He was particularly interested in the early stages in film and comics history, for which records were scarce and unreliable, and his own vast collection was an invaluable source.

His research into the early development of comics and cinema laid the groundwork for their academic study, and his reference works remain key texts in the fields.

Although these were largely humour strips, he worked in a range of genres including superhero, Western, science fiction and adventure.

[4] Gifford attended the South London private school Dulwich College (1939–44), and while a pupil there was an avid comic collector and cartoonist.

Gifford became friends with Bob Monkhouse, a Dulwich schoolmate, fellow schoolboy cartoonist and later TV comedian and presenter, who studied in the year below and also had cartoons published while at the school.

Gifford and Monkhouse collaborated on comics writing and drawing, a partnership that was to continue for many years in various forms, including as radio scriptwriters.

The two toured together as a comedy act in the south east of England in the late 1940s[4] with Ernie Lower's West Bees Concert Party, giving charity performances with Monkhouse as the 'straight man'.

After his National Service, Gifford drew the Telestrip cartoon for the London Evening News, continuing in Rex magazine (1971–72), and on bubblegum and cigarette sweet packets.

By the early 1970s Gifford's writing career, mainly on the subjects of comics and film history, began to take over from his work as a cartoonist in his own right.

His humours strips were dense with conspicuously labelled puns and 'sight gags', the "visual conventions"[7] of comic art, informed by an intense awareness of the cultural heritage of the medium.

These included detective title Ray Regan (1949), with art by Ron Embleton,[15] the pantomime-themed Panto Pranks (1949), which Gifford wrote and drew, Fizz Comics (1949) and Star Comics (1954), which he drew and edited with Monkhouse, featuring strips of contemporary entertainers Morecambe and Wise, Bob Monkhouse himself, Jill Day and movie character Tobor The Great.

Gifford worked on a number of strips in several titles in the Marvelman stable, and created the light-hearted backup features Flip and Flop and The Friendly Soul.

It was a labour of many years, as Gifford tracked down retired industry professionals and researched back issues of trade publications, fanzines and directories.

"[29] He had attempted to spur early science fiction 'fandom' with his 1952 Space Patrol Official Handbook, an introduction to science fiction that included an index of 'films of future fantasy' from the 1902 French trick film A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès and the 1918 Danish A Trip to Mars up to contemporary films such as the 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still, screen shots from recent science fiction films The Man from Planet X, Rocketship X-M, The Day the Earth Stood Still and When Worlds Collide.

[31] However, Gifford had been deeply critical of Hammer Studios, especially the productions of its later years, preferring the more understated examples of early British and Hollywood horror.

"[13] Gifford identified the significant stage of "the first continuing cartoon hero"[44] as Rowlandson's Dr Syntax in the serial The Schoolmaster's Tour in The Poetical Magazine (1 May 1809).

He argued that "in Europe, perhaps the world"[45] the first caricature magazine, an important prototypical form of the comic, was Hopkirk's The Glasgow Looking Glass (11 June 1825).

Gifford located the origin of the modern graphic narrative in the late nineteenth century, tracing development through various stages that included Judy - The London Serio-Comic Journal (1 May 1867) featuring Ally Sloper, the first recurring character in a text and picture serial.

He suggested a key contender as the first comic as being the paper Funny Folks (12 December 1874), which had an unprecedented half-picture, half-text per page layout.

Debate continues, but Gifford's research and conclusions into the origins of comics as a medium have gained considerable academic acceptance.

The Ally Sloper magazine was not a commercial success and lasted only four issues, but the innovation of Gifford's tone in the title was acknowledged by one cultural historian as "[w]ith his accurate spoof of the style of traditional British humour comics ... anticipat[ing] Viz by nearly three years.

He wrote for Junior Showtime (1973), devised the nostalgia panel show Looks Familiar (1970–87) for Thames TV, presented by Denis Norden, its radio counterpart Sounds Familiar and the Thames quiz show Quick on the Draw (1974–1979) featuring drawings by cartoonists and celebrities, with presenters including Bob Monkhouse, Rolf Harris and Bill Tidy.

His output was prolific and constant, with his own obituary in The Guardian noting that "[h]is last commission was phoned in from his home in Sydenham, south London, to his editor on Thursday, May 18; it is thought he died the same day.

A reliable figure was never established for the size of his collection, but its scale constrained movement throughout the house and extended into every room, even the kitchen: "There are comics on the stove, on the fridge, on the floor.

"[69] Unusually for a collector, Gifford's interests were defined by their eclecticism, including comics, radio recordings and film from throughout the world and spanning from the origins of the media up to new releases.

Gifford's collection had suffered an early setback, an anecdote related by Bob Monkhouse: "You cannot begin to imagine his grief when he completed his National Service to return home to find that his mother had thrown away his huge collection of Film Fun, The Joker, Merry and Bright and a dozen other titles ... Denis was to spend the rest of his life trying to replace those lost copies.

"[75] Monkhouse reflected in the foreword to auction catalogue of The Denis Gifford Collection on how one "whose researches were so meticulous have allowed this vast gathering of treasures to have swollen into such unruly and uncatalogued confusion".

[76] The sale was described in the auction pamphlet as "surely the largest private collection of annuals, books, cartoons, cinema history, comics, ephemera & original artwork ever to come on the market.

"[77] Gifford's collection was the product of his lifelong passion for comics and popular culture, and his highly prolific research work was an attempt to provide a comprehensive history of the ephemeral.

Particularly in the early decades of his writing on the subject, pop culture drew little attention from academic research and Gifford was particularly passionate about the most obscure examples of vintage comics, film, television and radio, and determined that they should be recognised, chronicled and remembered before extant copies were lost.