Eric Dadswell

An artist I would love to know more about. I was something of a fan of Eric Dadswell's art long before I knew his name as he was the artist of 'Sexton Blake' in Valiant in 1968-70, already running when I started buying the paper. I've not been able to find out much about him since. He was an excellent draughtsman and drew in a realistic style which, I strongly suspect, is why he was often given adaptations of TV shows or true story features to draw. He was a prolific artist for Hulton in the 1950s -- Eagle, Girl Annual -- and probably spent the early sixties working on romance comics (Valentine) and libraries; he then pops up in Valiant in 1965, drawing 'Twelve Guilty Men' and later 'Sexton Blake', whom he based on Lawrence Payne, the star of the Blake TV show. Some years earlier, Dadswell had drawn a newspaper strip version of 'The Grove Family', based on Britain's first TV soap, although the earliest work I have so far traced is 'The Fleet Family' in the early issues of Swift (1954).

What happened to Dadswell after 1970 is anybody's guess.

Illustrated Books
Lone Ranger Adventure Stories (stories by David Roberts). London, Adprint, 1960.
Bonanza (stories by George Anderson), illus. with Desmond Walduck. Paulton & London, Purnell & Sons, 1961.
Klondike (stories by George Anderson), illus. with Pat Williams. Paulton & London, Purnell & Sons, 1961.
Tales of Wells Fargo (stories by Arthur Groom). Paulton & London, Purnell & Sons, 1961.
Emergency -- Ward 10 Girls' Annual, illus. with Angus McBride. Paulton & London, Purnell & Sons, 1962.
Emergency - -Ward 10 Girls' Annual, illus. with Ken Houghton. Paulton & London, Purnell & Sons, 1963.
Trapped in the Well by Faith Graham. London, Pitman Publishing, 1965.

(* The illustration is from Swift Annual 1 (1954) and is © Look and Learn Magazine Ltd.)