Illustration Art Gallery

Arthur Oxenham

2012-03-14T05:03:00.002Z

Arthur Oxenham was a prolific artist and illustrator who was particularly associated with the Read About It series of children's educational books published by Wheaton in the 1960s. Although relatively short (usually 24 pages), Oxenham 72 volumes in association with series authors Olive Gregory and Eileen Everett in five years; the series eventually lasted some 120 books (the later ones with other artists) and many of the early titles were subsequently reissued in the 1970s with different artwork. There was also a Welsh language series (published in 1967) which reprinted nine of the early titles.

Although the series included a wide range of geographical and historical subjects, Oxenham was primarily a wildlife illustrator, contributing many animal-related covers and dozens of colour illustrations to the 'Peeps at Nature' series which featured animals from around the world.

Examples of Arthur Oxenham's original artwork can be found at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Illustrations
Monkey Escapade by John Meiron Thomas. London, Longmans (Heritage Story Books 25), 1960.
Fables from the Middle East by Jirzis Saleh Qusus & N. M. A. Bukhari. London, Longmans, 1961.
Stories for Boys. London, Golden Pleasure Books, 1961.
Read About It series:
__1: Bread by O. B. Gregory. Essex, Wheaton, 1963.
__2: Milk by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963
__3: Tea by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963.
__4: Sugar by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963.
__5: Cotton by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963.
__6: Rubber by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963.
__7: Sheep Farmers by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963.
__8: Fishermen by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963.
__9: Coal Miners by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963.
__10: Cowboys by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963.
__11: Lumberjacks by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963.
__12: Postmen by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1963.
__13: Glass by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__14: Oil by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__15: Butter by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__16: Cocoa and Chocolate by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__17: Salt by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__18: Soap by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__19: Airline Pilots by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__20: Bus Drivers by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__21: Firemen by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__22: Policemen by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__23: Ship Builders by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__24: Train Drivers by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1964.
__25: Food by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__26: Tools and Weapons by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__27: Clothes by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__28: Homes by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__29: Ships by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__30: Roads by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__31: William the Conqueror by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__32: Robert Bruce by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__33: Joan of ark by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__34: Christopher Columbus by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__35: Francis Drake by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__36: Guy Fawkes by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__37: Castles by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__38: Books and Writing by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__39: Canals by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__40: Railways by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__41 Motor Cars by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__42 Aeroplanes by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__43: Robert Clive by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__44: James Wolfe by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__45: James Cook by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__46: Horation Nelson by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__47: Florence Nightingale by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__48: David Livingstone by O. B. Gregory. Exeter, Wheaton, 1965.
__49: Badgers by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__50: Foxes by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__51: Hares by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__52: Deer by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__53: Dormice by Eileen Everett. Exeter Wheaton, 1967.
__54: Wasps by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__55: Hedgehogs by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__56: Squirrels by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__57: Toads by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__58: Bats by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__59: Bats by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__60: Butterflies by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__61: Otters by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__62: Rabbits by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__63: Harvest Mice by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__64: Moles by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__65: Spiders by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__66: Frogs by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__67: Newts by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__68: Bees by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__69: Lizards by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__70: Stoats by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__71: Ants by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__72: Ladybirds by Eileen Everett. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
The Haunted Airfield by Charles King. London, Golden Pleasure Books, 1965.
Horsey & Co. and the Bank Robbers by Richard Bowood. London, Golden Pleasure Books, 1965.
British Battles series:
__Bannockburn by Michael Raine. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__Bosworth by Michael Raine. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__Cullodden by Michael Raine. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__Flodden by Michael Raine. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
__Hastings by Michael Raine. Exeter, Wheaton, 1967.
Fossil Man by Michael Day. Feltham, Hamlyn, 1969.
Pets by Valerie Brayden. London, Lutterworth Press (Magpie Pocket Book), 1969.
Birds of the Countryside by Arthur Oxenham, text by John Taunton. London, Lutterworth Press (Magpie Pocket Book), 1970; revised, Guildford, Lutterworth Press, 1976.
Animals of Australia and New Zealand by Richard Sadleir. London, Hamlyn, 1970.
Prehistoric Man by Anthony Harvey. Feltham, Hamlyn, 1972.

Leopoldo Ortiz

2012-03-07T05:02:00.001Z

Leopoldo Ortiz was the older brother of the more famous — at least in the UK — artist Jose Ortiz. Born Leopoldo Ortiz Moya in Cartagena, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, on 11 September 1930, like his brother, with whom he worked closely, Leopoldo was educated at the Escuela Valenciana.

His first big success was the historical swashbuckler El Principe Pablo [Prince Paul], set in the mythical country of Chon-Chon, ruled by a once powerful king whose life had been blighted by the loss of his wife and young son. Unknown to the king, or the powerful enemies he has, his son Paul is still alive, believing himself the son of a merchant and it is only as her wedding approaches that Paul's sister, Rosalia, learns that she has a brother. The series ran to 25 issues from 1953 and was followed in 1954 by Terciopelo Negro [Black Velvet], in which another prince, Marco Scipio, dons a black mask as he tries to restore his father's fortunes, battling the Doge of Venice who has seized power.

Leopoldo's early comics, published by Editorial Maga, had covers by Jose, and their working relationship also led Leopoldo to write 47 issues of Dan Barry, el Terremoto [Dan Barry, Earthquake], drawn by Jose (with one episode by Miguel Quesada); at the same time, he wrote and drew Carlos de Alcátena and El Caballero de la Rosa [The Cavalier of the Rose] for Maga. Leopoldo subsequently drew a number of other series for the same publisher, including Jungla, Audaces Legionarios-El Capitán Rey [Bold Legionnaires - Captain King], and two series of Bengala (a Tarzan-like character from the jungles of India), often working with scriptwriter Pedro Quesada.

Leopoldo Ortiz was one of the earliest contributors to the famous Commando pocket library published by D. C. Thomson in 1961, but his main output for the UK was for rivals Air Ace Picture Library and War Picture Library, drawing over two dozen issues between 1961 and 1969. This was still something of a sideline to his work in Spain, which included Espia, El Libertador, El Gran Cazador, "Flecha Roja" (in Pantera Negra) and "Policía en acción" (in Españolin) during the 1960s.

Leopoldo Ortiz continued to work into the 1980s, his later strips including "The Secret Files of the Luftwaffe" for Warlord, "Shi-Kai" in the Spanish magazine Kung-Fu and Metropol. He subsequently retired from drawing comics.

Examples of Leopoldo Ortiz's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Myron Waldman

2012-02-29T05:01:00.001Z

Myron Waldman was an American animator and illustrator who worked on dozens of cartoons featuring some of the most celebrated characters in animation, including Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman and Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on 23 April 1908, he graduated from the Pratt Institute and was hired as an inker and fill-in artist by the Fleischer Studios in 1930. At that time, the Times Square studio was considered the pre-eminent animation workshop in the US, although its status was soon to be challenged by Walt Disney.

Waldman was promoted to animator for the 1931 Screen Songs cartoon "By the Light of the Silvery Moon". His second short, "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" (1932) featured the proto-Betty Boop, then a character with dog-like features and floppy ears. Betty was originally an anthropomorphised poodle (voiced by Mae Questel), based on singer Helen Kane, but was given human features in the cartoon "Any Rags" (1932), although her development owed as much to her animators, including Waldman, as it did to brothers Max and David Fleischer, who usually took credit for producing and directing the cartoons. Waldman's other early successes included episodes of the Color Classics series, which was launched as a rival to Disney's Silly Symphonies in 1934. He was head animator on two cartoons nominated for Academy Awards: "Educated Fish" (1937) and "Hunky and Spunky" (1939).

Waldman remained with the Fleischers when the studio was moved to Miami and worked on the modestly successful Gulliver's Travels feature film. He was one of the principal animators for the Fleischers' "Popeye the Sailor" colour series and, in 1941, was principal animator on "Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy".

After a disastrous second feature film, the Fleischers regrouped back in New York as Famous Studios, under the control of Paramount, which Waldman joined after serving three years in the US Army. Here he worked on numerous shorts featuring Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip, Little Lulu and Casper the Friendly Ghost. He also had a sideline drawing comics, including "Happy the Humbug" in 1940 and one of the first graphic novels, Eve: A Pictorial Love Story in 1943.

He left Famous in 1957 to become animation director of Hal Seeger productions where he helped revive the Out of the Inkwell series, starring Betty Boop and Koko the Clown, and worked on the Milton the Monster TV series until his retirement in 1968.

According to a New York Times obituary, "In later years he travelled and lectured, creating paintings for galleries and working on a musical feature that never came to fruition. In the 1990s he was honored with retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of the Moving Image and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art." He was rewarded with the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Award in 1986 and the Winsor McCay Award for his lifetime achievements in animation in 1997.

Waldman, who lived in Wantagh, New York, died of congestive heart failure at New Island Hospital in Bethpage, NY, on 4 February 2006, aged 97. He was survived by his wife, Rosalie, who was an animation checker at the Fleischer Studio in the early 1940s; two sons and three grandchildren also survived him.

Examples of artwork by Myron Waldman can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

William Vance

2012-02-22T05:01:00.002Z

William Vance is the pen-name under which William van Cutsem worked for many years, his distinctive, realistic style finding favour across Europe, although, until recent years, his work was little known in the UK, a situation that has begun to change thanks to the reprinting of the series "XIII", eleven volumes of which have appeared in the UK since May 2010.

Born in Anderlecht, near Brussels, Belgium, on 8 September 1935, Van Cutsem performed his military service in 1955-56 before studying art for three years at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, graduating with a First in drawing. He worked in advertising before making an impression with his comics in the pages of Journal de Tintin, at first, from 1962, with complete short stories, many of them historicals written by Yves Duval, and then with the character Howard Flynn, a young British naval officer, also written by Duval. The stories were collected in three albums in 1966-69.

In 1965-68, he drew the western strip "Ringo", but it was with his next two strips that he found his biggest success to date. "Bruno Brazil", published in Tintin from 1967, featured the exploits of an elite group of American secret service agents known as the Cayman Commandos, whose hair-raising exploits appeared in a number of short stories before their first full-length serial, "Le requin qui mourut deux fois" ("The Shark who Died Twice"), collected in album form in 1969. Written by Michel (Greg) Regnier under the pen-name Louis Albert, a further eight albums appeared between 1970 and 1977, plus the collection Dossier Bruno Brazil; in 1995, La Lombard published a final volume, La Fin...!??.

Parallel to this, Vance met even greater success as the artist of "Bob Morane". The strip was based on a series of adventure novels by Belgian novelist Henri Vernes (Charles-Henri Dewisme) which ran to over 200 titles. Morane's adventures were adapted into comic strips in the pages of Femmes d'Aujourn'hui, beginning in 1959; they subsequently moved to Pilote, drawn by Gerald Forton who was succeeded by William Vance in 1967. The first series by Vance (Operation "Chevalier Noir") was reprinted as an album by Dargaud in 1969, the first of 18 series — serialised in Pilote and Tintin — that Vance would illustrated over the next decade. In 1979, he left the strip in the hands of his former assistant, his brother-in-law Felicisimo Coria, who continues to draw the strip to this day.

Vance launched a number of new series in the 1970s, "Ramiro", set in medieval Spain, which ran for ten albums, "Roderic", which lasted only two, and "Bruce J. Hawker", another series about a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, which ran to seven volumes.

In 1984, Jean Van Hamme approached him with the idea for "XIII", the violent, contemporary action story of a man who awakes with no memory of his past (it was inspired by Robert Ludlum's 1980 novel, The Bourne Identity). Serialised in Spirou, the series has inspired video games and two television series (one starring Val Kilmer). Set in America, the story follows XIII — named after a tattoo he finds on his collarbone — as he sets about discovering who he is and before long finds himself being hunted by assassins and the FBI and involved in a plot to kill the President.

In 1991, Vance took over the artwork for Jean (Moebius) Giroud's "Marshall Blueberry", but produced only two albums; another brief series was "XHIG-C3 — Le vasisseau rebell", which proved to be a one-off. However, "XIII" continued with increasing success through the 1990s and early 2000s until Vance and Jean Van Hamme brought the series to an end after 19 volumes (one drawn by Jean Giroud), the final volume bringing the story full circle and revealing the true identity of XIII.

In 2005, Vance was awarded the Bronzen Adhemar by the Flemish Ministry of Culture for his work on "Bob Morhane" and "XIII". In October 2009 he was made an Honorary Citizen of the City of Brussels by Mayor Freddy Thielemans. Vance, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease, announced in 2010 that he was retiring from drawing comics.

Examples of artwork by William Vance can be found at the Illustration Art Gallery.

George Wakefield

2012-02-15T05:01:00.002Z

Better known as Bill or Billy Wakefield, George William Wakefield was one of the stalwarts of the Amalgamated Press story papers and comics of the early 20th century.

Born in Hoxton, London, on 13 November 1887, he was the son of George Thomas Wakefield, a house decorator, and his wife Maria (nee Thorpe), who worked as a charwoman. He was baptized at St Leonard's, Shoreditch on 11 December 1887. Bill grew up in Bethnal Green, his family including a younger sister, Nellie, and was educated locally before winning a scholarship to the Camberwell School of arts and Crafts.

Wakefield began submitting cartoons of Edwardian papers and sold his first to Ally Sloper's Half Holiday in 1906; from 1907 he began appearing regularly in Scraps and other papers published by James Henderson. His earliest comic strip, "Baron de Cuff and the Hon. Samuel Shiney" appeared in The Comic Companion (a supplement of You and I magazine) in 1908, followed by "Tap Room Tales" in Scraps.

Until he was established, Wakefield was also a part-time boxer: big (5' 8 1/2", 158 pounds) and thickset he fought amateur heavyweight matches and exhibitions at funfairs. Despite his size and ham-like fists, his speciality soon began to develop: young, sweet but sexy girls for serials in the saucy magazine Photo Bits. Introduced to Frederick Caldwell of the Amalgamated Press, Wakefield found himself drawing flappers for Caldwell's story paper Fun & Fiction ("Gertie Goodsort and her Little Sister Sue"), Merry & Bright ("Gertie and Gladys"), Firefly ("Gertie Gladeyes") and The Favourite Comic ("Flossie and Phyllis, the Fascinating Flappers"). At the same time he was drawing cherub-faced young lads for The Penny Wonder in 1912.

Wakefield married Anne Beatrice Cordwell in 1908 and began raising a family in Stoke Newington with the birth of Poppy Marie (later Bott, 1909-1996) and Terence George (1911-1989).

During the Great War, Wakefield enlisted in February 1916 to serve with the 6th Battalion City of London Rifles and was mobilized in June. However, he was discharged in November 1917 suffering from chronic gastritis and duodenal ulcers — a condition he had suffered from prior to his war service — which would require hospital treatment. He returned to drawing comics with "Carrie the Girl Chaplin" in Merry & Bright.

In 1918, he began a long association with The Boys' Friend illustrating the "Rookwood" stories of Owen Conquest (Charles Hamilton) until 1926. It was, however, in the pages of Film Fun that he made his greatest mark, his talents for capturing a likeness without turning it into a caricature setting the style for Fred Cordwell's new paper when it was launched in 1920. Wakefield's contributions featuring stars of the silent movies ranged from child star Baby Marie Osborne to comedian Ben Turpin. The paper proved so popular that Kinema Comic was launched four months later, with Wakefield contributing "Fatty Arbuckle", "Ford Sterling", "Larry Semon" and "Walter Forde" to the new title.

Apart from a number of sportsmen given similar treatment in the pages of the short-run Sports Fun, and "The Jolly Rover" strip for the cover of My Favourite, Wakefield's main output continued to be for Film Fun, where he drew the comical adventures of Jackie Coogan, Wesley Barry and Grock (Charles Adrien Wettach), the "king of clowns", before achieving his most long-lasting success drawing the adventures of Laurel and Hardy, which he drew from 1930 until his death.

Other sets in Film Fun in the 1930s included Joe E. Brown, Wheeler and Woolsey, Shirley Temple, George Formby, Max Miller and Lupino Lane. Wakefield also drew story paper headings for Bullseye and Surprise, contributed complete dramatic adaptations of movies to the early issues of Film Picture Stories and humour strips "Chubby and Chirpy" and "The Flighty Pranks Freddie Flip and Uncle Bunkle" to Sparkler and "Teacher Trotter" to Comic Cuts.

Wakefield died in Norwich Hospital in Norfolk on 12 May 1942, aged 54. His influence on the style of British comics was profound, with artists on Film Fun — then the best-selling comic in the UK — told to work in his style. Some of his sets, including "Laurel and Hardy", were continued after his death by his son, Terry.

Examples of George Wakefield's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Clive Uptton

2012-02-08T05:01:00.001Z

Born in Highbury, London, on 12 March 1911, the son of William Clive, who worked for Swain's, the engravers, as a process artist and later for the Daily Mail, and his wife Margaret E. (nee Rimmington). Clive Upton was educated at Brentwood Grammar School, Essex, and Southend Art School before attending Central Art School, London, and, later, Heatherley's.

Upton began contributing illustrations professionally at the age of 19 before he graduating from Central Art School. When he noticed that another artist named Upton was illustrating stories for the Evening Standard, he changed his name, adding a second 't', so that their work would not be confused. From his studio in Cheapside, Uptton contributed illustrations to most of the major magazines of the day, including The Strand, Tit-Bits, Good Housekeeping, Women's Illustrated, Tatler, Radio Times, John Bull and The Sphere. Through the agencies of Owen Aves and Clement Danes, he also produced advertising illustrations for a variety of clients (GEC, Johnnie Walker, Mars, Bovril, Guinness, Horlicks, Kelloggs and Nestle), dust jackets for books and illustrations for instructional pamphlets. One of his assignments involved travelling to Ghana on behalf of the Colonial Office to produce a booklet on how to grow better cocoa beans.

Between 1940 and 1942, Uptton was the political cartoonist of the Daily Sketch and Sunday Graphic, and also worked for the Ministry of Information producing propaganda cartoons and posters, as well as serving in the Home Guard. Some of his drawings for the Daily Sketch were reproduced on card and sold to readers.

After the war he had a varied career as an illustrator for magazines and books, and as a painter of both landscapes and portraits, with Harold Macmillan and Anthony Eden amongst those who sat for him. His posters won prizes in the National Outdoor Advertising Awards in 1958 and 1959. He was active and popular with his peers, being a member of the Chelsea Arts Club, the Savage and London Sketch Club.

In the 1960s and 1970s he was a prolific contributor to Treasure, Look and Learn and World of Wonder, the children's educational magazines. He was one of the most prolific contributors to Treasure from its inception in 1963, most notably producing many back covers featuring short verses and front covers on a variety of subjects. He continued to work as a book illustrator until 1987 when his eyesight began to fail.

Uptton lived in west London and was twice married; his second wife, Vivian Elizabeth C Bannerman, whom he married in 1965, died in 1997. Uptton died on 11 February 2006, shortly before his 95th birthday.

Examples of Clive Uptton's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Steve Woron

2012-02-01T05:02:00.003Z

Steve Woron is an American artist best known for his female fantasy art featuring vampires, witches, warriors and mermaids. He was one of the early popularisers of 'good girl art' published through the comics distribution networks. Although they seem to dominate the comics' industry today, the kind of vampires and vixens Woron was drawing were less ubiquitous in the late 1980s. He was one of the first artists to tap into the nostalgia craze for Bettie Page as a pin-up icon in the 1990s, publishing two issues of Betty Page: The 50's Rage in 1993 (reprinted 1996 and 2001).

Steven J. Woron was born in Connecticut on 14 January 1958, the son of Alexander J. Woros and his wife Irene (nee Dabros). He received a BA in Fine Art from the University of Hartford Art School and subsequently taught in High School and privately as well as spending two years as a commercial illustrator as well as 'ghosting' for a famous New York commercial artist.

He attended his first comics' convention in 1978 and launched Spectrum Comics in 1982, producing four comic books, including the 4-issue The Survivors (1983-84) which he both wrote and drew; a year later, he launched The Illustration Studio. From 1984 he was the senior creative artist for a national printing company before turning freelance in 1987, when he began self-publishing prints and portfolios of exotic and erotic fantasy artwork.

He has since gone on to produce trading cards, t-shirts, jackets and other formats. His publications from Illustration Studio include The Art of Steve Woron (1991), The Complete Steve Woron Checklist (1991) and The Steve Woron Treasury (1992) and the comic book format Woron's World (1993-94). As well as illustrations, Woron is also a popular photographer of swimsuit models.

Woron was married Darla Addley, who has also been involved in the comics industry, in 1981 (divorced 1992); he married Laurie Maynard in 1993. He now lives in Vernon, Rockville, Connecticut.

Examples of Steve Woron's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Peter Woolcock

2012-01-25T05:01:00.001Z

Peter Woolcock has had two careers in art: firstly as a comic strip artist best known for his work in nursery comics; and secondly as a political cartoonist.

Peter Woolcock was born and raised in Argentina, and worked his passage on a cargo boat to England in 1953 in order to find work as an artist. He went from interview to interview and eventually arrived at the doors of the Amalgamated Press, where, he says, he was seen by the wrong man. Five months later he was persuaded to try them again and was immediately offered work by Leonard Matthews.

He created the frog character 'Anthony Rowley' (named after the Frog who went a-wooing), but the name was changed and, as 'The Funny Tales of Freddie Frog' it began appearing in Jack and Jill in 1954. Woolcock was to draw the strip — with a break in the late 1950s/early 1960s — until 1969. This was not his longest-running strip. In 1955, he drew the hugely popular 'The Wind in the Willows' for Playhour which came to an end a year later. Woolcock revived the character of Mr. Toad in Harold Hare's Own Paper in 1959, and continued to draw that character for Harold Hare's Own and Playhour for 25 years. (Woolcock had drawn an earlier, similar character called Toby Toad for Playhour.)

Woolcock was kept incredibly busy for 38 years, his strips and illustrations appearing in Tiny Tots, Film Fun, Look and Learn, Treasure, Disneyland Magazine, Toby, Dickory Dock and Storyland. He retired from drawing strips in 1987.

His books published during the same period include Animal ABC (1980), One, Two, Three: A Book of Numbers by Leonard Matthews (1981), Big and Small: A Book of Opposites by Leonard Matthews (1981), Busy People: A Book of Work and Play by Leonard Matthews (1982), Busy Days: A Book of Time by Leonard Matthews (1982), ABC: A Book of Words (1982) and Rain or Shine: A Book of the Weather (1983).

Woolcock has lived in England, Spain and, since 1981, in Bermuda where, since 1983, he has become one of the island's leading humour and political cartoonists. Some of his early work has been exhibited at the Bermudan National Gallery and many of his cartoons for the Royal Gazette have been collected in the annual Peter Woolcock's Woppened for many years, the 23rd collection appearing in 2011. He has also illustrated children's books, including The Turtle Who Ate a Balloon (2007) and The Adventures of Bermuda's Toad with One Eye (2008).

Examples of Peter Woolcock's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Stanley L. Wood

2012-01-18T05:01:00.003Z

Stanley L. Wood was a hugely popular contributor to magazines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, chiefly remembered for his depictions of the wild west which graced many a boy's story paper. It was the perfect match of subject and talent as Wood was superb at depicting horses in action; He spent some of his teen years in Kansas and he returned to America in 1888 when he was sent to South Dakota by The Illustrated London News. An authenticity infused his illustrations — whether a realistic painting or a cartoon — and his colour plates of the wild west in Boy's Own Paper and Chums have helped keep their respective annuals collectable.

Stanley Llewellyn Wood was born in Maindee, near Newport, Monmouthshire, in 1867, the son of Stanley James Wood, a cement manufacturer, and his wife Charlotte (nee Atkins). He grew up in Christchurch, Monmouthshire, and travelled with his family to America at the age of 12, where his father had bought a ranch in Indian territory in Kansas. Legend has it that the bodies of the former owners, who had been murdered by a raiding party of braves, were buried in the garden. Soon after James Stanley Wood’s death, the house was surrounded by Ute Indians and, to scare them away, Charlotte had her children put on riding boots and spurs and they tramped up and down the stairs and from room to room, making as much noise as possible. The ruse worked and, believing the house to be heavily occupied, the natives retreated.

Charlotte and her family returned to St. Pancras, London and Wood went on to become a prolific illustrator of newspapers and magazines, including Black and White, Cassell’s Magazine, The Graphic, The Harmsworth Magazine, The Idler, The London Magazine, The Pall Mall Magazine, Pearson’s Magazine, The Penny Magazine, The Sporting and Dramatic News, The Strand Magazine, Wide World Magazine, The Windsor Magazine and Young England. Wood’s magazine and book illustrations included works by Cutcliffe Hyne (Captain Kettle), Dr. Nokola by Guy Boothby and Don Q. by Hesketh Pritchard. As a painter he also exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Wood married Mary Elizabeth Jenkins in Fulham on 21 February 1899. They had three children: Stanley Montague, Henry Lawrence and Jack Steward. The family lived in Palmers Green, Middlesex, where Wood died on 1 March 1928, aged 61. He had been ill for some weeks and, although he could not raise himself from his bed unaided, insisted that he continue working on his final illustration – for a ‘Kettle’ story – with his wife and son supporting him.

Examples of Stanley L. Wood's artwork can be found at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Patrick Woodroffe

2012-01-11T05:01:00.088Z

Patrick Woodroffe is an artist best known for his often surreal fantasy art.

Patrick James Woodroffe was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1940, the son of an electrical engineer. He graduated in French and German at the University of Leeds before an exhibition of his pen and ink drawings selected by surrealist Roland Renrose was staged at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1966. He taught before became a full time artist in 1972, in which year he exhibited his paintings and etchings at the Covent Garden Gallery, London.

His career was boosted when he became a paperback cover illustrator, producing some 90 covers for Corgi Books in 1973-76, many of them in the fantasy and science fiction genres, including novels and collections by Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Vance, Mike Moorcock, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein and Brian M. Stableford. In the mid-1970s, he also produced record sleeve covers ranging from Beethoven's Emperor Concerto to Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny. His painting for Dave Greenslade's Time and Tide led to further collaborations, Greenslade producing a double album of music, The Pentateuch of the Cosmogony, which was accompanied by a series of paintings by Woodroffe based on the opening chapters of Genesis. The book was expanded as The Second Earth in 1988.

Woodroffe also collaborated with Mike Batt (better known as the leader of the Wombles pop group) on a musical based on Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, also released as an album in 1984.

A collection of Woofroffe's paintings, Mythopoeikon, was published by Dragon's World in 1976, which led to him writing and illustrating The Adventures of Tinker the Hole Eating Duck (1976) for the same company. His later books include Hallelujah Anyway (1984), A Closer Look: The Art Techniques of Patrick Woodroffe (1986), The Dorbott of Vacuo (1988), Pastures of the Sky (1993), La Tour du Prisonnier (Switzerland, 2002), The Forget-Me-Not Gardener (Switzerland, 2005) and Benign Icons (Denmark, 2008).

Woodroffe was involved in conceptual deigns for the movie The NeverEnding Story II (1990). He also designed the stage play La Belle et la Bete, performed in Le Havre, France, in 1994, and designed for bronze sculptures that have been cast and installed at the entrance of Le Château de Gruyères in Fribourg, Switzerland.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Woodroffe exhibited widely in France, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and elsewhere. He continues to paint and exhibit, many of his recent works combining fantasy imagery an photographs. Some of his more recent work can be seen in calendars produced by the Swiss publisher, Éditions Gruériennes.

Examples of Patrick Woodroffe's artwork can be found at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Edward Woodfall

2012-01-04T10:09:00.002Z

Edward Woodfall is a mystey artist of whom I can find no trace. The single known piece of artwork is dated 1906, and a check in census records for 1901 reveals only a single person of that name, and he was a 57-year-old domestic servant — a gardener — working in Huyton with Roby, Lancaster.

Three birth records might be relevant: Edward Woodfall, born 1846 in St. Saviour, Southwark; Francis Edward Tidd Woodfall, born 1847 in Thame; and Edward Woodfall, born 1866 in Kensington, London. Of these, the older Edward died in 1869, aged 22; Francis Woodfall became a clerk on the stock exchange; and the younger Edward Woodfall emigrated to America in around 1886 where he worked as a carpenter.

Examples of Edward Woodfall's original artwork can be found at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Ken J Wood

2011-12-28T05:01:00.001Z

Kenneth J. Wood was a popular nature artist who was especially know for his detailed paintings of birds.

Little seems to have been published about Wood. He was a keen falconer and member of the British Falconers' Club and is remembered fondly by many in those circles. At some point in his career he lived in a caravan near Findon, West Sussex. He was the Hon Secretary of the Society of Wildlife Artists from 1983 until the 1990s. He died suddenly whilst still young: taken ill whilst hawking, he was diagnosed with cancer.

Examples of original art by Kenneth J. Wood can be found at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Gerry Wood

2011-12-21T05:01:00.002Z

Although his name is recognised amongst British comic fans, little is known about Gerry Wood. He is probably best known as an illustrator, working in the 1970s in World of Wonder, Look and Learn and Speed and Power, which culminated in 1977 with his taking over the artwork for what was, by then, entitled 'More Adventures of the Trigan Empire'.

Wood seems to have begun working in the early 1960s for Battle Picture Library, then drawing for Air Ace and Micron's Combat Picture Library. His book illustrations include Sky Carnival by W. F. Hallstead (1969). He returned to Air Ace in 1970 before producing his first comic strip in colour, 'A Leap Into the Future' for the early issues of World of Wonder.

A later job was to draw a pull-out poster for Battle Picture Weekly in 1976. He continued to illustrate educational books following the demise of Look and Learn, including Pyramids by Anne Millard (1989), Roman Fort by Fiona Macdonald (1996) and Ancient African Towns by Fiona Macdonald (1998).

Examples of original artwork by Gerry Wood can be found at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Maurice Wilson

2011-12-14T05:01:00.049Z

Born in London on 15 March 1914, Maurice Charles John Wilson was best known as a wildlife artist whose work appeared in dozens of books and on cards given away with Brooke Bond tea. He was educated at the Hastings School of Art (under Philip Cole) and the Royal Academy Schools (under Malcolm Osborne and Robert Austin) and later taught anatomical and plant drawing. He worked with members of the Natural History Museum in reconstructing the look of dinosaurs from fossils and his work in this area was much respected, inspiring books such as A History of Primates (1949), Fossil Amphibian and Reptiles (1954), Fossil Birds (1958) and Human Evolution: An Illustrated Guide (1989).

Wilson wrote and illustrated Just Monkeys (1937). After the war he illustrated dozens of books, including Dogs (1946), Coastal Craft (1947), Zoo Animals (1948), A Guide to Earth History (1956), Birds and Beasts (1956), Mermaids and Mastadons: A Book of Unnatural History (1957), Elephants (1958), Animals We Know (1959), Fables from Aesop (1961), Donkey Work (1962), A World of Animals (1962), Animals (1964), Animals of the Arctic (1964), Birds (1965), The Origins of Man (1968), First Interest on the Farm (1969), A Long Time Ago (1969-70), Patch by Helen Griffiths (1970), Man, Civilzation and Conquest (1971), China Long Ago (1972), First Interest in the Wider World (1972), Double Trouble by Doreen Tovey (1972), Making the Horse Laugh by Doreen Tovey (1974), The Earliest Farmers and the First Cities (1974), The Quzzer Book About People (1975), Oh Those Cats by Frances Mann (1975), A Quorum of Cats: An Anthology ed. Elizabeth Lee (1976), Bambi by Felix Salten (1976), Prehistoric Animals (1976), A Closer Look at Arctic Lands (1976), Prehistoric Animals (1976), A Closer Look at Plains Indians (1977), A Closer Look at Eskimos (1977), Ponies (1977), Birds of Prey (1978), A Closer Look at Amazonian Indians (1978), A Closer Look at the Bedouin (1978), Cats in the Belfry by Doreen Tovey (1978), Horses (1979), Lions and Tigers (1979), A Closer Look at Aboriginies (1979), Birds (1979), A Comfort of Cats by Doreen Tovey (1979), A Closer Look at Grasslands (1979), Lifeclass (1980), The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1983), The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1984), All the Mowgli Stories by Rudyard Kipling (1984), Lions and Tigers (1985) and Deserts (1986).

Wilson lived in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where he died in November 1987.

Wilson's autobiography, The Wartime Adventures of B Squadron 'Corpse' (1997), was publishing posthumously, relating how he joined the 11th Battalion Royal Tank Regiment in 1941 and spent much of the war in a Matilda tank, weathering sandstorms in the Middle East, taking part in the landings at Walcheren and in the 'CDL' experiment which involved placing blindingly bright carbon arc lamps in the turrets of tanks to create a wall of light when the tanks were lined up—an idea that was never used in battle.

Many of his illustrations were produced to accompany displays at the Natural History Museum and many can be found in the Natural History Museum's Collection.

Examples of Maurice Wilson's original artwork can be found at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Gahan Wilson

2011-12-07T05:02:00.001Z

Gahan Wilson is an American cartoonist, best known for his work in Playboy and The New Yorker. A 2009 collection celebrating Wilson's Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons ran to 3 volumes and 942 pages. A master of the fanciful and macabre, Wilson has also contributed regularly to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Collier's and National Lampoon, which ran his comic strip 'Nuts'.

Born in Evanston, Illinois on 18 February 1930, Wilson was the only child of a successful executive in a steel company and a talented artist in a Chicago advertising firm. He has described his upbringing as dysfunctional due to his partents' alcoholism, although he was also encouraged to draw. From an early age his drawings featured elements of horror and he became a fan of Chester Gould's 'Dick Tracy', with its many grotesque characters, and 'Little Orphan Annie' by Harold Gray. Radio also played an important part in his childhood love of the mysterious and macabre, as did Hollywood. Through a family friend he was able to visit Hollywood studios in the 1940s.

Wilson attended a number of commercial art studios whilst in High School and studied fine art at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was briefly in the Air Force but a bad leg excluded him from active duty. He then moved to Greenwich Village, selling cartoons to the major weekly magazines Collier's and Look.

Wilson attempted approach to Harvey Kurtzman following the launch of Trump resulted accidentally in his introduction to Hugh Hefner. He had spotted a Chicago address in Trump and visited the offices when he returned to Chicago to visit his parents over Christmas. Trump was, in fact, edited in New York, but Wilson found himself introduced to Hefner who began running his colour cartoons in Playboy in the mid-1950s.

Although best known for his single panel cartoons, Wilson produced 'Nuts' for National Lampoon as a response to Charles Schultz's 'Peanuts' where children would philosophise about any subject; 'Nuts' was Wilson's response of what it was really like to be a little child. Wilson ended the strip when he discovered it was being sold abroad, although he did subsequently return to the paper. Wilson also produced a syndicated weekly strip under the title 'Gahan Wilson's Sunday Funnies'.

Wilson's first collection of cartoons appeared in 1965 as Gahan Wilson's Graveside Manner and was followed by many other books, including collections of short stories and novels for both adults and children. He was also a film reviewer for The Twilight Zone Magazine, a book reviewer for Realms of Fantasy and designed a computer game, Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House.

Wilson's cartoons have earned him a number of awards, including World Fantasy Convention Award in 1981, the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award in 2005 and the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 from the National Cartoonists Society. He has also been President of the Cartoonist Guild. He was the subject of a documentary directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe entitled Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird.

Examples of Gahan Wilson's original artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Colin Wilson

2011-11-30T05:02:00.002Z

Although primarily known in the UK as a 2000AD artist, it would be fair to say that Colin Wilson probably has one of the broadest fan bases of any artistic contributor to Britain's longest running boys' weekly. Whilst many artists have found popularity in America, Wilson turned east and gained a strong following for his work in Europe before working in the USA.

Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 31 October 1949, Wilson attended Christchurch School of Art in 1967-68 before working as a commercial illustrator in advertising. He began contributing illustrations to a science fiction fanzine which led to an attempt in 1977 to edit his own comics fanzine, Strips, with the idea of promoting his own work (e.g. 'The Chronicles of Spandau', 'The Sound of Thunder') but which became a showcase for many other local talents. In 1979, he was one of the creators involved in the ecology-themed 'The Adventures of Captain Sunshine' published in Simply Living.

Wilson moved to London in 1980 and found work on 2000AD, drawing 'Judge Dredd' and various 'Future Shocks' before becoming the regular artist on 'Rogue Trooper'. Whilst still drawing the latter, he moved to Paris and spent six months approaching French publishers with a science fiction series he had created. He found a publisher in Jacques Glénat, who produced the series in three volumes — Rael (1984), Mantell (1986) and Alia (1989), the latter with writer Thierry Smolderen — under the overall title Dans l'Ombre du Soleil.

Wilson also took over the adventures of La Jeunesse de Blueberry (Young Blueberry) from artist Jean Giraud, drawing six albums: Les démons du Missouri (1985), Terreur sur le Kansas (1987), Le raid infernal (1987), written by Blueberry creator Jean-Michel Charlier, followed by three volumes scripted by François Corteggiani, La pousuite impitoyable (1992), Trois hommes pour Atlanta (1993) and Le prix du sang (1994). He also collaborated with Corteggiani on two volumes of Thuderhawks (1992-94).

Wilson returned to 2000AD and became an irregular contributor in 1998-2005, drawing 'Tor Cyan' and 'Rain Dogs' as well as further episodes of 'Judge Dredd'. He also began contributing to American comics with Point Blank (2002-03), written by Ed Brubaker and went on to draw Losers (2005), Battler Britton (2006) and Star Wars (various series, 2007-09).

He continued to also draw the dark crime noir series Du plomb dans la tête (Bullet to the Head) for French publishers Casterman, with three volumes — Les Petits poissons, Les Gros poissons and Du bordel dans l'aquarium — published in 2004-06. The series was optioned in 2008 and, at the time of writing, is in production under the title Headshot with Sylvester Stallone starring and Walter Hill directing.

Wilson continues to work on both sides of the Atlantic, his most recent work includes a collection of sketches, , published in France (2010), an issue of Gears of War (Wildstorm) and Jour J: Qui a Tué le Président? (2011), an alternative history tale built around the Kennedy assassination written by Fred Duval & Jean-Pierre Pécau.

Examples of Colin Wilson's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Robert Williams

2011-11-23T05:50:00.001Z

Robert Williams is recognized as a fine artist, despite the terminology he and others have applied to his work as "lowbrow art". Williams has explained how the term came to be when, as an underground comix artist working on Zap Comix, Gilbert Shelton — a fellow ZAP Comix contributor and part-owner of underground publishing company Rip-Off Press — suggested collecting Williams paintings into book form. Williams tells the story that "No other publishing company anywhere would dare to undertake such an unorthodox project. It was decided at that time, since no authorized art institutions would recognize this form of art, to call my book The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams."

Robert L. Williams was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 2 March 1943, the son of Robert Wandell Williams and his wife Betty Jane (nee Spink). Williams's father owned a drive-in restaurant in Montgomery, Alabama, popular with hot-rodders, which instilled an early fascination with cars in the young Robert. Williams had a generally delinquent childhood, involved in high jinx and gangs and was expelled from school in 9th grade.

At the age of 20, he travelled to Los Angeles and studied art at the Los Angeles City College, working on The Collegiate, the school paper. Here he met Suzanne Chorna, whom he married in 1964. After briefly attending The Chouinart Art Institute, Williams worked as a designer before joining the studio of Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth, custom car builder and creator of Rat Fink, an icon amongst hot-rodders.

In 1968 he joined the close-knit group of underground artists known as the ZAP Comix Collective, creating the character Coochy Cooty in ZAP Comix. At the same time he was also producing paintings and prints under the banner 'Super Cartoon'; much of this early work was subsequently collected in The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams (1979). During the early years of punk rock, Williams' 'Zombie Mystery Paintings' proved popular with underground clubs and avant-garde galleries and were later collected (1986), where Robert Crumb, in his introduction, described them as "vivid American nightmares — a gaudy carnival midway of our seething, barbaric collective subconscious ... coarse, crude, yeah, ugly even ... they are also intense mind-boggling, eyeball feasts, revelations, visions, captured dreams."

Williams subsequent paintings (often signed Robt. Wms.) became more detailed and are often characterised by their vividly coloured psychedelic visuals incorporating realistic or comic vignettes His work has been further collected in Visual Addiction (1989), Views from a Tortured Libido (1993), Malicious Resplendence (1997), Hysteria in Remission (2002), Through Prehensile Eyes (2005) and other titles. Williams has also painted album covers, notably for Guns N' Roses, t-shirts, shoes, prints and posters. He has staged a number of one-man shows at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, including Conceptual Realism (2009).

Williams received a Lifetime Achievement award at the Beyond Eden Fair in 2010. He has been involved in the publishing of a number of publications promoting 'lowbrow' art, including ART? Alternatives and Juxtapoz. An essayist and lecturer, he was the subject of the 2010 documentary film Robert Williams Mr Bitchin.

Examples of Robert Williams's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Pete Williams

2011-11-16T09:36:00.000Z

Pete Williams is one of a seemingly thriving group of cartoonists from Merseyside who have filled the pages of our national newspapers with fun and humour over the years, amongst them Bill Tidy, Albert Rusling and Bill Stott whose works were celebrated alongside Williams at an exhibition at Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, in 1978.

Peter George Williams was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, on 27 January 1937, the eldest son of George H. Williams and his wife Margaret (nee Watterson). He had no formal training as an artist but sold cartoons widely for over forty years, his work appearing in magazines and newspapers both in the UK and abroad. The Dictionary of British Cartoonists and Caricaturists notes contributions to Punch, Private Eye, Daily Mail, Spectator, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, People, Men Only and Mayfair. He was rewarded for his work with numerous awards, including the Berol Cartoonist of the Year in 1987, Waddingtons International Cartoon Awards in 1988 and awards in Belgium and Japan. Exhibitions of his work have been held in the Colchester Gallery, Essex, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and the Library Theatre, Manchester.

Alongside his lengthy career as a cartoonist, Williams was also a part-time art teacher at the Alice Elliott and Watergate Schools in Liverpool.

Williams' younger brother, Mike, also became a cartoonist, selling his first cartoons to Punch in 1967.

Examples of Pete Williams' artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Claire Wendling

2011-11-09T10:00:00.005Z

Clair Wendling is a French artist whose graphic novels, illustrations and prints have proved hugely popular in Europe and the USA during the past twenty years.

Born in Montpellier on 6 December1967, she studied for a BA in art and philosophy before enrolling at L'école des Beaux Arts d'Angoulême in 1989, During her final year she won the Alph'Art future prize at the Angoulême comics festival. That same year she began working for the French publisher Delacourt, contributing to the anthologies The Children of the Nile and Entrechats. Her first graphic novel, Les lumières de l'Amalou [Lights of Amalou], written by Christopher Gibelin, was published in 1990. The second volume of the series won the Press Award at Angoulême in 1991 and she was further rewarded as Best Young Illustrator at Angoulême the following year for her covers for Player One magazine.

In 1993 she illustrated a series of stamps, under the title 'le plaisir d'écrire' [the pleasure of writing] for the French Post Office and, in 1995, was one of the first illustrators invited by the CNBDI, Angoulême's museum of graphic art, to produce an image in the cement of the museum's forecourt.

With the completion of the Lights of Amalou series (five volumes published 1990-96), Wendling's next release was the graphic novel Iguana Bay (1996). She was then hired by Warner Brothers to work on their film The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot and other projects, but spent only eight months with the Los Angeles-based animation studio before frustration over creative constraints led her to quit and return to France, where she continued her work on graphic novels, game design — she was involved in the designs for the computer game Alone in the Dark IV (2000) — and illustration.

Her books include Desk (1999), Drawers (2001) and Daisies: Affogato all'Amarena (2010) as well as producing illustrations for various book projects, including the short story collection Sales petits contes [Dirty Little Stories], written by Yann (1997), Aphrodite (2000) and Vampires (2001). Numerous portfolios of her work have also been published.

Examples of Claire Wendling's work can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Michael Whittlesea

2011-11-02T05:02:00.005Z

Born in London on 6 June 1938, Michael Whitlesea was educated at Harrow School of art before beginning a career in publishing.

Whittlesea was a regular book cover artist in the 1960s and 1970s working for Heinemann, Newnes, Young World, Macdonald and Oxford University Press amongst others. He was a regular contributor to World of Wonder and Speed and Power in the 1970s, for the latter producing a series of stunning paintings based on the science fiction stories of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov in 1974-75. In the early 1980s, he illustrated the Make Science Magic series for Purnell.

Although he was painting whilst working commercially, he did not begin exhibiting until 1985 when his work appeared in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. In that same year he was elected a member of both the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour and the New English Art Club, and won the Painter Stainers Award. In 1989 he was Ken Howard's Artist of Choice for an exhibition at the Art's Club, Dover Street, London and Tom Coates' Choice at the Mall Gallery in 1991. In 1991 he was a prize-winner at the Singer/Friedland/Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition, where he had been selected on a number of occasions. In 1998 he was commissioned to paint the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship.

Many further exhibitions have followed at the Royal Academy, Bankside Gallery, Mall Gallery, Langham Fine Art, Alresford Gallery, Royal West of England Academy, Royal College of Art, Chelsea Arts Club, Richard Hagen Gallery, Lennox Gallery and RONA Gallery.

In 2002, he won the Jans Ondaatje Rolls Award for Drawing at the NEAC Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London.

Whittlesea has also written two books: The Complete Book of Drawing (Michael Beazley, 1983; reprinted in 1992 as The Complete Step-by-Step Drawing Course) and The Complete Watercolour Course (Windward, 1987; reprinted in 1992 as The Complete Step-by-Step Watercolour Course).

He has said of his work: "I use oil or watercolours for painting and pastels and charcoal to draw. I work on primed canvas or good watercolour paper using a variety of hog hair and sable brushes. I have a very traditional way of working. I often work on 6 or more paintings at a time and I draw regularly and work from paintings. Drawings can be around for years before I think of using them in a painting...

"I still find painting a very difficult activity. Its unpredictable. At the start of each day. I am not sure that anything good will result and I have given up on achieving a style. Whatever develop, happens. There is no clear idea or vision of how a picture will look."

Examples of Mike Whittlesea's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Bruce C. Windo

2011-10-26T09:39:00.007+01:00

Bruce C. Windo is an artist who, until now, has resisted discovery. I seem to return to him every couple of years, whenever I spot a book cover or illustration from his pen. Inevitably, new information always seems to come in just too late.

Back in 2009, when I mentioned Windo on my Bear Alley blog, it was a four-line note, the only known information being that he was born in Kent in 1920. An update a year later added a little information but nothing further about his career. I can now add a little more.

Bruce Carrington Windo was born in Kent on 20 March 1920, his birth registered in Strood, although he was probably born in nearby Meopham where his father was the head schoolmaster at Meopham Primary School between 1902 and 1934. Percy Carrington Windo had been born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in 1871, and married Emily Martin in Bristol in 1895; Percy was a school master in Bath, Avon, but, as his family grew, moved to Singleton, Sussex, where he ran Bay School.

Soon after, Percy and his family moved to Meopham, near Gravesend, Kent, and lived at The School House. Emily died in 1906, at the early age of 39, and Percy married Gertrude Mabel Melling two years later, who had been an organist in Singleton when Percy and Emily were at Bay School.

Percy is said to have been "very talented at handicrafts and drawing and his pupils craftwork reached a high standard." He also served as Parish Clerk. He died in Eastbourne, Sussex, in 1955, aged 83; his wife, Gertrude, died in Eastbourne in 1968, aged 93.

Bruce Carrinton Windo presumably gained some of his artistic talents from his father. He was 19 when the Second World War began and, again presumably, would have served in some capacity. Thus his artistic career was delayed until after World War II. The earliest work I have been able to trace would appear to be a poster of a coach advertising Duple Motor Bodies Ltd., signed Carrington-Windo in familiar small capitals. I believe further poster. The syle was very similar to railway poster advertising of the period and, apparently, Windo went on to produce further posters for regional bus companies in the 1950s.

Windo was active as a book cover artist from at least 1947 when a number of covers signed 'Bruce' were published by Pan Books (including Graham Greene's Journey Without Maps, Osbert Sitwell's Alive-Alive Oh! and other stories and at least half a dozen others). 'Bruce' was active in 1947-49, possibly giving up to concentrate on the more lucrative advertising posters.

Examples of his books covers begin to appear again in late 1955 from Panther Books and Windo's covers appeared regularly from Pan Books in 1956-58 and from Arrow Books in 1957-58. His covers could also be seen on pocket libraries in that same era, including Famous Romance Library (1956-58) and Schoolgirls' Picture Library (1959).

Windo's illustrations appeared in Look and Learn magazine as early as 1965 and as late as 1969; he also produced illustrations for World of Wonder and World of Knowledge Annual.

Bruce Carrington-Windo married Peggy Joan Shepherd in 1Q 1948. They lived at various addresses around Eastbourne, Sussex. I can trace the following from telephone books of the area: Flat 2, Castle Mount, Carlisle Road [1951/52], 17 Park Avenue, Hampden Park [1954/59] and 4/13 Granville Road [1976/83].

In later years, the Carrinton-Windos lived in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, where Bruce died in 2006, aged 85; his wife died in 2008, aged 86.

Examples of Bruce Windo's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Robert Maguire

2011-10-19T08:53:00.002+01:00

Robert Maguire was one of the leading illustrators of American paperback, producing over 600 covers over a period of fifty years from 1950. Many fans consider him the best crime noir artist of his era, his work gracing the cover of pulp magazines Hollywood Detective and Manhunt and books with titles like My Gun, Her Body, I'll Kill You Next, Tall, Dark and Dead and Kiss for a Killer. Hardboiled writers like Bruno Fischer, Hal Ellson, David Goodis, Richard S. Prather, Jack Webb and Day Keene became best-sellers in the 1950s and 1960s, in part thanks to Maguire's eye-catching covers, the majority of them featuring iconic examples of 'good girl art'.

Robert A. Maguire was born on 3 August 1921, the son of a draftsman architect, and attended Duke University, although his education was interrupted by World War II. Released from service with the 88th Infantry, Maguire began studying under Frank Reilly at the Art Students League in New York where two of his contemporaries were Clark Hulings and James Bama, all three artists graduating in 1949.

Maguire found immediate success painting covers for Trojan Publications's line of pulp magazines. Before long he was working for the burgeoning paperback market, over the next few decades producing covers for almost every mainstream publishing company in New York: Pocket Books, Dell, Ace Books, Harper, Avon Books, Silhouette, Ballantine, Pyramid, Bantam, Lion, Berkeley, Beacon and Monarch. During a lull in the paperback market in the 1960s, he worked for Norcross Greeting Card Company painting Christmas scenes and other wholesome subjects... not a gun or a dame in sight! A chance meeting with Walter Papp (a pulp illustrator who had graduated to book covers) led him back to paperback cover art.

Maguire usually used photo-reference for his covers, posing female models as femmes fatale, whilst often taking the male roles himself; a single trip to shoot three or four rolls of film provided him with enough reference for horses for several years. With no time to read the books, he relied on a brief from the publisher's art director, which usually involved little more than the girls' hair colour and how sensual they wanted the cover. Maguire would then produce five or six sketches, then a colour rough of the chosen image before painting the finished cover, usually in oils.

In the 1970s and 1980s, with the type of hardboiled novels he had illustrated now consigned to history, Maguire turned to other genres, painting covers for romances, westerns and science fiction, as well as best-sellers by the likes of John Irving and Herman Wouk. He quit painting covers around 1999, claiming that publishers now wanted paintings that looked like photographs and the choice of images was ruled over by salesmen and second rate art directors, offering nothing of interest creatively.

