8 April 2017

A recurring character in the Jeff Hawke strip is Larkie, to whom Hawke refers for scientific advice of all kinds. Employed by the British museum, Larkie has expertise in many fields , including physics, archaeology and paleontology . Although usually based in the museum itself , as we see him when the Shiva jewels are analysed in IMMORTAL TOYS or when the time travelling pots are discovered in MADE IN BIRMINGHAM,   he also gets out and about occasionally.  For example, he accompanies Hawke on his expedition to the Antarctic to unearth a plesiosaur in OVERLAND.   The model for Larkie was based on Ray Hawkey, a friend and colleague of Sydney’s at the Daily Express . A graduate of the Royal college of Art, Hawkey was the first design director to be appointed by any Fleet Street newspaper. Described by Sydney as an intelligent and immaculately dressed man, Hawkey also lent these characteristics to his alter ego.

After leaving the Daily Express Ray Hawkey became a very successful designer in the publishing industry, breaking new ground with his cover design for Len Deighton’s Ipcress file. He also revamped the design of the covers of the James Bond book series for Pan paperbacks with his distinctive layout displaying the words JAMES BOND in huge sans-serif letters which took up half the cover which all of from that era will remember vividly. He passed away in 2010.           Skipper Prossitt