LAWSON WOOD CURIOSITY

Lawson Wood (1878 – 1957) was a British artist and illustrator who is probably best remembered for his humorous depictions of a chimpanzee called Gran'pop – a character featured in a series of annuals. His work appears to have been very popular on both sides of the Atlantic and was widely used by advertising agencies, manufacturers of postcards, trading cards, calendars, puzzles and whatnot. I first saw his drawings and distinctive signature on the front covers of early issues of the nursery comic Playhour. Here is the first one with the chimps cover, unsigned:

I was browsing eBay the other day and found something described as Lawson Wood German Porcelain figurine, offered by a seller in Germany. I’ve heard about "The Lawson Woodies” line of wooden toys but not about porcelain figurines. According to the description, it was made ca. 1930. It depicts a sinister penguin and is 30 cms tall.

I am not into this kind of collectibles and have no idea about their value but this example attracted quite a bit of attention and sold for £ 67.00. I wonder if the buyer wanted it because of Lawson Wood connection or for other reasons? Anyway, here are some images courtesy of eBay:

In an unlikely event if you are not familiar with this prolific artist, here are some fine examples of Lawson Wood's Gran’pop work: 

THE TRUTH ABOUT FRANKIE STEIN MONSTER AWARD

I’m back home after a brief but productive visit in the UK to meet with my mate with whom we are working on an exciting UK comics-related project that we will reveal in due course.

In the meantime, I’d like to share some interesting information which has recently come to my attention.

Those of you who follow Compal Comics online auctions and like Ken Reid might recall the bust of Frankie Stein that they offered a few years ago. Here is how they described the item: Frankie Stein Monster Award by Ken Reid for WHAM! (1960s). A one-off bust made by Ken Reid for a WHAM! readers competition that apparently did not take place. Entitled 'Frankie's Monster Award' the bust is made from resin and was modelled and painted by Ken with his brother's help. It measures approximately 4 x 4 x 2 ins deep. It is unique.

Someone ended up paying £275 for it but would have probably thought twice before bidding, had they known then what I know now. The truth is that the auctioneer had almost everything wrong in the description! The award was in fact offered in Whoopee! in the early 1980s. Here is the cover of the issue and the page announcing the competition:

 

 

The first prize-winners were announced and their contributions printed in the issue of May 1st, 1982:

The competition continued for 22 weeks and ended in the issue of Sept 25th, 1982:

You can do your maths and see that at least 70-100 of Frankie's Monster Awards were handed out to the lucky winners so the gift may be rare but it is certainly not unique.

The auctioneer wasn’t completely wrong when he said it was made by Reid, only it wasn’t Ken Reid. The busts were in fact modeled and cast by Ken’s son Antony and his wife who made some 300 pieces of the award and shipped them to IPC. Unfortunately, the items were fragile and Antony didn’t pack them well enough so quite a few lost their bolts and other bits en route from Manchester to London. Antony still has a few of those left in his basement, here is an image of a coloured sample:

… and a “raw” one:

… and here’s an old photo of a squad of Frankies before it (the squad, not the photo) was off to London:

It is a nice item and I like the fact that it was modeled after Ken Reid’s original diabolical FS of the 60s rather its cuddly reincarnation of the late 70s/early 80s by Robert Nixon, but if you see another one on sale, don’t be misled by claims that it is a unique piece crafted by Ken Reid :)