Yaroslaph (Yaroslav) 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. He and his older sister, Josephia (Josephine), grew up in the suburb of Novyi Gorod and attended the YMCA International School. In 1939, his family migrated to
Sydney, Australia following the
Japanese invasion of Manchuria and prior to
World War II. They settled in
Centennial Park, where he attended
St Mary's Cathedral College and subsequently undertook evening art classes at the
Sydney Technical College. He began his career as a portrait painter but switched to illustration for the larger Australian magazine publishers. In 1948 Horak's first accepted comic strips were for
Rick Davis (a detective adventure) and
The Skyman (a mysterious costumed flyer) in 1948. He then moved to
Syd Nicholls' Publications where he worked on
Ray Thorpe (an adventure series) and
Ripon – the Man from Outer Space (sci-fi). Horak also did comic strips for a number of other Sydney publishers, before he moved to
Melbourne where he drew
Brenda Starr for
Atlas Publications. In 1954 he created
The Mask – The Man of Many Faces and an adaptation of the popular children's TV program
Captain Fortune for
Fairfax publications The Sun-Herald between 1957–1962 and
Mike Steele – Desert Rider for
Woman’s Day magazine. Horak then moved to England in 1962, where he also drew adventure stories for D. C. Thomson of Scotland, the scripts being supplied by others. He 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. In total Horak worked on 33
James Bond comic strips sequences. Horak also 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. Horak also achieved a degree of popularity during the 1960s when he was employed by
Fleetway Publications (later IPC Magazines) to contribute art for 11 of their comic books in the
War Picture Library and Battle Picture Library series. 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. He was cremated at the
Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium on 4 December 2020. ==War Picture Library==