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

94 The Bookshelf: Daffy Power Pack, Dystopian Sci-Fi, and Flashman l illustrators is also available in the USA from budplant.com The Electric State By Simon Stålenhag Hardcover 144 pages Simon & Schuster UK £18.99 (UK), $35.00 (US) Like the visual reimagining of a Ridley Scott epic film, the new illustrated novella by Swedish digital artist and author Simon Stålenhag transports you to a nightmare vision of an America, which one prays remains within the confines of this talented artist’s fevered imagination. Following a young girl who, sometime in the recent past, finds herself and her companion robot travelling through a post-apocalyptic landscape ravaged by the detritus of a society addicted to virtual reality, the resultant story unfolds against a future-scape backdrop of recognisable American settings fused with iconic Star Wars -likemachines of gigantic proportions. Stålenhag has a style perfectly suited to a digitalart-formwhichblurstheedgesbetween the real and surreal to sinister, dreamlike effect. His depictions of an environment where the remains of humanity—fromgiant roadside advertising hoardings to abandoned suburban dwellings—sit cheek to jowl with towering metal robots and mechanical drones, createachillinglyalienyet alarmingly recognisable terrain. Buy, beg or borrow a copy while you still can, and prepare to enter a world we can only hope remains a fantasy. Cleaver Patterson What began as a proposed feature for illustrators magazine finally turned into a whole book devoted to this long- forgotten artist. Barbosa was born in Liverpool, his father being a Portuguese vice-consul and his mother half-French. Among his close friends was actor Rex Harrison, which led to Barbosa doing the interior design to his house in Portofino, Italy. He also refurbished the interior of ElizabethTaylor’s yacht Kalizma , and was friends with Cecil Beaton and Laurence Olivier. Although Barbosa always wanted to be an artist, it was finally as an illustrator that he would become better known, especially for the covers he did for the hardcover first editions of the Flashman series created by George MacDonald Fraser. In fact, those who still remember him, do so for these covers (which we get to see in their order of appearance, plus one that was not used on any UK edition, but on an American one). However, MacDonald Fraser wasn’t the only author whose books he illustrated. Much kudos to Lawrence Blackmore who managed to get such an array of images and book covers (many from his personal collection), and write the definitive biography of this superb artist. Barbosa The Man Who Drew Flashman By Lawrence Blackmore Hardcover (Limited Edition) 350 pages Book Palace Books £80.00 The Power Pack of Ken Reid - Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 Edited by Irmantas Povilaika Hardcover 208 pages Self-published £49.99 for the two volumes Ken Reid’s comic series for Oldhams Press during the sixties, published originally in their trio of Power comics WHAM! , SMASH! and POW! is now restored and reprinted by a Lithuanian fan through a crowd funding support! It might sound like a flimsy idea, but this bookcollection is actuallymarvellous, and the only way to see these long lost strips again in perfect condition. Collecting the zany work Reid did after he quit working for DC Thomson, it includes the hilarious ‘Frankie Stein’ episodes, and ‘Jasper the Grasper’, both done for WHAM! and collected in volume 1 (each volume can be purchased separately). For those who never knew the original series, Frankie Stein is about a loony professor creating a Frankenstein-likemonster as a plaything for his child (with disastrous results), and Jasper is about a Dickensian-like miser (which unfortunately ran only for six episodes). Volume 2 features the nautical farce ‘Queen of the Seas’ done for SMASH! , ‘Dare-A-Day Dave’ that as its name indicates featured a boy named Dave who’ll do any dare (sort of a precursor to the ‘Jackass’ TV series) done for POW! , and ‘The Nervs’ taking place in the insides of a boy named Fatty and done for SMASH! Both books can be ordered directly from the publisher at: www.kazoop- comics-shop.com