Yup pardner it's more of them thar U.K. Wild West comics, from the primordial mist that preceded the arrival of Eagle comic.And here as a contrast to the work of the young Ron Embleton that featured on yesterday's blog, is the work of Denis McLoughlin, TV Boardman illustrator in residence and the man who with the assistance of his younger brother Colin scripting, created all the comics that TV Boardman published bar the Embleton issue of Buffalo Bill.
McLoughlin's love of U.S. comics and film is well to the fore in the pages from this comic, he was fascinated with both from an early age. By the time he was working on these comics he had just turned thirty, had recently been demobbed and prior to his war service had worked at Ward and Copley. Ward and Copley was a graphics studio in Manchester, where McLoughlin had learned his trade covering a variety of tasks until work dried up, his call up papers arriving on the heels of his redundancy notice.Interesting to contrast the two artists work, both with a very strong sense of lighting and drama. McLoughlin's work lacks the confident figure work of Embleton's but engages more with props and characterization. Both are charming in their own distinctive way.
Going by the number of silhouette panels in that strip it's clear McLoughlin wasn't above picking up some slightly dodgy time-saving habits from his American counterparts. On the other hand it's difficult to realize just how influential US material must have been on British artists during the early 1950s as, in many ways, it provided the only available template for the relatively new phenomenon of non-humorous comic strips. Some of DC Thomson's early experiments with the form came over as incredibly static and wordy by contrast.
ReplyDeleteQuick question Peter is there anywhere his work is collected? Reckon you or one of your commenter's would know.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes James
Offhand the only thing I can think of is the privately published 'The Hardboiled Art of D. McLoughlin' by David Ashford and Denis himself - if you can find a copy! Having said that I reckon he'd make a perfect subject for a lavish coffee-table book like Fantagraphics' Krigstein volumes; in fact I daresay they could be interested in publishing one themselves if any enterprising blogger approached them with suitable examples of his work...
ReplyDeleteWell, there is in fact a book in the works which draws upon David Ashford's earlier volume and will reveal a lot of previously unseen work that Denis created.
ReplyDeleteIn fact yours truly is editing it and it would have appeared last year were it not for work on The Wulf The Briton project pulling me away from the collating of images.
But it's next up on Book Palace Books projects to be committed to print in 2011.
Talking of Wulf, we'll be getting our hands on a handful of copies in a fortnight's time while the rest will be shipping out from China on the 28th of this month.
Very exciting!!!
My grandfather used to read this to me when I was younger. Have appreciated this work ever since
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