Robert Maguire was married twice, first to a model, whom he subsequently divorced; his second marriage, to Janice Maguire, lasted over twenty years. He died on 26 February 2005. A study of his work, Dames, Dolls and Gun Molls by Jim Silke, was published in 2009.

Examples of Robert Maguire's cover art can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Sue Macartney-Snape

2011-10-12T10:25:00.000+01:00

Sue Macartney-Snape has been poking fun at British stereotypes for over fifteen years in the pages of the Saturday Telegraph Magazine. With pin-sharp commentary by Victoria Mather, she has skewered fanciful fashions and foibles since 1994 in their weekly 'Social Stereotypes' column. John Julius Norwich has described her as a "master of caricature" and has said that her paintings "illustrate the English social scene more brilliantly and with greater accuracy than those of any other painter working today." Cartoonist Martin Rowson has said her artwork "can encapsulate an entire social milieu in a drooping eyelid or a flared nostril." Elsewhere she has been described as the "Wodehouse of Art".

Born in Tanzania, Sue Macartney-Snape grew up in Australia, arriving in London in 1980. She has exhibited widely, including sell out exhibitions with David Ker, Jonathan Clark and at the Sloane Club. She has also painted many commissions, including ones from Glyndebourne, The Metropolitan Opera and Barbara Amiel (Mrs. Conrad Black).

She won the 2004 Pont Award for drawing the British Character for her funny, colourful caricatures of folks from all walks of life, which have been collected in a series of books over the years. Another book, Araminta's Wedding, was a humorous story of the upper classes by Jilly Cooper.

Original prints of artwork by Sue Macartney-Snape can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

PUBLICATIONS

Araminta's Wedding; or, A Fortune Secured by Jilly Cooper. London, Mandarin, 1994.
Social Steriotypes series (all with Victoria Mather):
__Absolutely Typical, foreword by Auberon Waugh. London, Methuen, 1996.
__Absolutely Typical Too, foreword by Richard Ingrams. London, Methuen, 1997.
__The Party Blonde, foreword by Nicky Haslam, London, John Murray, 2000.
__The Embarrassing Parents, foreword by Nicholas Coleridge. London, John Murray, 2002.
__The Appalling Guests, foreword by Max Hastings. London, John Murray, 2003.
__The Perfect Family, foreword by Ned Sherrin, London, John Murray, 2004.
__The Mid-Life Crisis, foreword by Graydon Carter. London, John Murray, 2005.
__The Smelly Dog, foreword by Julian Fellowes. London, John Murray, 2006.
__The Wicked Teenager, forward by Giles Brandreth. London, John Murray, 2007.
__There'll Always be an England. London, Constable, 2010.

Sydney Seymour Lucas

2011-10-05T10:41:00.002+01:00

Sydney Seymour Lucas was an illustrator and portrait painter, the son of artist J. Seymour Lucas, R.A. (1849-1923) and his wife, also an artist, Paris-born Marie Elizabeth, daughter of Louis Dieudonne de Cornelissen (1851-1921), then living at 21 Queen Square. Born Sydney Charles Seymour Lucas on 9 May 1878, he was baptized at St John the Evangelist, Westminster, on 1 June 1878. In the 1880s, the family moved to 1 Woodchurch Road, St. John, West Hampstead, a purpose-built studio and home designed by John Seymour Lucas's friend, the architect Sydney Williams-Lee.

Lucas was educated in Suffolk (in 1891, he was boarding with James George Easton, vicar of St Margaret's Church, Ilkeshall St Margaret), Westminster School (1892-95) and at the Royal Academy Schools, and began selling illustrations professionally around the turn of the century (some references give the dates his work flourished as 1904-40).

Lucas was married in 1905 to Mary Douglas Clark. By 1911, Lucas and his family, which now included a son, Arthur Henry Seymour-Lucas, born in 1908, were living at 61 Rudolph Road, Bushey, Hertfordshire. Mary Douglas Seymour-Lucas died, in 1933, at the early age of 48 at the time, the Lucas family were living at 64 Falconer Road, Bushey.

Lucas worked at 6 Albert Studios, Albert Bridge Road, Battersea, in 1934. His younger sister, Marie Ellen Seymour Lucas (later Grubbe), also studied as an artist.

Lucas died in Blyth, Sussex, in 1954, aged 76.

Artwork by Sydney Seymour Lucas can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Charlie Adlard

2011-09-28T05:02:00.001+01:00

Charlie Adlard has been discovered and rediscovered a number of times in both the UK and US. After producing a string of short-lived strips beginning with 'Biggles Bear' in 1989, Adlard approached Steve MacManus with samples and was offered a Judge Dredd strip. He then drew various strips for the Judge Dredd Megazine, notably 'Armitage', about a brutal Brit-Cit cop and his partner, Treasure Steel (who subsequently featured in her own series), and for Marvel UK, where his best work was probably Dances With Demons, a 4-issue mini-series penned by Simon Jowett; a second collaboration with Jowett, entiteld 'Bloodrush', went unpublished.

By this time, Adlard had been discovered by American publishers, drawing stories for Black Orchid Annual, Marvel Comics Presents and Good Guys. After producing a five-issue run of Mars Attacks! for Topps, Adlard began working on the best-selling X-Files comic strip from the same publisher. The strip was a tremendous success and was still selling an average 130,000 copies per issue when Adlard decided to leave, claiming that the strip was straight-jacketed by the demands of the company and he had little artistic control.

He left to work on Shadowman for Acclaim and, although never short of relatively high-profile work (on, for instance, The Crow, Gen13, Superman and X-Men, it might be said that Adlard was critically discovered only when he began working on Larry Young's Astronauts in Trouble in 1999.

In the 2000s, Adlard was, again, kept busy on a range of titles, including Blair Witch: Dark Testaments and Double Image for Image; The Authority and The Establishment for WildStorm, Before the Fantastic Four, X-Men Unlimited, Peter Parker: Spider-Man, ThunderBolts and Warlock for Marvel and Batman/Scarface: A Psychodrama, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Harley Quinn and Batman: Gotham Knights for DC.

However, it was with The Walking Dead for Image that Adlard was yet again rediscovered in 2004. Adlard replaced original artist Tony Moore with issue 7 (April 2004) and has continued the series ever since, the series now approaching issue 90 at the time of writing. The post-zombie apocalypse storyline proved very popular with readers and rode a wave of zombie popularity in movies (28 Days Later and Resident Evil had both appeared in 2002). Countless zombie comics - most notably the Marvel Zombies sequence and spin-offs - have subsequently appeared but few have been as critically well-received as The Walking Dead, which won the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series in 2010. A 6-part television series based on the comic developed by Frank Darabont, began broadcasting in October 2010; a second series of 13-episodes was commissioned within days of the show's debut.

As well as his work in America, Adlard has retained his connections with the UK, drawing the graphic novel Playing the Game by Doris Lessing in 1995 and episodes of 'Nikolai Dante' for 2000AD in the late 1990s. However, it was the relaunch of Pat Mills' 'Savage' in 2004 that brought Adlard back to the attention of fans of British comics. He went on to draw three series of the character's revival between 2004 and 2007.

Adlard has also played drums with various bands over the years (Wild Thyme, Bogus Monk, Mine Power Cosmic).

Examples of Charlie Adlard's original artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Brian Lewis

2011-09-21T05:02:00.001+01:00

Brian Lewis is an artist whose reputation has continued to endure long after his death. Known in science fiction circles for his often abstract covers for New Worlds, Science Fantasy and Science Fiction Adventures and in comic circles for his contributions to House of Hammer, appreciation of Lewis's work has grown as more of his work for other papers and magazines is discovered.

Brian Moncreif Lewis was born on 3 June 1929 and served his National Service with the RAF. An interest in science fiction led him to co-edit and contribute to The Medway Journal fanzine in the early 1950s. His first professional sale relating to SF is thought to be an illustration relating to 'Journey Into Space' for the Radio Times. His connections with Nova Publications began in 1954 and, between 1957 and 1962 he painted some 80 covers for their three SF magazines, his work often showing a strong surrealist influence. During the same period he also painted a number of rather more straight-forward covers for Digit Books.

Lewis made his comic strip debut in 1959, drawing early strips for Lone Star and TV Comic. However, it was with 'Jet Ace Logan' in Tiger that he found his feet and there followed a 13-month run on 'Captain Condor' in 1961-63. Lewis also proved adept at drawing sports and war strips, culminating in work for Eagle where he drew 'Mann of Battle' and 'Home of the Wanderers'. Science fiction was not forgotten and Lewis drew SF tales for Boys' World, Tiger and Hurricane.In 1964 he also proved himself as a humour artist when he began contributing cartoon strips to Wham! and, over the next few years, humour and adventure strips often ran concurrently in the pages of Smash!.

In the late 1960s, Lewis worked for the Central Office of Information on public information films and also contributed to the Beatles' animated movie Yellow Submarine. He suffered a heart attack in 1970 and struggled for some years, drawing strips for Countdown and Look-In and a series of scientific biographies for All About Science. In 1976, his agent contacted Dez Skinn suggesting Lewis as an artist for the upcoming House of Hammer; Skinn was only persuaded after seeing samples, but the connection proved fruitful, eventually leading to a brief association between Lewis and 2000AD where he drew covers and, briefly, the 'Dan Dare' strip.

A busy artist in the late 1970s, painting books covers and contributing to The Muppet Show Diary, annuals, Vampirella and Target magazine, Lewis suffered a heart attack and died on 4 December 1978, aged only 49.

Examples of Brian Lewis's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

John Bolton

2011-09-14T05:02:00.001+01:00

John Bolton is best known for his painted comic strips, his dark, photorealist style particularly effective on horror stories, in which genre he became somewhat typecast through his work on adaptations of Clive Barker and Sam Raimi's film Army of Darkness and his series of voluptuous she-vampire paintings. Bolton's work in the broader field of fantasy is probably best exemplified by his collaborations with Chris Claremont, which included Marada the She Wolf in Epic Illustrated and the 6-issue mini-series The Black Dragon.

Born in London, 23 May 1951, Bolton trained as civil engineer, then worked as a clothes salesman in London. Inspired by a childlhood love of drawing and painting, he took a 3-year course at East Ham Technical College, graduating with a degree in graphics and design. His first professional sales were made in 1971 when he contributed illustrations to a book on horses.

His first comics-related work came via Granddreams, illustrating annuals such as The Magician, The Lone Ranger, Planet of the Apes, Flash Gordon, New Avengers and Tarzan. His first strips appeared in House of Hammer in 1976, including adaptations of 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness' and 'One Million Years B.C.', and early episodes of the Steve Moore-written 'Father Shandor' series. Switching to colour, he made an immediate impact drawing 'The Bionic Woman' for Look-In. Bolton won the Eagle Award for Favourite Comicbook Artist (UK) in 1979.

His American debut came with 'Kull', written by Doug Moench for Marvel Preview in 1980. A year later, his first painted strips - 'The Llehs' - appeared in Epic Illustrated followed in 1982 by 'Marada the She-Wolf'. Dozens of short horror tales appeared in Twisted Tales, Alien Worlds, Pathways to Fantasy, Tales of Terror, Alien Encounters and Cheval Noir over the next few years, as did The Black Dragon. Bolton could also turn his hand to mainstream comicbooks, which he did with a run of back-up stories in Classic X-Men in 1986-89 and Wonder Woman Annual (1988).

Graphic novels like Someplace Strange (1988), written by Ann Nocenti, and The Yattering and Jack (1992), adapted from a Clive Barker story by Steve Niles, and his painting of the first issue of The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman helped cement his reputation as Britain's finest weird-fantasy/horror artist. He has since gone on to work on many other titles, chief amongst them Man-Bat (1995), written by Jamie Delano, Menz Insana (1997) by Christopher Fowler, Gifts of the Night (1999) by Paul Chadwick, Batman/Joker: Switch (2003) by Devin Grayson, God Save the Queen (2007) by Mike Carey, The Evil Dead (2008) by Mark Verheiden and The Green Woman (2010) by Peter Straub & Michael Easton.

Over the years, Bolton has also published portfolios, illustrated trading cards and worked as a storyboard and concept artist.

A Short Film About John Bolton (2003) was written and directed by Neil Gaiman, although it featured a fictional version of Bolton's life. Bolton is played by John O'Mahony, with Marcus Brigstocke playing an interviewer who discovers, to his cost, what inspires Bolton's disturbing art. Bolton himself had a cameo in the film.

His latest work is Shame: Conception for Renegade Arts Entertainment, released in July 2011; at the time of writing he is working on the second book in a proposed trilogy.

Examples of John Bolton's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Kenneth Lilly

2011-09-07T11:55:00.001+01:00

Kenneth Norman Lilly was one of the finest of British nature artists, his drawings of wildlife - most notably the kind of wildlife you would find in your hedgerow or nearby fields - drawn with a passion and interest for the subject.

Born in Bromley, Surrey, on 30 December 1929, the son of Cecil Lilly and his wife Raibie (nee Mayes), Lilly became a prolific contributor of illustrations and covers to Look and Learn and Treasure. He produced a number of notable series for the former, illustrating Maxwell Knight’s ‘This Month in the Country’ (1967) and Ken Denham’s series on ‘Animal Families’ (1968).

Lilly was also a regular illustrator of books from the 1970s onwards and an exhibition of his animal paintings was held at the Medici Galleries in London in 1983. Some of the best illustrations can be found in Kenneth Lilly’s Animals (1988). As well as books, Lilly also illustrated a set of stamps entitled ‘Friends of the Earth’, released in 1986.

In 1992, Dorling Kindersley published a series of short children's books under the title Kenneth Lilly's Animal Ark, which grouped animals with common features (feathers, scales, spots or stripes) with a single sentence description by Angela Wilkes. A later series by Tessa Potter featured different animals and different seasons. One of his most notable series was a number of books which depicted animals at life size.

Lilly, who lived in Devon, died in the spring of 1996, aged 66.

Examples of Kenneth Lilly's work can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Books illustrated by Kenneth Lilly
Seabirds by David Saunders. London, Hamlyn, 1971; some illustration reused in The Seashore by Jennifer Cochrane; illus. with others. Feltham, Hamlyn, 1973.
The Scandaroon by Henry Williamson. London, Macdonald & Co., 1972.
Birds of Prey by Glenys and Derek Lord. London, Hamlyn, 1979.
Some Birds and Mammals of the Field and Hedgerow. London, Medici Society, 1980.
The Squirrel by Margaret Lane. London, Methuen/Walker, 1981.
Animals at the Zoo. London, Methuen, 1982.
Animals in the Country. London, Methuen, 1982.
Animals in the Jungle. London, Methuen, 1982.
Animals of the Ocean. London, Methuen, 1982.
Animals on the Farm. London, Methuen, 1982.The Fox by Margaret Lane. London, Methuen, 1982.
Some Birds and Mammals of the Riverbank. London, The Medici Society, 1983.
Animal Builders. London, Walker, 1984
Arnimal Climbers. London, Walker, 1984.
Animal Jumpers. London, Walker, 1984.
Animal Runners. London, Walker, 1984.
Animal Swimmers. London, Walker, 1984.
Daytime Animals by Joanna Cole. London, Walker, 1985.
Nighttime Animals by Joanna Cole. London, Walker, 1985.
Come, Come to My Corner by William Mayne. London, Walker, 1986.
Kenneth Lilly's Animals by Joyce Pope. London, Walker, 1988.
Large as Life Animals by Joanna Cole. London, Walker, 1990.
The Animal Atlas by Barbara Taylor. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
Colourful Animals by Angela Wilkes. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
Feathery Animals by Angela Wilkes. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
Furry Animals by Angela Wilkes. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
Prickly Animals by Angela Wilkes. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
Scaly Animals by Angela Wilkes. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
Spotty Animals by Angela Wilkes. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
Stripey Animals by Angela Wilkes. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
Wrinkly Animals by Angela Wilkes. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
A Field Full of Horses by Peter Hansard. London, Walker, 1993; with additional CD, Walker, 2010.
Baby Animals by Kate Hayden. London, Walker, 1996.
Digger: The Story of a Mole by Tessa Potter. London, Andersen, 1996.
Fang: The Story of a Fox by Tessa Potter. London, Andersen, 1996.
Greyfur: The Story of a Rabbit by Tessa Potter. London, Andersen, 1996.
Sarn: The Story of an Otter by Tessa Potter. London, Andersen, 1996.
The Big Book of Animals by Sheila Hanly. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1997.
My Little Animals Board Book. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1998.
My First Animal Board Book. London, Dorling Kindersley, 1999.
My First Animal Book. London, Dorling Kindersley, 2002.

Barrie Linklater

2011-08-31T05:01:00.003+01:00

Born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, in 1931, Barrie Linklater studied at Woolwich Polytechnic School of Art and began his artistic career working in a London studio before leaving for Australia where he worked as a freelance for four years.

Returning to London, Linklater forged a reputation as a fine portrait artist and subsequently as an equestrian artist, his first commission in the latter area coming from HRH the Duke of Edinburgh during a sitting for a portrait in 1975. Equestrian work has since been commissioned by Her Majesty The Queen and the City of London amongst many others. In all he has 13 paintings in the Royal Collection and his work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery. Linklater lives and works in Berkshire.

In the 1960s, Linklater contributed illustrations to Look and Learn's adaptation of H. G. Wells' 'The First Men in the Moon' in 1963 and later, in 1967, began producing covers and illustrations on a semi-regular basis.

Examples of Barrie Linklater's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Vince Locke

2011-08-24T21:40:00.002+01:00

Vince Locke is an American artist, often associated with grotesque and violent fantasy and horror images, although his work has also included mainstream superhero work for Batman and The Spectre, as well as work for British comics 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine.

Born in Michigan in 1966, the son of a sign painter. Influenced by artists like Andrew Wyeth and turn of the century illustrators, Locke came to fan attention with his work on Deadworld, a zombie horror series created by Stuart Kerr and Ralph Griffith for their own small press outfit Arrow Comics. Deadworld, by Kerr and Locke, was launched in 1987 but lasted only seven issues before the collapse of the black & white market in the US. Deadworld was continued by Caliber Comics and Locke continued drawing the series until 1991 as well as inking Baker Street in 1989-91.

Locke found work with Vertigo, drawing or inking episodes of The Sandman (1992-93), American Freak: A Tale of the Un-Men (1994), Sandman Mystery Theatre (1994-95), Witchcraft: La Terreur (1998) and The Books of Faerie: Auberon's Tale (1998). For Paradox Press Locke drew A History of Violence (1997) written by John Wagner, which was filmed by David Cronenberg in 2005 with Viggo Mortensen in the lead role.

The artist has also been long associated with the death metal band Cannibal Corpse. He has painted covers for all their albums starting with Eaten Back to Life in 1989. The ultraviolent images - ranging from zombie doctors to visceral birth scenes. Locke also illustrated the graphic novel Evisceration Plague which was distributed during the band's tour promoting the album of that name and featured stories based on each of the songs.

In the early 2000s, Locke was a popular contributor to White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast, producing many illustrations for the latter's Forgotten Realms role-playing games.In 2006-09, Locke drew a number of 'Tales from the Black Museum' one-off stories for Judge Dredd Megazine, a 'Tharg's Future Shocks' and two Judge Dredd yarns for 2000AD. He has also drawn illustrations for two collections of stories by Caitlin R. Kiernan, Frog Toes and Tentacles (2005), Tales from the Woeful Platypus (2007) and A is for Alien (2009).

Locke, married and with three children, lives in the suburbs of Michigan.

Examples of Vince Locke's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Luis Bermejo

2011-08-17T12:04:00.002+01:00

Luis Bermejo was born Luis Bermejo Rojo in Madrid in 1931, although the family soon moved to Albacete. It was in Albacete that Bermejo began his professional career, still in his teens, as an assistant to Manuel Gago, himself only in his early twenties but already recognised as a great talent in Spanish comics. Gago had published his first comic strip in 1942 and quickly found work with Editorial Valenciana, drawing for the series Niño Gonzalo and Richard y Bakutu.

In 1944, Gago created El Guerrero del Antifaz [Warrior of the Mask], which would run for 668 issues, finally ending in 1966. Bermejo began as a letterer on the series in 1947 but, before long, was allowed to ink pages. With Gago’s aid, Bermejo launched his own series in 1948, creating El Rey del Mar [The King of the Sea] for Editorial Valenciana. Written by one of the top scriptwriters of the era, Pedro Quesada, it ran for 46 issues, over which time Bermejo began to assimilate influences other than Gago, notably Alex Raymond.

Bermejo’s comic work diversified. In 1949 he drew “Diablillos” [Mischief] for Chicos and, a couple of years later, “Polín, Poli y Pol-Pol” for the same paper; he drew similarly humorous strips for girls for the woman’s magazine Mariló.

Bermejo returned to Madrid to attend the Academy of Fine Arts at San Fernando, studying under illustrator Carlos Sáenz de Tejada. Bermejo’s schooling meant that a more realistic style and better figurework were on display in over 100 episodes of Aventuras del FBI [Adventures of the FBI], created for Madrid-based Editorial Rollán in 1951, following the successful launch of a series of novels with the title “FBI” a year earlier. The strip, following the adventures of FBI agent Jack Hope, is considered a classic in Spain, ran for years and the episodes drawn by Bermejo were recycled in the 1960s and 1970s, and later available in a complete collection.

Bermejo moved to Valencia and collaborated with a number of top Spanish writers, including Miguel González Casquel (one of the scriptwriters of Aventuras del FBI), with whom he created Sigur (1954) and “Federico Trotamundos” for Chicos (1955) and Pedro Quesada on the juvenile adventure series Roque Brío (1956). The latter was an unexpected failure, lasting on 8 editions, but the two teamed up again for episodes of Pantera Negra [Black Panther], launched in 1956 with artwork by José Ortiz and, later, Miguel Quesada, Manuel Gago’s brother-in-law who had worked with Bermejo in the 1940s.

Bermejo had by now established himself at Editorial Maga, working closely with Gago, Miguel and Pedro Quesada and José and Leopoldo Ortiz. Here he produced his second famous work, Apache, scripted by Pedro Quesada, which he drew for over 50 issues from 1958.

Bermejo was already in demand elsewhere, having produced his first strip for the British market via the agency A.L.I. in 1957—an issue of Super Detective Library featuring private eye Tod Claymore. Bermejo also contributed romance stories to Mirabelle, Romeo and Cherie in 1957-60. At the same time, he was still a busy artist in Spain, working for Bruguera on a series of literary adaptations: “La conquista de los poles”, “Un yanqui en la corte del Rey Arturo” (both published in 1957), “Una vida aventurerea” (1958), “Las aventuras del Club Pickwick” and “Las aventuras de Pinocho” (both 1959).

In 1960, Bermejo began drawing the character John Steel for Super Detective Library. The early stories were fairly commonplace war stories with Steel as a wartime agent for Military Intelligence. But when the stories switched to Thriller Picture Library, Steel was given a make-over and began featuring in a series of jazz-age, crime noir private eye yarns with Bermejo the main artist.

Contributions to War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library, Air Ace and Commando in 1960-62 firmly established Bermejo in the UK and he went on to draw “Mann of Battle” for Eagle (1962) and a series of stories featuring maritime adventurer Pike Mason in Boys’ World (1963-64).

To cope with the workload, Bermejo often worked with Matías Alonso, the main artist on Gago’s “El Guerrero del Antifaz” since 1961, and the two worked on a number of projects for Editorial Maga, including Marco Polo (1963), Vida y costumbres de los Vikingos (1965) and África y sus habitantes (1966). At the same time, Bermejo was having his biggest success in the UK when he worked on “Heros the Spartan” for Eagle, alternating adventures with Frank Bellamy in 1963-66.

Bermejo now had an informal studio set up, working with José Ortiz, Leopoldo Ortiz, Juan González Alacreu, Alfredo Sanchis Cortés and Emilio Frejo, their work agented by Bardon Art in the UK and by Pierro D’Ami in Italy. The Bermejo studio was responsible for many strips in the UK, notably “UFO Agent” in Eagle (1966) and “The Avengers” in Diana (1966-67).

Bermejo, solo, drew “The Missing Link” for Fantastic in 1967-68 and contributed illustrations to Tell Me Why, Look and Learn and Once Upon a Time, also painting the long-running fairy tale Princess Marigold for Treasure (1969-71).

Bermejo was a popular contributor to James Warren's horror magazines Vampirella, Creepy and Eerie in 1975-79, notably drawing "The Rook". In 1979-81, he drew an adaptation of Lord of the Rings which was published throughout Europe. He subsequently produced episodes of Storia Del West, drew "The Fox" for Vampirella and other for Warren. The recovering Spanish market also meant regular work in Cimoc, Metropol, Baladin, Hunter, Zona 84 and other magazines, as well as adapting books by Isaac Asimov and A. E. Van Vogt.

He worked on the revival of the famous adventure strip "El Capitán Trueno" [Captain Thunder] in 1986, but turned to painting and was able to retire from comics in the early 1990s.

Examples of artwork by Luis Bermejo can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Leo Baxendale

2011-08-10T18:41:00.001+01:00

Leo Baxendale has been one of the few artists in Britain to advance humour strips in the past sixty years, although this is not to deny the technical skill of some practitioners before and after his work appeared. His work has been frenetic and violent at times, subtle and thought provoking at others. No other artist has argued the case of humour in British comics as strongly as Baxendale and few (if any) have the credentials to back up their arguments so soundly.

Born in Whittle-le-Woods, Lancashire, on 27 October 1930, Baxendale had a grammar school education; as an artist he was self-taught, his first job being to design paint labels for the Leyland Paint and Varnish Company. Between 1949 and 1950 he served with the catering corps. of the R.A.F., after which he worked as a staff artist for the Lancashire Evening Post, drawing sports cartoons, editorial illustrations, adverts and his own series of self-written articles.

