Illustrators - the Modesty Blaise artists

Another special edition of illustrators quarterly magazine has been announced by publishers, the Book Palace.

Due this September, and retailing at £35, is this 160 page long celebration of the artists behind Modesty Blaise. The cover is here...

...more details are available on their website (here - along with a number of very blurry pictures of interior pages) where it says...

Exhaustive examination of all the artists that depicted Modesty Blaise from Jim Holdaway, Enric Romero, John M Burns, Patrick Wright, Neville Colvin, Dick Giordano ... plus numerous paperback cover artists.

Packed with superb examples of all the artists' work, this extraordinary publication includes fascinating articles including never before seen script to sketch comparisons, insights and never before seen visuals of Modesty.

Authors: Diego Cordoba, Norman Boyd
Artists: Jim Holdaway, Enric Romero, John M Burns, Patrick Wright, Neville Colvin, Dick Giordano
Publisher: Book Palace Books, due September 2022
Number of pages: 160
Format: Soft Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 9" x 11" (216mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781913548308

There's also going to be a hardback version which is limited to 100 copies, costs £95 and comes with 2 signed prints - one by Romero and one by John M Burns. You can order that via here

The John M Burns print...

The hardback version cover...

The Romero print...

Sydney Jordan, Jim Holdaway & Brian Bolland all in one book

More details of the art of Jim Holdaway & Sydney Jordan book (first reported here) have been teased by The Book Palace here - due in Spring 2021 the books, as you might expect, look likely to contain rare art & photos...as well as some fresh new Brian Bolland art!

Check out the images below for a glimpse inside this book...

Here's that (newly completed) Brian Bolland art for the unpublished 3rd volume of Jeff Hawke reprints...

Illustrators quarterly - Bellamy, Jordan & Holdaway books

Book Palace books, the publishers of the Illustrators quarterly magazine, have announced two new books that are sure ot be of interest to all fans of British comics...

First up is a volume dedicated to the art of Frank Bellamy, here's the front cover...

...and the rear cover

As you can see it's written by Norman Boyd - the 'keeper' of the Frank Bellamy website here. Norman tells me he's written 8,000 words for the book and that there'll be some Bellamy images in there that people won't have seen before.

The 2nd book that's coming is a 'double-header' celebrating the art of Jim 'Modesty Blaise' Holdaway and Sydney 'Jeff Hawke' Jordan. Two fantastic artists, this looks like another essential volume. 

Both books look likely to be 144 pages long - with the Bellamy book in full colour; the Holdaway / Jordan book is also described as being in full colour but these are two artists who drew a lot of black & white artwork so let's hope to see some of their colour work too.

Details of the Bellamy books are here and the Jordan / Holdaway book here

New Illustrators specials coming in 2020

Coming in 2020...2 new special edition of Illustrators magazine...

First up is 'The art of John M Burns' - for more details keep an eye on this page - price will probably be £25 

...and then there's also 'Pirates' - again the page to keep an eye on is here - so far the page says...
Will showcase some of the greatest pirate art ever published in comics, books, magazines, posters, etc.

Will also feature work by Howard Pyle, Norman Price and many more, plus the different illustrated versions of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

More like a book than a magazine, illustrators is the art quarterly devoted to the finest illustration art ever published. It guides you through the stories behind the artists and their art, with features written by some of the leading authorities on this important art form.

As well as building into an indispensable reference library, illustrators gives readers an insight into the creative process, from the initial idea to the image potentially seen by millions.

Truly fabulous artwork abounds in every issue, much of the art taken from scans of the original work.

Another Illustrators special is coming

Over (here) on the Book Palace website there are details of another 'special' edition of Illustrators magazine...

…ss it says on the website...

Fabulous new publication - more details soon!

This issue will showcase and explore the art of Warren magazines' US Artists, the iconic series of horror comics published by James Warren and featuring many big-name American artists including Ken Kelly, Richard Corben, Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adams, Steve Ditko, Alex Toth, Kenneth Smith, Frank Frazetta, Wallace Wood, John Severin, Reed Crandall, Carmine Infantino and Louise Simonson

More like a book than a magazine, illustrators is the art quarterly devoted to the finest illustration art ever published. It guides you through the stories behind the artists and their art, with features written by some of the leading authorities on this important art form.

As well as building into an indispensable reference library, illustrators gives readers an insight into the creative process, from idea to sketch to painting, and from painting to the image seen by millions.

Truly fabulous artwork abounds in every issue, much of the art taken from scans of the original work.

Publisher: Book Palace Books, due November 2019
Format: Soft Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 9" x 11" (216mm x 280mm)

Illustrators #26 - coming Summer 2019

I like Illustrators magazine and I'd like to read it more often but the in-depth focus on a small number of illustrators per issue means that my favourite type of illustrators - comics illustrators - can't be expected to take over a whole issue

Illustrators #26 (due Summer 2019) though will feature two (very different) comics artists - John Millar Watt and Philip Mendoza  

Millar Watt was an extremely versatile artist - from the simplicity of Pop to those gorgeous illustrations for Look and Learn. 

The other artist to be featured is Philip Mendoza who is probably best remembered these days for his illustrations of anthropomorphic animals..

...not all of his work was cute guinea pigs...

There is a preview of the magazine available here - the preview even makes a page-turning noise when you (digitally) turn the pages, lovely.  

Ron Embleton's Illustrators special - more details released

The end of the year is shaping up to be a good time for all fans of Ron Embleton's art. 

As well as the chance, in January, to seeing a very different side of Ron Embleton's art being displayed at Messum's gallery in London there's also the Illustrators Special that I first mentioned here. The Book Palace have now put up some of the pages from the special and it's shaping up to look great (and not a little racy!) 

Priced at £25 it's due in mid-December and is available to pre-order here 

Book Palace book plan a bumper 2019

ok so actual details are thin on the ground but on the 'books in development' section of the Book Palace website (here) they have all these gems lined up for 2019 - fingers crossed! 

 Front cover (above), back cover (below)

Artruo del Castillo's collected Larrigan

Ferdinando Tacconi's Air Ace stories

The Jet Ace Logan collection

Don Lawrence - an Illustrators special - is announced

The Illustration Art Gallery have announced that "Don Lawrence - illustrations and comic strip art" is now available for pre-order here for £25. The book is described as....

A comprehensive look at his career, packed with colour and black and white illustrations, including complete story reprints from Bible Stories, Look and Learn and Ranger. The Trigan Empire, Storm, Karl the Viking, Olac the Gladiator, as well as complete illustrated stories Pinocchio, Herod the Great, Jason and the Golden Fleece, The Range Rider and many more strips are represented here in the exhaustive coverage of his art. 
Much of the art has never been seen since it originally appeared in the 1960s. A must for all Don Lawrence fans. 144 pages, full colour throughout.

Illustrators magazine - British war comics special

Over on the Book Palace website (here) there are details of their next special edition (following from their initial special on the spanish artists used by Warren magazines, details here), one which is bound to interest collectors of British war comics such as Commando...

As the website say...Illustrators Special #2 War Is Hell, covering the history and artists of the two agencies Bardon (Spanish) and D'ami (Italian) which supplied Spanish and Italian artists to the publishers of British War Comics from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Artists featured include Biffignandi, Caroselli, De Gaspari, Dell'Orco, Penalva, D'Antonio, Macabich, Ortiz, Blasco, Lopez, Romero, Scott.

It's due out in November 2017, so watch this space!