Stuart Harrison is an award-winning character designer and cartoon illustrator with over twenty-five years of experience across children’s media and the communication design industries. He also co-founded Fun Crew, an independent content creation studio and creative consultancy in 2006 with Angela Salt.
To mark the 80th Anniversary of the Normandy landings on 6th June 1944, Stuart, who lives in Southport, was commissioned by the Atkinson Gallery in Southport to create a comic strip as a tribute to the courage of all those who took part in the events that took place on that fateful day.
Stuart tells a unique local story in a comic strip form and says, “I live in Southport and I wanted to create a comic strip to commemorate the 80th D-Day anniversary and I have based it on the the recollections of Southport veteran Ted Jackson, who fought at Sword beach on D-Day itself. Ted’s sister Angela carefully recorded his wartime stories and the artwork shares Ted’s own experiences.”
“Ted’s son, David, ran the Southport Hobby scene model shop on Princes Street and showed me the family’s military memorabilia, including Ted’s memento from the Landing – a tin of sand from Sword beach itself.”
Stuart added, “I believe that telling a sory in this format, with large graphic images is a brilliant way to engage kids.”
On Sunday 30th June 2024, The Atkinson will be celebrating Armed Forces Day, an annual opportunity to thank the Armed Forces community for their work and to learn more about life in the Armed Forces.
Sefton Council’s Armed Forces Community Covenant recognises the status of serving soldiers and veterans through a variety public events and support.