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the age of 14, Mendoza followed in the footsteps of
Phil May and became a pavement artist. An early job
was working on the staff of a big theatrical poster
printer, whilst doing cartoons under a pen name for
a political party on the side. His poster work was widely
known. He tried to produce original designs and felt
these were his most successful, although more often
than not he was hamstrung by conservative fears of advertising
agencies who wished to design to type. Mendoza looked
for the poster technique to be adopted by Press advertisers,
with, in general, more pictures and less copy. He worked
under the nom de plume 'Flam' in the Sunday Express,
designing a comic strip on 'The man you'd like to kick'.
The character was revived in the war to be used in poster
form, and submitted to ROSPA. ROSPA looked for a more
sympathetic character, which was designed. Naming the
character took more thought, initially suggested as
'Little Johnny Green-Pants', he became 'Percy Vere'.
Philip Mendoza illustrated a number of books in the
1940s, including Biggles Charter Pilot in 1943, and
many paperback covers for all genres, signing his
work under many aliases, including Gomz, Ferrari,
Garcia, Grimaldi and Zero, before he became a comic
artist between 1948 and 1970. The first all-colour,
all-picture comic, The Mighty Atom was designed
and drawn by Mendoza in 1948, which demonstrated his
versatility.
Information collated from: Mendoza, P., 'Young
Artists Should Start Training on a Newspaper', Advertiser's
Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 1,599, January 13 1944,
p.50; Mendoza, P., 'Hints for Beginners - by Mendoza',
Advertiser's Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 1,599, January
13 1944, p.54; The Book Palace, 'Philip Mendoza Art
from the Book Palace', http://www.bookpalace.com/acatalog/Home_Philip_Mendoza_Art_343.html,
accessed October 4 2003
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