^[1]