| Summary |
Maxted begins by talking about the qualities needed for a good cartoonist, talent, sense of humour and a sense of being able to exaggerate. He then talks about the procedure involved in telling a story through pictures and the importance of continuity and the work done for the long-running story "The hard man" in soccer magazine "Roy of the Rovers". He then describes his work routine. Maxted then talks about his childhood in London; coming to Australia at the age of 11 in 1925; education at Norwood School and his art education at South Australian School of Arts every Saturday for 2 hours. The work of Ivor Hele is mentioned, in particular, "Tobruk to Tarakan", as the dust jacket was designed by Maxted. He then describes his early efforts in film making; working for Australian Dry Cleaners and Kelvinators; early cartooning work, character "Uncle Si" and "Dick Weston" comics. After WWII he worked full time on comics such as "Triggs Sparks" and "Ben Barbery".
Maxted then describes the physical set up used for doing his drawings and he goes through the process involved in producing "Ben Barbery" comics. He then discusses the American penetration of comics during the 40s and 50s such as Walt Disney, Phantom, Mandrake the Magician and Superman which were coloured throughout unlike the Australian comics which only had coloured covers. He describes some of the comic strips he produced such as "Adcoid the Cube" and "The Bush boys" and working with Rigby drawing book jackets. In 1962 he went to England and found work illustrating comics and stayed for 20 years. Maxted then talks about where he finds inspiration for his work and the sort of art work he is doing now.
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