Sydney James Jordan Translation edited by Clara Mancin |
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He was born in 1931 in Dundee, Scotland. He revealed soon an inclination for drawing and he was very interested in science-fiction (during his youth he creates his first science-fiction comic strip "The Iron World menace"), model aeronautics and rocketry. He was a graduate of the Aeronautical Technical School in Reading and after he became a regular pilot in the RAF. In 1951 he came back to Dundee where he has worked for 4 years in an advertising office. In 1953 he married a New Zealand woman and they had a daughter. The following year he went to London where he met two friends with whom he had served in the RAF: Eric Souster and Jim Gilbert. |
Together they created the character of Jeff Hawke and the Daily Express bought the exclusive rights for it: the first strips appeared from 15th February 1954. Later William Patterson joined his friends, at first producing only plot lines and then he began to write characters as well. However Jordan finished by taking back care of both stories and drawings and he has entirely devoted himself to Jeff Hawke for twenty years. |
In 1976, when he drawn the strip H6412, Jordan gave up Jeff Hawke in order to produce another science-fiction comic strip. So he created a new character: Lance McLane, whose adventures were continued for just under twelve years, from May 1976 to April 1988 in the Daily Record, syndacated elsewhere with Jeff Hawke reborn as McLane. In 1977 he came to an agreement with an American agency to distribute the Jeff Hawke's strips in the United States; so he resuscitated his hero giving him, at the beginning, the looks and the environment of Lance McLane. |
During his comic artist's career in 1968, he contributed with Theyan Rich to the illustrations of some Dan Dare's adventures by Frank Hampson as well. In June 1996 the UK Sunday published a new issue of Dan Dare, illustrated by Jordan. |