Born in Frederick Bay, Tasmania, Syd Nicholls was a pioneer of Australian comic art and the creator of the comic characters 'Fatty Finn' and 'Middy Malone'.
Nicholls studied at the Royal Art Society, and produced cartoons for the International Socialist, the Bulletin and Direct Action during World War I, one of his controversial cartoons landing Direct Action's editor in prison for 'prejudicing recruiting'. This brought him a reputation which made it difficult to get work in comics, so for a while he designed motion picture posters, studying art title design in the United States.
Nicholls later became the senior art editor for the Evening News, and it was during this time that he developed the comic strip 'Fatty Finn' to compete with Jim Bancks's 'Ginger Meggs', and its success allowed Nicholls to help spearhead the popularity and technique of comic strips as distinct from single panel cartoons. In 1928 he also developed an adventure strip, 'Middy Malone'. In 1934, after being sacked from the Evening News, he teamed up with Stan Clements and launched Australia's first locally produced comic book, Fatty Finn's Weekly, a black and white eight page tabloid.
In 1943 he produced The Phantom Pirate and in 1946 he established his Fatty Finn Publications line of comics which included Fatty Finn's Comic, Middy Malone's Magazine and Cooee Comics. Featuring only Australian material, he helped launch the careers of many new Australian artists.
Nicholls also illustrated several information books about ships.
