Drawing

The Yorkshire-born cartoonist Joe Lee learned his skill via Percy Bradshaw’s Press Art School correspondence course. When unable to finance his training as an architect at the Royal College of Art, he turned to illustration. After producing his first cartoon for The Bystander in 1920 he quickly developed as a freelance artist, and by 1921 was described by The Strand Magazine as ‘the youngest of the men of his craft who have now an established reputation’. Lee contributed to a variety of periodicals, and between 1934 and 1966 worked for The Evening News where he created the hugely popular ‘London Laughs’ series, which has been credited as the first non-political topical cartoons in the UK. After almost 9000 cartoons – the longest running daily cartoonist in history – he retired to Norwich in July 1966 but continued to produce political cartoons three days a week for the local Eastern Daily Press and work for comics. In 1963 he was presented with an award for Special Services to Cartooning by the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain.