Comics UK

I've never seen any mention of Mike Noble doing any of these, do you actually think it's his work? It appears similar in colour use, but some of the crude veins and shirt sleeves and eyes don't match his style too much IMHO. But what do I know? This might be his first published colour work!

philcom55 wrote:Not sure of the dates offhand, but I think the 'good' Girls' World Annuals lasted for about as long as the Boys' World ones were being published.

I know what you mean about spotting a familiar style in an unfamiliar setting Shaqui. I had the same experience with the painted covers of a number of 1950s Western novels published by Pearson's - until I made the connection with Mike Noble's 'Lone Ranger' and 'Range Rider' strips.

- Phil Rushton

I agree that cover wouldn't be wholly convincing on its own, but taken with others (like the one below) I think the style is close enough to Mike's early work to make me think he was probably responsible. It'd be interesting to know if he remembers them himself.



- Phil Rushton

philcom55 wrote:I agree that cover wouldn't be wholly convincing on its own, but taken with others (like the one below) I think the style is close enough to Mike's early work to make me think he was probably responsible. It'd be interesting to know if he remembers them himself.



- Phil Rushton

Has anyone thought to ask him? I was personally surprised to find he had drawn some colour art for Look & Learn in the 1960s... he'd never mentioned it during interviews but then if they were a handful of one-offs, then perhaps it's not surprising after about 50 years... 60 in the case of these possible examples.

This is the first I've ever seen of these, so didn't think to ask and although I send a Christmas card (and get one in return) and a birthday card, I don't normally phone Mike - it feels too fanboy-ish to me.

But here's some pieces by Mike (uncredited) from a period he never mentioned but has proved to be fruitful for us fans! They come from Wide World - an adventure story magazine that ran a long time. Unfortunately by 1960 photography crept in and illustrators were more or less redundant


WideWorld_1957_Aug_p226-227 by standby4action, on Flickr


WideWorld_1957_Aug_p231 by standby4action, on Flickr


WideWorld_1957_Dec_p118-119 by standby4action, on Flickr


WideWorld_1957_Jun_p0112 by standby4action, on Flickr

Hope you enjoy them

Norman

Shaqui wrote:

philcom55 wrote:I agree that cover wouldn't be wholly convincing on its own, but taken with others (like the one below) I think the style is close enough to Mike's early work to make me think he was probably responsible. It'd be interesting to know if he remembers them himself.



- Phil Rushton

Has anyone thought to ask him? I was personally surprised to find he had drawn some colour art for Look & Learn in the 1960s... he'd never mentioned it during interviews but then if they were a handful of one-offs, then perhaps it's not surprising after about 50 years... 60 in the case of these possible examples.

Norman, quotes should be before the reply. And it wasn't necessary anyway with no other posts in between.

Ooh, I have a couple of volumes of Wide World from the 20's, which I got for £1 each ages ago. Never really looked at them, I didn't know they had fictional stories too!

Digifiend wrote:Norman, quotes should be before the reply. And it wasn't necessary anyway with no other posts in between.

Aw, that's only Digi being helpful Shaqui - I'm sure he doesn't mean any harm.

The Wide World did feature some excellent artists, but I must admit to finding the written content a bit dull (not half as good as Lilliput, or even the Boys' Own Paper imho). A lot of the illustrations look like early Mike Noble, though unfortunately the majority of them weren't credited so it's difficult to be sure. Here's another likely example from November 1957:



And here's a third western cover from Pearson's.



I'm afraid I don't have any contact number for Mike so I can't ask if he drew them myself, but if anybody else wants to I hope they'll feel free to do so.

- Phil Rushton

Shaqui wrote:

Digifiend wrote:Norman, quotes should be before the reply. And it wasn't necessary anyway with no other posts in between.

I think I've got the hang of it now, and thanks for the prompt. Of course by the time I contribute again I might have fogotten all your wonderful advice

Here is another example this time a name change of the title, "Clothes by Amanda" from "Princess Tina" 1971 then "Mandy's Boutique" nine years later in a Holiday Special. I would have thought they might have changed the chaps pants!

matrix wrote:...I would have thought they might have changed the chaps pants!

That reminds me of a page of original 'Alona' artwork I saw where someone at IPC had mysteriously added clothing over her swimsuit - presumably for a later reprint.

Then again, even that wasn't as bad as the 1970s reprints of Maxwell Hawke where he was supplied with a mustache and flares!

- Phil Rushton

Sounds like they Jason King-ified him.

Here's poor old Maxwell in his new guise as 'Curtis Bronson' - bad haircut and all!



(lifted from a post Steelclaw made a couple of years ago to save me hunting down my own copy of The Buster Book of Spooky Stories)

- Phil R.

I would say the artist was a big "Magnum P I" fan, surely, you could only come up with that after seeing Tom in action!!

Seeing all the reprints especially in Specials makes me wonder how much value for money the reader was getting with summer specials. Some of the later special covers that were reprinted were hardly changed, the scanned examples were only three years apart and becomes an obvious spot the difference, a lot of profit one must have made!

That's amazing!

The horrible thing is that all these changes would have been made to the actual artwork (Phil Clarke has probably still got that defaced Tina canvas hidden away in his warehouse somewhere). Sheer cultural vandalism I call it!

- Phil R.