Garth Creators: Writer Peter O'Donnell

Writer 1953 - 1966

Number of Stories: 28

Peter O'Donnell (11th April 1920 – 3rd May 2010)  )  is best known for his other newspaper strip creation Modesty Blaise, but he also wrote a number of Garth stories, beginning with "Warriors of Krull" in 1953 through to "The Invaders", which ended its run in April 1966.

"In 1953, I got a call from Juilian Phipps, who was Strip Cartoon Editor at the Daily Mirror," he recalled for an article on the official Modesty Blaise web site documenting his strip work. "In those days the Mirror ran a full page of strips. One was called 'Belinda', a pinch from the American 'Orphan Annie'. The writer had gone sick in the middle of a story and they asked me to keep Belinda going.

"They liked my work on 'Belinda' and asked me to take over another strip, 'Garth'. I agreed and scripted 'Garth' as a freelance writer for the next thirteen years.

"The Garth stories are fantasy adventures about a very strong man whose best friend is a scientist, Professor Lumiere. In the stories, Garth can go back into the past or anywhere in the universe. When I took it over, Garth had two girlfriends. They did nothing for the stories, so I got rid of them. Then, a couple of years later, I thought I should give him a lady, but no ordinary lady would have been big enough for it. So I invented a goddess, Astra. She appeared in what I consider to be the best Garth story I wrote, 'The Last Goddess'."

Web Links
• The Official Modesty Blaise web site 

• Peter O'Donnell: Wikipedia Entry 

• Obituary: the Daily Telegraph

• Obituary: the New York Times