EXTRACTS: The Modesty Blaise Companion Expanded Edition © 2018 The Book Palace (425 PAGES in Full edition)

E X P A N D E D E D I T I O N T H E M O D E S T Y B L A I S E C O M P A N GERALD R. LIP – LETTERING ARTIST After studying at Harrow School of Art he passed the exam which would have taken him to the Royal Academy School of Art, but chose instead to work for a living. As a Junior Art Director for Lintas, the advertising agency for the industrial giant Unilever, he was encouraged to continue his studies at the St. Martins School of Art. There followed National Service, for many young men a career interruption, but in his case turned to advantage as he became a Sergeant Art Instructor at the Army College North Welbeck Abbey. On demobilisation he took up the post of Features Artist on the Daily Mirror. His father was at that time the top lettering artist in the country whose work appeared on most of the posters and newspaper advertisements during that era and like him, he preferred lettering to drawing and moved on to Eagle and Girl comics where he was able to do both. He then joined Beaverbrook Newspapers, the group that included the Evening Standard and Daily Express. It was for the latter that he lettered the James Bond strips, long before the world wide acclaim of the character on film. When Modesty Blaise started in the Evening Standard in 1963 he was the first, and for some time the only, lettering artist to work on it. When he became Group Cartoon Editor around 1977 he delegated the lettering to a number of freelance artists but decided that for the sake of visual continuity it was both easier and more efficient for him to continue to letter the strip himself. He still greatly treasures memories of working with the original artist for the strip, Jim Holdaway. Once a week Holdaway would drive from his home in Crawley down to Hove to deliver the strips to be lettered for that week. Occasionally it would be the other way around and he would drive from Hove to Crawley to collect them. He still recalls his last meeting with Holdaway at his beautiful home where, on a late summer’s evening, he was working at his desk in a dimly lit room. The windows were open and hundreds of moths were flying around, attracted by his desk lamp focussed on the strip he was currently drawing. While Holdaway will always hold a special place for him as his favourite Modesty artist he also has a very high regard for the work of John Burns, who only drew the strip for a short time. He is still working freelance for Express Newspapers, editing and colouring strips including “dear old Rupert” XV Gerry hard at work, as usual.