'Just Jake' (The Daily Mirror, 20 September 1947).
Bernard Graddon was a British cartoonist, known for the popular and influential wartime comic strip 'Just Jake' (1938-1952) in the Daily Mirror. With its colorful countryside cast, slangy dialogue and comical farces, the 'Just Jake' strip can be seen as a British version of Al Capp's 'Li'l Abner'.
Just Jake
Not much is known about the artist himself. Bernard Joseph A. Graddon was born in 1905 in the Welsh town of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. By the late 1930s, he was working for the London newspaper The Daily Mirror, launching his signature comic 'Just Jake' on 4 June 1938. Unlike the title suggests, the character of Jake only had a minor role in the strip. After about a year, Graddon's ploughboy hero was sent off to fight for king and country at the call of war, leaving his girlfriend Hazel Nutt behind. The strip's main focus was on Captain A.R.P. Reilly-Ffoull, the villainous squire of Arntwee Hall in the village of Much Cackling in the county of Gertshire. Together with his butler Eric (a "Buttle by Bottle") and his henchman Titus Tallow, the Captain caused havoc among the townspeople, which also include the Nutt family, the elderly Maida Grannitt, schoolgirl Missy, and a black man called Cactus.
'Just Jake' introduction episode of 4 June 1938.
Modeled after early cinematic villains, the Captain gained wide popularity with his eccentric behavior, while the comic's general knack for strange expressions, wordplay and alliterations also caught on. Reilly-Ffoull's exclamation "Stap me!" became a catchphrase among the Royal Air Force during World War II. "Stapme" was for instance the nickname of Battle of Britain pilot and Squadron Leader Basil Gerald Stapleton, who was a big fan of the strip. The air force also decorated some of their Spitfire planes with imagery from Graddon's comic. Another fan of the 'Just Jake' strip was comic historian Denis Gifford, who gave his first book on British newspaper strips the title 'STAP ME! - The British Newspaper Strip' (Shire Publications, 1971). The Daily Mirror released a book collection of the 1945 storyline 'Educating Eric' under the title 'The Sly Snister Scurvy Adventures of Captain Reilly-Ffoull'.
'Just Jake' (The Daily Mirror, 8 July 1940).
Later life and death
After World War II, cartoonist Bernard Graddon developed a serious drinking problem. On many occasions, he couldn't meet his deadlines, or was unable to ink straight. When this happened, the Daily Mirror's art staff stepped in to secure the production. Among the artists that have worked on later 'Just Jake' episodes have been Steve Dowling, Ron Gibbs and Tony Royle, while Don Freeman has participated in the writing. As Dowling put it, Graddon "was a bloody genius, but, alas, a drunken one." After an extensive Christmas 1951 work party, Bernard Graddon contracted pneumonia, of which he died in Weston-Super-Mare at the early age of 46. 'Just Jake' ran for an additional couple of months, but was finally canceled on 14 April 1952.
'Just Jake' (The Daily Mirror, 7 January 1944).