Les Dixon attended primary schools in the Sydney suburbs of Drummoyne and Balmain, but completed most of his schooling via correspondence, after his family moved to a dairy farm in Brogo, on the far southern New South Wales coast, in 1918. He began his formal art training in 1924 when, at age 14, he signed up for an art correspondence course promoted by the Australian painter Harry J. Weston (q.v.).
Dixon eventually moved back to Sydney and joined the Vacuum Oil Company in 1929. He left the firm after a trucking accident in 1938 left him with a fractured skull and a dislocated neck. While convalescing, Dixon studied life drawing at the Catholic Guild and began selling freelance cartoons to The Bulletin, Rydge's Business Journal, Humour, and Smith's Weekly.
Dixon briefly served with the Australian Army, but was discharged on medical grounds in May 1942, because he could not wear a helmet due to his prior injuries. Dixon joined the art staff of Smith's Weekly that same year and remained there until the newspaper's closure in 1950.
During World War II, Dixon worked as a freelance comic-book artist for Frank Johnson Publications. Although his drawing technique was largely unsuited to adventure stories, Dixon nonetheless produced several comic-book serials, including 'Roley Slade of the Customs' (Amazing Comic, ca.1941), 'Terry McBride - Sea Scout' (Colossal Comic, ca.1942), 'Airspeed Holland' (Lightning Comic, ca.1943), and 'Ace Dugan' (Bumper Comic, ca.1943-1944).
By the late 1940s, Dixon had reverted to his comical cartoon style on such strips as 'Boots - The Little Sundowner' for Rupert Rabbit Comics (Allied Authors and Artists, Sydney, New South Wales, 1947), along with 'Little Bits' for Kanga's KO Comic (Allied Authors and Artists, Sydney, New South Wales, 1949). Nonetheless, Dixon would occasionally experiment with dramatic illustration styles, designing covers for western 'pulps' published by H.J. Edwards during the early 1950s.
With the closure of Smith's Weekly in October 1950, Dixon was appointed art director of the Sydney Production Unit for the Courier Mail. He created two new comic strips, 'Phil Dill' and 'Little Trump', which were syndicated to several interstate newspapers during the early 1950s.
In 1957, Stan Cross (q.v.) recommended Dixon as the replacement artist on the 'Bluey and Curley' comic strip, after the series' illustrator, Norm Rice, was killed in a car accident on 31 December 1956. (Rice had only recently replaced the strip's creator, Alex Gurney [q.v.], who died of heart failure on 4 December 1955.)
Dixon recast Bluey and Curley as truck drivers for Bunyip Constructions, giving him leeway to send the characters on comical exploits across Australia. Dixon's early episodes of the strip were reprinted in the final three editions of the Bluey and Curley Annual, published during 1957-1960. He remained with the series until July 1975, when the Herald & Weekly Times cancelled 'Bluey and Curley' once Dixon had reached the compulsory retirement age of 65.
Dixon moved to the Central Coast region of New South Wales, where he drew inspiration from the local retirees' community for his next comic strip, 'Sandy Lakes'. First appearing in the Central Coast Advocate in 1976, 'Sandy Lakes' was syndicated to community newspapers throughout Australia and even appeared in the Fiji Times. Dixon frequently used Bluey and Curley as cameo characters in the strip and published a Sandy Lakes cartoon album, before the strip ceased publication in 1989.
In 1994, the Australian Black & White Artists' Club awarded Dixon the 'Silver Stanley' for his contribution to Australian cartooning. Towards the end of his career, Dixon worked for The Australian Senior, producing a new spot cartoon, 'Retirement Village', along with revivals of 'Bluey and Curley' and 'Sandy Lakes'.
