Paul Wheelahan (6 November 1930 – 28 December 2018) was an Australian comic book writer, artist and illustrator, best known for his creations, The Panther and The Raven.
John Edwards started giving me filler strips of two to four-page comics in [local reprints of] American books, such as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
One of these filler strips was 'Space Hawk', a science-fiction superhero, which appeared as a back-up feature in Edwards' reprints of Wings and Rangers comics.
He worked as a foundry labourer and process worker whilst freelancing for Edwards,[2] illustrating covers and another two issues of Steve Ashley comics.
In 1955 Wheelahan joined Young's Merchandising and began a career as a full-time comic artist, where he drew Davy Crockett – Frontier Scout,[5] which was first published in December 1955 running for two years[4] and twenty two issues.
The situation was made worse by the introduction of television in Australia in 1956, followed by the resumption of imports of original, full-colour American comic books.
[3] He also wrote several episodes of the soap opera A Country Practice and was also commissioned to collaborate with Michael Laurence to write a twenty-episode sequel to the TV mini-series, Return to Eden, which was never produced.
[3] Wheelahan subsequently set up his own business, Dodge Publishing, to print and distribute his own work, releasing three self-published novels, Savage Texas, Arizona Psycho and Sons of Cain.