[4] Miller left school in 1916, aged fifteen, and worked briefly for Muir & Neil, a pharmaceutical importer, before finding a position as an apprentice in the process-engraving department of The Bulletin.

The company expanded rapidly, offering to clients a wide range of animated advertisements that would screen in cinemas prior to the main feature.

[17][18] Syd Miller remained involved with the On and Off column until it was wound up in late 1929, providing illustrations and also occasionally writing theatrical reviews.

[25] In June and July 1933 Miller's drawings (several using the scraperboard technique) were used to illustrate short fiction stories in the Australian Women's Weekly.

One afternoon in the Assembly Hotel, adjacent to the newspaper offices, Miller and Marien "became very pally over a few beers and Syd growing expansive, confessed that he had been doing outside work".

As a result of his admission, Marien sacked Miller, but afterwards he regretted his action and "begged Syd to ignore the dismissal, and the artist came back".

[28] Several more were published in early 1934, but by this time cartoons signed with Miller's usual signature had begun to reappear in Smith's Weekly.

[29] From October 1933 to March 1934 Miller collaborated with the journalist Thomas Dunbabin to produce a regular feature called Curiosities, published in Melbourne's The Herald newspaper.

Each edition of Curiosities presented a set of interesting facts, mostly relating to Australia, alongside images relevant to the text drawn by Miller.

[34] In February 1934 a full-page illustration by Miller was published of caricatures of the Australian test cricketers (including their manager) and the Davis Cup tennis team.

[38] During the test match series when the English cricket team toured Australia in the summer of 1936–37, Miller contributed several cricket-themed cartoon compilations to the Sunday edition of The Sun newspaper.

The advertising strip appeared in various eastern Australian newspapers, initially made up of comic-strips illustrated by Miller and three other artists, Syd Nicholls, George C. Little and 'Wep' (Walter Pidgeon).

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

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.

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

[60] From April to September 1939 a feature by Miller called So It Seems to Me was published in Smith's Weekly, made up of a small group of cartoons, often exploring the themes of "Mad Motorism" and "Inferiority-Complexitis".

[64] A comic-strip by Miller called Over the Fence was published from December 1939 to Match 1940 in the early issues of ABC Weekly, a magazine produced by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

[65] In the early 1940s Miller wrote and illustrated a series of children's books, each of them with animal themes, published by Frank Johnson Publications.

The purpose of the ban was to conserve the dollar currency exchange and was a part of wider import restrictions of goods from non-sterling countries to assist the war effort.

Local writers and illustrators were given new opportunities for staff and freelance work to meet the demand for reading material to replace the foreign publications.

[73] The 'Molo' character had an obvious lineage from Miller's own Chesty Bond; the comic featured "the high-flying Molo... and his Aboriginal boy companion" who became involved in a series of "heroic encounters in the Australian outback".

His 'Sandra' character first appeared in Melbourne's The Herald newspaper in an "adventure mystery" comic-strip titled Sandra: Murder in Studio 3, published daily (except Sundays) from late-July 1945.

[80] Rod Craig commenced in early November 1946 simultaneously in the Melbourne Herald, the Adelaide Advertiser, the Sydney Sun and the Brisbane Courier-Mail.

The eponymous hero, formerly of the Royal Australian Navy, is introduced as the owner of a converted patrol boat which he charters for cruises on the Great Barrier Reef.

[2][83] Miller's animal-themed cartoon feature called Animalaughs, which appeared from December 1946 to September 1947 in The Herald and Weekly Times in Melbourne, as well as The Sun in Sydney and the Adelaide Advertiser, was also syndicated in England, Scotland and South Africa.

[6][90] Miller retired in the mid-1960s but continued his creative pursuits, engaging in photography, fabricating copper sculptures and drawing (for the most part scraperboard illustrations of flora and fauna).

[1] In 1983 Syd Miller suffered a severe stroke and was admitted to the Sydney Adventist Hospital in Wahroonga, where he died on 31 December 1983, aged 82 years.