'Jo'.
Moira Bertram was one of the few women working in Australian comics in the 1940s and 1950s. Born as the daughter of a Sydney wool shipper, she studied portrait painting under the painter Anthony Daillo Rubbo. Bertram has devoted all her life to her comics, working as a freelancer. She created her first comic 'Jo' for the newspaper The Daily Mirror on 8 January 1945.
'Pirate's Gold'.
Later in the 1940s, Bertram moved over to comic book art. Experimenting with storytelling and comic page compositions, she illustrated for KG Murray's Climax Color Comic series, including 'Pirate's Gold', 'The Runaway Rocket', 'The Red Prince', 'The Sultan's Treasure', 'Who Stole the Maharajah's Crown?' and 'Captain Buck: Adventure in Siberia'.
'The Red Prince' (A Climax All Color Comic #7, 1948).
Bertram also drew the back-up feature 'Miss Career Girl' for Murray's 'Superman' comics. In 1949, Moira and her sister Kathleen (who did the lettering) turned to self-publishing their comic book 'Red Finnegan' in 1949. In the 1950s, she worked for companies like The Invincible Press ('The Thrilling Adventures of Dan Eagle', 'Army' and romance comics) and Calvert Publishing (pulp books).
Bertram additionally illustrated covers for 'Carter Brown' novels, and contributed stories to the 'Silhouette Romance Library' (Reigate Pty. Ltd.). She ended her comic book career in the late 1950s.
In 2018, he received the Ledger of Honour and was inducted in the Australian Comics Hall of Fame.
'The Sultan's Treasure'.
