KEN REID IN SUNDAY EXPRESS

In addition to his comics work for Britain’s major publishers of children’s funnies and Fudge the Elf strip in Manchester Evening News, Ken Reid illustrated weekly competitions for the Irish Edition of Sunday Express. 

He did four series between 1956 and 1970. They were Horse Pics, Horse Clues, Inn Signs and Titles (in order of appearance), a total of nearly 700 drawings. The printed version was only 2 ½ x 2 ½ inches, original drawings were 4 times larger. 

Here are some cut-outs of Inn Signs (the rusty staple mark shows how small they were in the paper):

The competitions were quite challenging – readers had to select five names out of eight provided (eleven in the case of the earlier competitions) and list them in correct order in the entry coupon. Ken had a completely free hand devising illustrations and thinking up names, sometimes as many as a couple of dozen of them, for the editor to choose from.

Here are some examples of Titles. I have quite a few more of those and can show them in another blogpost, if there’s enough interest, so do let me know :) The challenge was to select the most suitable titles for a book based on cover illustration:

There is something about the competitions that I don’t quite understand, perhaps some of my learned readers would be able to help me. Horse Pics and Horse Clues were usually humorous drawings with no horses. Why were they called Horse Pics and Horse Clues then? Does the word “horse” refer to something else other than the familiar domesticated mammal in this case?

SEE HOW COMICS WERE MADE

Here is an educational piece explaining to the young reader how comics are made. I found it in Whoopee! Annual 1982. I wonder how technological progress has changed the production process and what is it like nowadays? Surely they no longer use those monster photographing machines? 

Remember to click on the images to make them even larger!

Images 2015 © Egmont UK Ltd.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.

ANOTHER HELPING OF LAWSON WOOD ART

I am a bit of a WWII buff and since it is exactly 71 years ago since the jolly Red Army seized my city from the Nazis and had a three-day orgy burning it down, drinking themselves silly, etc., here are two nice WWII-themed covers by Lawson Wood. They are quite interesting in the sense that to the best of my knowledge he didn’t do a lot of political cartooning. 

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: