painter, cartoonist, comic strip artist and illustrator, was born in Beecroft, NSW. He studied at East Sydney Technical College (ESTC) for two years, then spent a year in the art department of the Sydney Sun . After serving in the Australian Air Force in 1943-46 he worked for Frank Johnson Publications. Many Belbin originals are in the Johnson Papers (Mitchell Library Px*D68, vol.1), particularly dozens of book covers, e.g. black and white 'Schoolboys outshoot hell-fire bushrangers’ by John Barr signed 'Phil Belbin 46’ and others in both colour and black and white (see State Library of New South Wales black and white exhibition 1999). Sheill (1999, 113) states that perhaps his best comic was The Raven , published as one of Frank Johnson’s Triumph Comics in September 1946.

Belbin’s 30-year association with K.G. Murray Publications included hundreds of illustrations, cartoons and comics, the later often signed with pseudonyms such as 'Humph’ and 'Duke’. He produced Peril on Venus and Climax comics for Murray, and he also worked as a freelance illustrator for publishers and advertising agencies. He was the first Australian artist commissioned to do illustrations for Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. In 1969 he developed a newspaper strip, The Early Birds , most of which later appeared as part of the Air Hawk series. Belbin received a Citation of Merit from the New York Society of Illustrators in 1974.

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Writers:

Kerr, Joan

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007