Ron Embleton's first fully painted strip?

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wigwam
Posts: 63
Joined: 20 Sep 2007, 15:46

Ron Embleton's first fully painted strip?

Post by wigwam »

From an on line biography (which follows the article by Norman Wright and David Ashford in their Masters of Fun and Thrills almost to the letter), I have taken the following quotes:
-“1957 was a halcyon year for Embleton for it also saw him blazing forth, for the first time in full colour, on the front page of the new Express Weekly comic with Wulf the Briton.”
and
-“At about the same time Embleton painted an Arthurian strip, entitled The Story of the Boy King Arthur, for the nursery comic, Playhour. This finely painted, three part strip ran across the colour centre pages of the comic in August 1956 and was one of his earliest works to be signed in full: ‘R.S.Embleton’.”
These details about his early artwork made me wonder which of the above could be considered to be his first full colour strip.

I did some research in the issues of Playhour in my collection, and the results seem to complete the above.
The Story of the Boy King Arthur was indeed published in August, 1956, on the full colour centre pages (4 August - 1 September, 5 episodes). A few months later the readers of this nursery weekly could feast their eyes on The Story of Beauty and the Beast (1 December 1956 - 5 January 1957, 6 episodes).
Playhour-95
Playhour-95
Playhour-112
Playhour-112
Embleton took over Wulf the Briton in May, 1957, so his earliest full colour strips seem to be, in chronological order:
-1) The Story of the Boy King Arthur, August, 1956;
-2) The Story of Beauty and the Beast, December 1956;
-3) Wulf the Briton, from May, 1957.

There is always a chance that earlier fully painted strips by Embleton were published in obscure comics or annuals. So if anyone can supply additional titles, please do.

John Wigmans

wigwam
Posts: 63
Joined: 20 Sep 2007, 15:46

Re: Ron Embleton's first fully painted strip?

Post by wigwam »

Hi folks, I finally managed to squeeze in some images.
Hope you like them...

John

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philcom55
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Joined: 14 Jun 2006, 11:56

Re: Ron Embleton's first fully painted strip?

Post by philcom55 »

Thanks ever so much for posting those John, they really are fascinating! How strange that Ron should have started his colour strip work with the nursery genre, then come full circle towards the end of his comics career with similar sories for Once Upon A Time!

To my mind Ron was easily on a par with his fellow 'Trigan Empire' artist Don Lawrence, and really deserves the same sort of exhaustive attention from international comics fans. Steve Holland's upcoming book on 'The Art of Ron Embleton' should do something to redress the balance, but I'd love to see a whole series collecting his comic strip work from the very beginning. At the very least he ought to have his own website!

- Phil Rushton

wigwam
Posts: 63
Joined: 20 Sep 2007, 15:46

Re: Ron Embleton's first fully painted strip?

Post by wigwam »

Hi Phil,

I'm glad you like this early Embleton full colour artwork. There is more on the website of Look and Learn Magazine; e.g. search their Picture Library for Embleton 1956, and you'll find all the pages of Boy King Arthur. Repeat the search with Embleton 1957, and scans of the original artwork for his Judar and His Brother, published in Playhour too, pop up. There are no scans from Beauty and the Beast though.

Some time ago I suggested to Geoff West from The Bookpalace to reprint these three stories from Playhour in one volume. He seemed genuinely interested, so maybe, one day in the not too distant future...

John

STARBOY
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Joined: 12 Oct 2008, 22:05

Re: Ron Embleton's first fully painted strip?

Post by STARBOY »

Sorry for lowering the tone of this thread but was it Ron Embleton that drew Wicked Wanda in one of the "mens" magazines in the 70s? - not that I've seen this magazine of course - actually I saw a book on the art of Wicked Wanda a few years ago (over 10 yrs ago I reckon) and seem to recall Ron drew this.

wigwam
Posts: 63
Joined: 20 Sep 2007, 15:46

Re: Ron Embleton's first fully painted strip?

Post by wigwam »

Hi Starboy,

According to Masters of Fun and Thrills by Norman Wright and David Ashford Embleton painted two series of sex-and-satire strips for Penthouse:
-Oh, Wicked Wanda (1973-1981);
-Sweet Chastity (1981-1988).
You'll find some pages on the website of the Illustration Art Gallery (as long as they remain unsold...).

Hope this answers your question.

John

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Digifiend
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Joined: 15 Aug 2007, 11:43
Location: Hull, UK

Re: Ron Embleton's first fully painted strip?

Post by Digifiend »

Maybe the Wayback Machine will keep those images online forever?

http://www.archive.org/index.php - just type in the web address for the gallery, then select the date - any date between now and when they're sold should do.

Or, you could just post them here - probably breaches copyright though.

STARBOY
Posts: 696
Joined: 12 Oct 2008, 22:05

Re: Ron Embleton's first fully painted strip?

Post by STARBOY »

Thanks for comfirming Wigwam - I'll have a look at the pics later and see what I missed in my adolescent days lol

wigwam
Posts: 63
Joined: 20 Sep 2007, 15:46

Re: Ron Embleton's first fully painted strip?

Post by wigwam »

Just posted a scan of a very early Wulf the Briton-page by Embleton in the topic 'Ron Embleton and Wulf the Briton'.

John

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