I have featured previously Edgar Norfield’s clever series to titillate readers of the Forties. here’s #20 which plays of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby’s colleague on the ‘Road’ movies which I suspect are all but forgotten by anyone under 30 years of age!
London Opinion February 1948, p.29
I’ve been going through my collection of London Opinion (“and The Humorist”, to give it its full title) and present here #26 in the series which I have featured previously drawn by Edgar Norfield. The next few posts will be the rest of the series that I own.
London Opinion August 1948, p.29
Here are some illustrations from the second in the series called Drama Merry-Go-Round. Book One was covered previously with some biographical detail of Eric Newton
Blackie and Son Limited had its origins in educational books and partworks sold door-to-door in the early 19th Century. In my search for Raymond Sheppard artwork in books I discovered that he did something in Book Four of this series called Drama Merry-Go-Round.
I have copies of Book One and Two (see my next article) and know that a Four exists. But how large the series was I don’t know. There are some lovely illustrations – no credits as was usual, but hopefully you can still enjoy them. Do comment if you think you recognise a style form the period of these books. I have not copied every illustration just those I liked.
Eric Newton, who edited these books might have apparently been a pseudonym for Christensen Frederick George Newton.
The title pages state:
Head Master, Blackhorse Road Junior School, Walthamstow;
Lecturer in School Drama for the Speech Fellowship,
Essex County Council, Middlesex County Council etc.
I can’t find anything under his longer name, but Eric Newton was also the name of an art critic for the Guardian and the Times, who broadcast on the radio on the subject of art. What’s interesting is that the British Library list, under “Eric Newton”,14 books attributed to him or to which he contributed and state his birth date as 1904. The latest book publication date is 1964.
Newton states in the Introduction that the books are aimed at 7-8 year olds. Each has 88 pages and have that cloth linen covering that school texts had when I was a kid. Presumably we all forgot to wash our hands before reading!
The ‘other’ Eric Newton is listed on Who’s Who as having received a CBE in 1964. “Born 28 April 1893; married 1st, 1915, Isabel Aileen Vinicombe; two s; 2nd, 1934, Stella Mary Pearce; died 10 March 1965” His obituary appears in the Guardian. I’m not suggesting they are the same, I just wanted to note that there are two gentlemen published who may get confused. Hopefully this helps someone in the future!
In my blog on Raymond Sheppard I have reproduced all of the Sheppard drawings from the original series in Swift (6 April 1957 to 2 November 1957). Unfortunately, I don’t own all the relevant original Swift comics so was totally reliant on the reprint book Animals and their Young, London: Longacre Press, 1962. This presented a conundrum. Had all the other animal illustrations, present in the reprint book, also first appeared in Swift and – my natural curiosity – who were the artists responsible for them?
Once I’d received the two – anxiously sought after – Longacre books, Birds and their Nests being a companion title, my first task had been to compile a complete listing of their contents, to send to David Slinn who had freelanced on Swift in the late-1950s. His response, immediately clarified a number of issues:
“Where the birds are concerned, those not drawn by Raymond Sheppard will almost certainly have been amongst the subsequent input from Tom Adams. The animals are less straightforward, though somewhat more intriguing, and present various possibilities. The red deer, offers three alternatives, though the hedgehog just one, from separate Tom Adams’ Swift series, in the first instance, ‘Looking at Things’. The sea-lion and walrus required researching further ahead, but eventually turned up, with a couple of illustrations by our old friend Basil Reynolds.
“This Longacre title, based on the first Swift series, ‘Animals and their Young’, which was handled entirely by Raymond Sheppard, has clearly left the book’s editor eleven species short of requirements. There was, by the early 1960s, a wealth of colour wildlife artwork stored in Hulton House, so there would have been very little difficulty in sourcing anything required from earlier Eagle and Girl features as well.”
After I sent him scans of these relevant pages from the reprinted volume, David was able add to his initial comments:
“The editorial budget looks to have been fairly substantial, as it is almost certainly Tom Adams, himself, who has provided the baby hedgehog/leaves/ground (there’s just a trace of the vertical join, while the horizontal is lost in the re-inked shadow area). Likewise the extended left-hand stretch of woodland, behind the stag and family, has been painted with his characteristic treatment.
