EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 22 © 2018 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

23 handkerchiefs we put on the heads of old people. We explained that in Spain older people wear black berets. They told us to erase them, as nobody in the UK would know what it was, and to do the drawings all over again. So we had to white-out the berets from the heads of the characters and draw in the missing parts.” Notwithstanding, all this was resolved once the agencies got reference photographs which were handed over to the artists. Excellent examples on how the Spanish artists handled the photographs of London can be seen in the drawings of Jesús Blasco on the series Steel Claw , and Luis Bermejo’s work on John Steel . Add to this the fact that some of the Spanish artists moved to England— to be closer to their work— and soon most British comic magazines were flooded with Spanish artists, who not only worked fast, but were highly talented as well. One of the criticisms most of the British comics of the day got, was that the artists weren’t allowed to sign their work. This was due to the publishers who didn’t want any The Bardon agency managed to place not one, but two of their artists in different American strips. After ‘Friday Foster’ writer Jim Lawrence created the romance strip ‘My Story’. ABOVE LEFT: Publicity ad for ‘My Story’ a romance strip written by Jim Lawrence and drawn by Jordi Franch, an artist who studied and was influenced by Longarón. RIGHT: Perhaps Bardon’s greatest success in the American newspaper strip market; 'Friday Foster’ was the first strip centred around an African American character. Written by Jim Lawrence, it was drawn by Jordi Longarón who got the series almost accidentally. His elegant style was greatly appreciated by his American counterparts, unfortunately the strip didn’t prove successful, although a movie version was also made, which was equally unsuccessful. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions