Friday, March 09, 2007

"A vast amount of this stuff... waiting to be discovered."

"[This first illo] by Jac Mars is from 21.4.62," wrote David Roach when he sent me the scan below. "Now I may not know anything about most of these people but Mars I do know a little about..."


"he painted covers for several Romance comics over here such as Love Story Picture Library, True Life Library (both published by Fleetway, who also owned Odhams press - publisher of Woman's Realm) and Star Love Stories (published by DC Thomson - Fleetways great rival)."


That's more info than we have at this point about these other talented artists. Hopefully we'll be able to learn more in time.


My thanks again to David for giving us this thorough introduction to what was clearly a robust homegrown market for illustration in England, lasting for decades.


A final tantalizing thought from David: "I was just talking to an industry old timer today and he said that John Bull magazine in the 50's had typically 15 full colour paintings in every issue - by the likes of Wyles , Fancett etc - so as I thought, there's a vast amount of this stuff out there just waiting to be discovered."


All of these images have been added to my British Illustrators Flickr set.

3 comments:

  1. I can't thank you enough for this blog. Honestly, being in illustration...I kinda wish to see stuff like this as oppose to the "new" style of drawing like you CAN'T draw. Thanks man!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks so much for your comment, raphael - it means a lot to me to know folks appreciate my efforts! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Leif, I have 22 scans from "Magazine Illustration" including the How To section featuring an illustration by Fancett,(!) and assorted goodness. I don't have a flickr account but I can upload to m iDisk. Let em know the best way to post these images for you.
    Thanks Stan Shaw,

    ReplyDelete