Regarded as one of Australia's most significant caricaturists, J. C. Bancks was employed by a variety of publications throughout his long and successful career, including Green Room, The Bulletin, Sunday Sun, Sunday Telegraph, and Sun News Pictorial. He began his career as a cartoonist in 1911, when Comic Australian published some of his work. In 1914, he became a full-time illustrator for the Bulletin. In 1922, Bancks created the classic Australian comic character Ginger Meggs under the strip title Us Fellers, a series that continued for the next thirty years or more. The comic strip also reached audiences in England and Australia by the late 1930s.
In 1934, Bancks and Australian composer Charles Zwar collaborated to create Blue Mountains Melody, a romantic musical comedy produced by J. C. Williamson's Ltd in Sydney (6 weeks) and Melbourne (7 weeks). Bancks was assisted in writing the dialogue by his then wife Jessie, daughter of E. J. Tait and a well-known stage and dress designer in her own right. That same year, Bancks also provided material for several revues. One of these, Now and Then, was a fundraiser for Sydney's Free Kindergartens. Staged at the Savoy Theatre on 31 October, Bancks' contribution was 'Spring.' The other sketch was worked into the Young Australian League Company's show Round the World Revue. The original music was scored by Jack O'Hagan and the show was directed and produced by Ernest C. Rolls. This production, which starred a young Billy Kerr, was said to recall the best days of Pollard's Lilliputian Opera Company. In February 1935, following seasons in Sydney (December 1934) and Melbourne (January 1915), the company left Australia for an overseas tour, beginning in South Africa.
Bancks died suddenly on 1 July 1952 of coronary vascular disease.
