EXTRACTS: The Art of Denis McLoughlin © 2013 The Book Palace (272 PAGES in Full edition)

36 Lime Street Station in Liverpool. As my mac had been placed upon me by the head waiter of the hotel, I got the idea he was either blind as a bat or my tips had been inadequate. I got a meal in one of those all night cafes outside (the kind where all the villains hang out) and finally arrived home at about 8 am. Never had any complaints about Boardman’s. I met many authors, was taken to stage shows and to the cinema and to restaurants such as Veraswamies in Regent Street and other restaurants in and around Soho. When Tom Boardman Jnr. came into the firm, we became good friends and usually went out together in the afternoons after we had sorted out the work. He would only stay for the evenings when his wife was away, and then we might end up eating fish and chips in the paper in some Soho street. Roughing it. Boy, were we macho! Working on the Buffalo Bill Annuals was a real la- bour of love, though, in my opinion, the first issue was a washout. It had to be rushed through at terrific speed as it had taken TVB quite a time to make up its col- lective mind to go ahead with the thing. Water colour cover and colour plates done at a disgusting rate of knots. Couldn’t stand the kids in it (Arthur Groom’s characters, Gregory & Co.) as you merely got small slices of everything. Don’t get me wrong, I had noth- ing against Arthur Groom, a very good writer and a marvellous man. He was a Quaker and stood about six feet six inches high and we must have looked pretty odd together when we met up. Never did find out why he stopped writing for the annual but believe it was a personal thing between him and Tom Boardman Snr. The Buffalo Bill Annuals definitely got better as they went along. For each new annual I would be given a blank dummy of the book and I would work out the layout of the pages: which pages would be in colour, which would be the typed areas and which would be strips. Each Buffalo Bill Annual took six months to complete. The two-colour line-work in the earlier annuals was just in black and white, the suggested areas to be in the second colour were indicated in an overlay by ball-pen remarks. After the earlier poster colour and water colour plates, all later interior colour work was done with waterproof coloured inks, Indian ink and Derwent colour pencils. All covers were done in poster paint and water colour at 50% up with one exception: the cover to number 9 which showed a grey Buffalo Bill, a flintlock rifle and a Colt .45. This one was in oils and was 100% up. This I liked, together with the covers of numbers 8, 10, 11 and 13. As one may imagine, the maps on the end-papers took quite some time and research. With regard to number 10, the Tombstone City License was actually for a House of Ill Fame but, not wishing to have a shower of criti- cal letters from irate parents, I changed it to a Dance Hall. The gun belt is one I made for 7/6, and the stagecoach is one I made up from a kit. On the end-paper of number 11, I used an old photo of Abilene as a reference and two photographs of myself as the “showdowners”. Notice in the same an- ABOVE: The odd couple. Arthur Groom and Denis McLoughlin, London 1950’s.