What's his name

Once upon a time, the artist, illustrator or, my preferred term cartoonist, in comics was anonymous. then some weren't. It all depended on the publishers. Some had no problem advertising they had secured the talents of certain pencil and inkpot pushers.
But other publishers seemed to think that the readership preferred to imagine that the entire contents of a comic were by 'The Artist'.
You could see their point- DC Thomson allowed Dudley Watkins to have his name on the front of every Beano because they were proud of him (and he knew it- long story) but didn't allow anyone else (Allan Morely aside) to sign their work, seemingly because if the artist died or retired or - heaven forbid- sought work elsewhere, another illustrator would be needed, and they would have to draw as near as possible in the same style, and that would just be confusing- better not have ANY names at all. Fleetway were the same.
However, Odhams Press were clearly delighted to have obtained Leo Baxendale and allowed him to put his name boldly on every page he drew. Same with City magazines where Frank Bellamy's signature was emblazoned with panache across all his Thunderbiords spreads in TV Century 21.
And, back in those days, it was those two signatures, Baxendale and Bellamy, that impressed me- these drawings were by real people- they'd even signed their name!

When I started out in comics I had two pen names and my actual name, and would attempt to place one or other of them in the work. knowing that DC Thomson would erase them, and tried to hide it- I remember once hiding it in a downpour of rain which was blanked out, and in a patch of long grass, which wasn't spotted and blanked out- but then maybe it wasn't worth putting one's monicker on it if was so well-hidden that nobody had seen it, not even someone looking for it!
Other publishers were fine about it. (In the main!)

In 1998 when  back at the Dandy and Beano, I noticed nobody was signing their work, So, getting 'my own strips', Beaginnings and Owen Goal,  I put my name on them, knowing that they would be erased.

Except they weren't!

When asked, the editors said they felt the practice of obliterating signatures was a bit old-fashioned. Who couldn't be glad to see David Sutherland, toiling anonymously since 1962 on The Bash Street Kids, put his name on it eventually, as did many others. Nowadays, it's unusual not to see a signature.
Good.
I'm all in favour of putting the writers name on, and so on!