Johannesburg - On May 5, 2015 South Africa lost one of its most prolific and longest-serving cartoonists – 80-year-old Keith Evans Stevens.
Keith, along with his wife Lorna, produced cartoons for almost 62 years, including the TJ cartoon that has for many years appeared in this publication’s pages.
Having attended Michaelis School of Art in Cape Town, Keith worked in numerous advertising agency jobs as an art director whilst developing cartoon characters in his spare time.
His first comic strip was a crocodile character called Zambesi which appeared in the Outspan magazine in 1953. From there he developed Kruger Park Capers comic strip for the Sunday Times in 1959.
Next, he created Ben, Babsie en Familie which first appeared in 1955 in Brandwag magazine and then found a home in the Rapport newspaper until 2006.
Eventually Keith quit his day job and became a full-time cartoonist, at which point his wife Lorna joined the team and assisted with the inking in of the strips and general running of the business.
In 1968 The Star commissioned a new character called Flip Foster. Depicting middle-class South Africa at the time, the cartoon ran in The Star for the next 21 years.
THE LOVABLE TJ
In 1970, Keith and Lorna created TJ, the lovable character with the archetypal flying helmet and the unsavoury driving habits, named after the letters that signified “Transvaal Johannesburg” under the old licence plate registration system
The cartoon became synonymous with the Star Motoring section where it still runs today, while for the past several years it has also appeared in the motoring sections of Independent’s titles Daily News, The Mercury, Cape Times and Pretoria News.
Other comic strips worth noting were Bytvas in Beeld which depicted life in the South African defence force – many ideas being gleened from Keith and Lorna’s son Grant who was doing his military service at the time.
Keith often drew inspiration from his own family and his creative genes have successfully passed down to his daughter Skye and grandson Rodan, both of whom are artists in their own right.
In 2003 Keith was diagnosed with cancer which he fought for 12 years while continuing to make people laugh with his comic strips, which he produced right up until the end.
Keith was proof that laughter is indeed the best medicine.
He is survived by his wife and partner Lorna, his children Grant and Skye, his four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
TJ will continue to bring a smile to readers’ faces over the next few months as Star Motoring and its regional sister titles will be reprinting some of the favourites.