You'll notice that there were some oddities with the magazine, namely that the covers for issues 6 & 9 and 7 & 8 are repeated. Annoyingly, my issue 10 has a damaged cover—so if anyone has a better copy, an improved scan would be very welcome.
One of the artists I've been looking at recently, albeit briefly, was W. J. Roberts, who drew pulp-style sf covers for the first serious British pulp magazine, Tales of Wonder. I've always wondered what those initials stood for.
W. J. Roberts appears to have lived his whole life in South London. His birth, on 27 July 1898, was registered in Stepney, and I was able to trace some of his movements through the London phone book: 411 Norwood Road, Streatham SE.27 [1930], 125A St. Juliaus Farm Road, Streatham SE27 [1932/34] and 43 Mount Ephriam Road, Streatham SW16 [1935/76]. It was his disappearance from that last address that gave me the clue to his year of death and a quick search in records for around that period showed that only one W. J. Roberts was registered as having died in London: Wilfred Joseph Roberts, whose death was registered in Lambeth in the second quarter volume for 1976.
I dropped a line to Mike Ashley who says: "I remember asking Wally Gillings about him and I recall he called him by a less than common name. In other words he wasn't Will/Bill or Wally, and I'm pretty sure he did call him Wilf—but it's a fleeting memory of 30+ years ago."
Scans for this little gallery have come from the Galactic Central page for World's Work. If you have any better scans (or you have magazines not shown and want to submit some scans), let me know. (The full list of magazines covered at GC can be found here.)
It's a shame that the war intervened and Tales of Wonder was forced to use a standardised cover design for its final few issues. W. J. Roberts presumably had a career outside these pulps, although the only other cover illustration I'm aware of is the dust-jacket for Quick Curtain by Alan Melville (London, Skeffington, 1934). There may be dozens, even hundreds, of further examples of his work hidden away in anonymity or on long discarded dust-jackets. A shame, as he was a very capable and imaginative artist.
Another cover (see Comments): Love—And Forget by Molly Waring (London, Wright & Brown, 1943). I've had to tidy up the image a lot from the photograph I spotted on eBay. And below is a possible Roberts cover for Mystery at Friar's Pardon by Martin Porlock (Philip Macdonald) (London, Collins, 1931) spotted by Jamie Sturgeon. The signature looks different (it could almost by 'Robb')—but signatures do change. I thought I'd share it anyway.
Any more out there?
John Richards at his desk at Corgi Books
Richards' first cover appeared on Authentic no. 30 (Feb 1953). Almost all of his early paintings were credited under the pen-name Davis and it was as Davis that he began painting a series of covers to illustrate the feature 'From Earth to the Stars!', which was a guide to mankind's conquest of space, travelling first to his nearest neighbours and then into interstellar space. The series was described as "Accurate, scientific, exciting!" which also describes the artwork—Richards' was clearly inspired by space artists like Chesley Bonestell but also on then-current thoughts about design. The satellite seen on no.38 (Oct 1953, pictured below), for instance, was based on designs conceived by R. A. Smith (who illustrated Arthur C. Clarke's The Exploration of the Moon and The Young Traveller in Space) and H. E. Ross of the British Interplanetary Society.
The series proved popular enough to encourage editor H. J. Campbell—who was probably also the author of the series—to produce The Authentic Book of Space (1954) which reprinted a number of the covers without the lettering.
Once mankind had reached an alien world with issue 48, Richards (as Davis) then took Authentic's readers on a trip around the solar system. Throughout this whole period (1953-54), Richards was the art editor of Authentic before handing over to J. E. Mortimer.
Authentic 42, Feb 1954.
Authentic 43, Mar 1954.
Authentic 45, May 1954.
Authentic 50, Oct 1954.
Authentic 54, Feb 1955.
Corgi 1282, 1955.
Corgi G184, 1956.
Corgi S520, 1958.
Corgi S614, 1958.
Corgi SS873, 1960.
Corgi S971, 1961.
The first image is from volume 1 which is the next volume I'm working on; the second image is from volume 12 which will be the final volume in the series, although I somehow doubt that will be the end of the road for DLC's revival of the Trigan Empire.
Talking of upcoming books, Carlton have released the above cover image for The Best of Punch Cartoons, edited by Helen Walasek (ISBN 978-1853756795, 1 September 2008). "This, the biggest collection of cartoons ever published from the most famous humour magazine of them all, is packed with superb gags and beautiful artwork by some of the world's finest artists of the past two centuries. The page size is huge, showing the cartoon art off in the best possible manner. And, at more than 600 pages, this book is an essential purchase for any fan of cartoons, visual humour or of the legendary "Punch" magazine."
• Comic Art Now: The Very Best in Contemporary Comic Art and Illustration by Dez Skinn (ISBN 978-1905814251, 1 May 2008). Reviewed here.
• Erotic Comics: A Graphic History, Volume 1: From Birth to the 1970s by Tim Pilcher (ISBN 978-1905814220, 2 June 2008). Reviewed here.