Inspired by David Law’s "Dennis the Menace", he submitted work to D.C. Thomson's The Beano, a comic he had read as a child, and was immediately accepted, his first original character appearing in 1953, "Little Plum your Redskin Chum", followed shortly afterwards by "Minnie me Minx", intended as a female counterpart to the popular Dennis. His third Beano set was the single panel "When the Bell Rings", later to become a full-page strip under the title "The Bash Street Kids", Baxendale's first strip to introduce a team of characters. The atmosphere of total mayhem that Baxendale was developing was certainly at odds with the traditional humour strip, particularly those of the Amalgamated Press, Thomson's main rivals. A contemporary of Baxendale's, Ken Reid, was similarly minded, and The Beano was unrivalled for humour at that time. Baxendale also drew "The Banana Bunch" for Beezer from its first issue, and would later create "The Three Bears" for Beano in 1959.

Ten years of tremendous output for relatively little reward left Baxendale suffering from exhaustion and depression, and after contracting pneumonia he left the firm following an invitation from Odhams Press to create a new humour title; this Baxendale did, and Wham! appeared in 1964 with a whole army of new Baxendale creations from "General Nit and his Barmy Army", "Georgie's Germs" and "The Tiddlers" to "Biff" and the full-colour double-page "Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy". Most of the strips were passed on to other artists to continue after the first issue, and Baxendale even succeeded in tempting Ken Reid from Thomson's. Such was the success of the title that Smash! was created as a follow up for which Baxendale created "Bad Penny", "The Nerves", "The Swots and the Blots" and "Grimly Feendish".

Baxendale's interest in politics inspired him to publish a weekly two-page newsletter, Strategic Commentary, written by radical strategist Terence Heelas, which he published for two-and-a-half years (1965-67).

When Odhams was absorbed by lPC Magazines, Baxendale continued to draw, taking on some of the strips he had created full-time (e.g. "The Swots and the Blots" for Smash! and later Valiant when those titles were amalgamated), and many new creations, chief amongst them "The Pirates" and "Mervyn's Monsters" for Buster, "Bluebottle and Basher" for Valiant, "The Lion Lot" for Lion, "Clever Dick" for Buster and "Sweeny Toddler" for Whoopee!.

Baxendale left l.P.C. in 1975, writing three books featuring Willy the Kid for Duckworth, who also published his autobiography, A Very Funny Business in 1978. Baxendale drew for Eppo in Holland whilst preparing a case against Thomson's for recognition as creator of his many Beano characters which had continued under various different artists. The case finally came to a mutually agreeable but undisclosed settlement in 1987 after seven years. Baxendale celebrated the result with the release of Thrrp! from Knockabout, his first work in the UK for 12 years. In 1990 he returned to the comic strip with "I Love You Baby Basil", a weekly strip for the Guardian newspaper, which he continued to draw until March 1992.

Baxendale has written a series of books - The Encroachment, On Comedy: The Beano and Ideology, Pictures in the Mind, The Beano Room and Hobgoblin Wars: Dispatches from the Front - published through his own Reaper Books imprint. Most are autobiographical with an emphasis on Baxendale's views of comedy.

Examples of Leo Baxendale's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

David Bergen

2011-08-03T09:43:00.000+01:00

Although a popular fantasy artist in the 1990s, almost nothing is known about David Bergen's career. He was active in the 1970s, illustrating Sphere's H. G. Wells' reprints and the cover for SF Digest (1976), as well as books by Arthur C. Clarke and Samuel R. Delaney. He illustrated See Inside a Space Station by Robin Kerrod (Hutchinson, 1977) and an illustration appeared in The Flights of Icarus (Paper Tiger, 1977). Soon after, he could be found contributing covers to DAW Books in the USA (e.g. Barrington J. Bayley's Star Winds and E. C. Tubb's Incident on Ath, both 1978).

Bergen then seemed to disappear until 1990 when his work began appearing on various Pan fantasy and SF titles as well as the Puffin editions of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series. He continued to produce covers until at least 1997 when his work again disappears from sight.

What other areas he was (presumably) active in I have no idea; perhaps the lack of credits in the 1980s is literally down to the lack of credits that appeared on books. There can be no doubt as to the quality of his work and he was twice nominated (1991, 1992) for the World Fantasy Award.

Personal information on the artist is almost zero. I believe he was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1947 but a search of the internet turns up nothing else (and any search is rather confused thanks to there being a Canadian author (born 1957) of the same name).

Examples of David Bergen's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

James Bama

2011-07-27T12:49:00.000+01:00

James Bama is an American artist whose work encompasses two major strands: his Western paintings and what can be described - but not dismissively - as pulp art. To the collector, his name is inextricably linked with the adventures of Doc Savage and the paperback covers he illustrated during his time as a commercial artist. He then turned to fine art, which proved even more rewarding commercially and raised his status to Artist and earned him comparisons with Norman Rockwell and N. C. Wyeth.

If one theme can be seen through Bama's work it might be described as "one man (or woman) in the wilderness", as his covers often featured isolated single figures, some alone against expansive backgrounds; it is a style that can be seen in such diverse Bama illustrations as Freedom Road by Howard Fast and Groupie by Johnny Byrne & Jenny Fabian (both Bantam) and Dell's edition of Desmond Morris's The Naked Ape. It is also a theme that has extended into his fine art work where Bama, using photographs of real mountain men and Native Americans as reference, often isolates the figures to create portraits where wheathered facial features, clothing and body language tell a story. In other paintings, landscapes and animals add location to Bama's evocation of the rugged modern day prairie men.

James E. Bama was born in Manhattan on 28 April 1926, the second son of Benjamin Bama, a Russian-born apron salesman, and his wife Selma, also the daughter of Russian immigrants. Raised in New York City, Bama was inspired to draw by the adventure strips of the time, most notably Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, Burne Hogarth's Tarzan and Frank Miller's Barney Baxter. His father died of a stroke when Bama was 13, and his mother suffered a debilitating stroke the following year; Bama had to cook and clean and began earning money, making his first $50 sale, a drawing of Yankee Stadium, to The Sporting News at the age of 15.

He graduated from the High School of Music and Art and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps' Eastern Flying Training Command unit in 1944, where he worked as a mechanic and physical training instructor, as well as painting murals. On his discharge, he used the GI Bill to enrol at the Art Students League, where he was learned drawing and anatomy under Frank J. Reilly.

After freelancing briefly - his first sales including Western paperback covers A Bullet for Billy the Kid by Nelson C. Nye (Avon, 1950) and Dead Sure by Stewart Sterling (Dell, 1950) - he began working for one of New York's leading illustration firms, Charles E. Cooper Studios, in 1951. for the next fifteen years, he produced commercial artwork for a range of clients, including the Baseball Hall of Fame, the New York Giants and the U.S. Air Force.

However, it is for his paperback covers that he became known, especially the 62 covers he painted for Bantam Books' reprints of Doc Savage pulp magazine stories. Clark Savage Jr had been the star of 181 full-length adventures in the pages of Doc Savage Magazine (1933-49), 159 of them written by prolific pulpster Lester Dent. The heroic adventurer and scientist had been trained to almost superhuman physical and mental ability and faced a range of supernatural and superscientific foes. Bama was introduced to the saga when Bantam Books began reprinting the series in 1964 with The Man Of Bronze, Doc's debut adventure.

Bama gave Doc a buzz cut, replacing the kiss-curl of his pulp days, and beefed him up, using Steve Holland, a muscular fashion model who had starred in the Flash Gordon TV series in 1954-55, as the basis for his vision of Doc Savage. The books sold incredibly well and all 182 stories were reprinted between 1964 and 1990.

Although much of his early work was Western covers for the likes of Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey, Bama quickly expanded his cover art repertoire to include everything from contemporary novels, thrillers, romances and non-fiction. A small sampling of his work would include A Rage at Sea by Frederick Lorenz (Lion, 1957), Requiem for a Gun by Burt & Budd Arthur (Avon, 1963), The Pillars of Midnight by Elleston Trevor (Ballantine, 1963), President's Agent by Joseph Hilton (Lancer, 1963), Colette Cheri (Berkley, 1966) and covers depicting James Bond and the characters from Star Trek.

As well as Doc Savage, Bama painted many other covers for Bantam, including King Kong by Delos W. Lovelace (1965) and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1967). Bama had an affinity for classic horror characters, having been a childhood horror movie fan; in the early 1960s, beginning with Frankenstein, he produced vivid box artwork for a series of model kits based on Universal's movie monsters; Dracula, Wolf Man, The Mummy and others followed as well as Aurora's Monster Hot Rods and Monster Customizing Kits.

Bama then changed tack after first visiting Wyoming in 1966; he and his wife, Lynn, a photographer whom he met in 1963, moved permanently to Cody, Wyoming, in 1968. During this period he transited from illustration to making more personal works, often inspired by his new surroundings. Much of his work was of contemporary Western and Native American subjects; wildlife and mountain men feature against stunning Wyoming backdrops.

Bama is inspired by real inhabitants of the state, visiting reservations and meeting trappers and cowboys; his prices rapidly escalated and, within three years, he was making far more than he had as an illustrator.He also sought inspiration in travel, to China, Mexico, Tibet and Turkey.

Bama was the recipient of the Spectrum Grand Master Award in 1998 and was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in June 2000. His work is to be found in the collections of Clint Eastwood, Nicholas Cage and Malcolm Forbes as well as numerous galleries.

Bama, who has lived in Wapati, Wyoming, since 1971, remains a keen on physical training, regularly doing heavy exercise even in his eighties. He is a keen reader and movie viewer.

Bibliography
The Western Art of James Bama, with an introduction by Ian Ballantine (Scribner, 1975; enlarged, Bantam, 1980)
James Bama: A Wyoming Realist by Warren Adelson (Coe Kerr Gallery, 1985)
The Art of James Bama by Elmer Kelton (Greenwich Workshop, 1993)
James Bama: American Realist, edited by Brian M. Kane, with an introduction by Harlan Ellison (Flesk Publications, 2006)
James Bama Sketchboo: A Seventy-Year Journey, Travelling from the Far East to the Wild West , edited by John Fleskes (Flesk Publications, 2010)

Original prints by James Bama can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Giorgio De Gaspari

2011-07-20T05:01:00.001+01:00

For such an incredibly talented artist, almost nothing exists on the internet about Italian painter Giorgio De Gaspari. Although his merits have been praised on blogs - Bear Alley and Cloud 109, for instance - hard facts about the artist are almost impossible to come by. This has been noted even by Italian bloggers, one of whom described De Gaspari earlier this year as "a figure about whom many anecdotes have been told for decades but who is, incredibly, almost entirely absent from the internet."

De Gaspari was born on 30 January 1927, possibly in Varese - or the province of Varese - north of Milan in north-western Italy, not far from the Swiss border. He began his career under the auspices of comic strip artist and illustrator Walter Molino who, in the 1940s, was a leading contributor to Grand Hotel, to which paper De Gaspari also contributed; another strip ('Uragano, il re della prateria' [Hurricane, the King of the Prairie]) appeared in Success Collection published by CEA in 1946-47. De Gaspari also worked for Il Giornalino di Carroccio and illustrated 'il Giustiziere scarlatto' for Albi Mignon.

In May 1947 his first illustrations appeared in La Domenica del Corriere, a Sunday paper which he was to continue contributing to until February 1970, producing over 1,000 illustrations. De Gaspari's paintings were of high quality and innovative in their use of original material, tools and techniques. He would use any sort of paper, create collages and cut and scratch the images. This experimentation with his artwork did occasionally cause him to fall foul of his editors. In one instance, on a Kit Carson cover painting for Cowboy Picture Library, he used real sand glued onto the page; although it made for a superb, textured image, it all had to be scraped off and a new sandy background painted in by an in-house 'bodger' rather than run the risk of damaging the machinery that turned the artwork into four-colour separations.

De Gaspari was a busy chidlren's book illustrator in Italy for publishers Valladri, Agostoni, Lucchi and Fabbri as well as contributing illustrations to Arianna. Amongst the many titles he illustrated in the 1940s and 1950s were editions of Pinocchio, Don Quixote, The Three Musketeers, Moby Dick, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and various fairy tale books.

De Gaspari's first cover in the UK appeared on the Sexton Blake Library in February 1958, gracing Peter Saxon's 'The Sea Tigers'; his second (and last) cover showed his talent for variety, illustrating 'Collapse of Stout Party' by Jack Trevor Story.

De Gaspari thereafter turned his talents to provinding covers for Fleetway's many pocket libraries, including Cowboy Picture Library (30 covers, 1958-60), Thriller Picture Library (39 covers, 1958-60) and Super Detective Library (4 covers, 1960).

However, it was with his work for War Picture Library that he is mainly known in the UK. Beginning with the very first issue in September 1958, De Gaspari produced 32 of the first 48 covers (1958-60); his painting began to appear less frequently after that but were still appearing regularly until 1961, during which period (1960-61) he also contributed 12 covers to Air Ace Picture Library and the debut number of Battle Picture Library (1961). A brief resurgence in 1966 marked the end of De Gaspari's original appearances in the UK, although his work continued to appear, albeit infrequently, on book covers and in Reader's Digest Condensed Books.

Examples of De Gaspari's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Leslie Bowyer

2011-07-13T05:01:00.000+01:00

Leslie Bowyer was an occasional contributor to Eagle, illustrating a short story in 1951 and a feature on the Queen's post-Coronation tour of 1954.

He also produced advertising designs and watercolours and contributed to Children's Own Wonder Book (1947).

George Bowe

2011-07-06T05:02:00.004+01:00

George Bowe is a bit of a mystery. His career began at least as early as 1948 when he illustrated two books by Enid Blyton and continued until at least 1974 when he drew 'At the End of the Rainbow' in Bonnie.In between he contributed illustrations to Boy's Own Paper, Pony Club Annual, Robin Annual, Girl Annual and Swift Annual in the 1950s and 1960s.

For an artist with a career spanning at least 26 years, it is surprising that nothing else is known.

George Bowe artwork for sale at The Illustration Art Gallery.

Illustrations
Let's Have a Story by Enid Blyton. London, H. A. & W. Pitkin, 1948.
We Want a Story by Enid Blyton. London, H. A. & W. Pitkin, 1948.
The Bard's Cloak by Percy G. Griggs. London, H. A. & W. Pitkin, 1950.
Tiger Hawk by George E. Rochester. London, H. A. & W. Pitkin, 1956.
Ten-Week Stables by Sylvia Scott White. London, Lutterworth Press, 1960.

S. R. Boldero

2011-06-29T10:42:00.002+01:00

Stephen Richard Boldero was born Stephen Richard Hamel-Wedekind in Caterham, Surrey, on 3 April 1898, the son of merchant Richard Christian Benedictus Hamel-Wedekind and his wife Tempe Stanley Browne, the youngest daughter of Camillo di Montebello Drew, an officer in the Ceylon police, who married in 1897.

Richad Hamel-Wedekind died whilst his son was still an infant and S. R. Hamel-Wedekind was raised by his mother in Hammersmith and Battle, Sussex. By 1911, Tempe had dropped her married name and was now called Boldero, her mother's maiden name and that of her uncle and aunt who had raised her following her mother's death.

Educated at St. Lawrence College, Ramsgate (1914-15), the now Stephen Richard Boldero trained at the Royal Military Academy and joined the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1916 before transferring on a short service commission to the Royal Air Force, making Pilot Officer in 1921 and Flying Officer in 1922. He served part of his time in India, from whence he returned in 1924, relinquishing his commission in April 1925 due to ill-health. By then he seems to have been twice married, firstly to Nellie P. Woodley in 2Q 1916 in Steyning, Sussex, with whom he had a son, Alistair J. Boldero, in 1917, and secondly to Eleanor Winifred Wise in 4Q 1926 in Chelsea, Middlesex. The latter marriage ended in divorce in 1934.

Whether he had an artistic bent earlier in life is unknown, but he certainly turned to painting in the 1930s. The earliest trace of his artistic talents I have been able to find relates to the introduction of mobile recruiting offices, via which the R.A.F. hoped to recruit 31,000 men ahead of the (increasingly inevitable) war. A report in The Times (15 July 1938) describes them thus:

The outside decoration of the new type of van has been carried out in two contrasting shades of blue, with the R.A.F. concardes of red, white and blue in the lower panelling on either side of the body. Two chromium-plated show windows display, in colour, representations of life in the R.A.F. at home and abroad. They have been carried out, in cut-out form, by Mr. S. R. Boldero, who has served with the R.A.F. The inside of the van is equipped as an office.

Boldero's cover artwork appeared regularly in the 1950s and 1960s, published by most of the leading paperback firms (Corgi, Digit, Arrow, Pan, Panther, Four Square, Consul). He also had a long association with Souvenir Press, producing numerous dust jackets.

Stephen Richard Boldero lived for many years (at least from 1957-82) at 39 Ranelagh Gardens, London W.6. He died in London in the summer of 1987, aged 89.

S. R. Boldero artwork for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Harold Copping

2011-06-22T05:01:00.003+01:00

Harold Copping was a British artist, born in Camden Town on 25 August 1863, the second son of Edward Copping (a journalist) and Rose Heathilla (nee Prout), the daughter of J. S. Prout, the water-colour artist.His brother, Arthur E. Copping, became a noted author, journalist and traveller.

Copping grew up in St. Pancras. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools and won a Landseer Scholarship to study in Paris. He was a successful painter and illustrator, living in Croydon and Hornsey during the early years of his career.

According to James Thorpe, in English Illustration: the Nineties: “Harold Copping’s work, capable and honest as it was, does not inspire any great enthusiasm; there are so many artists doing illustrations equally satisfactory in literal translation and equally lacking in strong personal individuality.”

Nevertheless, Copping was a notable illustrator of Biblical scenes and in order to achieve some authenticity in his work, notably an illustrated edition of The Bible published in 1910, he travelled to Palestine and Egypt. This version was a best-seller and led to many more commissions for Copping.

A trip to Canada inspired the collection of watercolour sketches Canadian Pictures. Amongst the many books he illustrated were The Gospel of the Old Testament, Scenes in the Life of Our Lord, Scripture Picture Books, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Tales from Shakespeare, Character Sketches from Dickens, Longfellow and others.

Copping was married to Violet Amy Prout in 1888, and had children Ernest Noel (1889- ), Romney (1891-1910) and Violet (1891-1892). Following his wife’s death in 1894 (aged only 29), Copping was married a second time, to Edith Louise Mothersill, in 1897 and had children Joyce (1901-1934) and John Clarence (1914-1977).

Copping lived for many years at The Studio, Shoreham, near Sevenoaks, Kent. He died at home on 1 July 1932, aged 68, after some years of ill-health and a Memorial Fund was set up in his name to provide for his widow and children, raising over £500.

Harold Copping artwork for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Mike White

2011-06-15T05:01:00.069+01:00

Mike White has had a career in comics that has lasted almost forty years. Interested in drawing comics, he began sending samples off to companies before moving to London and visiting agencies. His earliest work appeared from Micron in around 1963/64 in their schoolgirls' libraries. As White recalls, the company would accept artwork from artists who were still learning their craft and he is not especially proud of these early efforts.

White first major strip was 'Jackaroo Joe' for Valiant in 1965-66 and his talents for adopting the styles of other artists led him to working in the style of Mike Western in Champion where he took over the artwork for 'School for Spacemen'. Other strips for Fleetway in the late 1960s/early 1970s include 'The Lords of Lilliput Island', 'Cannonball Craig', 'The Team Terry Kept in a Box', 'Whiz-Along Wheeler', 'The Test Match Terrors'; at the same time he was working for D. C. Thomson, usually working on one-off strips rather than series.

White was a regular on Action in 1976, filling in on 'The Running Man' before taking on the series 'Hell's Highway'. In the revised Action - which was removed from the shelves for some months for retooling - he drew 'Hellman of Hammer Force'.

He then found regular work in 2000AD, drawing many episodes of 'Tharg's Future Shocks', 'Ro-Jaws Robo Tales' and 'Tharg's Time Twisters'. He notably drew the Abelard Snazz strories written by Alan Moore and stories by Steve Moore and Grant Morrison. He dew a run of 'The Mean Arena' in 1981-82, written by Tom Tully. He teamed up with Tully again to draw 'Sintek' in Tiger in 1982-84.

He continued to draw for D. C. Thomson, his strips including 'Deep Sea Danny's Iron Fish' and 'Roul the Warrior' in Buddy and 'We Are United' in Champ. The latter began a run of football strips that would run for around a decade. He convinced one editor that he knew quite a lot about football but actually knew almost nothing and had to read up about the game to understand even the off-side rule.

After drawing 'Dexter's Dozen' for Roy of the Rovers, he took over the lead strip and drew 'Roy' for six years, updating the look of the strip and introducing a number of new players - he took over the strip shortly after a devastating terrorist attack left 8 members of the team dead. In his first few months, White helped Roy to victory in the Littlewoods Cup Final and the Championship Trophy, missing out only on the F.A. Cup. (which Melchester went on to win in 1990). During White's tenure, Roy also broke the record for the most goals scored in league and cup games when, in May 1992, he scored his 436th goal.

White was convinced that comics were not going to last and began requesting that his agents find him illustration work; by the time the boys' adventure comic ground to an end, White was already established. In recent years he has drawn illustrations for historical educational books published by various firms, amongst them Thalamus, Templar and Miles Kelley Publishing.

He continues to draw comics, most recently for Commando, having drawn his first cover in 1997 and his first interior artwork in 2003. His latest story appeared in March 2011.

Mike White artwork for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Stefan Barany

2011-06-08T05:03:00.001+01:00

Stefan Barany has proved to be a particularly elusive artist. Best known for his cover artwork for the Sexton Blake Library, he seems to have appeared almost nowhere else, although the above piece of cover art from a 1962 issue of Princess Picture Library has been offered by the Illustration Art Gallery.

Barany's first Blake cover appeared on issue 482, Desmond Reid's Murder By Moonlight, in August 1961. Over the next few months he was the main Blake cover artist; a number of titles involved Barany combining images with other artists' work, including one image by Bruno Elettori, but primarily with Angel Badia Camps. His last cover was Lotus Leaves and Larceny, issue 521, April 1963.

Stefan Barany artwork for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Don Forrest

2011-06-01T05:01:00.002+01:00

Donald A. Forrest is a wildlife artist noted for his illustration of birds. One of his most notable books is The Birdwatcher's Key which is an illustrated guide to 382 different species to be found in the British Isles and North-Western Europe.

Forrest's career may date back to at least as early as 1949 and the publication of a children's book entitled Binkie Beacon and His Friends.

Illustrated Books
Animals of Southern Asia by Michael Tweedie. Feltham, Hamlyn, 1970.
What Comes Out of an Egg? by Patricia Gray. London, F. Watts, 1973.
Creatures That Help Each Other by Patricia Gray. London, F. Watts, 1975.
The Birdwatcher's Key. A guide to identification in the field by Bob Scott. London, Frederick Warne, 1976.
Creatures That Look Alike by Patricia Gray. London, F. Watts, 1977.

Artwork by Don Forrest can be found for sale here.

Bambos Georgiou

2011-05-25T05:01:00.002+01:00

Bambos Georgiou was born around 1960. Of Greek descent, and speaking only Greek, he has said that it was the discovery of comics at the age of four that helped him learn English, although this form of education was not appreciated by some. One English teacher was thoroughly frustrated that he was always reading comics and his collection - with TV21 being his comic of choice - was thrown out by his mother. This only led to him becoming more determined to create his own comics.

In the mid-1980s he could be found contributing strips ('Ratman') to Paul Duncan's Arkensword fanzine and, before long, he became a prolific contributor - lettering and inking especially - for Marvel UK, Fleetway, Fat Man Press and Panini UK, as well as a cartoonist, usually signing his work with the abbreviated 'Bambos'.

His comic strips have included 'Blimey... It's Slimer' for The Real Ghostbusters and It's Wicked! in the late 1980s, as well as inking Brian Williamson and Dave Elliott on 'The Real Ghostbusters' for the former. His inking was to to be found in a number of Marvel UK's comic book titles in the early 1990s, including Knights of Pendragon (inking Gary Erskine, Phil Gascoine and Martin Griffiths), Death's Head II (inking Liam Sharp) and Motormouth & Killpower (inking Cam Smith). He has worked on various Transformers titles, including Fleetway's 1994 Transformers: Generation 2 (inking Robin Smith) and the 2003 Panini UKTransformers Armada (for the most part inking Andrew Wildman).

Over the years, Bambos has been involved with dozens of other characters, including Spider-Man, Action Man, Rugrats, Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones, Sonic the Hedgehog, Doctor Who, Tom and Jerry, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shrek and Wallace and Gromit.

Examples of artwork by Bambos Georgiou can be found for sale here.

Frank Brangwyn

2011-05-18T08:43:00.001+01:00

Frank Brangwyn was something of an artistic jack-in-the-box, estimated to have produced some 12,000 artistic works in a working career that spanned 65 years and a wide range of media, from stained glass windows and glassware to ceramics and furniture. He also painted murals on buildings, painted in oils, watercolours and gouache, made etchings and wood engravings and was a lithographer. His work ranged from small woodcuts to a series of murals that were originally intended to be placed in the Royal Gallery at the House of Lords in Westminster but were considered "too colourful and lively" for the location. The 16 large works, painted between 1925 and 1932 and covering some 3,000 square feet, became known as the British Empire Panels and are now housed in the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea.

Frank William Brangwyn was born Guillaume François Brangwyn in Bruges, Belgium, on 12 May 1867. Frank's father, William Curtis Brangwyn, was an ecclesiastical architect who had moved to Bruges to paint murels and frescoes for Belgian churches as well as designing several buildings and reconstructing others (such as the church of Sint-Andries). Brangwyn did not receive any formal artistic training; instead, his father sent him to practice drawing at the South Kensington Museum where he met Harold Rathbone and Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo, who both encouraged his work. Through Mackmurdo, Brangwyn was introduced to William Morris, who employed him as a glazier.

