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

4 rail service or by dropping them off in London myself. Barry would hold a yearly Christmas lunch for his artists (and send cases of wine to our homes as a gift) and, at one of those, took me aside and said that now I was doing a lot of my own running around, he didn’t feel it was fair to continue taking 20% and suggested reducing it to 15%. A year or two later, he dropped the commission to 10%. Barry always got me good fees, too. Right at the beginning of our relationship, I recall a client who wanted some wallpaper illustrations. The brief was for a full colour page of exciting science fiction with spaceships, monsters and action that would be repeated across the rolls. Barry asked me into his office to meet the client but to leave all the talking to him. The client described what he wanted and Barry asked me if I was interested and I said yes, my only contribution to the conversation. I had the figure of £30 in mind, a reasonable amount for the time and about twice my going page rate. Barry told the client that I was one of his top artists (I had been in the business for about a year) and that if I was to take this on, I would have to turn down other lucrative work and so I couldn’t possibly accept a fee less than £300. The client thought for a few seconds and said that was fine. I was thrilled but Barry still wishes he’d asked for £500. Eventually, in the early eighties, DCComics approached me with a view to working exclusively with them. I told Barry of the approach and asked how that left us. Barry smiled and shrugged and said he couldn’t really claim a part of that and I should go for it, with his blessing. A true gentleman in every sense, Barry had such an influence on my career that I will always be grateful to him and greatly value our enduring friendship . ● BELOW: Original drawing of Rorschach , one of the characters from The Watchmen series, that Dave Gibbons sent to Barry Coker in 2014. © DC Comics