• Slaine the King. ISBN 978-1905437665, 15 May 2008. Contains 'The Tomb of Terror' (Progs 447-461) by Pat Mills, Glenn Faby and David Pugh; 'Spoils of Annwn' (493-499) by Mills & Mike Collins/Mark Farmer; 'Slaine the King' (500-519) by Mills & Fabry; 'The Killing Field' (582) by Angie Kincaid & Fabry; 'Slaine the Mini-Series (589-591) by Mills & Fabry.
Brian Moncrieff Lewis was born 3 June 1929. An ex-R.A.F. man with engineering design experience, his first professional work is thought to have been an illustration for Journey Into Space in the Radio Times.
He published illustrations in New Worlds as early as 1954, followed by covers for all the Nova group of SF titles, beginning in July 1957. In total he supplied 40 covers for New Worlds, 21 for Science Fantasy and 19 for SF Adventures between 1957-62. Jon Gustafson and Peter Nicholls, writing in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, comment that Lewis was "A skilled painter whose work dominated UK sf magazine covers in the mid- and late 1950s, [Lewis] often showed a strong influence from Surrealists such as Paul Klee (1879-1940) and Max Ernst (1891-1976), perhaps partly mediated through the book-cover illustration of Richard Powers ... His colours were strong and plain and seemed laid on thickly, an impression few other illustrators give." He also produced a handful of covers for Digit Books during this period.
I believe Lewis made his comic strip debut in Lone Star in 1959 and TV Comic in 1960, but it was with 'Jet Ace Logan' in Tiger in 1961 that he began to make his name as a strip artist. After three months he switched to 'Captain Condor' in Lion, which he drew between December 1961 and January 1963. For Eagle, Lewis drew 'Home of the Wanderers' and 'Mann of Battle'. Given his credentials as a science fiction artist, Lewis may have seemed an odd choice for drawing sports and war strips, but he found a semi-regular home in Tiger with stints on 'The Suicide Six', 'Paddy Ryan' and 'Memorable Moments in Sport' in 1962-63 before finding himself a more regular home in Boys' World drawing the adventures of John Brody and various features, including covers.
He returned to SF with 'The Destroyer from the Depths' in Tiger and the various adventures of Planet Z in Hurricane (both 1964) before taking over 'The Guinea Pig' in Eagle for eight months (1965). Lewis also developed a more cartoony style for 'Pest of the West' and 'Georgie's Germs' in Wham!, these strips appearing at the same time as his adventure strips in Smash! and Lion.
Returning to comics in 1970, he drew various adventures for Countdown and Look-In as well as continuing his cartoon work with 'Tomboy' for Cor!! and Buster and 'Les Dawson is Superflop' for Look-In. Lewis also drew various advertising strips such as 'Inchman' in the 1970s. One time Buster sub-editor Dez Skinn made better use of Lewis's talents in the pages of House of Hammer where Lewis drew adaptations (including 'The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires', 'The Quatermass Xperiment' and 'The Reptile') and numerous covers between 1976-78.
Lewis also returned to Fleetway, briefly drawing 'Dan Dare' for 2000AD (1978) as a fill-in for Dave Gibbons and various covers. His last comic strip work appeared in the Van der Valk Annual published by Brown Watson in 1978. In his final year he also produced technical drawings for Harry Harrison's Mechanismo (Pierrot Publishing, 1978)
In 1982, a Halls of Horror Winter Special reprinted most of Lewis's strips from House of Hammer.
Reviews for the first issue of The DFC have started appearing and are generally positive with only minor criticisms. John Freeman (Down the Tubes) calls the first issue "a doozy" and "a terrific start for the new title." Lew Stringer (Blimey!) says, "What impressed me most about the first issue is that there's not one badly drawn strip in it. Everything is top quality material, and with the likes of Laura Howell, Dave Windett, and Jamie Smart in future issues it looks likely to remain that way." "I’ll be reading it every week and whilst I’m not the target audience there are some things in here most comics fans would enjoy," reveals Kenny Penman (Forbidden Planet International).
Nick Abadzis has published the text of the speech he gave at the launch of the comic at the Film Café at the BFI Southbank. You can also hear his speech as part of the coverage given the launch by Alex Fitch's Panel Borders podcast. Alex has covered the comic in three shows:
* The Times will begin serialising 'The Trial of the Sober Dog' by Nick Abadzis from tomorrow morning (Monday, 2 June). The series will appear every Monday for the next six months and concerns a couple who rediscover an old school rival. On the surface, Joe Chase has lived up to expectations and become a great success but, as readers will discover through flashbacks, anecdotes and musings by various narrators throughout the story, the truth will be discovered.
* The Times gave a very positive review to the Classical Comics adaptation of Macbeth by John McDonald and Jon Haward. "Each frame is action-packed, with dizzying perspectives, dramatic shadows hatching characters' faces and a restrained palette of red, purple and yellow emphasising the menace and gloom of moral corruption."