“Whether, in every case, the original illustrator had been contacted to adapt their artwork, certainly the background sunset to the walrus picture, looks to have been added from the unmistakable “Disney-like” palette associated with Basil Reynolds. Although, the somewhat arbitrary cropping didn’t do this image any favours. Which is slightly worrying as, of course, any re-proportioning or additional artwork required on Raymond Sheppard’s original artwork, unfortunately – as, of course, with his tragic early death in 1958 – won’t have been in his hands.”
p.75 Walrus by Basil Reynolds
Swift ‘ Wild Creatures…World’ 29 Aug 1959
p.71 Skunk by Basil Reynolds
p.69 Sea Lion by Basil Reynolds
Swift ‘ Wild Creatures of the World’ 26 Mar 1960
p.53 Otter by Tom Adams
p.49 Opossum by Peter Sharrocks
p.45 Mouse by Tom Adams
p.21 Elephant by Tom Adams
p.19 Deer by Tom Adams
Swift ‘British Wild Animals’ 18 Oct 1958
p.9 Bat by Tom Adams
p.29 Hedgehog by Tom Adams
Swift ‘British Wild Animals’ 6 Dec 1958
Finally, the following alternative Red Deer illustrations to the one included in the book, provide a couple of further examples of Tom Adams’ extensive contribution to the Swift comic.
![Swift 'Looking At Things' 6 Oct 1956 [i]](https://standby4action.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/swift-looking-at-things-6-oct-1956-i.jpg)
Swift ‘Looking At Things’ 6 Oct 1956
Swift ‘Looking At Things’ 13 Oct 1956
I wish to register my thanks to David Slinn for his extensive knowledge of who did what in the Swift comic and for his help on this article.
I’ve been clearing out my Mother’s house and found a lot of very tatty love stories in German. They’ve all been put in recyling as they are too tatty to do anything with, but by accident I spotted one I’d thrown for recycling which opened up at a very familiar page.
Just so nothing is wasted and in case someone is researching Stan Drake’s creation, here are the three pages of Stella-Roman Bd. 377 (‘Band’ meaning ‘issue’) which I guess appeared in the 1970s as that’s when my Mum was likely to have got these! But it’s a guess! Stella Roman means ‘Stella Novel’ but I discovered there was a person called that too – who’d have known!
According to the Grand Comics Database the story Das Herz der Julia Köster was published in German in 1953 by Walter Lehning Verlag. And if you want the English version see Classical Comics website for some fantastic stories and artwork.
Stella Roman Band 377
Das Herz der Julia Köster
Das Herz der Julia Köster
Das Herz der Julia Köster
The other thing that piqued my interest was the following novel “Die Zeit mit Leon” by Willo Davis Roberts, “a novel of love and secrets” and published by Erich PabelVerlag in Germany in June 1973. The bit cropped off the top says “Der Spannungsroman für Frauen” (mystery fiction for women). The original American title was “The Devil Boy”. Why did I notice this particularly, the cover. It so looks like a DC comic cover from the seventies but which one?
Gaslichtroman #51
I love doing this blogging. Take a look at the comment section of this post on Leslie Caswell:
Louise Gibson wrote:
My father, who served in India during WW2, had his portrait painted by Leslie Caswell. Dad died last year aged 93. I love the painting. And I chancing my luck asked if she’d be willing to share the picture….and soon after, this arrived in my Inbox. Many thanks Louise, it certainly is a great piece!
Jack Blackburn 1944 by Leslie Caswell
I promised to upload it with some new discoveries in Home Notes, so without further ado…..
“Dear Stranger” by Jane Causeway was adapted over several weeks and these three illustrations come from Home Notes 19 July, 26 July and 2 August 1956, the latter being the end of the adaptation (I don’t have earlier issues to say when it began). Interestingly the only other work by Causeway I can find is a Woman’s Weekly Library magazine, “Search for a stranger” (# 940 in the series), published by Fleetway Library, London, England, 19 March 1973. The story was published in 63 Pages. A bookseller helpfully lists this as a line: “Why was it that, whatever she did, wherever she went, her mind always turned back to Adrian?”. Adrian doesn’t appear in any of the three parts of the “Dear Stranger” story but maybe Causeway changed the names! This is one mystery I won’t be worrying about.
However the author’s achievements appear to be few on the Internet. the British Library only lists the same book as Amazon- Search for a stranger. London : Hale, 1971. But one strange thing is that RT Book magazine have a single listing which states: Jane Causeway a.k.a. Barry Cook. There is also evidence that Causeway wrote in Home Notes in 1957 but I can’t find anything else on either names.
