Design and Art Australia Online

comic-strip artist and painter, was born in Sydney, daughter of a Sydney wool shipper with offices in New York – though, apart from a visit to New York and Hong Kong with her sister Kathleen, Moira spent her life in Australia. She began drawing her first strip, Jo , while still at school. It appeared as a daily comic strip in the Daily Mirror for some months in 1945, when she was sixteen and living at Elizabeth Bay, e.g. 'Yankee Boy’ signed 'Bert’ from Jo published in the Daily Mirror on 29 January 1945 (ill. Heritage ). In this series Bertram’s heroine trails gangsters who have stolen her black racehorse Yankee Boy, a gift from the Maharaja of Tibet. Having rescued him from the gangsters’ clutches, Jo enlists the help of Serge Shawn, ace pilot stationed at a nearby airfield. Together they triumph over the villains, but not before Jo – transformed from seductive nightclub dancer to aerial heroine with the aid of a magic cape – has saved Serge from crashing his plane. After finishing work on the Daily Mirror , she signed a three-month contract with publisher Frank Johnson in June 1945 to produce her work in comic-book form. Under the terms of the contract she was to produce seven pages a fortnight for £2.10.0 a page. The contract was terminated on 27 September 1945

Jo is of interest for being a locally-drawn strip which turns the standard comic strip formula on its head by placing a women at the centre of the action (cf the English Jane , drawn by Pett – a man – the most successful WWII strip and Kate O’Brien 's Wanda begun 1942). The story unfolds (apparently) from a woman’s point of view and provides an amusing contrast to the standard superhero treatment of most comic strips of the time. Even so, Jo is drawn wearing a figure-hugging costume, presenting an alluring woman with more than a passing reference to the posturing of the Hollywood pin-up of the 1940s, states Penny Cuthbert. Jo was included in two of Frank Johnson Publication’s one-shot Magpie comic books, Fearless (which also included Noreen Shelley ) and Modern (both c.1946); it is said that the strip was later published in comic book form by K.G. Murray.

Bertram took classes in portrait painting but was always fascinated by comics. She worked as a freelance, drawing and writing the stories while her sister Kathleen did the lettering. She primarily illustrated her own work, but she also drew a few covers for the Carter Brown stories Captain Buck and Pirates Gold (ill. Shiell & Unger, 6). Comic books by Moira Bertram in the John Ryan Collection of Australian Comics are: Campus Snobs (Sydney: Calvert Publishing, n.d.) Box 4 M128495/82; The Eastern Adventures of Dan Eagle (Invincible Press, no.1 in a series of 4 [c.1954]) Box 7 M128495/168; Flameman genie of the sun (K.G. Murray Publishing Company: a Climax comic) Box 7 M128495/192; Old Lovers (Sydney: Calvert Publishing, n.d.) Box 11 M128495/334; Red Finnegan (Sydney: M.I. & K.M. Bertram, n.d.) 2 vols nos 1 & 3, Box 14 M12895/377; and The Red Prince (s.1, n.d.) Box 14 M128495/378.

Bertram produced many entertaining adventure comics. Ingrid Unger (in Bonzer ed. Shiell pp. 76-77) illustrates the cover of a superhero comic with a touch of humour, The Sultan’s Treasure with Captain Buck (Climax No.10, 1948), as well as an interior page mainly consisting of dialogue around the glamorous evil countess’s legs, a la Lichenstein. Covers of Red Finnegan (No.3, c.1949) and Pirate’s Gold (Climax, no.2, 1947) by 'Moira Bertram’ (i.e. no mention of Carter Brown on cover with mysterious oriental woman, bats and sculpture) are also illustrated. Pacific Bandits , featuring Jo, is C9 in the series of at least 47 comics in the C Series published by the Offset Printing Company in the mid-1940s (many by Will Donald ).

Unger commends Bertam’s striking visual style and her many lively stories full of adventure, humour and a touch of whimsy, and discusses the female villains and heroines in these and other examples, notably The Red Prince (Climax, no.7, 1947), a modern fairytale set in medieval times, e.g. king uses radio microphone to announce his plan to find a suitor for the princess, 'a luscious redhead’. Kevin Patrick (review of Bonzer in the Australian Book Collector 109, August 1999, p.30) thought Unger’s emphasis rather misleading since Bertram comics like Pirate’s Gold , Tokyo’s Secret Weapon – 'further thrill-packed adventures of Jo “Broadway Dancer” – on a Jap infested island…’ (6d, cover ill. Shiell p.29) and Climax Colour Comics 'are highly sought-after examples of 1940s “cheesecake” or “good girl” comic art.’

Bertram also wrote and illustrated romance and war comics. Indeed, she was the major Australian producer of romance comics, which were popular in the 1950s. Examples are the series Bring Back My Love (c.1956: ill. Shiell, p.35), Campus Snobs (c.1959) and Rivals in Love (c.1959). Australian original romance comics are rare as most examples published here were syndicated from the USA. Her Army (c.1956) tells of 'Hungary’s Freedom Fighters’ and includes 'tales of heroism in authentic battles of Europe and the Pacific’.

Comic books by Moira Bertram in the John Ryan Collection of Australian Comics (NLA) are: Campus Snobs (Sydney: Calvert Publishing, n.d.) Box 4 M128495/82; The Eastern Adventures of Dan Eagle (Invincible Press 1/4, n.d.) Box 7 M128495/168; Flameman genie of the sun (K G Murray Publishing Company: a Climax comic) Box 7 M128495/192; Old Lovers [?] (Sydney: Calvert Publishing, n.d.) Box 11 M128495/334; Red Finnegan (Sydney: MI & KM Bertram, n.d.) 2 vols nos 1,3, Box 14 M12895/377; and The Red Prince (s.1, n.d.) Box 14 M128495/378.

Writers:

Cuthbert, Penny
Kerr, Joan

Date written:

1995

Last updated:

1992