Chesty Bond

The character was created in 1940, a co-creation of the advertising account manager Ted Moloney and artist Syd Miller.

The strips consisted of separate vignettes featuring historical, biblical and fictional characters, always somehow involving a "Bonds Athletic vest" (singlet).

[2] After the initial strips appeared and had been re-run, new comic-strips in the series began to be published from October 1937, all drawn by Miller.

[4] The Embarrassing Moments from History advertising comic-strip continued to appear in newspapers until the end of 1939, though no new strips were drawn after October 1938.

The concept, as devised between the advertising account manager and the artist, was an "heroic straight man", who was "strong, ... kind, likeable, good-looking, but not a male model, and not a comic idiot".

Chesty Bond's distinctive chin was inspired by the jawline of Jack Lang, New South Wales Premier during the Depression years, a feature of the politician's face invariably utilised by cartoonists and caricaturists.

[13] The Chesty Bond comic-strip became a regular feature in The Sun newspaper in Sydney after it was first published in March 1940, appearing three times each week, every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

[16] From September 1942 Chesty Bond was extended further to five days a week, Monday to Friday, thus possibly becoming the world’s first daily advertising comic-strip.

[10] Miller's wartime strips incorporated patriotic messages and invited readers to contribute to civilian efforts such as buying War Savings Bonds.

[11] In a series of strips from January to March 1945 Chesty Bond confronts Adolf Hitler, disrupts a Nazi plot to clone their leader and takes Hitler captive, leaving him securely tied "until the war ends" using his Bond's Athletic singlet and guarded by a resistance fighter.

[36] In 1951 North Sydney and Manly-Warringah rugby league player Max Whitehead was selected to be the human model for the Chesty Bonds character, though a prosthetic chin was fitted for his photo shoots to make it a little more prominent.