Everybody's Illustrators

Looking through issues of old weekly magazines like Everybody's really highlights the difference between magazines in the 1950s and those of fifty years later. The use—and quality—of illustrations was much higher and added a dimension that's lacking in today's magazines. By the time I was seeing what could be called the general weekly magazines—Tit-Bits, Weekend and the like—in the 1970s, they were filled with sensational, true-life confession style articles and were well on the way down the path to the celebrity-obsessed crap that passes for magazines these days, which are all about pointing and tutting. Who cares if someone has put on a few pounds or lost a few pounds? Is that really what passes for entertainment these days?

The illustrations below represent a tiny snapshot of the diversity of the stories that appeared in Everybody's—crime, war, nature, romance, science fiction, humour... nothing seemed off limits. Yes, they also had their interviews or articles about film and TV stars, but the next article along would be historical, or travel, or political. In many ways the Sunday supplements took over that role, leaving the general magazines to sink... or swim briefly before sinking in some cases. Sad, eh?

Gordon Nicholl
R. M. Sax
Eric Tansley
Laurence Houghton
Eric Tansley
Eric Tansley
Edwin Phillips
Leslie Caswell
H. W. Hailstone

(* All images © IPC Media.)