Philip Zec

In 2005, a biography by his brother, Donald Zec, was published under the title "Don't Lose It Again!", recalling the caption to Philip Zec's VE Day cartoon.

Becoming blind in later life, Philip Zec died in the Middlesex Hospital, London, on 14 July 1983.

After the war Zec became a director of the Daily Mirror and eventually joined the board of the Mirror Group. Between 1950 and 1952, he was employed as editor of the Sunday Pictorial while continuing to draw for the Daily Mirror until he left in 1954, succeeded in the role of cartoonist by Victor Weisz, or 'Vicky' as he was better known. In 1958, Zec left the Mirror Group altogether, and moved to the Daily Herald, remaining there until 1961. Zec also worked as a director of The Jewish Chronicle for 25 years and was the editor of the New Europe newspaper.

The cartoon had sufficient impact for Herbert Morrison to ask Zec to help with Labour publicity for the 1945 General Election with the politician dismissing his comments just three years previously on the premise that: "everybody makes mistakes", Zec obtained a belated apology and, as a result on the morning of the election "Don't lose it again!’" was reprinted taking up the entire front page of the Mirror. The accompanying text suggested that the best way for the country to remain at peace was to vote for the Labour Party.

A cartoon by Zec published in 1942 caused a political furore that threatened the existence of the Daily Mirror and caused him to be labelled a traitor. Appearing in the 6 March 1942 edition, the cartoon featured a Merchant Navy seaman adrift in rough waters clinging to the remains of a ship, apparently torpedoed by a German submarine. Beneath the picture, the caption read: "The price of petrol has been increased by one penny – Official."

In 1941, Zec designed the iconic propaganda poster "Women of Britain - Come Into the Factories."

Zec had no previous experience of drawing cartoons but was hired by H. G. Bartholomew and given complete creative freedom without editorial censorship. Working alongside Connor, who went under the pen-name "Cassandra", Zec was to provide cartoons to accompany "Cassandra’s" column. With Connor occasionally providing captions for Zec's drawings, the outbreak of war in 1939 provided the dominant influence in his work during this period.

In the early-1930s, the Daily Mirror was relaunched along the lines of an American-style tabloid. Zec's former copy-editor at Arks Publicity, William Connor, who was working for the paper, recommended Zec (who had been doing occasional work for the paper including on "Belinda Blue-Eyes", a copy of the New York News’ cartoon strip “Little Orphan Annie” and scripted by Connor) for the role of political cartoonist. Zec joined the staff of the Mirror in 1937.

Philip Zec (25 December 1909 – 14 July 1983) was a British political cartoonist and editor. Moving from the advertising industry to drawing political cartoons due to his abhorrence of the rise of fascism, Zec complemented the Daily Mirror editorial line with a series of venomous cartoons. He was on the Nazis list of persons to be arrested immediately if they had invaded Britain during the Second World War. His cartoon on VE-day was said to have been a key factor in the Labour Party's 1945 general election campaign.