Brangwyn began to develop as a painter and his painting A Bit on the Esk was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1885. A passion for the sea led him to join the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and he developed a good reputation for his seascapes and landscapes. His oil painting Burial at Sea (now in the Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow) won a medal at the Paris Salon in 1891. Brangwyn travelled extensively and his first one-man show was entitled 'From Scheldt to Danube'.

Commercial illustrations for The Graphic expanded his audience and his reputation amongst the artistic community was high: he decorated the façade of the L'Art Nouveau gallery in Paris in 1895 and was one of the artists, along with Rodin and Whistler, invited to show his work at the first exhibition of the Vienna Secession group. Between 1902 and 1920 he executed a great many murals for buildings in London, Venice, Cleveland, Manitoba, Jefferson City, Leeds, Taormina (Sicily) and elsewhere. He was made an associate of the Royal Acaademy in 1904 and a member in 1919.

During the First World War, Brangwyn was an official war artist, designing many propaganda posters. After the war he was commissioned to produce a series of murals for the House of Lords, paid for by Lord Iveagh. The initial designs, depicting battle scenes, were thought too grim and Brangwyn started afresh, using vibrant colours to depict the achievements of Britain's colonies during the conflict. These were rejected by the Royal Fine Arts Commission and Brangwyn was understandably devastated.

After executing another large commission for the Rockefeller Center in New York, Brangwyn became more reclusive and pessimistic, a situation that had begun years earlier and contributed to by the death in 1924 of his wife, Lucy (née Ray, a nurse whom he had married in 1896). Brangwyn began to dispose of many of his possessions; over 400 pieces were gifted to Bruges in 1936 in order to establish a permanent museum in his native city; a substantial collection was also donated to the William Morris Museum, Walthamstow. A museum of Brangwyn and of de Belleroche was established at Orange, France, in 1947.

Brangwyn was knighted in 1941 and a major retrospective of his work was held at the Royal Academy in 1952 - the first living Academician to be so honoured. He died on 11 June 1956 at his home in Ditchling, Sussex, aged 89.

Examples of Brangwyn's work can be found for sale here.

Jim Baikie

2011-05-11T08:44:00.001+01:00

Jim Baikie, born in the Orkney Islands, in 1940, served as a Corporal with the RAF in 1956-63 before joining a printing company. Baikie joined Morgan-Grampian studio as an artist in 1964 and was an illustrator for the National Savings Committee in 1965-66.

He began his career as a comic strip artist drawing for Fleetway Publications' girls' comics in the mid-1960s, producing romance and biographical strips (e.g. The Small Faces, The Herd) for Valentine. Over the next decade he drew strips for Lady Penelope, Look and Learn, TV 21 & Joe 90, June, Tammy, Sandie and House of Horror, his work including a brief run adapting Star Trek, drawing Doctor Who and Dan Dare for annuals and, in between, drawing 'Gymnast Jinty', 'The Reluctant Nurse' and 'No Time for Pat' amongst many other stories for girls. Baikie was one of the leading artists for Jinty in the late 1970s, his strips ranging from the bizarre 'Spell of the Spinning Wheel' (sports meets horror!) and the ecological SF of 'The Forbidden Garden'.

Baikie then made a name for himself in the pages of Look-In, drawing adaptations of Charlie's Angels, CHiPS, The Fall Guy and Terrahawks. At the same time he came to prominence in 2000AD with the Alan Moore-penned 'Skizz' and, in Warrior, the Steve Moore-penned 'Twilight World', which led to work for DC Comics in New York.

He has since drawn Batman, New Teen Titans, The Spectre and other major characters. Other notable strips by Baikie include 'New Statesmen' for Crisis in the UK, Star Wars: Empire's End for Dark Horse Comics and, more recently, 'The First American' in Alan Moore's Tomorrow Stories anthology.

Baikie has won both the 1983 S.S.I. Award as Best British Adventure Artist and the 2000 Eisner Award for his contributions to Tomorrow Stories.

Examples of Jim Baikies artwork for sale can be found here.

Gerritt Vandersyde

2011-05-04T05:01:00.002+01:00

The oddly named Gerritt Vandersyde was a British artist of remarkable talent whose work appeared in advertising and on prints that were widely distributed through Boots and Woolworths. One of his prints has gained a small measure of fame as it was briefly featured in the background of Stanley Kubrik's A Clockwork Orange. The picture, a portrait entitled 'Nina', was a commercial success, although Vandersyde is said to have had little business sense and sold the copyrights on many of his most commercially popular paintings for only a few pounds.

Alfred Gerritt Vandersyde was born in Camberwell, London, on 9 January 1898, the son of Gerrit Willem Vandersyde, who (along with his younger sister) had been bought to England in the 1860s. Gerrit Willem had married Caroline Bell in 1888 and had seven children (six of them boys), Alfred being the fifth child.

Alfred was raised in Enfield and volunteered for the army at the outbreak of the First World War. He lied about his age in order to join the Army Service Corps. He was drafted to the Medical Corps, driving carriages for medics and caring for the horses, and served in Mesopotamia.

In 1918 he married Grace Collings in Hackney and had two children, Basil (b.1921) and Derek (b.1923). He was married a second time in 1942 to Dorothy Ellen Wood in Wandsworth and had two daughters, Wendy (b.1943) and Gillian (b.1947). The family lived at 4 Hepworth Road, Streatham, S.W.16, which is where Alfred died following a sudden heart attack on 10 November 1970.

Gerritt Vandersyde, as he signed his work, was tall (over 6' 4"). His advertising work included popular images for Ovaltine whilst his illustrations appeared in the London Illustrated News. In the 1960s he illustrated stories for books and for the magazine Once Upon a Time, drawing covers and illustrations on a range of subjects from young children to flamingos.

Examples of his artwork for sale can be found here.

Illustrated Books
My Farmyard Picture Book by Arthur Groom. London, Dean & Son, 1963.
Tiny's First A.B.C. and Counting Book. London, Dean & Son, 1964.
Dean's On the Farm Picture Books by Eunice Close. London, Dean & Son, 1965.
Little Poppet's Animal A.B.C. by Eunice Close. London, Dean & Son, 1965.
My A.B.C. and Counting Book by Eunice Close. London, Dean & Son, 1965.
Little Poppet Book of Road Safety by Kathleen Holroyd. London, Dean & Son, 1966.
Zoo Animals Picture Book by Aileen E. Passmore. London, Dean & Son, 1966.
A Picturebook of Prayers. London, Dean & Son, 1968.
Wonderful Stories Jesus Told by Elizabeth Ashley. London, Dean & Son, 1968.

Gerry Dolan

2011-04-27T05:01:00.003+01:00

With Doctor Who back on our TV screens for the next few weeks, it seems apt to take a look at the work of a Doctor Who artist.

Gerry Dolan worked only briefly for Dr Who Magazine, providing illustrations for the short story 'The Infinity Season' (#151, August 1989), written by Dan Abnett, and the strip 'Stairway to Heaven' (#156, January 1990) scripted by John Freeman from a story by Paul Cornell and inked by Rex Ward.

Both featured Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor and were noted for Dolan's detailed rendition of the character. The strip's appearance in Doctor Who Magazine coincided with the final episode of the Sylvester McCoy era of the TV show (December 1989) and a gap of seven years before the TV movie and sixteen before the series was revived.

Dolan also contributed to The Worm, an exercise in record breaking that took place 1991 at London's Trocadero. From an outline by Alan Moore, 125 creators gathered to draw and letter a 250-foot long comic strip, recognised as the longest comic strip in the world.

Since those brief appearances, Dolan seems to have disappeared from the world of comics.

Examples of Gerry Dolan's artwork can be found for sale here.

Peter Doherty

2011-04-20T11:35:00.001+01:00

Peter Doherty notes on his intriguingly named Not a Proper Person blog that he is not to be confused with the famous singer bloke. "I'm the much less well known comic book illustrator." Within the comic book industry, however, he is well known—as a regular artist for 2000AD's 'Judge Dredd' and chronicler of the early life of Death in Judge Dredd Megazine, or as an artist who has tackled Grendel, Superman, Batman and Catwoman, or as a colourist for Geof Darrow's surreal Shaolin Cowboy.

At a time when Britain's comics were beginning a love affair with fully painted art in the wake of Simon Bisley's 'Slaine: The Horned God', Doherty preferred treating colour as an enhancement to his line art. "The few bits I actually painted were a bit of a disaster," he would later say. "Mostly I coloured my line drawings—I'd ink on watercolour paper with waterproof ink then use transparent media like coloured inks, watercolours and thinned acrylics so the line showed through, and finally finish off with solid colour over the top."

Doherty was taking an applied physics degree at university when he decided that his career should take a different direction. He had taken life classes at art school and held down a Saturday job at Odyssey 7, a comic shop in Leeds, which brought him into contact with Duncan Fegrado, then working on 'The New Statesman' for Crisis with writer John Smith. Smith's friend Chris Standley was also trying to get into comics and he and Doherty collaborated on a five-page story "about an unemployed bloke, something we knew a lot about back then."

After meeting Steve MacManus at a Glasgow comics' convention, the story was sold to Crisis ('Felicity', Crisis 47, 1990), with Doherty also providing that issue's cover. He was immediately offered 'Young Death', the origin story of the popular character from the 'Judge Dredd' strip, written (under the pen-name Brian Skuter) by Dredd co-creator John Wagner for the debut issues of a new 2000AD spin-off, the Judge Dredd Megazine. Doherty's first professional assignment couldn't have had a higher profile.

It's dark humour proved a hit with readers and Doherty soon became a regular on the Dredd strip in 2000AD, drawing episodes of the epic 'Judgement Day' storyline and a memorable one-shot, 'Bury My Knee at Wounded Heart', often cited as being one of the best Dredd stories ever. He also drew 'Mechanismo Returns' for the Judge Dredd Megazine (1993) and a one-off tale of 'Armitage' (1994).

Doherty soon found himself working for the US market, drawing the 6-issue Grendel Tales: The Devil May Care (1995-96) and 'Carson of Venus' (Dark Horse Presents, 1998) for Dark Horse and pencilling a 3-part series for Vertigo's The Dreaming written by Bryan Talbot ('Weird Romance', 1997). Further work on The Dreaming, Superman 80-Page Giant, Batman and Superman: World's Finest and Catwoman followed from DC Comics over the next few years.

In 2001 Doherty (then a relative newcomer to computers and computer colouring) found himself working full-time for a computer games company. Over the years he has also worked as an illustrator, storyboard artist and designer but has always returned to comics when the opportunity allows.

The 2005 2000AD strip 'Breathing Space' (set in Luna 1, a moonbase in the Dredd universe) was begun by Doherty, but a lengthy illness meant the strip had to be reassigned after two issues; Doherty coloured the remaining seven episodes (pencilled and inked by Laurence Campbell & Lee Townsend).

Doherty has subsequently worked mostly as a colourist—on the 3-issue mini-series Seaguy (2004) and the 7-issue Geof Darrow series Shaolin Cowboy, which he also lettered and designed. The latter was nominated for five Eisner Awards in 2005.

Over the past five years, Doherty has appeared regularly in the Judge Dredd Megazine, drawing episodes of 'Devlin Waugh' (2007) and the lead Dredd strip as well as colouring 'Bato Loco' (2009). His recent work has included colouring the Dredd episode 'The Convert' in 2000AD (2010) and a DCU Legacies back-up, 'Revelation!', drawn by Frank Quitely (2011).

Examples of Peter Doherty's artwork can be found for sale here.

Serge Drigin

2011-04-13T00:24:00.003+01:00

Serge Drigin, sometimes spelled Sergie, Sergey or Serge R. Drigin, was a Russian artist, born on 8 October 1894, who, without formal training, became a successful illustrator in the UK in the 1920s. Formerly a sailor, he illustrated at least one book in his native Russia, Skazka o rybakie i rybkie by E. Venskii, in 1919 before beginning a prolific output for British magazines such as The Detective Magazine, Modern Boy and Chums. He produced many startling covers for various titles published by George Newnes in the 1930s, including Scoops, Air Stories, War Stories, Fantasy and others. In around 1941, he was working for War Artists & Illustrators, based in central London, who supplied material to War Illustrated and Sphere amongst others.

In around 1934-35, he briefly turned to comics and drew varioius episodes for Film Picture Stories and the serial 'The Flying Fish' in Sparkler. He returned after the war, when paper shortages meant that illustrators were finding work thin on the ground. He produced numerous one-off strips in 1947-48, mostly for Scion Ltd. In 1948, Drigin began drawing strips for Manchester-based J. B. Allen, producing a number of series for Allen's Comet, Sun and Merry-Go-Round comics until 1949.

In the 1950s, he was still very active, contributing features and artwork to various annuals, including Swift and Eagle, but seems to have grown inactive around the mid-1950s.

Drigin was married three times, firstly to Ruth Evelene Baker at Totnes, Devon, in 1923, with whom he had a daughter Shirley N., born 1927 (who later became a veterinary assistant in South Africa). The Drigins separated soon after and Ruth Drigin remarried in 1929.

Serge Drigin was subsequently married at Lambeth in 1931 to Eva Walker (1905-1993) and, at Fulham in 1954, to Joan Octavia A. Nicholle (1916-1992).

Drigin, who was naturalised in 1932, died in Lambeth, his death registered in 2Q 1977 under the name Sergie Drigin.

Examples of Serge Drigin's artwork can be found for sale here.

Don Lawrence

2011-04-06T06:39:00.003+01:00

Don Lawrence ranks amongst the most widely known of British comic strip artists, his fan base spread widely across Europe, thanks to translations of his epic science fiction strip ‘The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire’, which he drew from 1965 to 1976. His work was especially appreciated in Holland, where the series Storm was created for the Dutch comic Eppo in 1977. In celebration of the artist’s 75th birthday in 2003, Queen Beatrix gave permission for Lawrence to be made a Knight in the order of Oranje-Nassau.

Donald Southam Lawrence was born in East Sheen, London, on 17 November 1928, the third child of Herbert and Nellie Lawrence. He was educated at St. Paul’s boarding school in Hammersmith, where he took refuge from academic studies by doing art. After National Service with the Army, he used his gratuity to study at Borough Polytechnic, where he met his wife-to-be, Julia Wilson.

With a child soon on the way, there was an urgent need for steady employment, which Lawrence found with Mick Anglo’s studio, an agency which packaged Western and superhero comics, notably Marvelman and Marvelman Family, for distributor Len Miller. Lawrence worked for the Gower Street studio for four years before arguments over pay led him to find work elsewhere.

After drawing Westerns for Zip, Swift, Sun and Lion for two years, Lawrence found his niche in historical adventures strips, drawing ‘Olac the Gladiator’ (Tiger), ‘Karl the Viking’ (Lion), ‘Maroc the Mighty’ (Lion) in 1959-65. Memorable as these were, it was in fully painted colour that Lawrence was to find his forte. Colour strips for Lion Annual and Bible Story, including the life of 'Herod the Great' in the latter, led to him being offered ‘The Trigan Empire’, which debuted in the short-lived Ranger in September 1965 before finding a regular home in the educational weekly Look and Learn from June 1966. Lawrence was to draw the strip for 11 years in all.

Quitting in 1976, he was immediately offered work in Holland, co-creating the character of Storm, a spaceman hurled into the distant future and then to the far reaches of the universe when the series was revamped in 1982. Storm debuted in the Dutch weekly Eppo in 1977 but struggled to find a writer, the first nine series being written by five different authors, including Lawrence himself. With the tenth album, which relocated the series from future Earth to Pandarve, the strips were written by Storm's co-creator Martin Lodewijk. A further ten volumes appeared between 1982 and 1990.

Although the strip was little known in his native country, Lawrence’s achievements continued to be recognised by his peers, winning the Society of Strip Illustration’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1980. He won multiple awards in Europe, including the prestigious Pantera di Lucca Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.

Lawrence's eyesight began to fail, which forced him to slow his pace. Two further albums in a trilogy of Storm stories which would complete a cycle of the story appeared in 1993 and 1995. Following the latter, Lawrence submitted to eye surgery but lost the sight in one eye. He continued to work, but at a far reduced pace and the third volume of the trilogy was completed by Liam Sharp, a former assistant, in 2001.

A heavy smoker, Lawrence was hospitalised with pneumonia and died on 29 December 2003, survived by his second wife and children.

In 1989, the founder of the Don Lawrence Fan Club in Holland, Rob Van Bavel, began publishing collections of Lawrence's work in hardcover. After 10 volumes of The Don Lawrence Collection (in Dutch), he began an ambitious project to reprint some of Lawrence's best strip work in collector's editions in both Dutch and English. Titles published to date include the 12-volume Storm: The Collection, the 12-volume Trigan Empire: The Collection and a 4-volume reprinting of 'Karl the Viking'.

Examples of Lawrence's artwork can be found for sale here.

Ian Dickson

2011-03-30T01:54:00.002+01:00

Ian Oscar Dickson was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 15 January 1905. He grew up in Melbourne and was self-tought as an artist. Dickson was something of a world traveller, seeking out work as a cartoonist and illustrator wherever he was. His work appeared in the Adelaide Register News Pictorial, the Brisbane Telegraph and tourist brochures for the Queensland government.

Emigrating to England, he produced illustrations for film companies and work for Razzle before moving to Ceylon, working for the Times of Ceylon and Ceylon Observer. Returning to Britain in 1935, his work appeared in Punch, London Opinion, Men Only and Blighty, often drawing glamour girls. During the War he served with the R.A.F.

For 15 years he drew 'Mum' each week for the Sunday Graphic and his comic strips also appeared in Eagle Annual, Girl Annual and Swift Annual.

He died on 21 July 1987.

Examples of Dickson's artwork can be found for sale here.

Roy Carnon

2011-03-23T23:40:00.003Z

Roy Carnon was responsible for a stunning cover for All This and a Medal Too by Tim Carew, published by Corgi Books in 1960. The book was an autobiography, originally published by Constable & Co. in 1954, and featured the reminiscences of the author - real name John Mohun Carew (1921-1980) - about his experiences in the army between 1937 and 1950.

Carnon had worked for Corgi Book at least as early as 1956, although had earlier worked in advertising (e.g. for Reed Paper Group). Carnon, born 6 July 1911, the son of Frederick Wallace Carnon (a civil servant) and his wife Gertrude Eisdell (nee Lee), had grown up in Isleworth, London, attending art school in Chiswick for a short time. He became an illustrator, working mainly for advertising agencies, and was always to be found sketching in parks, or on buses and trains and always carried a small sketch-book or a pack of plain postcards in case inspiration struck.

During the Second World War, Carnon continued to sketch even when he was working as a fireman during the London Blitz; he subsequently joined the RAF ground crew and then became a navigator on Sunderlands, seeing action in Africa, India and the Far East.

After returning to civilian life, Carnon continued to work in advertising, as well as producing book covers. He was responsible for a number of covers for Edgar Rice Boroughs' science fiction novels published by Four Square Books in 1961-65 and illustrated Famous Fighting Aircraft for the Collins Wonder Colour Books series in 1964.

In 1965, Carnon became one of the team responsible for producing concept drawings, sketches and paintings for Stanley Kubrick, then working with author Arthur C. Clarke on the landmark science fiction movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. For this he was responsible for visualising space craft, film sets and the iconic 'wheel' space station.

After this, he worked on many other movies, including the Bond movies, Where Eagles Dare, The Battle of Britain, Frenzy, Superman, The Dogs of War, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds, The Dark Crystal, Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi, Ladyhawke and Link.

Roy Frederick Carnon was married to Violet Marian Steer in 1935 (died 1971); he re-married, in 1998, to Margaret J. Harrold. He died in August 2002, aged 91.

Examples of Roy Carnon's artwork for sale can be found here.

Ken Barr

2011-03-16T05:01:00.002Z

Born in Scotland in 1933, Kenneth John Barr was the son of a Glasgow-based sign-painter to whom he was apprenticed from the age of 15. A reader of adventure, horror and war stories, Ken Barr found post-War Glasgow full of the machinery and drama of war he enjoyed painting. His first covers appeared on Nebula science fiction magazine in the 1950s.

After his National Service—which he served with the Army in Egypt—and several years working in London, Barr moved to the USA in 1968 where he became a regular penciller/inker and occasionally writer of strips for DC's various war comics, including Our Army At War, Our Fighting Forces, Battle Album and Star Spangled War Stories in 1969-74. He also produced covers and back-up features for the Warren magazines Eerie, Creepy and Vampirella (1970-72) before becoming a regular cover artist for Marvel, working on Doc Savage, Incredible Hulk and The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (1975-78). In the mid-1970s, he found more lucrative work producing books covers (Avon, Random House) and as a movie poster artist, primarily in the fields of fantasy and science fiction, although he returned to comics in the mid-1980s as the writer of Windfall, Geo-Force and Metamorpho in around 1986 (and the merged Geo-Force and Metamorpho in 1987).

A trading card set reprinting some of his best fantasy and horror artwork, The Beast Within, was issued in March 1994. A book of the same title, published by SQP, appeared in 2007. Barr has also produced fantasy artwork for the Danbury Mint.

Amongst British comics' fans, Barr is best known for the many years he spent producing cover for Dundee-based D.C. Thomson's Commando. Barr was their chief cover artist for most of the 1960s. Commenting on his work in those early years, Peter Richardson has recently said: "Barr really was the perfect choice as cover artist, if Commando had commenced publication utilizing the same cover artists as their Fleetway rivals (which they would eventually do with the arrival of Jordi Penalva on their rosta a few years later), the distinctive difference would not have been so vividly flagged up. But Barr was right from the off an enthusiastic student of US pulp and comic artists and relished the opportunity to immerse himself in sweat sodden musculature, gritted teeth and buggin' eyeballs. Which is why these covers are still so amazing and powerful some half a century on."

In recent years he has worked on a fully painted graphic novel adaptation of Dracula, which was said to be “due shortly” in 2008.

Examples of Ken Barr's work can be found for sale here.

J H Batchelor

2011-03-09T05:03:00.001Z

Born in Essex in 1936, John Henry Batchelor has been one of the leading technical illustrators of hardware for five decades. Growing up in Leigh-on-Sea during the Second World War, he witnessed dogfights between British and German aircraft in the Essex skies and, even at the age of four, put pencil to paper to draw scenes of aerial combat. The Essex coastline was one of the expected invasion points in Hitler's planned attack on a Britain softened up by the Luftwaffe, and Batchelor's early years were spent surrounded by fascinating military hardware, from tanks to machine guns. By the age of seven he could strip and reassemble a .303 Lewis machine gun and draw its constituent parts.

He left home at 16, travelling for two years before performing his National Service with the R.A.F. Batchelor began drawing for the technical publications of Bristol Aircraft Co., Martin-Baker Aircraft Co. and Saunders-Roe Ltd. One of his last jobs for Saunders-Roe was on the plans for a nuclear-powered version of the (ultimately cancelled) ten-engined Princess flying-boat.

In the early 1960s he turned freelance, contributing to Model Maker and Model Cars. Some of his earliest drawings were cutaways for the Eagle comic; in all he produced 44 episodes (making him the joint fourth most prolific contributor). His illustrations also appeared in Ranger and Tell Me Why. He also worked for the far more prestigious markets, including Time-Life Books, which led to his involvement in one of the most ambitious projects in publishing history: Purnell's History of the Second World War. Launched in 1966 under the overall editorship of Sir Basil Liddell-Hart, this massive partwork--for which Batchelor producing a total of 1,163 illustrations--had sold 10 million copies by 1976. To celebrate this momentous achievement, Batchelor was presented, by Douglas Bader, a solid silver model of a British Saladin armoured car from his grateful publisher.

He continued his association with Purnell as they launched History of the First World War and Encyclopedia of Modern Weapons and Warfare, which added to a total of almost 20 million copies sold. Many of the illustrations were reprinted in book form during the 1970s (the bibliography below is likely to be incomplete) and has also illustrated a wide range of other books--and continues to do so. He has also drawn countless illustrations for the American magazine, Popular Science and has had his paintings exhibited around the world.

Since the mid-1980s, he has also produced artwork for postage stamps via the Crown Agency for 40 countries around the globe, including many for the British Commonwealth. In 2003 he launched his own company, Publishing Solutions, to reprint selections of his work.

Some of Batchelor's artwork can be found for sale here.

PUBLICATIONS

Non-fiction
Tank. A history of the armoured fighting vehicle, with Kenneth Macksey. London, Macdonald & Co., 1970; revised, Macdonald, 1973.
Fighter. A history of fighter aircraft, with Bryan Cooper. London, Macdonald & Co., 1973.
Rail Gun, text by Ian Hogg. Broadstone, John Batchelor Ltd., 1973; New York, Scribner, 1973.
Fighting Aircraft of World War One and Two, compiled by Susan Joiner. London, Phoebus, 1976.
Fighting Ships of World War One and Two, compiled by Anne Maclean & Suzanne Poole, 1976.
Battleships, 1856-1977, text by Antony Preston. London, Phoebus, 1977.
Fighters, 1914-1945, text by Bill Gunston. London & New York, Hamlyn, 1978.
Air Power. A modern illustrated military history, text by Bill Gunston. London, Phoebus, 1979.
Airborne Warfare, 1918-1945, text by Barry Gregory. London, Phoebus, 1979.
Land Power. A modern illustrated military history. London, Phoebus, 1979.
Illustration in Action, with Geraldine Christy. Poole, Blandford, 1985.
Flight, with Christopher Chant. Limpsfield, Dragon's World, 1990.
Historic Sailing Ships Postcards; 24 full-colour paintings. London, Constable, 1992; New York, Dover, 1992.
North American Lighthouses. Colouring book. London, Constable, 1995; New York, Dover, 1995.
World War II Allied Aircraft Planes [trading cards], text by Philip Smith. London, Constable, 1995; Mineola, N.Y., Dover, 1995.
100 Historic Aircraft in Full Colour. Mineola, N.Y., Dover Publications, 2000.
World War II Warships. Mineola, N.Y., Dover, 2006.
De Havilland Mosquito, text by Malcolm Lowe. Wimborne, Publishing Solutions in association with Minster Press, 2008.
B-17 Flying Fortress, text by Malcolm Lowe. Wimborne, Publishing Solutions in association with Minster Press, 2008.
Fairey Swordfish, text by Malcolm Lowe. Wimborne, Publishing Solutions in association with Minster Press, 2009.

