Janet & Anne Grahame Johnstone portrait

News from the Art Fund (here) of an acquisition they've recently helped purchase caught my eye... 

...what caught my attention was the reference to the Johnstone sisters who I know contributed to the Robin book here and their work was featured in issue #5 of Illustrators magazine (published by Book Palace publications). 

It's not clear from the title of the painting the order of the sitters - so I'm not quite sure which of the ladies are Janet and Anne.

UPDATE: the seating of the figures in the picture is as follows:

The Book Palace also have plenty of their original art for sale here and the two images below are from their website...

Here's another image - slightly better quality

A collector's guide to Robin comic spin-off books

I've long collected the Eagle comic spin-off novels (like Dan Dare on Mars and Storm Nelson and the Sea Leopard) but I've also branched out and collected the equivalent from Swift and Girl (blog postings for another day!) 

The 4th title in the Hulton press range of titles was Robin - the title aimed at youngest readers. Perhaps because of this Robin is the least collected (and documented) of the Hulton titles. 

Recently I came across a title I'd never seen before and in trying to research the Robin spin-off books more discovered that there wasn't really anywhere obvious to go, so I thought I should just present all the Robin spin-off books (rather than annuals) I have here...

Illustrators are as follows:
Yellow - Jenetta Vise and David Walsh
White - Evelyn Cuthbertson, Nina Ross
Pink - Marcia Lane Foster and Paddie Spratley
Orange - Eccles Williams and Sabin Schweitzer
no colour - not to hand so no details, sorry

Publication dates are:

Yellow - 1960

White - 1960

Pink - 1961

Orange - 1961

no colour - 1959

Bible stories (Old and New testament) are illustrated by Ann and Janet Johnstone 

Both volumes published 1961...lovely wraparound covers

This is the new book I bought, unlike all the books above (which are small hardback books, 150-160 pages long) this is softback, 32 pages long 

I've tried to give an indication in the difference in size between this slim paperback volume and the 'chunkier' hardback story book.

Postscript books - bargains ahoy - part 1

Not my employer, not an advertorial but they have got a heap of comics related stuff going on, so here's a quick plug for what you can find over on the Postscript Books website...

Here is a copy of Illustrators magazine issue #4 - contains an article of cutaway artist Ashwell Wood and the Pan Book(s) of Horror (published price £15; is £3.99)

 

Here is issue 5 which features an article on comics artists Derek Eyles and Janet & Anne Grahame Johnstone (published price £15; is £3.99)

Here is issue 6 - main interest is probably comics war artist Graham Cotton (published price £15; is £3.99)

If you've never read a copy of Illustrators magazine I can tell you that the quality is superb, usually around 100 pages of full colour art on thick paper. It's a journal more than a magazine.