EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 25 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

2 Memoirs I t was some six years ago that I received a call from Geoff. Geoff West and Book Palace Books have been my number one source for comics and books about animation, illustration and graphic novels for most of my adult life. Over many years, I have happily been in thrall to Geoff’s passion and, at times, almost religious fervour for beautifully illustrated books and artwork. His enthusiasms have mirrored mine, or it might be more accurate to say anticipated mine. From a shared love of EC comics, Will Eisner and Carl Barks, we have gone on to delve into the Golden Age of UK pocket libraries, waxed lyrical over the work of Fortunino Matania and discovered the work of some of the most amazing and visionary illustrators of the last two centuries. It was this shared passion and the fact that I had recently been putting out a blog centred around the history of illustration, animation and comic art, plus my recent editing of a couple of books for Geoff’s Book Palace Publishing that prompted the call. The conversation went along the lines of the vagaries and vicissitudes of publishing art books. Some succeed but a lot don’t and, bearing in mind the sheer volume of work and financial outlay involved, why not put our efforts into a journal that would enable us to explore the work of illustrators without putting all our eggs in one basket? Out of this discussion was born illustrators . We agreed that we wanted the thing to ooze quality, utilising the best available scans of original artwork wherever possible, the best writers that we could secure, features that would illuminate the lives of the artists that we were showcasing, rather than indulging in the tendentious waffle of ‘bravura brush strokes’ or merely providing a succession of publication dates with no regard for the, often, fascinating lives many of these artists lived. There was one other consideration— illustrators was to all intents and purposes, a book. It was (and is) an object to be treasured, a tool of reference and a source of inspiration. The quality of the art that we showcased would be reflected in the writing that accompanied each feature and in the way we presented the artwork, both in terms of layout and ensuring the best possible sources (scans of the original art wherever possible). The readership we were aiming at was broad in terms of how we selected the artists we wanted to spotlight. Founder editor Peter Richardson invites us on a trip down memory lane as he recalls the events that led to the creation of the most authoritative and engaging publication to celebrate the world of illustration. Illustration by Peter Richardson