Scanned... the illustrations of Elena Odriozola in "The Story of Noah"

I found this book... The Story of Noah... in my local Poundland. I have a thing for beautifully illustrated Biblical stories and this is beautiful... in my opinion.

The illustrations are by Elena Odriozola and I haven't seen anything quite like them before. I can't find much on Ordiozola... other than a list of her books on Amazon.co.uk. She has a number of other books under her belt. I think I may be adding some of them to my collection.

Tx

Scanned... the artwork of Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone

I found this book up in our attic when we were cleaning it out... Dean's Supreme Book of Bible Stories. It is illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone... and it is these illustrations that really make it something special.

According to Wikipedia... Janet Grahame Johnstone (1 June 1928 - 1979) and Anne Grahame Johnstone (1 Jun 1928 - 25 May 1998) were twin sisters and British children's book illustrators best known for their delicate, detailed prolific artwork and for illustrating Dodie Smith's classic book The Hundred and One Dalmatians.


Over the course of their career together, the sisters illustrated more than 100 books. These included classic fairytales by Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, J. M. Barrie, Charles Kingsley, a series based on Biblical tales, Roger Lancelyn Green's Tales of the Greeks and Trojans (Purnell and Sons, London, 1963), as well as a large variety of rhyme and modern story-collections. Early commissions included Enid Blyton's Tales of Ancient Greece (1951), and new illustrations for a shocking old German children's morality book, Struwwelpeter (1950).


Janet and Anne also illustrated many company logos and advertisements, including a wine label designed by the twins for their own brand of wine (Chateau Badingham). Their work was also featured in the British children's magazine Finding Out.

From the work presented in this book... I will be on the look out for more of their work. It has a particular charm... and is indeed something special.

Tx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_and_Anne_Grahame_Johnstone

Scanned... old covers of 'Starblazer'

Does anyone remember 'Starblazer'?

According to Wikipedia... Starblazer - Space Fiction Adventure in Pictures was a British small-format comics anthology in black and white published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. from April 1971 to January 1991.

I found a bundle up the loft recently... and thought I'd share them. The artwork isn't brilliant by any means... but they do represent a period of my childhood... the period where I discovered sci-fi and dreamed dreams of space exploration.



















According to Wikipedia... "Partway through its run, from issue 168 onwards, the anthology changed format. Instead of a single front cover and a black and white subject on the back, a new all-colour 'wrap around' cover was instituted, most of the time showing a collage of subjects from that issue's storyline. The subject matters also appeared to have a more adult emphasis and there was a heavier focus on Fantasy storylines. The cover title also changed format slightly to Starblazer - Fantasy Fiction in Pictures, despite the title change, there were still a considerable number of Science Fiction storylines up till the final issue."






"The Starblazer issues suffered from poor distribution, being rare in parts of Scotland and almost unknown in the rest of the United Kingdom. Due to a downturn in the general comic market, many newsagents never stocked them, or later would only take subscriptions. This contrasts sharply with the Commando comics from the same publisher that have enjoyed countrywide widespread distribution since their origin in the 1960s."

For more on Starblazer, head of to britishcomics.

Tx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starblazer

Scanned... our 15th Wedding Anniversary 'cards'

To celebrate our 15th Wedding Anniversary... I actually bought Olly two cards (the lassie at WHSmith's must have thought I was a polygamist or something). One with some beautiful typography (above) and one with a sweet graphic from Quentin Blake (below).

I have a thing for ampersands and the type card's ampersand really spoke to me... whereas I've been a longstanding fan of Quentin Blake's illustrations since I picked up some Roald Dahl books as a child. I thought they worked nicely together.



In return... Olly got me this:





Olly bought me a current edition copy of The Hobbit and wrote her anniversary wishes in the inside. As you can imagine... I loved it... and really appreciated the sentiment.

I hope this is the start of a new tradition for us... afterall, books aren't that much dearer than cards these days and will last far longer.

Tx

Scanned... some more covers from my J. R. R. Tolkien collection

When I was away in Dunfermline... celebrating my 15 year wedding anniversary with my wife Olly... she spoiled me. She let me indulge one of my greatest pleasures... hunting for Tolkien books in charityshops.

Whilst away I found 5 copies. Dayna then made it 6 by finding a copy of 'The Two Towers' in Strathaven. I've scanned them along with some additional copies that I had up the loft.

Enjoy.

Tx



My original copy of 'The Hobbit'... must be about 30 years old.













1/5 from Dunfermline





The copy Dayna picked up for me in Strathaven.





2/5 from Dunfermline... the Alan Howe illustration on this one is brilliant!









3/5 from Dunfermline... 1/3 that Olly spotted for me!





4/5 from Dunfermline... 2/3 that Olly spotted for me!





5/5 from Dunfermline... 3/3 that Olly spotted for me!