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

5 Bardon-The first 50 years The following piece was written by Barry Coker for the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Bardon Art agency It all began in 1956. I was working as the editor of the Western Picture Library published by the Amalgamated Press. We were always on the lookout for good new artists and, one day, Jordi Macabich walked into the office. He had come to London, with his wife Violeta, to seek work. We were happy to oblige! Jordi and Violeta spent six months in London and I saw them frequently. Despite my limited Spanish, we became firm friends, and they suggested I call on them if ever I found myself in Barcelona. The following year (1957) I did indeed visit Barcelona with friends and, during the course of my stay, Macabich suggested I represent him and some of his artist friends, just as other agents (A.L.I., Toutain, etc.) were doing. It was hard going at first, trying to persuade art editors of the merits of Spanish artists when London was brimful with British artists seeking work, but little by little, we began to make progress. Our first definite order (with Odhams Press ) came in November 1957 and this is the date I have always regarded as the true beginning of Bardon. The original order hangs on my office wall to this day! Soon we were expanding and seeking artists all over Spain, travelling frequently to Valencia and Madrid. We also secured the syndication rights of the Amalgamated Press’s children’s publications for Spain and this helped no end to keep us going financially. We were mostly on good terms with the other artists’ agencies acting in London—Creaciones Editoriales, Selecciones Ilustradas, Temple Art, etc. but were sorely pressed by the main Italian agency Creazioni D’Ami who were extremely competitive and professional representing such names as D’Antonio, De Gaspari and Tacconi among their artists. At the height of our success, during the '70s and '80s we represented more than 70 artists through-out various countries in Europe and, having also secured the syndication rights of another large British publishers (DC Thomson of Dundee) we became one of the most successful agencies in Europe. Even when the Market contracted during the late '80’s and '90s, by finding new outlets, we managed to keep a nucleus of artists in full-time work—and so it has continued till today. We are proud of Bardon ’s record, proud to have been the first agency to land a daily newspaper strip in the USA (Longaron’s Friday Foster ) proud to have had 7 daily national newspaper strips running simultaneously, proud to have been first to place an artist’s created character as a major film (Ezquerra’s Judge Dredd ), and proud to have maintained a friendly relationship with so many editors and artists in countries ranging from Britain to Germany, and Holland to America. Romero did this drawing of Axa for Barry to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bardon