Les Such experienced a rich and varied working life, including stints as a bartender, seaman and engineer, before taking up a career as a commercial artist. His experiences as a canecutter in Queensland provided the inspiration for his first published collection of illustrations, Cane: A Book of Drawings (T. Willmett & Sons, Townsville, QLD, 1932).
Such drew cartoons for a wide variety of Australian periodicals throughout the 1930s, including Table Talk, the Sporting Globe and the Sydney Mail. In 1937, he produced his earliest known comic strip feature, 'Nick and Trix', for The Australian Woman's Mirror.
Such soon found work in Australia's burgeoning comic book industry throughout the 1940s. He created the pirate adventure series, 'Rip Weston', for McNiven's Kool Kapers, a give-away comic book published by McNiven's Ice Cream (ca.1939-1940). Such reprised the character as a supporting feature in John Dixon's (q.v.) Tim Valour Comic (H.J. Edwards Pty. Ltd., Sydney, NSW, ca.1948-1957).
His best-known comic book creations of the 1940s were two science-fiction heroes, 'Sting Lasky' and 'Buster Braddock'. 'Sting Lasky' appeared in Zip Action (Syd Miller, Sydney, NSW, ca.1940s) and Speed Comics (E.E. Jolliffe, Mosman, NSW, ca.1940s). 'Buster Braddock' was serialised in Fatty Finn's Comic (Fatty Finn Publications, Sydney, NSW, ca.1945-1949), and appeared in a trio of one-shot comic books: Buster Braddock in Submarina, Buster Braddock in Primitavia and Buster Braddock in Glaciana (New Century Press, Sydney, NSW, ca.1948). Each series demonstrated the visual influence that the American comic strips, 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century' and 'Flash Gordon', exerted on the wartime generation of Australian comic book illustrators, including Phil Belbin and Stan Pitt (qq.v.).
Such wrote and illustrated a single issue of Wild West Action Comic (New Century Press, Sydney, NSW, ca.1951). However, Such is incorrectly cited in John Ryan's Panel by Panel (1979) as the artist who replaced Len Lawson (q.v.) as illustrator on the popular comic book series, 'The Lone Avenger', appearing in Action Comics (H.J. Edwards Pty. Ltd., Sydney, NSW, ca.1946-1957).
Such compiled a series of carton humour books throughout the 1930s and 1940s, including Such Fun (Frank Johnson Publications, Sydney, NSW, 1941), Such Nonsense (K.G. Murray, Sydney, NSW, ca. 1937), Such is Life (n.p., ca.1942) and Such Moments (Frank Johnson Publications, Sydney, NSW, ca.1940s). The incorporation of Such's name in the titles of these publications attests to his public profile as a cartoonist. These collections reprinted Such's cartoons from The Bulletin, ABC Weekly and Man, together with short stories by contemporary Australian authors, including Steve Bennett, R. Carson Gold, Will Lawson and Les Robinson (qq.v.).
Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, Such painted cover illustrations for the pulp novel series, 'Invincible Westerns' (See: Death Goes a Riding) and 'Invincible Love Stories' (See: Dance of Love), which were published by Invincible Press.
Such contributed short stories and occasional journalistic pieces to The Bulletin, and Southerly during the 1950s. His last published work, A Yen for Yokohama (Horwitz Publications, Melbourne/London, 1963), appeared in the year of his death.
