EXTRACTS: Pirates! Illustrators Special Edition © 2020 The Book Palace (128 PAGES in Full edition)

1 Affinity 2 72 110 122 121 128 124 Avast me hearties, ’tis yer Cap’n speakin’! We’re in for some plunderin’ time, mateys. Yes, folks, we are going on a trip back some centuries to re-acquaint ourselves with those jolly fellows, those filibusters, freebooters, marooners and buccaneers. Yes, we will be sailing the seven seas with a veritable horde of pirates. Arr, that seadog of a writer, David Ashford, is taking us back to the earlier days when pirate stories made their way into the minds of their younger readers. Although the fad ranout by the endof the 1950s, it had a resurgence these past decades after the success of a certainpiratemovie towards the endof last century. Blimey, to this day pirate comic series are still being published in France! But what is the real fascination we still have for pirates? And what is it about Robert Louis Stevenson’s book, ‘Treasure Island’, that makes it the greatest pirate story of them all? Well, that’s what we are going to discover in the following pages. We then visit the artist who started it all, HowardPyle. It was Pylewho instilled into the public mind the physical appearance of the pirate as a ruggedly handsome fellow in flamboyant costume, pistols and cutlasses dangling fromhis sash. But piratesweren’t the only subject of Pyle’s pen and brush. He also gave us knights in shining armour, visions of theMiddle Ages and glimpses into the American Revolution. Afterwards we visit another member from the American Golden Age of illustration, NormanMillsPrice.Aswithhis contemporaryPyle, Price, broughtuswithhisbrushand paint visions of pirates and views intoAmerican historywithmuch gusto and detail. We follow this with a question concerning the poster for the 1935 ‘Captain Blood’ film, andendour issuewitha gallery sectionon—you’ll never guess!—pirates onstamps and cigarette cards. Remember to keep a weather eye open, mateys. Arr! DC