Illustrated books
Aircraft by Kenneth Munson, illus. with others, 1971; adapted for easy reading by Louise M. Moyle, London, Macdonald & Co., 1975.
Ships by Brian Benson, illus. with others. London, Macdonald & Co., 1971; adapted for easy reading by Jim Rogerson, London, Macdonald & Co., 1975.
Arms and Armour by Frederick Wilkinson, illus. with Arthur Gay. London, Hamlyn, 1971.
Armoured Fighting Vehicles by John F. Milsom. London, Hamlyn, 1972.
Artillery by Ian Hogg. London, Macdonald & Co., 1972.
Spotlight on Soldiers by Frederick Wilkinson, illus. with others. Feltham, Hamlyn, 1973.
Richard's Bicycle Book by Richard Ballantine. New York, Ballantine Books, 1972; London, Pan Books, 1975; revised, Pan Books, 1976; new revised ed., Pan Books, 1977.
Sail Racer by Jack Knights. St. Albans, Coles, 1973.
A Historic Artillery by Ian V. Hogg. London, Hamlyn, 1974.
The Story of the Bomber by Bryan Cooper. London, Octopus Books, 1974.
Weapons and Armour by A. J. Barker, illus. with others. London, Hamlyn, 1974.
Armies of the American Revolution by Ian V. Hogg, edited by S. L. Mayer. London, Leo Cooper for Bison Books Ltd., 1975.
German Fighting Vehicles 1939-1945, with Peter Chamberlain & Chris Ellis.London, Phoebus, 1975.
German Tanks 1939-1945, with Chris Ellis & Peter Chamberlain. London, Phoebus, 1975.
Jet Fighters by David A. Anderton, ed. Bernard Fitzsimons. London, Phoebus, 1975.
The Navies of the American Revolution by Antony Preston & David Lyon, ed. S. J. Mayer. London, Leo Cooper for Bison Books Ltd., 1975; Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1975.
Submarines. The history and evolution of underwater fighting vessels by Antony Preston. London, Octopus Books, 1975.
Weapons and Uniforms of the U.S.S.R. by Fred Stevens & Ian V. Hogg. London, Phoebus/BPC Pub., 1975.
German Tanks and Fighting Vehicles of World War II by Chris Ellis & Peter Chamberlain (contains German Fighting Vehicles 1939-1945 and German Tanks 1939-1945). London, Phoebus, 1976)
German & Allied Secret Weapons of World War II by Ian V. Hogg & J. B. King. London, Phoebus, 1976; Seacaucus, New Jersey, Chartwell Books in association with Phoebus, 1976.
Jet Fighters and Bombers by David A. Anderton, ed. Bernard Fitzsimons. London, Phoebus, 1976.
An Illustrated History of the Navies of World War II by Antony Preston, introduced & edited by S. L. Mayer. London, Hamlyn, 1976.
The Machine Gun, 1976; combined with The Submachine Gun as The Complete Machine Gun by Ian V. Hogg. London, Phoebus, 1979.
Weapons & War Machines by Andrew Kershaw & Ian Close. London, Phoebus, 1976.
Helicopters at War by Bill Gunston. New York & London, Hamlyn, 1977.
Naval Aircraft 1914-1939 by Louis S. Casey. London, Phoebus, 1977.
The Tank Story by Ian Hogg. London, Phoebus, 1977.
Naval Gun by Ian Hogg. Poole, Blandford Press, 1978.
The Complete Handgun: 1300 to the present by Ian V. Hogg. London, Phoebus, 1979.
The Submachine Gun, 1978; combined with The Machine Gun as The Complete Machine Gun by Ian V. Hogg. London, Phoebus, 1979.
Sea Power by Antony Preston & Louis S. Casey. London, Phoebus, 1979.
The Illustrated History of Seaplanes and Flying Boats by Louis S. Casey. London, Hamlyn, 1980.
The Airborne Soldier by John Weeks. Poole, Dorset, Blandford Press, 1982.
The Fighting Ship by Bernard Brett, illus. with Ivan Lapper. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1985.
Fighter by Chris Chant. Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1988.
Handgun by John Walter. Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1988.
Richard's New Bicycle Book by Richard Ballantine, illus. with Peter Williams. London, Pan Books, 1990.
Twentieth Century War Machines: Land by Christopher Chant. London, Chancellor Press, 1999.
A Century of Triumph. The history of aviation by Christopher Chant. New York & London, Free Press, 2002.
Soul of the Sword. An illustrated history of weaponry and warfare from prehistory to the present by Robert L. O'Connell. New York, Free Press, 2002.

(* Some background material has been derived from Batchelor own website here.)

Ted Benoit

2011-03-01T16:59:00.001Z

Ted Benoit has, since the 1980s, been a prominent artist working in the ligne claire style made popular in the pages of the Franco-Belgian comics Tintin and Spirou.

Born Thierry Benoit in Niort, Deux-Sèvres, in rural France on 25 July 1947, he studied cinematography at the Institut des hauntes études cinématographiques in Paris and later worked in television. His first comics appeared in 1971 after he joined the editorial team of alternative magazine Actuel.

A fan of Hergé and Edgar P. Jacobs, whose works (principally 'Tintin' and 'Blake et Mortimer') filled the pages of Le journal de Tintin, Benoit shared his enthusiasm with other artists who were based around the Pigalle neighbourhood of Paris, leading one of its proponents, François Avril, to coin the term "École Pigalle". This "school" of artists--including Jacques de Loustal, Charles Berberian and Philippe Petit-Roulet--helped filled the pages of A suivre and L'Écho des Savanes and other popular French comics in the mid-1980s.

Benoit published a number of strips in the mid-1970s, 'Géranomimo' (1974) and Métal Hurlant from 1976. He also began contributing to L'Écho des Savanes after meeting cartoonist Nikita Mandryka in 1975 and it was here that his 'Ray Banana' strips began appearing in 1978.

His first album, Hôpital (Hospital), was published by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 1979, which won the award for best script at the Festival at Angoulême. His follow-up, Vers la Ligne Claire (Towards the Clear Line, 1980), gathering stories from Libération and Métal Hurlant, showed how his style of drawing was evolving from underground to clear line and had an introduction by Joost Swarte, who had coined the term "linge claire".

More one-off stories featuring Ray Banana began appearing in A suivre in 1980, followed by the serials 'Berceuse électrique' (Electric Lullaby, 1981) and 'Cité Lumière' (City Light, 1984), both subsequently published in album form by Casterman. Further stories from A suivre were collected as Histoires vraies (True Stories, 1982), written by Yves Cheraqui.

In 1987, Benoit created 'Bingo Bingo et son Combo Congolais' for Métal Hurlant and Métal Aventures as well as writing (for artist Pierre Nedjar), L'homme de nulle part (Nowhere Man, 1989), the memoirs of Thelma Ritter, Ray Banana's wife. A second volume of memoirs featuring Ritter was co-written by Madeleine DeMille and was to be drawn by François Avril but remains in limbo. (Ray Banana also appeared as a character in Philippe Paringaux's novel L'Homme qui ne Transpirait Pas in 1994.)

In 1993, Benoit was one of the artists responsible for reviving the continuing adventures of Blake and Mortimer, drawing two albums (#13 L'affaire Francis Blake, 1996, and #15 L'étrange rendez-vous, 2001) written by Jean Van Hamme.

Benoit's adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Playback, drawn by François Ayroles, appeared from Denoël in 2004.

He has also illustrated a number of books, prints and portfolios and has also been involved with l'association Le Crayon, whose members published The Naked Crayon in 2010. He has also been involved in advertising, notably for Jameson whisky and Bic.

Artwork/prints by Ted Benoir can be found for sale here.

Bill Baker

2011-02-16T05:00:00.002Z

Bill Baker is one of many talented British artists lost to anonymity. Active between the 1950s and 1970s, Baker worked via the Temple Art Agency for a wide range of boys' and girls' titles, yet his name is almost unknown and I have been unable to track down any biographical information beyond the fact that his name was William G. Baker.

His earliest traced appearance is in the pages of Top Spot, where he drew one-off strips in 1959. A year later he could be found in the pages of Girl, drawing the strip 'New Rider at Clearwater'. This was the start of a fairly long association with that paper, as Baker went on to illustrate '21 Newlands Park', a long-running text serial that ran between 1961 and 1964.

Baker remained within the pages of girls' comics for at least 15 years, contributing to Princess Tina ('Life with Tina'), June ('Call Me Cupid', 'Wedding in the Family') and providing illustrations for Pixie Annual 1974, some of which can be seen in this column.

Baker went on to produce some of his finest work in the pages of Look and Learn, adapting novels by Jack London ('The Call of the Wild' and 'The Sea Wolf'), Jules Verne ('20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'), Miguel de Cervantes ('Don Quixote'), Edgar Allen Poe ('The Fall of the House of Usher'), Mark Twain ('The Prince and the Pauper'), Herman Melville ('Moby Dick'), Charles Kingsley ('Westward Ho!') and Charles Dickens ('A Tale of Two Cities'). Baker also did the occasional illustration for features (at least one dating back as far as 1964).

These strips ran in Look and Learn between 1974 and 1978, some of them brief but others, like 'A Tale of Two Cities' more substantial, running for three months. All shared a wealth of detail and some, like his two-part adaptation of 'The Fall of the House of Usher', are little gems that deserve to be reprinted.

Examples of Baker's artwork for sale can be found here.

Sergio Asteriti

2011-02-09T12:05:00.002Z

Sergio Asteriti was born in Venice on February 13 1930 and, after junior school, attended the Venice's Scuola di Magisterto d’Arte, intent on a career in advertising. His first comics work appeared in 1949 when he drew the series I bucanieri for Risveglio, which was distributed around schools in Venice.

After taking only one examination, he left school and moved to Milan, finding work with the publicity agency SPINTA where his workload included drawing movie posters featuring many of the actors in vogue at the time. Two years later, the company went bankrupt and Asteriti found himself in Milan without any work.

Not wishing to return to Venice in defeat, Asteriti hawked his portfolio around various publishers. His interest in comics had developed as a child and, whilst still in Venice, he had known Giorgio Trevisan and Leone Frollo, the latter a Venetian contemporary who introduced him to Giorgio Bellavitis, and other members of the Asso di Picche group, Faustinelli, Ongaro and Pratt.

He found work with Giuseppe Caregaro in 1955 and was one of a group of talented newcomers who began working for Caregaro's Edizioni Alpe around that era. Asteriti created the character 'Bingo Bongo', the comic adventures of a young black boy, for the weekly Cucciolo. Other strips from this period included 'Congolino' and 'Capitan Jolando', as well as covers for Voici d'Oltremare di Bianconi/Missionari Combboniani and contributions to La Vispa Teresa.

In 1958, Asteriti began working for the English market via Creazioni D'Ami, often working in collaboration with Antonio Lupatelli, who had been drawing 'Fun in Toyland' and 'The Funny Tales of Freddie Frog' for the nursery weekly Jack and Jill since 1956. Asteriti assisted on both strips and eventually took them over, 'Freddie Frog' was passed on to other artists in 1960, but Asteriti continued to work on 'Fun in Toyland' for many years, as well as contributing to the Jack and Jill Annual. Some of his work was translated into Italian in the pages of Bimbo e Bimba, an Italian edition of Jack and Jill.

He continued to draw for the British market until the mid-1970s, also contributing to Bobo Bunny, and illustrations to Disneyland and Walt Disney's Now I Know.

His work also continued to appear in Italy where he worked illustrated romance novels for Rizzoli editore in the late 1950s and then revived the character 'Formichino' (created by Roberto Sgrilli) for Selezione dei Ragazzi. In the early 1960s he also drew 'Hayawatha' for Corriere dei Piccoli in collaboration with Antonio Lupatelli. Asteriti has alos illustrated fairy stories for AMZ, Boschi and Carroccio.

In 1963, Asteriti produced 'Pippo e la vacanza culturale', his first strip for the Italian Disney magazine Topolino. Over the next decade he contributed to Disney Italia with increasing regularity, drawing both Pippo (Goofy) and Topolino (Mickey Mouse). He quickly became recognised as one of the leading contributors, both as an artist and, since 1974, a scriptwriter (a task he occasionally shared with his older brother, Franco), and eventually dropped his other work in order to concentrate on Disney characters full time, especially Mickey Mouse. Asteriti has described Mickey as "the best friend of my childhood", a character with whom he grew up. "The only drawback is that I have grown older while he has remained the same, young and healthy, without ever catching a cold!"

Having written and drawn hundreds of stories, Asteriti continues to be one of the major contributors to Italian Disney comics, his illustrative, decorative style perfectly suited for adventures set in medieval and fairy-tale locations

"The public prefer Donald... Personally, what I like most about Mickey Mouse is that he is pure adventure, with situations that are not necessarily comic. [Mickey] can live in any age, in any circumstance, whether it's western, historical or science fiction. There are no limits of time or space for him. It's greatly satisfying and never boring... I love Mickey Mouse when I find the right balance between adventure poetry and humour. It's a difficult balance which involves a good dose of loving effort by both those who write it and whoever draws."

He was awarded Il Premio Papersera in 2008.

Examples of his artwork can be found for sale here.

G W Backhouse

2011-02-02T12:44:00.002Z

Geoffrey William Backhouse was born at Holywell, Flintshire, in North Wales, on 16 November 1903 and, after studying at Heatherleys, worked for Modern Art Studios. In 1927, Backhouse began drawing ‘Strongheart the Magnificent’ for Comic Life, the comic strip adventures of a magnificent German Shepherd modelled on a canine Hollywood film star. Strongheart, one of the earliest adventure strips to regularly appear in British comics, continued his adventures when Comic Life was relaunched as My Favourite and would continue to appear, drawn by a number of different artists, until 1949.

Shortly before the war, Backhouse drew ‘The Stolen King’ for Comic Cuts and ‘Buffalo Bill’ for Butterfly. After the war, Backhouse illustrated a number of books for Collins, including Mr. Mole's Circus by Douglas Collins and a number of books by Denis Cleaver, including Pongo the Terrible, On the Air, On the Films and A Dog's Life, which featured the adventures of two dogs named Pongo and Peter. Backhouse's association with Collins also included illustrations for The Children’s Picture Dictionary (1951) and modern editions of Alice In Wonderland and Enid Blyton’s Shadow the Sheepdog.

Backhouse’s expertise at drawing animals and nature made him the perfect choice to draw a colourful feature strip starring George Cansdale for Eagle in 1954, following Cansdale's trips around the countryside, and the adventures of ‘Tammy the Sheepdog’ for Swift (1955-58). Backhouse subsequently contributed many wildlife illustrations to Look and Learn and Treasure, appearing in the former from 1962 onwards. Some of his most notable contributions were for a series of short animal stories written by F. St. Mars, Alan C. Jenkins and F. G. Turnbull that appeared in 1967-68.

He lived at 16 Upper Tollington Park, London N.4, and died on 1 August 1978.

Artwork by G. W. Backhouse can be found for sale here.

Michel Atkinson

2011-01-26T05:01:00.003Z

Something of a mystery man with regards to cover artwork. Michel Atkinson was an irregular contributor to various romance and schoolgirl pocket libraries from 1961 until the 1970s, producing covers for Romantic Confessions PL (1961), Love Story PL (1961-62, 1965, 1969-70, 1973-74), True Life Library (1961-62, 1965-66, 1968-69), Princess PL (1961-63), Schoolgirls PL (1961-62), School Friend PL (1962-63), June and Schoolfriend and Princess PL (1968).

There were some fairly substantial gaps during which time he was probably doing book covers. He is known to have been a regular cover artist for the Hank Janson novels published by Roberts & Vinter in 1961-65 and a wide variety of genres for Digit Books in 1963-65.

Although fairly prolific, it is likely that 'Michel' (as he signed most of his book covers) found more regular work outside of producing book covers for paperbacks and for Fleetway Publications from the mid-1960s on.

Examples of Atkinson's work for sale can be found here.

Ray Aspden

2011-01-19T05:01:00.005Z

Ray Aspden has been a irregular comic strip writer and illustrator for 35 years, contributing 'Philpot Bottles' Orfice Boys Own' to Denis Gifford's Ally Sloper in 1976-77, a cartoon strip that harked back to the 1930s penny comics, which would often feature a column from the paper's office boy recounting (in badly spelled text) what had been happening that week.

Ray, also a playwright, started writing for D. C. Thomson in the late 1970s, selling two strories to Victor, of which only one appeared ('Stokehold Joe' in 1980). In 1978, having spotted an advert in The Guardian, he contacted the editors of the upcoming science fiction pocket library, Starblazer, and began contributing scripts. His first submission, 'The Basilisk Face of Fear' - based loosely on the story of Perseus and the Gorgon's head, was accepted and published as Starblazer #2, 'The Domes of Death'. A second story, a reworking of the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur, followed, published as 'Sinister City' (Starblazer #19).

Ray eventually became one of Starblazer's most regular writers, penning 28 issues published between 1979 and 1986. Discussing his work for the series recently, he admitted that the pattern set for those years was to have one in three of his outlines accepted, either immediately or after some amendment. One ploy used by the editors was to send a cover, bought through an agency, and have Ray write a story around it - 'Terror Tomb' (Starblazer #62) being one example.

His best-known work for the series featured Hadron Halley, the idea springing from a reversal of 'sci-fi' (science fiction) - that fi-sci could stand for Fighting Scientist. The concept of 'Moonsplitter' (Starblazer #50) was to contrast the rational scientific approach of Halley to the gung-ho militarism of General Larz Pluto, although in writing the latter as a buffoon he "transgressed Thomsons moral code of wanting figures of authority to be seen as worthy of respect." He considers the final book "a mess".

"Due to the childhood influence of Eagle, I tried to have characters driving the plot and the nuances of character revealed in the dialogue. Jack and Bill [Starblazer editors] wanted action and gadgets. They also imposed a word limitation on speech bubbles and had total control over the ultimately published dialogue. As a result, many Starblazers based on my scripts have the characters making bland statements of the bleeding obvious instead of the witty one-liners I originally gave them. I used to complain regularly. I think Jack understood that it was nothing personal and told me I shouldn't care so passionately about my creations. His advice was to completely forget about a script once I'd had the cheque and make a start on the next idea." (Ray's article on his days with Starblazer can be found here.)

As well as his Starblazer writing, Aspden also began contributing strips to two Welsh language publications Sboncyn and Deryn in the early 1980s, writing and drawing two humour strips, 'Jac-Do' and 'Alys Ofalus'. Sboncyn was relaunched as Penbwl in 1989, for which Aspden wrote and drew 'Huwi Hurt', a Dennis the Menace-type character which Aspden turned into a Hungry Horace clone. The monthly comic folded in 1995.

Since 2004, Aspden has written and drawn two regular strips for Spaceship Away!. Both 'Mekki' and 'Our Bertie' owe a stylistic debt to the Knockout in the 1950s, rather than Eagle.

Ray's interest in history has also led to him producing illustrations for the series 'Cutha's Chronicles', written by Karl Wittwer and Paul Finlow-Bates, for the quarterly magazine Wiðowinde (Bindweed), for members of The English Companions (a study group for people interested in the Anglo-Saxon period of British history), since 2005; he has also drawn strips for the historical magazine Facts & Fiction and recently supplied illustrations for the book Derbyshire Folk Tales (2010).

An example of Aspden's early work can be found for sale here.

Jordi Penalva

2011-01-12T05:02:00.005Z

Jordi Penalva was one of the leading for Fleetway's War and Battle picture libraries in the 1960s and, as such, featured heavily when David Roach and I compiled The War Libraries index some years ago. In the seven years between 1963 and 1969 he provided about 75 covers for each title, marked by their quality. In The Art of War, David describes Penalva's work as combining "a wonderful, gritty sense of the dramatic with a textural, highly accomplished painting ability." His were the most interesting in creating the heroic ideal, "his heroes ruggedly handsome soldiers often striking dramatic poses, usually surrounded by blazing guns, smoke, explosions and vast swathes of colour."

Penalva had, prior to that, been the regular cover artist for Cowboy Picture Library where he debuted in early 1958. In total he painted 146 covers for the library, including covers for 44 of the 48 issues that appeared in 1961. In the early years he also provided covers for the weekly Sun comic as well as Thriller Picture Library and Lone Rider Picture Library. Some of his most dramatic covers appeared on the 'Front Line' series of the Fleetway Super Library series.

Penalva was born in Barcelona in 1927, the younger brother of Antonio Bosch Peñalva, who was also a notable artist, providing covers for many issues of Schoolgirls Picture Library and June & School Friend Picture Library). His full name was Jordi Bosch Peñalva, the Spanish tradition being to retain the mother's surname as well as his father's family name. However, as his older brother signed his work 'Bosch Penalva', Jordi used his mother's maiden name when signing his work.

Penalva was educated at the Escola d'Arts Aplicades i d'Ofocos Artostocs de Barcelona (School of Arts and Artistic Trades), popularly known as the Esola de la Llotja (School Market), before attending the Escuela de artes y Oficio de Barcelona (School of Arts and Trades). He subsequently furthered his studies of anatomy at the Fomento de las Artes Decoratives and, completing his education, was a free student at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de Sant Jordi (School of Fine Arts), studying under painter Ernesto Santasusagna. He also studied architecture and was employed briefly in the architectural section of the Generalitat, the Catalan government.

He also began producing illustrations in the late 1940s for publishers Janés and Juventu, and, more memorably, producing covers for Lars and Bruguera for books by P. C. Wren and Zane Grey. One of his contemporaries, Jorge Longarón, recalls that even this early work showed a quality beyond Penalva's years, comparible to artists Riera Rojas and Juan Palet and even the leading American artists whose work appeared in Collier's and the Saturday Evening Post.

Around this time, Penalva would have been called up for military service and, in 1952, he moved briefly to Brazil. Returning to Spain he began illustrating covers for magazines and books. Through the Belgian agency A.L.I. and the Spanish-British agency Bardon, he began working for Fleetway, producing over 300 covers, not only for their various pocket libraries but also weekly comics like Hurricane.

In the mid-1960s, Penalva also began working for D. C. Thomson's rival Commando pocket library and over the next decade produced 180 covers, averaging just over one a fortnight between 1969 and 1974. Penalva was also supplying illustrations and cover for Scandinavian magazines—notably for Semic's newspaper strip reprints of The Saint, James Bond, Modesty Blaise and others—and for the German publisher Bastei.

Penalva, like many other Spanish artists, could also be found contributing to James Warren's magazines, providing covers for Eerie, Vampirella, 1984 and The Rook in 1978-82—his cover for Eerie 96 was voted the best cover of 1978. During the same period he was painting covers for DAW Books and Playboy Press.

In the late-1970s to mid-1980s he was also painting covers for Josep Toutain's magazine 1984 (later Zona 84), Comix Internacional and Thriller in his native Spain as well as comics from other publishers, including Blue Jeans, Super Bumerang and Kung-Fu.

Subsequently, Penalva was able to concentrate on painting, in oils, watercolours and acrylics, with occasional more commercial diversions, such as producing paintings for commemorative plates, providing background paintings for the Spanish animated movie Katy, Kiki y Koko (1988)—he had previously been involved as a layout artist on an earlier Spanish animated film El mago de los sueños (1966)—and occasional returns to painting book covers, such as the Circle of Magic series by Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald, and illustrations for a C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa childrens' book (based on the TV series), in the 1990s.

Examples of Penalva's work can be found for sale here.

Virginio Livraghi

2011-01-05T05:02:00.003Z

Virginio Livraghi was a painter, born in Dovera in the province of Cremona in the Lombardy region of Italy, in 1924. Dovera is only 35 km southeast of Milan and it is no surprise that Livraghi gravitated to this centre of artistic excellence. In the late 1940s he worked as an animator on the famous Italian film La Rosa di Bagdad directed by Anton Gino Domenighini and quickly found a market for his illustrations with Milanese publishers Carroccio, Gino Conte, Fratelli Fabbri, Piccoli and others in the 1950s and 1960s. His talents lay in illustrations for young children, especially fairy tales (including classics like Snow White, Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland and Pinocchio) and stories about animals (including Penny, an Italian translation of Isobel St Vincent's Penny Pullet, and Maria Pia Pezzi's Curly Pig, which made the reverse journey in translation into English).

Working via Creazioni D'Ami, Livraghi began producing delightful colour strips and illustrations for British nursery comics, beginning with a run of strips starring the comical adventures of Playhour's 'Leo the Friendly Lion', taking the strip over from Harold McCready in April 1960 and later handing over to another ex-animator, Bert Felstead, in February 1961.

That year, Livraghi began drawing illustrations and covers for the British educational magazine Knowledge and the Italian nursery magazine Michelino, published by the Fabbri brothers. In February 1969 he returned to the British market after a four year absence to draw illustrations featuring 'Brer Rabbit' for Once Upon a Time. These beautiful colour illustrations would continue to appear until October 1971, although Henry Fox provided an increasing number of fill-ins from mid-1970.

It is a shame so little is known about this immensely talented artist: he was one of the best artists in the field of anthropomorphic animals to work in the UK; in Brer Rabbit especially he captured the humour and sense of mischief of the stories he illustrated as Brer constantly outwitted the wily creatures who wanted to capture him.

The following list of books illustrated by Livraghi is almost certainly incomplete, but is the best I can manage. Any further information would be very welcome. Artwork for sale by Livraghi can be found here.

