Kathleen O'Brien facts for kids

Kathleen O'Brien (1914–1991) was a talented Australian artist. She was known for drawing comic books and strips, illustrating books, and creating fashion art. Her most famous work was the comic strip Wanda the War Girl. This strip, started in 1943, was special because it showed what life was like during and after World War II from a girl's point of view.

Early Life and Art Training

Kathleen Mary O'Brien was born on October 18, 1914, in Mackay, Queensland, Australia. She was the daughter of Patrick and Kathleen Mary O'Brien. As a young girl, Kathleen traveled all over Australia with her parents. Her father worked as a gold prospector and trained horses in the Outback.

Kathleen's mother loved art, and this inspired Kathleen to become an artist herself. She went to a convent school in Brisbane and studied art at the Brisbane Central Technical College. In 1937, she moved to Sydney. There, she spent three years studying art with a well-known Australian artist named J.S. Watkins.

Creating Wanda the War Girl

In 1942, Cyril Pearl, the editor of The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, was looking for a new comic strip. A journalist named Bob Slessor suggested that Kathleen O'Brien might have some ideas. Kathleen thought about creating a character who was a girl in the armed services.

Cyril Pearl liked her drawings and asked her to create a comic strip for the newspaper. Kathleen explained her inspiration:

Wanda is not a portrait of any real person, but she represents the spirit of Australian girls I know, who have done such wonderful work in uniform. I first thought of Wanda when I was watching a march of service girls. I spent days and nights sketching girls before I was satisfied I had found a true type of real Australian girl.

—Kathleen O'Brien (1943)

Wanda was a strong, independent, and adventurous redhead. Her stories often involved her meeting Japanese soldiers and German spies. At first, a journalist named Clifford William Brain wrote the stories. But after the war, Kathleen O'Brien took over the writing herself.

Wanda the War Girl first appeared in The Sunday Telegraph on July 18, 1943. It became very popular, even more so than Superman among school children! Soldiers also loved Wanda, and her picture was often painted on the sides of tanks and planes.

Wanda's Adventures After the War

After World War II ended, the comic strip was simply renamed Wanda. It changed from a war story to an adventure and detective series. Kathleen O'Brien based her new stories on books by Ashton Wolfe, who was the head of the French Sûreté. She combined his detective methods with current newspaper stories. This meant Wanda got involved in exciting struggles with black-marketeers, foreign spies, and smugglers.

The Wanda comic strip was collected into several comic books. Wanda the War Girl was published as a single comic book. The Wanda Comic was also part of Consolidated Press's Supercomic Series. The strip ended suddenly in the middle of a story on November 25, 1991.

Other Artistic Work

Besides her comic strips, Kathleen O'Brien also worked as a commercial artist. This means she created art for advertisements. She also illustrated many books, drawing pictures to go along with the stories.

Some of the famous books she illustrated include Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (1943). She also illustrated Australia's first complete version of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (1943). Other books she illustrated were Ella Greenway's Peter Cat (1950) and Nourma Handford's Carloola Backstage: A Career Novel for Girls (1956).

In 1947, Kathleen married Robert Blanche. She also taught art for a short time at Springwood Ladies College. Kathleen had a successful career as a fashion artist, with her drawings appearing in advertisements for big department stores like Myer, David Jones, Georges, and Farmers.

Kathleen O'Brien (Blanche) passed away at her home in Hazelbrook, New South Wales on May 8, 1991.