Vicky, Weisz, Victor (1913 - 1966)

Victor Weisz Vicky original cartoon artwork

Victor Weisz ‘Vicky’, born in Berlin, began drawing caricatures freelance in 1928 after his father committed suicide. Vicky sold his first cartoon aged 15 and subsequently began to work for the journal 12 Uhr Blatt, which took a strongly anti-Hitler stance. The Nazis took over the magazine in 1933 and ‘Vicky’ arrived in Britain as a refugee in 1935. He became the first political cartoonist on the News Chronicle with his first cartoon appearing on 18 March 1941. He later drew for a whole variety of publications, including the Evening Standard, Daily Mirror and the New Statesman. ‘Vicky’s famous portrayal of Harold Macmillan as ‘Supermac’ first appeared in the Evening Standard in November 1958. Randolph Churchill described ‘Vicky’ as a genius and Michael Foot thought him ‘the best cartoonist in the world’.