PUBLICATIONS

Illustrated books
Pel di Carota by Jules Renard. Milan, Carroccio, 1950.
Storielline minuscole per i piu piccini by Laura Okely Romiti. Milan, G. Conte, 1951.
Alcino by Laura Okely Romiti. Milan, G. Conte, 1952.
Storie di animali by Lina Carpanini. Milan, Fabbri, 1953.
Penny by Isobel St. Vincent. Milan, Fabbri, 1953.
Biancaneve divenne regina. Milan, Boschi, 1956.
Gli insegnamenti di Frilli by Philippe Halsmann. Milan, Fabbri, 1958.
Davy Crockett e il pellirossa by Tom Hill (Karen Bruns). Milan, Fabbri, 1959.
Il gatto dagli stivali by Charles Perrault. Milan, Piccoli, 1959?
Compane: Letture per il primo [-seondo] ciclo by Mario Comassi (& Alberto Manzi from vol.3). Milan, Fabbri, 5 vols., 1960.
La lampada di Aladino e altre fiabe dalle Mille e una notte. Milan, La Sorgente, 1960.
Bisto-Beo gatto sportivo by Bruno Paltrinieri. Milan, Fabbri, 1961.
Il bosco di Freccia d'oro. Milan, Fabbri, 1963.
Alice in Wonderland, retold by Jane Carruth. London, Odhams, 1963.
Gatto Maso by Maria Pia Pezzi. Milan, Fabbri, 1963.
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. Milan, Europea, 1963; Paris, Editions mondiales, 1963.
Il porcellino Spiru by Maria Pia Pezzi. Milan, Fabbri, 1963; translated (and adapted) by Kathleen N. Daly as Curly the Pig, New York, Golden Press, 1964.
Quando la terra trema by Frederick H. Pough. Milan, Fabbri, 1970.
Brer Rabbit by Barbara Hayes. Vero Beach, Florida, Rourke Enterprises, 1984.
Una storia d'amore: ibrido poetico italiano-milanese by Stefano Fedeli. Gruppo letteraio Acarya, 1985.

R. B. Davis

2010-12-29T05:03:00.005Z

Reginald Ben Davis had a lengthy career at Amalgamated Press and Fleetway Publications as one of their top illustrators. Born in Wandsworth on 10 December 1907, it seems likely that Davis began his commercial career in around 1930 and it is known that he was represented by Byron Studios prior to the Second World War.

It seems likely that he began drawing for boys' or girls' story papers during the war, or perhaps shortly after the war during the period of paper rationing when work was thin on the ground. Some of his earliest work is associated with boys' writer Edward R. Home-Gall as he illustrated covers for Home-Gall's Panmure Press publications and both of the author's collectable novels featuring The Human Bat. Around the same time he began working for the newly launched School Friend, drawing one of their most popular strips, 'Jill Crusoe'. Jill Blair was from a long line of castaways, although in this instance she had been travelling to Australia when the ship she was on was wrecked in the Indian Ocean; Jill found herself the lone, exhausted survivor on a small island that turns out to be far from deserted.

Davis was to be associated with the strip for five years, the various stories subsequently reprinted in various comics, including June and Princess amongst others, in the 1960s. For School Friend he also drew 'Jon of the Jungle', 'Lost in Red Man's Land', 'The Riddle of Beacon Heights' and various other strips, the most popular of which was probably 'Kay of Cedar Creek' which ran for sixteen months in 1957-58.

Davis also contributed to the girls' pocket libraries, beginning with covers for early issues of Schoolgirls' Picture Library beginning in 1957; he also provided interior artwork for Princess Picture Library, School Friend Picture Library and Schoolgirls' Picture Library (including two episodes of the popular Zanna jungle girl series).

His work in girls' comics became more irregular in the 1960s, although he had a lengthy association with Fleetway's June drawing one-off strips ('The Strangest Stories Ever Told', 'Pony Tales'), the occasional strip ('Speed-Girl Julie') and illustrations for stories. Instead, the bulk of his output from 1963 on was a complete change in direction as Davis proved himself to be a master of wildlife illustration, painting beautiful covers and illustrations for Treasure, the educational magazine for the very young.

He was to be associated with Treasure for almost the whole of the magazine's existence; towards the end of Treasure's run (it folded in 1971), he also began working for Look and Learn, his first work appearing in the 1960s but more regularly from 1970 and including the back cover feature, 'Life in Nature' in 1971.

Davis continued to contribute to Look and Learn, mostly series like 'Nature's Notebook' and 'Nature's Kingdom', and was with the paper until its end in 1982. He also illustrated wildlife features for Once Upon a Time and contributed to a number of books, including Let's Look at Forestry by Ivor Lewer (F. Warne, 1967), Be a Nature Detective by Maxwell Knight (F. Warne, 1968), Animal Partnerships by Maurice Buxton (F. Warne, 1969), Colour Identification Guide to british Butterflies by T. G. Howarth (F. Warne, 1973), Snakes by Valerie Pitt (F. Watts, 1973), Flying Creatures by Patricia Gray (F. Watts, 1973), Slow Creatures by Patricia Gray (F. Watts, 1974), Ants by Diana Ferguson (Macdonald, 1974), Swimming Mammals by Patricia Gray (F. Watts, 1976), The Observer's Book of Wild Flowers by Francis Rose (F. Warne, 1978), The Wild Flower Key by Francis Rose (Penguin, 1981) and Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and North-Western Europe by Francis Rose (Viking, 1989).

He died in December 1998 in Alton, Hampshire.

Examples of Davis's artwork can be found for sale here.

Martin Asbury

2010-12-22T05:03:00.005Z

Martin Asbury grew up addicted to comics, trawling through newsagents and book shops looking for American comics. Influenced by Burne Hogarth's 'Tarzan', Classics Illustrated and Frank Hampson's 'Dan Dare', he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and studied painting at St. Martin's College of Art. Apart from illustrating a story for a comic book giveaway, his first illustrative work included the sheet music for Ron Grainer's The Maigret Theme and painting cardboard cut-outs for use on TV.

An advert in an magazine led him to apply for a job as an assistant for "an international cartoonist"; this was on 'Flash Gordon' and Asbury moved to Austria for six months before clashes with Dan Barry led to his departure. Back in England he designed cards for Hallmark, rising to become their chief designer. Married in 1969, he decided to go freelance and found work drawing for D. C. Thomson's Bunty. With the launch of Wizard in 1970 he graduated onto boys' adventure strips, drawing 'Soldiers of the Jet Age', 'The Crimson Claw', 'The Secret of Deep 16' and others for the paper. At the same time, he also found work on Joe 90: Top Secret, soon to merged with TV21, where he drew 'Forward from the Back Streets' and 'Tarzan'. Some brief-run strips in Countdown led to him drawing 'Cannon' for TV Action and TV Comic before he was hired by Look-In, where, after briefly drawing 'Follyfoot', he had his first big hit with 'Kung Fu'.

Having already filled in once for Gerry Haylock, Asbury took over the 'Dr Who' strip in TV Comic before returning to Look-In to draw more 'Kung Fu', and his biggest hit, 'The Six Million Dollar Man', which ran for four years (1975-79).

At the same time, Asbury took over the artwork for 'Garth' in the Daily Mirror following the death of Frank Bellamy. He was to draw the strip for 21 years, working initially with Jim Edgar; later scriptwriters included Angus Allan, John Allard, Tim Quinn, Phil Harbottle and, from 1995, Asbury himself.

In the early days of the strip, Asbury was also able to continue working for Look-In, his strips for that paper including 'Dick Turpin', 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'. However, an opportunity arose in the early 1980s for a change in artistic direction.

Asbury explained how he became a storyboard artist in an interview in Starlog: "When I was a strip cartoonist, I occasionally did TV commercial storyboards. A friend of mine [Dez Skinn] had an agency dealing with design and graphics and one day a man literally walked in off the street looking for a storyboard artist. I met this guy, production designer Stuart Craig, and he was about to start work on Greystoke with director Hugh Hudson. It was that simple.

"For Greystoke I did nearly 3,500 huge drawings, many of them in full colour. I didn't know they were going to be fed through a copying machine and come out as grey blotches. I learned my lesson on that.

"At roughly the same time, Ridley Scott was looking for storyboard artists, because he was going to do Dune at that point, and he contacted me. I got on with Ridley very well and he had me do a trial sequence for the film. So, he was sort of waiting in the wings and later rang to ask me to do Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which, of course, turned out to be Blade Runner. I had just started on Garth by then and couldn't see how to do the two together, so I declined. But he obviously bore me in mind and invited me to storyboard Legend when I finished Greystoke."

Since the release of Greystoke in 1984, Asbury has storyboarded dozens of movies, a few sample credits would include Labyrinth, Willow, Alien 3, Chaplin, Interview with the Vampire, Fierce Creatures, Quills, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Thunderpants, The Hours, Troy, Alexander, Batman Begins, The Da Vinci Code, The Boat That Rocked, the last six James Bond movies (Brosnan/Craig) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Although Asbury's work on 'Garth' was his most widely syndicated, he is probably most fondly remembered for Look-In and the dynamic look he brought to 'Kung Fu' and 'The Six Million Dollar Man'. He continues to work as a storyboard artist, his most recent work being for the upcoming Between Two Worlds.

Martin Asbury artwork for sale.

Norman Arlott

2010-12-15T05:03:00.004Z

Norman Arlott is one of the world's leading wildlife illustrators and has spent most of his career specialising in the depiction of birds. Working mostly in watercolour, his work has been widely exhibited in the UK and USA.

Born Norman Arthur Arlott in Reading, Berkshire, on 15 November 1947 and educated at Storeham Boys School. In a biographical sketch, Arlott once said that he became an illustrator by luck by being "the right person in the right place at the right time". His skills as an artist were already apparent at school and he was encouraged to study art at University; however, Arlott did not fancy four more years of schooling and instead embarked on a five-year engineering apprenticeship.

Already interested in birds - both for watching and egg collecting - his big chance came after he met bird photographer Eric Hosking. A fan of Hosking's An Eye for a Bird, Arlott wrote to the author and was surprised to find himself invited to tea. Hosking mentioned that John G. Williams, a Welsh-born naturalist and ornithologist who lived for many years in Africa, was looking for someone to illustrate an updated version of his 1963 book A Field Guide to the Birds of East and Central Africa. Arlott submitted a specimen plate which was forwarded to Williams. "Three months later, I was in Nairobi."

By taking a mixture of paid and unpaid leave, Arlott was able to stay in Africa for three months, eventually illustrating over 600 species in colour for A Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa (Collins, 1980). For Williams Arlott also illustrated A Field Guide to the Orchids of Britain and Europe (Collins, 1978) and other 'Field Guides' for Collins. In all he has since contributed to over 100 books on birds, including the multi-volume Handbook of the Birds of the World. He rarely has less than half-a-dozen projects on the go at any one time and sets himself a target of at least three colour plates a day.

In the 1980s he began working on various projects for the Natural History Museum, including a series of wall charts depicting the different birds to be found in a variety of coastal, mountain, woodland and estuary locations. He has also designed over 20 special commonwealth stamp issues featuring birds for the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Seychelles, Christmas Island, the Gambia, Malawi and the British Virgin Islands as well as paintings reproduced on place mats and pottery. He has also led ornithology safaris to East Africa and never felt the need to return to his engineering apprenticeship.

In 2001 Arlott discovered a new subspecies of Colomian bird which lived in the Andean forests. His discovery was made amongst the million-strong collection of birds at the Natural History Museum in London where the bird had been kept unrecognised for 120 years and which was immediately declared extinct. An example of Antioquia brown-banded antpitta (Grallaria milleri gilesi), a thrush-sized ground-living flightless bird, had been collected in 1878 by British ornithologist Thomas Knight Salmon. As there were no guides to birds at that time, Salmon sent specimens he collected to scientists in the UK; this particular one had curiously been overlooked before being donated to the Natural History Museum until it was spotted by Arlott, who drew it to the attention of doctors Robert Prys-Jones and Paul Salaman of the Museum.

Arlott was married to Marie Ellen Bott in 1968 with whom he has one son and two daughters. He nowadays lives in Norfolk.

Examples of his work can be found for sale here.

Chris Achilléos

2010-12-08T00:02:00.002Z

Chris Achilléos is a Greek-Cypriot artist best known for his epic fantasy paintings, pin-ups and book covers. His work often features warrior women, powerful Amazons in intricate, fetishistic costumes, heavily armoured and beweaponed yet still sensual and glamorous. Fantastic creatures--giant birds, wolves and big cats (especially leopards)--often accompany these iconic figures, helping to emphasise the sleek, dangerous curves of his females.

Although in pin-ups Achilléos would often show a bared breast, his artwork rarely strays into 'cheesecake' territory. When it does cross that line, as it did with his lurid 1979 album sleeve artwork for Whitesnake's Lovehunter, featuring a naked girl straddling a huge snake, the results proved controversial; the American distributors had to sell the album in a brown paper bag. Even when his sirens are at their most undressed, there is a dignity to them that keeps the artwork aesthetically on the right side of good taste.

Achilléos's work has been widely influential, particularly his fantasy images. The costume worn by Kate Bush in her Babooshka video was based on a cover painting for the novel Raven, Swordsmistress of Chaos by Richard Kirk (Corgi, 1977) and he played an important role in turning the animated Heavy Metal movie into a hit, designing the white-haired warrior woman Taarna in the film's longest sequence. An image of Taarna sitting astride a huge bird was used as the movie's poster and a painting by Achilléos was shown around agencies when the producers were looking for a model to play the role (the animation being produced by rotoscoping from life footage). Achilléos was also the concept artist for George Lucas's Willow (1988), designing costumes and the look of the characters for director Ron Howard.

Born in Famagusta, a harbour town on the east coast of Cyprus, in 1947, Achilléos grew up in rural Cyprus, he and his three sisters raised by his mother and grandmother following his father's death. Achilléos was able to enjoy what would seem an idyllic childhood, allowed to hunt and fish and run wild as he pleased. An open-air cinema also provided entertainment and Achilléos developed a love of adventure movies through watching The Ten Commandments, Alexander the Great, The Crimson Pirate and The Flame and the Arrow. The heroic deeds of movies inspired him and his friends to recreate epic battles in which Spartans battled Persians and Greeks fought Trojans.

Cyprus in the 1950s was a place of turmoil. The island was strategically placed in the Eastern Mediterranean to protect British interests in the regions around the Suez Canal, the British having administered the island since 1878. The Cypriots sought independence from the British, preferring enosis - a union with Greece - and the nationalist EOKA began an armed struggle in 1955. The British had a heavy military presence and guerrilla attacks on patrols, sabotage and assassination led to curfews and violent political unrest.

Seeking a better life for her four children, Achilléos's mother took the family to a two-bedroom flat in London. At the age of 12, Achilléos had to make major adjustments to his life as he found himself without friends in a land of inclement weather where the natives spoke a completely foreign language.

One new found interest was comics, which (along with studying books for the very young at Comprehensive school) helped him learn English. Achilleos's favourite strip was 'Heros the Spartan' by Frank Bellamy and Luis Bermejo in Eagle, and the works of Don Lawrence and Ron Embleton were also to be a lasting influence. He also began to draw. Unable to afford proper artists' materials, he would use wrapping paper from a local butcher's shop and cheaply available rolls of wallpaper.

From these humble beginnings, Achilleos went on to take A-level art and successfully applied to Hornsey College of Art in north London, graduating with honours in 1969 in his specialized subject of scientific and technical illustration. His first work as an illustrator also appeared that year as he assisted Colin Rattray, one of his tutors, on a book about the American moon landings. It was whilst at Hornsey College, browsing one day in a second hand bookshop, that he stumbled upon a copy of Conan the Barbarian with a cover by Frank Frazetta, which encapsulated the kind of epic fantasy hero that Achilléos aspired to draw. By day he completed his college assignments but by night he painted murals in oils of Conan.

On leaving college he found work illustrating weaponry and maps for a magazine about World War One. When this folded after six months, he began approaching publishers, suggesting to Tandem that he could improve on the covers for fantasy books they had been producing. They suggested that he contact Brian Boyle Associates, the agents from whom they obtained their covers, and Achilléos was promptly hired to produce covers for a trio of Brak the Barbarian novels by John Jakes which Tandem published in 1970. Working via Brian Boyle Associates, he produced covers for spaghetti westerns and the King Kung-Fu series amongst others and began his association with the Target series of Doctor Who novelisations.

He married Angela Walker in 1970 and their first daughter was born the following year; a second daughter was born in 1977. Looking for more security in his chosen career, Achilléos joined the Arts of Gold studio in Covent Garden, doing advertising work which paid substantially more than producing fantasy covers, although Achilléos continued his association with Brian Boyle and painted covers for books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Norman and Michael Moorcock. Via Arts of Gold he also began working for Men Only, painting pin-ups and developing a style of intricate, airbrushed beauty which was to prove his fortune.

Less fortunate was his association with Arts of Gold where a fire destroyed much of Achilléos's artwork and which shut down following the death of the studio's co-founder, Clive Burrell, in 1974. Achilléos returned to freelancing, retaining his long running connection with Doctor Who and Men Only and working on a wide variety of fantasy and science fiction covers, thankfully two fields were enjoying a boom period that would last for a few years.

Achilléos's first book, Beauty and the Beast, was published in 1977 after the artist was approached by Roger Dean of Dragon's World. The book sold over 100,000 copies. As well as continuing to produce book and magazine covers, Achilléos also became involved with the Taarna sequence of the movie Heavy Metal which led to him producing film posters for Clash of the Titans (1981), Supergirl (1984) and The Protector (1985). In 1984 he also began producing a series of covers for Star Trek novels.

Over the next few years, Achilléos produced two books, Sirens (1986) and Medusa (1988) for Paper Tiger, the first of which sold over half a million copies. A young artist at Lucasfilm showed Sirens to George Lucas, who asked Achilléos if he would be be interested in doing concept design work for the movie he was writing and producing, Willow.

In the 1990s, Achilléos had great success with a number of series of trading cards which reproduced his artwork. More recently, he was the visual consultant on the Antoine Fuqua-directed King Arthur and produced a further book, Amazona (2004).

Many of his best works have been reproduced as prints and in portfolios, which you can find for sale here.

E. V. Abbott

2010-12-01T05:03:00.004Z

Information about British childrens' artist Eleanor V. Abbott (who usually signed her work E.V.A.) remains stubbornly elusive, although she is commonly given the dates 1899-1980. Her work was attractive, usually on the themes of classic fairy tales, nursery rhymes and stories featuring young children in the style of Mabel Lucie Attwell. Although she was active for some decades she is almost unknown, although examples of her original watercolour artwork does surface for sale occasionally, such as the piece illustrated above.

She lived for many years in Morden, southwest of central London not far from Wimbledon.

The following list of the books she illustrated is probably woefully incomplete, a reflection of how small the collections for this type of book are in even major libraries.

Illustrated Books
Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp. London, Birn Bros., 1940s?
Cinderella. London, Birn Bros., 1940s
Jack and the Beanstalk. London, Birn Bros., 1940s?
Robinson Crusoe. London, Birn Bros., 1940s?
The Dollies Outing. London, Birn Bros., 1940s?
Little Ones at Play. London, Birn Bros., 1940s?
Tea-Time. London, Birn Bros., 1940s?
Children of All Nations Doll Dressing and Story Book. c.1952?
Our Counting Book. London, Birn Brothers, 1952.
Alphabet Children by Winifred Atkinson. London, Birn Bros., 1954.
Stories of Nursery Rhymes. London, Birn Bros., 1959?
Old King Cole Nursery Rhymes: A Selection of Popular Nursery Rhymes. Paulton, Purnell, c.1963?
Our Friends in the Country, illus. with Noel Hopking. London, Birn Brothers, c.1965?

Mike Arens

2010-11-24T05:03:00.004Z

Michael H. Arens was born in California on 2 December 1915 and began his career as an animator, joining Walt Disney Studios as a production artist in 1937. He worked on the Dance of the Hours segment of Fantasia, and on Pinocchio. After performing his military service in 1942-47, Arens became a regular newspaper strip artist with "Hey, Mac!" (1947-61).

He turned to comic books in the late 1940s, drawing artwork for Street & Smith's Top Secrets in 1949. From 1952, he drew dozens of strips for Dell Publishing, his first work mostly western strips such as Gene Autry (1951-52, 1954-55, 1957), The Frontiersman (1952-58), Buck Jones (1953-54), Rex Allen (1953, 1956-57), Flying-A's Range Rider (1954-55), Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955), Dale Evans (1956), Chuckwagon Charley (c.1958), and various for Western Roundup (1952-58).

Arens began producing Disney characters for overseas comics sucg as the British Huckleberry Hound comic in 1961-62. For Western Publishing he drew a variety of Disney and adventure strips, including Chip 'n' Dale (Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, 1962), Goofy (1963), Donald Duck (1963), Mary Poppins (Gold Key one-shot, 1964), My Favourite Martian (1964-66), Tarzan (1965-66) and Korak (1966).

For King Features he drew the Roy Rogers Sunday strip (1959-62), "Uncle Remus and his Tales of Br'er Rabbit" (1968), "Mickey Mouse" (1968) and both daily and Sunday episodes of Scamp (with inker Manuel Gonzales, 1969-76). Arens was also responsible for a number of Disney Christmas Stories--including "Snow White's Christmas Surprise" (1966) and "Dumbo and the Christmas Mystery" (1967)--and many newspaper adaptations for King Features/Walt Disney Productions, including "The Horse in the Gray Flannel" (1968), "One Little Indian" (1973), "Robin Hood" (1973-74), "Alice in Wonderland" (1974), "Herbie Rides Again" (1974), "The Bears and I" (1974), "The Island at the Top of the World" (1974-75), "Escape to Witch Mountain" (1975), "The Apple Dumpling Gang" (1975), "One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing" (1976), "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too" (1975), "No Deposit, No Return" (1975-76), "Gus" (1976) and "Treasure of Matecumbe" (1976).

Arens had a parallel career in animation from 1965, working as a story director for Grantray-Lawrence on their Spider-Man and Marvel Superheroes animated shows. In 1967 he became a layout artist for Hanna-Barbera, working on dozens of animated TV shows, including Fantastic 4 (1967), The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (1968-70), Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969-70), Harlem Globe Trotters (1970), The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971), The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972), A Christmas Story (1972), Goober and the Ghost Chasers (1973), Jabberjaw (1976), The Scooby-Doo / Dynomutt Hour (1976) and Dynomutt Dog Wonder (1978).

He was also layout artist on Charlotte's Web, the 1973 Hanna-Barbera movie adaptation of E. B. White's classic novel about a pig trying to avoid being killed for Christmas and a spider who tries to save him. In 1975 he also produced promotional material for Burger King.

He died on 19 June 1976, aged 61, following a motorcycle accident at Soldedad Canyon, Los Angeles Co., California. He was survived by his wife, Olivia, and three children, Michael, Michelle Diana (1948- ) and Halli Christine (1954-1999).

Examples of Arens' work can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

John McNamara

2010-11-17T05:01:00.003Z

A self-portrait of the artist, lighting a pipe, a globe showing travel between Woking (England) and Wellington (New Zealand) to one side

John Joseph McNamara, born 20 April 1918, began his artistic career as a teenager around 1934, drawing caricatures of film, sporting and local personalities for numerous New Zealand publications, including Paramount Theatre of Stars (1935), Standard (1936), Radio Record, New Zealand Sporting Life and Referee, Junior for NZ, Boys and Girls (1937-38), Clarion (1938), Cappicade (1937-39) and Katipo (1940). By the late 1930s he was also a political cartoonist working regularly for the Southern Cross where his work continued to appear until at least 1951.

He drew hundreds of caricatures and illustrations of famous sporting figures of the era including footballers Jim Taylor, Jack Lee, Neil Franklin and Dennis Compton, rugby players Morrie Doyle, Billy Wallace, Stan Dean, Ken Jones, boxers Cyril Hurne, Time Tracy, Eddie Thomas and Don Cockell, golfer Zoe Hudson, snooker world champion Joe Davis, cricketers Freddie Brown and Len Hutton, jockeys Lester Piggott and Gordon Richards and others, including illustrations of the 1948 Olympic team and a series of portraits of rugby players involved in New Zealand's 1949 tour of South Africa.

At the same time he continued to draw political cartoons for Southern Cross and New Zealand Listener, including aspects of the 1949 election in which Peter Fraser was defeated by Sidney Holland. McNamara was critical of the latter's links with the British Conservatives.

McNamara travelled to the UK in March 1950 at the age of 31 and found work on British newspapers. Although the full extent of his work over here is unknown, he appears to have found work fairly quickly. Two early strips -- possibly published in the Daily Mail -- featured "Bats" Belfry, which had a horse racing background and involved bet setting and detective work, and an adaptaion of C. S. Forester's character Horatio Hornblower. McNamara also found work with Amalgamated Press drawing issues of Thriller Comics, ranging from adaptations of Westward Ho!, The Red Badge of Courage and Hopalong Cassidy to the adventures of Dick Turpin and Robin Hood.

In the mid- to late-1950s, McNamara took over the artwork for Francis Durbridge's "Paul Temple" comic strip, which had been appearing regularly in the London Evening News since 1951, originally drawn by Alfred Sindall and subsequently by Bill Bailey.

McNamara drew the popular strip until it came to an end on 1 May 1971, during which time Paul Temple underwent a change in appearance so that the character in the newspaper resembled Francis Matthews, who played Temple in the BBC TV series (1969-71). The strip came to an end shortly after the TV show's third season finished.

McNamara died in Surrey in February 2001, aged 82.

Artwork for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery by John McNamara can be found here.

(* The portrait of McNamara is from the archive of the National Library of New Zealand.)

