Whilst checking out a number of old photographs, my eyes fell on this picture of my Dad and I, taken when I was just 11 years of age by my old school friend, Philip Wood. As I recall, it was a summer evening and Thursday. Please don't ask as to why I remember the day, for some odd reason, I do. It was around 5.40pm and Dad was leaving to do another 13 hour nightshift at the textile mill. He was one of the most hard working men I've ever known and I thank him for doing it for me. It was Dad who got all my comics, not only the humour titles, but also lots of early issues of Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men to mention but a small few, this provoking me to want to spent lots of time drawing my favourite characters and of course having in mind that one day I'd become a cartoonist. My Dad, Mykola, came from the village of Lybikhora, Western Ukraine. During WW2, at the age of 15, he was taken from his family and placed in a labour camp for three years, never to see them again. When arriving in England as a DP in 1948, he finally made his way north to Yorkshire where he met my Mum. Whilst he died back in July 1991, I still miss him greatly, so this is just a small way of saying thank you to my Dad for buying for me all those comic books that shaped my life and career.
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