The Prince and the Pauper part 5

 

(* Artwork © Look and Learn Ltd. Reprinted by permission.)

The Prince and the Pauper part 4

 

(* Artwork © Look and Learn Ltd. Reprinted by permission.)

The Prince and the Pauper part 3

 

(* Artwork © Look and Learn Ltd. Reprinted by permission.)

The Prince and the Pauper part 2

 

(* Artwork © Look and Learn Ltd. Reprinted by permission.)

The Prince and the Pauper part 1

Our latest strip is based on Mark Twain's historical novel The Prince and the Pauper. The story is pretty straightforward and probably wasn't original when Twain penned it in 1881; however, I think you'll like the artwork, which is by an old Bear Alley favourite, Bill Baker.

 

(* Artwork © Look and Learn Ltd. Reprinted by permission.)

Richard Macgregor cover gallery

Who, I hear you asking, is Richard Macgregor? He was one of the pen-names of an Essex-based author named Macgregor Urquhart, who wrote prolifically after the war until his death in 1967. I suspect Urquhart was more prolific under pseudonyms than anyone has previously realised, although I'm still working on the details and it may take some time to deliver even a partial list. In the meantime, I managed to dig out the following. I have most of them, but three are missing (Horror in the Night, The Creeping Plague, The First of the Last)... so don't be shy about sending over cover blurbs if you have them.

The Day a Village Died
Digit Books R628, nd (Oct 1962), 158pp, 2/6. Cover by R. A. Osborne

A settlement is invaded by an army of ant-like creatures whose sole objective is... DESTRUCTION.
__"With a convulsive jerk, the creature severed itself from the bruised tendril and shot out a fresh strand, straight at Sam. It coiled round Sam's arm and before he could shake himself free his arms began to droop.
__"In a moment, other tendrils had transferred themselves to Sam and, to our horror, we could see the very blood and bone and flesh of Sam's body being sucked into the tendrils, to appear in a moment as wine-dark liquid pumping into the squalid jellies."

Taste of the Temptress
Digit Books R675, nd (Feb 1963), 156pp, 2/6.

When the minds of men become so obsessed that their thoughts keep returning to the creature of their dreams, that creature must be banished! And so it was with Nikita, whose beauty cast an evil spell even on the old and withered men of her tribe, thus making her the sworn enemy of all her fellow women.
__And when a film expedition arrived on the island, matters took a sudden and dramatic turn...
__A delightful, often wicked, and ultimately surprising story that will hold the reader charmed to the very last word.

Horror in the Night
Digit Books R715, (Jun 1963), 158pp, 2/6.
Short story collection containing 'Peg Leg Moffat', 'The Fatalist', 'The Spider Man', 'The Cemetery of the Living' and 'The Phantom Train'.

The Excursion
Digit Books R743, 1963, 158pp, 2/6. Cover [signed]

This is a violent, topical novel set in the depression-hit streets of Tyneside. Here, in one of a thousand drab, ordinary households a young wife slaves herself to the bone to keep her family clothed and fed.  After ten years of married drudgery, of unquestioning obedience to the will of her boorish husband, she realises that the attraction she holds for other men is urgent and real, and suddenly finds herself caught up in a vortex of doubt and desire.

The Creeping Plague
Digit Books R768, (Oct) 1963, 160pp, 2/6. Cover by Sam Peffer

The Deadly Sun
Digit Books R856, (May) 1964, 158pp, 2/6.

Blasted to oblivion...
__The fear that is in everyone's heart as the moon hurtles towards earth on its grim uncontrollable path of destruction.
__At the same time, panic-stricken scientists are analysing samples of the dust that is gradually covering the Earth's surface—filthy choking matter that increases in density as the moon gets nearer.
__LITTLE DID THEY KNOW that the dust was yearning to give up its horrible secret, for if one particle was split open, it would release a plague that would destroy life on Earth within a matter of hours.

The Threat
Digit Books R878, Jun 1964, 160pp, 2/6. Cover by Michel

WARNING! This bomb comes to you as a friendly warning to show how easily it can be despatched to the homes of the mighty. You won't know where the next one will be and when you do it will be too late...
__When the Minister of Science opened the letter at his breakfast table he realised that he was dealing with a maniac.
__For Sir Charles Grabbe, Senior Government Physicist, was holding the country to ransom. Not only had he invented a devastating miniature bomb but he was prepared to use it unless the Government lifted the ban on its production.

The First of the Last
Digit Books R886, (Oct 1964), 160pp, 2/6. Cover by Sam Peffer

The Ladybird Books of Frank Hampson

THE LADYBIRD BOOKS OF FRANK HAMPSON

by JEREMY BRIGGS

While Frank Hampson did work on other strips in Eagle comic, he will be forever associated with the creation of Dan Dare. Yet there is another side to his work that rarely gets the credit that it perhaps deserves — the illustrations he painted for Ladybird Books.

Wills and Hepworth Ltd of Loughborough began publishing children’s books around 1915 but their familiar Ladybird format of 7 x 4.5 inches / 18 x 11.5 cm hardbacks were first issued in 1940. The page size was designed to allow the 56 page books to be printed on a single sheet of paper with no waste, an efficiency brought on in part by economic requirements and in part by wartime paper rationing.

After being paid off from Eagle in 1962, Hampson began work on a series of eleven Ladybird books for Wills and Hepworth. Ten of these were published between 1964 and 1970 with the eleventh remaining unfinished due to the artist’s ill-health. Hampson’s health had not been good for many years and had lead to a slow down in his rate of work which had proved to be problematic for the owners of Eagle. However Ladybird editorial director Douglas Keen allowed him to work at his own pace which, in addition to not having the stress of a deadline, meant that the adherence to detail that Hampson always strived to achieve was not compromised.

The books were –

The Stories Of Our Christmas Customs by N. F. Pearson (1964; Series 644)
Note that this is the only one of the Hampson Ladybird books to be originally issued with a dust jacket.

The First Ladybird Book of Nursery Rhymes [No credited autho] (1965; Series 413)

Out In The Sun by W Murray (1965; Ladybird Keywords Reading Scheme Book 5b)

The Second Ladybird Book of Nursery Rhymes [No credited author] (1966; Series 413)

The Third Ladybird Book of Nursery Rhymes [No credited author] (1967; Series 413)

Through The Ages: Food by Muriel Goaman (1968; Series 606F)

Kings and Queens of England Book 1 by L Du Garde Peach (1968; Series 561)

Kings and Queens Book 2 by L Du Garde Peach (1968; Series 561)

Lives Of Great Scientists: Madame Curie by L Du Garde Peach (1970; Series 708)

Through The Ages: Transport by Muriel Goaman (1970; Series 606F)

The eleventh title that Hampson began working on in 1970 was about the life of Sir Winston Churchill, probably for Series 561. During his work on this Hampson developed a sore throat that refused to go away. When he visited the doctor about it, he was diagnosed with cancer of the trachea for which he underwent deep ray treatment at the Royal Marsden specialist cancer hospital in London. The treatment for his cancer continued for three years during which time Hampson took the opportunity to make the trip of a lifetime to Samarkand, a city in Uzbekistan on the old Silk Road between China and Europe.

The Churchill Ladybird book was never finished by Hampson. It was not reassigned to another artist, either to complete or to begin again, and so was never published in any form. After his cancer scare Hampson did not return to illustrating Ladybird books but instead took a Batchelor of Arts course on Arts and Humanities with the Open University and began work at NESCOT, the North East Surrey College of Technology, in Epsom.

(* Ladybird Books © Ladybird Books Ltd.; you can find further information about Ladybird books from their official website; there is also an official website for vintage Ladybird Books.)

Comic Cuts - 11 May 2012

Another week short of news, although I've kept myself busy. I have two of the Sexton Blake Annual's laid out and I have a third book on the go that should be finished in rough by next week. The idea is to get proofs of all three in one go so that I can save some money. I should hopefully have some news next week.

I noticed that the Tate have announced a major retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein. Some of his comic-strip pop art will be appearing at the Tate Modern in February 2013, including the landmark Whaam! and Drowning Girl paintings. Lichtenstein infamously lifted panels from comic books without crediting the originals — in the case of Whaam! it was a panel by Irv Novick from the pages of All-American Men of War #89 (Jan/Feb 1962).

I noticed this on the Guardian's blog pages: "Roy Lichtenstein's Whaam! is an eerie modern version of the battle paintings that once decorated European palaces and council chambers. It is on a grand scale, split across two panels that together measure more than four metres in width"

...which reminds me of something I said back in  2009 in the Sci-Fi Art book: the only thing that seems to impress art critics is how big the painting is. In fact, I was finally able to come up with an answer for that age old question: At what point does comic art become fine art. The answer? Two feet or more. Lichtenstein's Whaam!, at four metres, is without question fine art.

Mark Rothko's Orange, Red, Yellow is also fine art despite the fact that it looks like a few orange squares daubed on a canvas something like seven feet tall by six wide.Someone recently paid $86.88 [£53.8] million for it. According to the Tesco Direct Paint Calculator you can cover 13 square metres of wall with a litre of paint — that's about three coats on a canvas the size of Rothko's. Comparing the painting to the Dulux tailor made colours chart, I'd say most of the painting was African Adventure 3 with some Hot Paprika and maybe a bit of Volcanic Splash. You could probably knock one out yourself for around £25, which is a bit of a bargain compared to paying fifty-four million pounds.

To help ease myself down from this particular hobby horse, lets have some random scans of some proper artwork. The artist in this case is unfortunately anonymous and was probably paid quite a bit less than £25 for his efforts. The Aldine Publishing Company were not exactly known for their generous pay rates, but they did publish a wide variety of journals and many pocket libraries. The Aldine War Stories series appeared during a particularly prolific time for Aldine in the early 1930s; unfortunately, the company overstretched itself financially and went into voluntary liquidation in 1933. War Stories ran for 28 numbers in 1930-31, two new titles appearing each month. My thanks to Morgan Wallace for sending over these scans.

 

 

 

Next week. Should begin another strip, although I've yet to figure out which one. Apologies... this is what happens when I get bogged down in a book.

World of Wonder: part 39

 

 

 

Leslie Caswell

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)

World of Wonder: part 38

John Smith

Gerry Embleton

Gerry Embleton

Bruce & Peggy Windo

John Smith

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)

World of Wonder: part 37

?

C. L. Doughty

C. L. Doughty

(* World of Wonder © Look and Learn Ltd.)