Illustration Art Gallery Show

2010-11-15T07:44:00.000Z

Severino Baraldi

2010-11-10T09:07:00.002Z

Severino Baraldi was born on 10 December 1930 in Sermide, a small village 50 kilometres from Mantova in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. As a boy, he entertained customers of the local barber by with his chalk drawings on the pavement. He worked as a carpenter, drawing cartoons for a local paper whose editor encouraged him to seek his fortune in the capital of the Lombardy region.

In September 1955, aged 25, Baraldi left Sermide (population under 6,000) for Milan (population over 6.5 million), where he worked for an advertising agency for a year whilst attending the Scuola d'Arte Castello di Milano. His work attracted the attention of the Pagot brothers, who ran a studio producing animated cartoons, but Baraldi turned down their offer in favour of another to illustrate The Bible for the periodical Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio, published in Padova. After completing two volumes, Baraldi was offered work by a number of other publishing houses producing illustrations for educational books and books for boys and contributing to Piccoli, Le Stelle, Boschi, Argo, Raiteri and Noseda.

For La Sorgente ['The Source'] he illustrated various books ranging from the history of the car, the history of trains and the history of pirates to Il gatto con gli stivali ['Puss in Boots'] and Incanto di fiabe ['Enchanted Stories'].

1962-63 was a major era for Baraldi with the publication of Ulisse ['Ulysses'], adapted from 'The Odyssey' by Gino Fischer, Lo Schianccianoci, based on the work by E. T. A. Hoffman, and Ciuffo Biondo, an adaptation of 'Peer Gynt' by Anna Maria De Benedetti. Ulisse and Ciuffo Biono were praised by the reviewer for Radiotelevisione Italiana for their elegant illustrations, which helped to establish the name of the artist who often signed his work with the abbreviation 'Bar'.

At the same time, Baraldi was illustrating the story of Marco Polo and, for Milan publisher Casa Editirice, a variety of other books for children.

For seven years, Baraldi was a prolific illustrator for the British magazine Look and Learn.

Baraldi also had a long association with Famiglia Cristiana, producing some 800 illustrations for the weekly magazine and educational cards for their junior magazine, Il Giornalino. He also produced historical illustrations for Fratelli Fabbri Editore's Enciclopedia Scoprire ['Encyclopedia of Discovery'].

Baraldi collaborated with Italian journalist Piero Angela on Quark, a documentary series, working on a programme about the Persian Army in the Egyptian desert based on the writings of ancient Greek historian Herodotus.

Shoganhunkan, the large Japanese publisher, commissioned Baraldi to illustrate biographies of famous people from Galileo and Marie Curie to Napoleon. When the same company created a competition for artists of different nationalities to illustrate images of the land of the rising sun, Baraldi was given the first prize of a trip to Tokyo.

He continued to work in Italy, illustrating books for De Agostini on intrepid navigators Marco Polo and Columbus and adventure books for boys. For the Greek publisher Stratikis, he illustrated 25 volumes of stories, mythology and famous people.

Eight years later, in 1994, Fratelli Fabbri offered him the job of illustrating a version of the Bible transcribed by Monsignor Ravasi, of the Papal Commission. This proved to an extremely difficult assignment requiring a great deal of research which lasted two years; Baraldi produced over 100 illustrations for the book, entitled La Bibbia : storie dell'antico e del nuovo te, which was published around the world (in Britain as The Bible for Children).

More recently, Baraldi illustrated biographies of musicians Dvorak and Verdi for a publisher in Taiwan.In all, Baraldi has contributed to over 220 books and produced 7,500 illustrations. The village of Sermide dedicated an exhibition to his work in June 1997. He continued to work for Famiglia Cristiana and Il Giornalino until retiring a few years ago. Now he is content to be be a family man, the father of three daughters and six grandchildren.

Many stunning paintings by Baraldi are available to buy at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Ralph Bruce

2010-11-03T05:03:00.034Z

Ralph Bruce was a talented illustrator who worked for Look and Learn in the 1960s. Until the mid-1960s he was a regular artist for The Children's Newspaper and was probably brought to the educational paper by former Children's Newspaper editor, John Davies, who took over the editorship of Look and Learn in 1965.

His artwork covered a huge range of subjects. His historical illustrations ranged from ancient Greece and Roman Britain, to the eras of Shakespeare, Caxton and modern journalism. He was particularly adept at portraits and drew everyone from Dickens to the Beatles for Look and Learn as well as contributing covers for various series, including "Famous Couples" and "When They Were Young" in the late 1960s. Some of his best work was contributed to the long-running series "The Story of Opera", penned by Robin May, which gave Bruce full scope for some imaginative scenes as well as realistic portrayals of famous opera composers of the past. At the other end of the scale, Bruce also drew a fascinating history of soccer.

Prior to working for Look and Learn, Bruce had illustrated book covers for Digit Books in the late 1950s, titles including The Deep Six by Martin Dibner, I Came Back by Krysyna Zywulska, White August by John Boland, Air Patrol Biscay by Richard T. Bickers, Horns of the Dragon by Felix Trigg, Battle of the Bulge by William M. Stokoe, The God of Channel 1 by Donald Stacy, Nor Iron Bars a Cage by W. H. Aston, all in 1957. (There was also an artist who signed his name Bruce who worked for Pan Books in 1947-49, who may or may not be Ralph Bruce.) In 1970, he illustrated two slim volumes—Ancient Egypt and Football—for Beckenham-based publisher Patterson Blick.

The only background information I have been able to discover about Bruce is that he was a member of the Chelsea Arts Club, whose available records don't go back that far. There is a Ralph Bruce listed in contemporary phone records who lived at 13 Rudall Crescent, Hampstead, London N.W.3 for many years but this may be a red herring. Although an uncommon combination of names, there are still two Ralph Bruces who died in the area: Ralph Sinclair Bruce (b. 6 November 1908 in Chorlton, Lancs.) who died in Hampstead in 1975, and Ralph George H. Bruce (b. 8 March 1885 in St. Saviour, Southwark) who died in Brent district in 1982. The latter would be a better fit for the telephone book address (which was listed between 1952 and 1982), but our artist was active in 1970, when Ralph George H. Bruce was in his mid-eighties.

Further information on Ralph Bruce would be very welcome. In the meantime, Illustration Art Gallery is pleased to offer some examples of his work for sale which reveal the talent of this almost unknown artist.

Robert Brook

2010-10-27T05:03:00.007+01:00

Despite a great deal of digging, almost nothing is known about artist Robert Brook. He appears to have begun working for the educational weekly Look and Learn in around 1965 and produced both colour and black & white illustrations for the magazine. His work could be highly detailed, as shown in the illustration above which he produced for the cover of issue 297 (23 September 1967), depicting a scene from Margaret Landon's novel Anna and the King, which was later turned into the musical The King and I (filmed in 1956, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner).

This was one of a series of covers Brook produced featuring famous couples, others including Hiawatha & Minnehaha, Robespierre & Eleanor Duplay, Andrian Nikolayev & Valentina Tereshkova (two Russian cosmonauts) and Heathcliff & Cathy. Other cover series drawn by Brook included "Animal Heroes" and "Famous Partnerships".

Inside Look and Learn, he illustrated the serial "The Red Bonnet" by Henry Garnett with some delightful black & white illustrations and a feature on "The Literary Lambs"—Charles and Mary. He often worked in colour, illustrating historical features such as "The Tyrant of Mysore", about the Duke of Wellington's defeat of the Sultan of Mysore in 1799, and a long-running feature on "Dancing Around the World", which ran for 20 episodes in 1968.

Brook disappeared from the pages of Look and Learn to destinations unknown. Thankfully, some of his artwork has survived the years and is available for purchase at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Richard Henry Brock

2010-10-20T05:03:00.002+01:00

Richard Henry Brock was the second son of Edmund Brock, the younger brother of Charles Edmund Brock and older brother of Henry Matthew Brock. The Brock brothers were each incredibly talented illustrators, but Richard is perhaps the least known of the three. Indeed, when the Brock family came to be written up by the Dictionary of National Biography, neither the date of Richard's birth nor death were known.

Richard was, in fact, born in Colney Hatch, London, in 1871, moving with his family to Cambridge a few years later where his father was a reader with the Cambridge University Press. All three Brocks -- as well as another brother, Thomas Alfred (who later went on to be a mathematician), and two sisters, Katherine Allison and Bertha Matilda, lived with their parents at St. Andrew the Less for many years.

Richard shared a studio with Charles and Harry Brock in Cambridge but did not share their interest in architecture, furniture and fashion. Where they gained reputations as book illustrators, Richard concentrated on painting, earning a modest income from local landscapes, mostly in oils. He did turn his hand of illustrating magazines for children such as The Prize and Chatterbox, although he lacked the skill and vigour of his brother Harry's illustrations.

In later years he illustrated a number of books, mostly for girls, including Tracked on the Trail by Nancy M. Haynes (1926), Another Pair of Shoes by Jessie Leckie Herbertson (1929) and The Windmill Guides by Violet M. Methley (1931). A couple of rare excursions into standard novels were illustrated editions of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (n.d.) and The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1924).

Richard Henry Brock died in Brentford, London, in 1943, aged 71.

The above illustration is offered for sale by the Illustration Art Gallery.

Charles Edmund Brock

2010-10-13T05:03:00.003+01:00

Charles Edmund Brock was a member of a distinguished family of artists. He was the eldest son of Edmund Brock, a scholar of medieval and oriental languages and a reader at the Cambridge University Press. Edmund, born in 1840 in Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, was also the son of a painter, Jeremiah Brock. Moving to London, Edmund worked as a bookmaker in his early career. He married Mary Ann Louise Pegram in 1867 and the first of seven children, Alice Emma, was born the following year.

Charles Edmund followed on 5 February 1870, born in Upper Holloway. He grew up in London and St Andrew the Less, Cambridge, where his family moved in the 1870s. Here he studied at the Higher Grade School and in the studio of Cambridge sculptor Henry Wiles.

Brock began his illustrative career working for a number of different publishers. For George Routledge & Sons he illustrated The Parachute by J. R. Johnson (1891); and for Tyneside publisher Walter Scott he illustrated The Humour of Germany (1892) and The Humour of America (1893) in wash. But it was as an illustrator for the Cranford series published by Macmillan that he first came to public attention. Charles -- who dropped his middle name when signing his work -- produced 130 black & white illustrations for Thomas Hood's Humorous Poems (1893) and 100 for an edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1894). In 1895, Brock illustrated Annals of the Parish by John Galt and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, but his major achievement was for the two-volume Macmillan edition of Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho! (1896).

At the same time he was producing illustrations for The Sunday Magazine and Good Words, and was now in great demand. For Service and Paton he illustrated Ivanhoe in 1897, followed by The Lady of the Lake (1898), The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1898) and The Vicar of Wakefield (1898).

Charles's career was followed closely by that of his younger brother, Henry Matthew Brock, who also illustrated books for Macmillan and Service & Paton's English Illustrated Novels series. The two shared a studio with a third brother, Richard Henry Brock, and Charles and Harry's mutual fascination with furniture and costumes of the 18th and early 19th century meant that they filled the studio with artefacts and reference material.

The two began working for J. M. Dent in the late 1890s, producing illustrations for editions of Jane Austin's novels. Charles also contributed pen & ink drawings to two volumes of Charles Lamb's The Essays of Elia (1900) and watercolour illustrations to Dent's English Idylls series (1904-09).

Writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, Ian Rogerson expresses the opinion that "Because of their versatility and willingness to take on such a wide variety of work, it is believed that the Brocks did not command the same respect publishers accorded Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, who were much less prolific. As a result, they did not have the opportunity to work on lavish picture books issued by such publishers as Heinemann and Hodder and Stoughton between the turn of the century and 1914. Charles's best opportunity was to contribute coloured illustrations for Sampson Low's boxed, limited issues of Blackmore's Lorna Doone (1910) and three of Jeffrey Farnol's popular historical novels." Charles's association with Farnol, for whom he produced a great many book jackets, would continue until his death.

Illustrations in books suffered during the depressed 1920s and 1930s, but Charles continued to find work, including a series of Dickens's works, Pickwick Papers, Christmas Tales, Nicholas Nickleby and Martin Chuzzlewit (1930-32), The Heroes of Asgard by Annie & Eliza Keary (1930) and The Cuckoo Clock by Mrs. Molesworth (1931). He also worked for periodicals, including Punch, The Strand, The Graphic and The Captain.

Charles exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour, as did Harry and Richard, and was elected a member of the Royal Institute in 1908.

Charles was married to Annie Dudley Smith in 1902. He died at his home, Cranford, 38 Grange Road, Cambridge, on 28 February 1938, aged 68.

Examples of Charles Edmund Brock's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Graham Allen

2010-10-06T23:14:00.002+01:00

Born in 1940, Graham Allen is one of the unsung cartoonists whose work filled Fleetway's humour comics for 20 years, although his career in comics began many years earlier. A talent for humour must have run in the family as Allen's father, Clive, was half of a variety hall double act with Bobby Joy and for ten years was Max Miller's pianist.

Graham was already on Fleetway's staff by 1957 as an art bodger working on Davy Crockett and Kanasas Kid stories for Cowboy Comics Library. In the mid-1960s he established himself as a cartoonist with Fleetway drawing "Sir Munchkin—Have Lance Will Travel" for Lion and "One Man and his Dog" for Buster, as well as a weekly strip, "Lord Elpus", for Sunday Extra. He was lured over to work for Odhams on Smash!, Pow! and Wham! in a Baxendale-inspired anarchic style, although he had always crammed every inch of space with multiple characters dating back to the days of "Sir Munchkin". Probably his best work appeared in Smash! where he drew "Tuffy McGrew" and "The Nervs".

With the merger of Odhams' editorial with IPC's, Allen's work began to appear in the newly restyled IPC humour comics. Whizzer & Chips featured "Give a Dog a Bone" from its first issue, featuring the antics of a pooch who always finds trouble when trying to find a place to hide a bone; whilst another doggy character's ongoing battle with a butcher ("Mutt 'n' Chops") began appearing in Buster a few months later. IPC's next launch, Cor!!, featured the antics of the endlessly bored "Eddie" and a trickster whose attempts to spoil people's fun always ended in a comeuppance for "Spoilsport".

Allen also drew "Mickey's Moonbugs" for TV21 & Joe 90 and "Trouble Shooter" for Score 'n' Roar before linking up with Look-In to draw "Please Sir!", adapting the TV series starring John Alderton as teacher Bernard Hedges and a classroom full of miscreants led by Peter Cleall's Eric Duffy. Duffy and his pals (girlfriend Sharon, dimwitted Dennis and the rest) also starred in a spin-off series, The Fenn Street Gang, which Allen also transferred to the pages of Look-In.

One of Allen's most fondly-remembered strips, "Fiends and Neighbours" debuted in Cor!! in 1973, transferring to Buster when Cor!! was merged a few months later. In it, the Jones's, a nice respectable couple in a nice, quiet neighbourhood, find their lives are subjected to all kinds of terrors by newcomers, the Really-Ghastly family, who move in next door.

Allen continued to supply IPC with many more strips during the 1970s, including "Spy School" for new launch Whoopee! in 1974 and "Scruffy Dog and Shaggy Dog" and "Clarence Stringbean" for Buster, as well as drawing strips for D. C. Thomson ("Copycat" for Magic, and "Digby the Human Mole" for Plug) and TV Comic ("Nelly and her Telly").

In 1981, Allen began drawing his best known strip, "Pub Dog" for the Daily Express and, later, the Evening News. Allen's newspaper work in the 1980s and 1990s included "King Kat" in the Daily Star, "One Boy and His Dog" in the News of the World and "Rocky Starr" in People Magazine. He was also briefly the political cartoonist for Robert Maxwell's London Daily News.

Already a prolific illustrator of books (many of them featuring animals and nature), in the 1990s Allen established himself as a caricaturist of politicians and others in the Daily Express.

Some of Graham Allen's work on Please Sir is available for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Luis Arcas Brauner

2010-09-29T05:15:00.002+01:00

Luis Arcas Brauner was a widely admired painter of portraits (including those of Spanish royalty), landscapes and still life. Born in Valencia on 20 October 1934, he enrolled in the School of Commerce at his father's insistence. Arcas, who wanted to devote himself to the arts, eventually entered the Escuela Superior de Bellas artes de San Carlos in Valencia, where he studied until 1954. In that year he held his first exhibition.

Arcas won numerous awards throughout his career as a painter, including the Silver Medal at the 13th Exposición de arte Universitario in 1952, the Premio extradordinario nacional at the 5th National Competition of Fine Arts in Alicante in 1956 and the Premio "La Coruña" at the exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid in 1960.

His work was widely exhibited in Spain and in North and South America. He was one of the artists who participated in the "Setenta y cinco años de pintura valenciana" (Seventy-Five years of Valencian painting) exhibition supported by the Valencia City Council in 1975. A retrospective of his work, "Treinta años de vida profesional" (Thirty years of professional life), was exhibited at the Caja de Ahorros de Valencia.

He died in Cambridge, England, in July 1989, aged 54. Five years after his death, his work was celebrated as part of "Un siglo de pintura valenciana" (A century of Valencian painting) in Valencia.

The above illustration of a mounted hussar was painted for the children's educational magazine World of Wonder in 1971 and is available for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.

Latest Art: September 2010

2010-09-22T20:09:00.000+01:00

Will Eisner

Over 140 new art works added so far this month from 50 artists including 7 artists NEW to the Gallery)
Enjoy the newly added art in our September slideshow!

Neal Adams	Four exciting colour prints depicting Tarzan in dynamic action scenes
Severino Baraldi	colourful painting showing Ancient costumes
Jesus Blasco	charming paintings entitled Making Sandwiches and Digging for Victory
Brian Bolland	History of the DC Universe Portfolio NEW
John Bolton	Hourglass portfolio of 5 stunning B&W prints signed by Bolton
Frank Brangwyn	Limited edtition The Way Of The Cross portfolio NEW
Robert Brook	an atmospheric pen and ink wash entitled Red Bonnet after the adventures of Pierre the young son of a murdered Vicomte, caught up in the turmoil of the French Revolution
Ralph Bruce	signed pen and inks featuring Walteof the last Anglo-Saxon Earl commiting treason and pleading before King William
Caza	Box set with 8 Plates and large format full colour book with cover signed by Caza.
Richard Corben	exciting Pilgor the Plunderer portfolio of 8 stunning plates
Graham Coton	dramatic paintings depicting a sinking submarine, the Long Ordeal of William Mann and The Mayflower Sails Again
Reginald B Davis	gorgeous painting of an African Grey Parrot
Neville Dear	atmospheric gouache Livingstone I Presume?, painted for Look and Learn magazine
Will Eisner	The Spirit full colour four page tabloid size adventure for everyone's favourite masked crime hunter
Gerry Embleton	fine paintings including British Soldier Before Battle of Saratoga, The Battle of Senlac and Merlin Casts a Spell, plus Hande Hoch!
Ron Embleton	resonant paintings including Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas More, Pilgrim Fathers and Courage of the Chavante, plus a study of Coventry Cathedral and Beauty and the Beast serial
Dan Escott	striking watercolours depicting some surprising Cities' Coats-of-arms plus Samurai and The Burghers Of Calais Submit to Edward III
Harry Green	a striking portrait of a Carib Indian, the London Blitz and a colourful illustration of Bus and Rail working symbiotically
Wilf Hardy	fine depictions of Korean Dragon Warship and a close-up of Aircraft landing gear in action signed by the artist
Burne Hogarth	rare portfolio of 6 B&W King Arthur prints (signed)
Richard Hook	distinct illustrations depicting Edwardians at the Seaside, a Duellist and a Brass Band (signed)
Andrew Howat	striking depictions of the Russian Revolution and The Legend of Beowulf
Peter Jackson	glorious paintings featuring King Henry hunting with falcons and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and St Paul's Cathedral
Hank Jankus	signed Portfolio of REM prints NEW
Jack Keay	dynamic gouache showing an explorer travelling down a river by raft with an African guide
Jack Kirby	amazing portfolio of World's Famous Comic Books Artists (16 prints by Walt Simonson, Jean-Claude Gal, Bob McLeod, John Buscema, John Severin, Caza, Mike Zeck, Brian Bolland, Yves Chaland, Denis Sire, Howard Chaykin, Gil Kane, Mike Kaluta, ...!)
Bill Lacey	wonderful Odd Inventions including a windmill-driven car!
Viginio Livraghi	uplifting painting of Brer Rabbit's Picnic in the Woods signed by Livraghi NEW
Angus McBride	dramatic illustration of the Dardanelles Disaster
Hugh McNeill	charming watercolours featuring Harold Hare's Garden Party
Philip Mendoza	charming gouaches featuring Mouseland and Nigel, Stephanie and the King
Frank Miller	magnificent Marvel Team-Up Portfolio Set 2 showcasing assorted Marvel heavy weights in superhero team-up action
Moebius	Limited edition Portfolios featuring City of Fire, Verdere Napoli and Sur L'Étoile Une Croisière Citroën
Rudy Nebres	Creatures of the Night Portfolio signed by Nebres NEW
Mark A Nelson	gripping Aliens Portfolio including rare mini comic by Mark Verheiden and Mark Nelson
Will Nickless	atmospheric scenes of yesteryear Penny Post, Bandit Country and Postal delivery in Elizabethan times NEW
Patrick Nicolle	sporting originals including Jimmy Wilde vs Pancho Villa (Boxing) and Man Bites Dog (running)
Alex Nino	set of eight The Fantasy Worlds of Alex Nino prints signed by Alex Nino
Alexander Oliphant	dramatic depiction of a scene from the opening instalment of the story Sea Change by Richard Armstrong
Jose Ortiz	beguiling and amusing The Pied Piper of Hamelin illustration for a children's book
Nadir Quinto	Music Charms the Savage Beast plus other illustrations for a children's magazine
Simon	charming watercolour painted for a Christmas greeting card Christmas Surprise for Rabbit
Stobo	painting of Combine Harvesters At Work signed by the artist NEW
Ferdinando Tacconi	some paintings with a strong Nautical theme, including Crossing the Equator and Visiting the Ship's Bridge
Vet	a glorious painted reproduction of Frank Frazetta's classic Egyptian Queen picture!
Gerry Wood	vivid paintings featuring Vickers mini-submarine plus German Retreat from Moscow
Wally Wood	two fine Portfolios of prints EC Weird Science Portfolio and Wallace Wood Illustrator Archives vol. 1
Peter Woolcock	glorious illustrations from Wind in the Willows featuring Toad, Ratty and Mole
Bernie Wrightson	macabre full colour Portfolio of Berni Wrightson Apparitions prints
Unattributed	glorious illustration of Nellie the Elephant!

Peter Andrews

2010-09-15T05:54:00.001+01:00

I have to admit that I've struck out on Peter Andrews... can't find a thing about him apart from the titles of a handful of childrens' classics he illustrated in the late 1960s. There was an artist named Peter B. Andrews who did the illustrations for Rim-Rocked. A story of the New West by Emmie D. Mygatt (New York, Longmans, Green & Co., 1952) who might just be the same guy.

Andrews illustrated a couple of pieces in the magazine Bible Story in 1964, one of which is offered for sale by the Illustration Art Gallery.

Illustrated Books
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, abridged by Sarah Lindsey. Brighton, Litor Publishers, 1967.
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, abridged by Sarah Lindsey. Brighton, Litor Publishers, 1967.
Sinbad, retold by Shirley Dean. Robert J. Tyndall Ltd., 1968.

Colin Andrew

2010-09-08T05:03:00.002+01:00

Colin Andrew has had a long and varied career in comics and as an illustrator and book cover artist, yet remains one of the lesser-known names in the field despite some high profile work.

Born and raised in Dundee, Andrew found work as a junior in Bill McCail's Mallard Features studio in Glasgow. His first published work was a cartoon in Lilliput magazine, and his first strip was for a local paper. For the latter he dreamed up the storylines and drew layouts for a story of anthropomorphic trains, in the spirit of Thomas the Tank Engine. After his national service, he moved to London and joined the King-Ganteaume studio, working mostly Westerns and historical strips for Pancho Villa, Rocky Mountain King, TV Heroes and other Len Miller titles. When the King-Ganteaume partnership split, Andrew continued to work for Kenneth King, contributing to Lone Star and Space Ace.

In the late 1950s, Andrew was drawing a great deal for Zip and Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, notably the "Captain Morgan" strip in Zip. In 1960 he assisted Syd Jordan, another McCail studio alumni, on Jordan's Daily Express strip "Jeff Hawke". The strips were written by Willie Patterson, with whom Andrew collaborated on two newspaper strips in Lord Beaverbrook's Glasgow Daily Herald, both factual strips, one a history of the world cup, the other on famous football players.

His favourite strip was also penned by Patterson, "What Is Exhibit X" in Boys' World, starring John Brody, a scientific investigator for the Daily Newsflash. The strip was subsequently taken over by other creators and Andrew found himself drawing "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" in Buster as well as features for Boys' World, Eagle, Lion and Tiger over the next few years.

He returned to strip work drawing "Tomorrow West" in Solo, followed by stints in "Fireball XL5" and "Stingray" in TV Century 21 and "Alias Smith and Jones" for TV Action. He also drew for both

Since the 1970s his output in comics has been limited as he has concentrated on illustration (including work for both World of Wonder and Look and Learn) and book covers; in particular he supplied New English Library with many quickly executed covers in the 1970s. He has also worked in advertising and for an advertising studio where he storyboarded television commercials; his work in the latter field included storyboarding the government's sell-off of PoweGen. In the 1980s he also drew editorial cartoons for a local newspaper for three years.

Andrew returned to comics in the 1990s via his friend Syd Jordan, who suggested he submit samples to Fleetway and Marvel UK. After some 18 months he was contacted by the latter, and worked irregularly on episodes of "Dr. Who" strips in Doctor Who Magazine.

The examples of Colin's work shown here are from the feature "Stand and Deliver", originally published in Eagle in 1964 and subsequently reprinted in Smash Annual 1976. All three pieces are for sale via the Illustration Art Gallery.