Tom Cooper

Thomas Ferguson Cooper was a painter, illustrator, and cartoonist who was born in Scotland. At a young age he emigrated with his family to England, and then to Canada. He served in the Canadian Army during the first World War. Following the war, he returned to Canada, then moved to New York in 1920, where he enrolled in art school. By 1925 he had begun producing art for pulp magazines. In 1929, Cooper began using the name Thomas MacFergus Cooper or Thomas MacFergus-Cooper. By the early '30s Cooper had begun exhibiting his paintings, and left New York City for Long Island. In 1935 he began doing several comic strips for Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson under the names 'Tom Cooper' and 'Mac Fergus'. He continued to produce strips for Wheeler-Nicholson and for early Centaur for a few years before returning his attention to painting.