Home Notes 19 July 1956 p11 – Leslie Caswell
Home Notes 26 July 1956 p11 – Leslie Caswell
Home Notes 2 August 1956 p11 – Leslie Caswell
Just because we were discussing various artists in the Eagle Annual 1965 and Dan Dare’s Space Annual 1963 David Slinn kindly sent me the images below and I felt they were better shared, than sat on my hard drive (and that is the purpose of this infrequent blog!)
They are the endpapers drawn by Barrie Linklater for the Eagle Annual 1963. Linklater’s art can be seen (and bought) from the link in Steve Holland’s biography – Illustration Gallery.
As David says, “as you’ll see, more than capable of handling futuristic subjects.” His art on “War of the Worlds” certainly shows both future and past! Could he be the artist of the Dan Dare cover on the 1965 annual? If someone knows Barrie or can get him to send me an email to deny or confirm this would give a lot of Eagle readers some peace! He doesn’t mention his comic work on his website but looking at the area he moves in now I’m not surprised! But maybe I’m tracking the wrong guy! Someone put me out of misery, please!
Eagle Annual 1963
Eagle Annual 1963
As an aside, I knew one of the men who worked on the Blue Streak and he was exceedingly disappointed that the project was cancelled and one suspects carried that burden for the rest of his life. The cancellation of the project was extremely embarrassing for the UK Government.
I was writing about Raymond Sheppard’s work in a copy of Lilliput 1956, July to be precise, and discovered a bit about this lady and felt someone might be searching for information about her so I’m sharing what I have.
Lilliput July 1956
The Lilliput magazine contents page always credited the artists who drew the covers but from November 1955 the publisher used a photograph (with a few ‘designer’ covers in the later Fifties) and often the photographer (and subject) are not credited. However in this issue there is a feature about “The daring young lady on the firmly attached flying trapeze”. Below is a small resolution scan of the double page article
The lady in question is Adele Collins (not the modern singer!) who appeared in Vogue and other fashion magazines and whose famous portrait by Norman Parkinson appeared in the National Portrait Gallery. She is featured again in a later Lilliput that someone has already scanned.
Here are two full page scans of the feature. Enjoy yourselves!
Lilliput July 1956 p.40
Lilliput July 1956 p.41
I was writing an article around Frank Bellamy’s work in the BBC Children’s Hour Annual (1952) and fell in love with a piece of colour artwork by Lance Cattermole. He drew lots of railway posters and we are fortunate in having a National Railway Museum that has archived many of them. One of my favourites is not the traditional tourist-duping sunny scene of the British seaside but this lovely lady from “Morecambe for First Class Holidays” poster (1960)
Morecambe poster by Lance Cattermole 1960
And some of his historic figures show real movement in 2-D such as Hereward the Wake, associated with Ely
Hereward the Wake by Lance Cattermole
Lance Harry Mosse Cattermole (1898-1992), the Science Museum Group, of all places tells us, was born in Ireland, 19 July 1898, son of Sydney Cattermole, an artist, and grandson of George Cattermole (1800-68) – illustrator of ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ and other Charles Dickens works. Educated Worthing, Sussex and Odiham, Hants. Studied at Central School of Arts & Crafts 1922-23 and at the Slade School 1923-26. Lived near Worthing for many years. Represented in many museums and collections. Produced posters for BR. Produced artwork for Scottish Region series. The Look and Learn site shows two pieces credited to him. I’m confused as to why he would serve in the First World War in 21st Eastern Ontario Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force as it states on the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment Museum site where you can see a sketch (for a Player’s Cigarette card) with a very familiar signature – so maybe it’s right!
This story by Anthony C. Wilson called “A voice in the wall” appeared in the BBC Children’s Hour Annual [1952] and the colour piece is particularly beautiful for its sharp colour and the boys’ movement.
Page 72 of BBC Children’s Hour Annual 1952 drawn by Lance Cattermore
Why do I say familiar? Well the illustrations below are what inspired me to scan and research a bit about Cattermole.
Page 73 of BBC Children’s Hour Annual 1952 drawn by Lance Cattermore
Page 74 of BBC Children’s Hour Annual 1952 drawn by Lance Cattermore
Page 78 of BBC Children’s Hour Annual 1952 drawn by Lance Cattermore
Page 79 of BBC Children’s Hour Annual 1952 drawn by Lance Cattermore
Northumberland and Durham map 1949
Visual Rants 