Comics UK

Not sure if you have already seen this Jluc, but she made the cover in 1968. Artist?

Yes, I have this issue.
The designer is still Phil Clark, I think.

To be honest, Jluc, I've never come across a British artist called Phil Clark. Phil Clark is, however, the name of Peter Hansen's agent, responsible for selling many pages of original artwork from titles such as Princess Tina.

- Phil Rushton

Hello Phil,
I didn't know
But who is the designer of Princess Tina covers?
They are very beautiful.
You can have one original artwork cover?

matrix wrote:Not sure if you have already seen this Jluc, but she made the cover in 1968. Artist?

I put this to comic expert David Roach, and he commented, "I'm pretty sure this is Roger Hall. Most of the Tina/Princess Tina covers were painted by Walter Lambert, but Hall did a number of fill-ins."

Roger Hall and Walter Lambert.
Ok thanks

Thanks Shaqui, that's great. I'd heard of Roger Hall but not Walter Lambert; here's a fascinating article about the latter which appeared in the Chorley Guardian:

Paintings hanging in a Leyland museum featuring the motoring industry’s female workers were the work of a ventriloquist’s son.

Flashback has been given an insight into the background of the artist behind most of the town’s ‘Leyland - She’s a Lady’ paintings.

Walter Lambert was the original artist for the Leyland Motors calendars, which started in the early 1930s and were famous around the world.

He chose a different female worker each year as the face of the company, and a selection of portraits is now on display at the British Commercial Vehicle Museum on King Street.

Walter also captured the fashions of that era, and continued his work until the late 1960s, when a different artist was commissioned.

Now, Walter’s daughter-in-law has contacted the Guardian with some details about the artist and his family.

Monika Lambert, who is married to Walter’s son, Roger, said: “Walter lived from 1897 until 1986.

“He was born in London and his father was Walter Hibbert Lambert.

“His father’s stage name was Lydia Dreams, and he was a female impersonator and ventriloquist in the Victorian Music Hall, and he was also a painter.

“His most famous painting was an enormous canvas from 1903 portraying all the Music Hall Artistes of the time.

“It is called ‘Popularity’ and is kept in the London Museum.

“He died in 1944.”

She added: “My father-in-law went to Camberwell Art School, where he met his wife Hilda, and became a commercial artist.

“They had four children.

“When he was married he lived in Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, and he did many advertising posters for well known products, like Oxo, Lux, and Ovaltine.

“From the fifties onwards, when photography was used for advertising, he concentrated more on magazine covers, showcards and portraits, and we also remember very well the time when he painted the Leyland Ladies for the yearly calendar.

“He was brilliant in making the ladies look glamorous.”

Trustee at the British Commercial Vehicle Museum, Stephen Bullock, said: “Leyland Ladies were very famous during Leyland Motors’ heyday.

“The company started doing them because they wanted to get the Leyland name known worldwide, so they started making calendars for offices and workshops.

“It was a good way of getting the attention of the male workers, by putting a pretty face to the Leyland Motors name, but the portraits were also very tasteful.”

He said that Walter used the same model as previous years on more than one occasion.

“You have to look very hard to tell which ones are repeated,” he said. “Walter did well to disguise them with the fashions.”

The volunteers at the museum are now working on putting a special calendar together for 2013, featuring 12 of the portraits they have at the museum.

Presumably he must have started painting for Fleetway/IPC round about the time he stopped working for Leyland. Amazingly that would have meant he was close to seventy years old when he produced those beautiful Princess Tina covers!

At one point Phil Clark was indeed selling some of Lambert's original oil paintings which had been commissioned for the covers of Tina and Princess Tina, but at the time I saw them he wasn't aware of the artist's name himself.

- Phil Rushton

philcom55 wrote:Thanks Shaqui, that's great. I'd heard of Roger Hall but not Walter Lambert; here's a fascinating article about the latter which appeared in the Chorley Guardian:

At one point Phil Clark was indeed selling some of Lambert's original oil paintings which had been commissioned for the covers of Tina and Princess Tina, but at the time I saw them he wasn't aware of the artist's name himself.

- Phil Rushton

That's strange, as I was of the opinion from Phil that David Roach was his main source for identifying artists for the Hansen Collection. Unless these were early sales, before everything was catalogued. I know I've had to point out a few mistakes and unknowns on Phil's eBay's listings, notably on 'Look-in' material...

...It was a while ago, and I guess that Phil might have been told the name but simply not had the information to hand. From what I recall he and Mike Higgs were thinking of the Princess Tina Annuals which carried a very stylized 'Tedesco' signature. I'm still hoping to visit his warehouse in the near future when a couple of mates are free to go with me.

- Phil R.

philcom55 wrote:I'm still hoping to visit his warehouse in the near future when a couple of mates are free to go with me.

- Phil R.

If you haven't already, then the visits are amazing, particularly if you're looking for particular stuff. I've made two trips, and if things had not got so tight financially, I might still be visiting.

One thing I find interesting on this forum is how some of the topics evolve. From a simple post of a comic cover, and due to some members, in this instance Shaqui, and Phil, taking the time to find information about the artists, we end up being able to view links like this one... http://wednesdaywilsondownunder.blogspo ... otors.html and see more of his fantastic work.

I have been looking at some of the "Princess Tina" covers. I am convinced that he has used some of the faces more than once (as quoted in the Chorley write up) but when I put them together I cannot seem to make a pair, very frustrating! If I do succeed I will post some scans.

Have we strayed too far from Jean Sidobre? What do you think mods?

I have three scans here which I believe are 'Walter Lamberts'? And which I think are the same face, although Im not a hundred on it! Can anyone help me out before I go crazy!! Are they the same face?

I think the same girls faces because as same painter, same inspiration.
One moves away a little of the subject of Jean Sidobre, but it is not disturbing (for me).

Who are the artists please?
For me .... it looks like Sidobre.
What do you think?

Hard to be sure without a signature but it certainly looks like his work!

- Phil R.