EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 27 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

94 The Bookshelf: Lance, Larrigan and ContemporaryWestern Artists Lance By Warren Tufts Hardcover 352 pages Classic Comics Press £85.00 (UK) Larrigan By Arturo Del Castillo Flexi cover 268 pages Book Palace Books £25.00 (UK) Western Art of the Twenty-First Century: Appearing in American newspapers from the mid-50s to 1960, Lance is the story of a US Cavalry officer stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, during the tumultuous days of the 19th century American West. Written and drawn by Warren Tufts (creator of another western strip, ‘Casey Ruggles’), Lance was a self-syndicated strip, and one of the last full-page colour Sundays to ever appear in American newspapers. Talking about colour, it is here where Tufts totally surpassed himself, with some of the most astonishing and inventive colouring ever applied on a newspaper comic strip. Tufts created his own ingenious way to reproduce his colours in print, sometimes avoiding completely the black of the linework and using only colour. Although the strip was meant to appear as a Sunday page strip only, a la ‘Prince Valiant’, it too was devoid of any word balloons and featured only accompanying text (although word balloons would be used every now and then for part of the run). A black and white daily strip was added for a year, but by 1958 it continued as a Sunday strip only until its demise in 1960 (although the panels had been reformatted to appear as half-pages in certain newspapers). A special mention must be made to Manuel Caldas, a self-publisher who restored all the artwork, making this strip look even better than when it first appeared in print. Also included is an in-depth appreciation of Tuft’s work by Zoran Djukanovik. A western strip created for the UK market in 1961, ‘Larrigan’ was the lead of a new Picture Library series from Fleetway known as Lone Rider , and the artist chosen was Chilean- born Arturo Del Castillo, already known for his work on the western strip ‘Ringo’ for Top Spot . By the mid-60s, and through Dami, an Italian agency located in Britain, Del Castillo also became known in Italy where he would work until he abandoned comic books in the mid-80s. For the Italian market, Larrigan would be re-formatted from its two-panel pocketbook-size to a three-tier magazine- size, and sold worldwide under that format. However, its origins lay in England. Book Palace Books begins a collection reprinting some of Fleetway’s most popular titles from the Picture Library series. The first book, Larrigan, reprints the series’ first four adventures which appeared originally in Lone Rider Picture Library and later in Cowboy Picture Library . Those acquainted with Del Castillo’s work, will know what to expect: excellent linework with a peculiar way of cross-hatching along with some stunning use of light and shadows. Not for nothing Del Castillo has achieved worldwide recognition as one of the best comic book western artists of all time. This book is over two-hundred and fifty pages long, collecting the adventures of this singular and lonely (hence its Spanish title ‘Larrigan the Loner’) character, a blonde Texan gunslinger who rambles through the Wild West fighting all sort of evil-doers. Actually two-volumes featuring some contemporary artists of the American West, each volume devoted to paintings or sculptures of cowboys or Indians. Any of the books can be bought individually. It’s good to see that western art is still part of modern American culture, and these contemporary artists are the true descendants of Remington, Russell and company. More than two dozen artists are represented in each volume, all with a short bio about themselves, along with samples of their work. The first volume is devoted to cowboys, showing the rugged life these men lived back in the 19th century, and even nowadays. Among the different artists represented there’s Andy Thomas who we featured on illustrators issue 15. All these artists make a living through the fine art market, although some of their paintings have been used as book or magazine covers. However, seeing the little interest there is in reading books or magazines other than cookbooks or the lives of the rich and famous, cover illustration has become a lost art. The second volume takes a look at Indians or Native Americans, with images featuring their lifestyles both past and present. Both books feature work by male and female artists, proving that Western Art isn’t only the domain of men. The only drawback is the size of the books, about the size of a comic book turned sideways (although in a square-format), which diminishes the impact of the artwork reproduced inside. Cowboys (vol. 1) & Native Americans (2) By E. Ashley Rooney Hardcover 176 pages (v1) & 144 pgs (v2) Schiffer vol. 1 $34.99, vol. 2 $29.99 (US) l illustrators is also available in the USA from budplant.com