Graham Wade, 1931-2009



Graham Wade, the cartoonist and filmmaker known best for illustrating the Christian series Jungle Doctor, recently died in Sydney. He was 78 years old.

Wade was born in June, New South Wales in 1931. He won a national comics competition during World War II, and would later describe a childhood filled with comics, both from the United States and England.

Wade initially worked in an Sydney advertising agency out of school in 1949. working with Paul White on Jungle Doctor magazine strips related to his popular autobiography. After illustrating many books in a subsequent series intended for younger readers for several years beginning in 1953, he was commissioned in the 1970s to turn some of those works into comics.

Jungle Doctor was a popular anchor for worldwide Christian entertainment in the '50s and '60s, but particularly in Australia, where individual issues of the comic may have sold up to a half million copies each. These weren't his only comics -- Wade had taken various commissions from Christian groups for a variety of other comics, according to his biography at Christian Comics International. This included the "Polar Parable" series. He also remained an active advertising and media illustrator, for both Christian and civic organization.

In the 1960s Wade was a primary mover in establishing Pilgrim, a non-profit advertising agency -- actually converted from his former employer -- that served Christian groups and organizations. He served as its CEO for several years. It remains in existence not as a functioning agency but as a group that gives out a yearly Christian media prize. Wade spent his later years on the boards of charitable agency and doing evangelical work -- the latter with a sketchbook. He also brought Nate Butler's COMIX35 Christian Comics Training Course to Sydney twice, in 1998 and 2006.

He is survived by a second wife, Ilda and is preceded in death by a first wife, Gwen. He and Gwen had three children.
 
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