EXTRACTS: Illustrators Issue 5 © 2013 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

78 Derek Eyles The great Hollywood western star, Gary Cooper, once remarked, “One of the most beautiful sights in the world is a running horse, with a man who sits on it real pretty”. I’m sure that Derek Eyles would have been in complete agreement with him. No British illustrator drew horses and horsemen more often than Eyles—or drew them more convincingly. All his finest images contain horses, whether it is a highwayman galloping down amoonlit road, Red Indianbraves riding on thewarpath, or a cowboy turning in the saddle to fire at his pursuers. Such was his expertise that, when he was working for Britain’s foremost comic publisher, the Amalgamated Press, a directive was issued that all artists who needed to improve their drawing of horses should be sent examples of his work. Derek Charles Eyles was born in North Finchley, London, in 1902, the son of Charles Eyles, an artist who had worked with the Impressionists in Paris, and who himself later painted a few covers for children’s annuals. Derek avid Ashford recalls the life and times of one of the greatest portrayers of horses and horsemen in action. ABOVE: ‘Thunder on the Prairie’. Eyles captures the excitement and spectacle of the Wild West in this illustration for the endpapers of the Kit Carson Cowboy Annual 1959. © IPC Media © IPC Media