Peter Fatches—The Mistaken Ambulance Mystery by Kevin Patrick
We met an editor from KG Murray
"I was only 17 or 18 years-old at the time when the strip was published in early 1976," he recalls.
"It was my first published comic strip, but I had been drawing comics for my own amusement for at least three years before then."
Peter grew up reading American comics like Sgt. Rock and Mad Magazine. "I also liked The Shadow, which was being drawn by Mike Kaulta at the time," he says. "I was influenced by the comics that had really good artwork and unusual page layouts."
"When I was a kid, however, I mainly read Donald Duck comics. I started out by reproducing a short comic strip out of Donald Duck, which was pretty good training!"
Peter's father was keen for his son to make something out of his passion for comic strips, so he took him along to the Sydney offices of Gordon & Gotch, the magazine distribution company which handled KG Murray's line of trade magazines and comic books.
"It was there we met with an editor from KG Murray," says Peter. "I can't remember her name, but she was a very attractive woman in her 30s."
"I asked her what was the possibility of me doing a comic strip for them and she said 'Oh, yeah'."
"She gave me the rundown on the printed format, along with the correct page border widths."
"She showed me one of the strips [Pinkerton's Man] that would actually appear in the same comic as mine as an example to follow."