Davy Francis

Davy Francis, born 14 March 1958,[1] is a cartoonist from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

As a child he drew comics influenced by The Beano and sold them to his family for an old penny each.[2] He contributed to various Northern Ireland-based comics, including his own Tsst! and Gripping Tales,[1] and the anthology Ximoc, for which he created "Loose Chippings", "The Crazy Crew of the Saucy Sue", and "Ciderman".[3] Ciderman also appeared in Francis' own zine Funny Ha-Ha,[4] and a one-off drawn by Seán Doran. He also contributed to the local anthology Blast, which he edited an issue of.[5]

IPC head Bob Paynter gave him some pages to draw in Monster Fun, which led to work for Oink! (1986–88)[6] for which he drew "Cowpat County" and "Greedy Gorb".[7] Other titles he drew for included adult humour comics UT, Brain Damage, Electric Soup[6] and Gas, Ray Zone's The 3-D Zone,[8] and feminist magazine Spare Rib. He wrote the strip "Anger", drawn by Jeremy Banx, in Knockabout Comics' Seven Deadly Sins, co-wrote a "Future Shock" for 2000 AD, and drew for Paradox Press' The Big Book of Urban Legends. In 1993 he drew the first issue of Malachy Coney's Belfast-set series for Fantagraphics Books, Holy Cross.[1]

He lives in Belfast with his wife and daughter, and concentrates on live caricature work. In recent years he has returned to comics, contributing to the Irish comic Sancho in 2006.[1]