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

4 books that you thought; “Hey! This is it, this is what I really want to do? MB. Yes, but I didn’t know what their names were, except of course for Denis McLoughlin in the Buffalo Bill Annual . He was the most obvious. The most visible. I can remember responding to the drawings. I would enjoy a comic or a book more if the illustrations were strong—so yes. PR. I remember you telling me in an earlier conversation that you used to cut out the Buffalo Bill pictures and stick them on the wall. MB. Yes they were wonderful I always responded very much to film. I was a huge film fan. I responded particularly to the beginning of a film, the way the image and the titles would make a wonderful whole. Lettering and type—I’m sure that’s where that comes from. I wasn’t really aware of it as illustration as such, it was more a part of my life. PR. So it was more of a subconscious yearning? MB. Yes, well I always drew, but I tended to do comic strips based on a film I had seen. I’d always add the title of the film in some strong way. But films and comics did seem to have an enormous influence on me and that’s why in the sixth form, particularly when I first went to art school, I was puzzled by the subject matter I was encouraged to draw, which was still-life, industrial landscapes, whatever was considered to be worthy in the sixties. When Pop Art started you realised you could respond to popular subject matter without it having to be disguised. That was a big breakthrough for me, seeing the work of Peter Blake and thinking that’s where I want to be. PR. When you first went to art college was there a local college? MB. Yes, I went to Walthamstow and then I went to Hornsey for three years, leaving in ’69. PR. Was that the end of your art college years? MB. Yes, I wasn’t encouraged to go any further. I wasn’t a particularly good student, I had a very bad attendance record. Mainly because I enjoyed ABOVE TOP: The five year old Mick Brownfield and the artist as he is today with his dog, the legendary Chipp. ABOVE: Painting by Brownfield when he was 12 inspired by an illustration from Look and Learn . FACING PAGE: Page from sketchbook.