Yaroslav Horak was an Australian illustrator and comics artist, of ethnic Czech-Russian origin, best known for his work on the newspaper comic strip James Bond.
11 Facts About Yaroslav Horak
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Yaroslaph Horak was born on 12 June 1927 in Harbin, China, the son and second child of Joseph Horak, a Czech-born engineer, and Russian mother, Zanidia.
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Yaroslav Horak began his career as a portrait painter but switched to illustration for the larger Australian magazine publishers.
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Yaroslav Horak did comic strips for a number of other Sydney publishers, before he moved to Melbourne where he drew Brenda Starr for Atlas Publications.
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Yaroslav Horak then moved to England in 1962, where he drew adventure stories for DC Thomson of Scotland, the scripts being supplied by others.
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Yaroslav Horak was the second artist, taking over from John McLusky, for the Daily Express strip James Bond from 1966 to 1977, then for the Sunday Express and the Daily Star from 1977 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1984.
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In total Yaroslav Horak worked on 33 James Bond comic strips sequences.
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Yaroslav Horak created the comic series Jet Fury, in addition to working on other comic strips such as Andrea, Cop Shop and Sergeant Pat of the Radio Patrol.
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Yaroslav Horak achieved a degree of popularity during the 1960s when he was employed by Fleetway Publications to contribute art for 11 of their comic books in the War Picture Library and Battle Picture Library series.
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Yaroslav Horak died on 24 November 2020 at the Whitehall Aged Care facility in Lindfield, New South Wales, after a decade-long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.
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Yaroslav Horak was cremated at the Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium on 4 December 2020.