Leslie Ashwell Wood (circa 1903 (possibly 1913) - 1973; London, UK)
Leslie Ashwell Wood was best known for his educational and detailed cutaway drawings and paintings of trains, boats, planes and all manner of mechanical inventions, often featured in Modern Wonder and in the centre page spread of Eagle in the 1950s.

Leslie Ashwell Wood began his career in publishing with Amalgamated Press in the late 1920s and by the 1930s he was providing diagrammatic and cutaway illustrations to a selection of AP's weekly titles including weekly part-works for The World Of Wonder and The Romance Of The Nation which were later compiled and published as books.

By 1937 he then moved to Odhams with the Look and Learn style weekly magazine Modern Wonder (which was renamed Modern Wonders and then Modern World later in its run). Modern World (as it was then) was cancelled due to the wartime paper shortages of early 1941 which also forced DC Thomson to cancel their humour comic The Magic and the boys' adventure comic The Skipper.

However during the war, as well as providing artwork for the Ministry Of Information, L Ashwell Wood also provided illustrations for Odhams books, work which continued throughout the rest of the decade and only seems to have come to an end when he became the main cutaway artist for Hulton's new weekly comic, Eagle, in 1950, and which, ten years later, would become an Odhams title.

Leslie Ashwell-Wood was born in North London either in 1903 or 1913. It has not been possible to confirm with certainty his actual date of birth. Reading through various articles by people that have carried out research into his life, 1903 is possible, although the National Archives gives 1913 as his birth year.

Ashwell-Wood was formally educated in art, engineering and science (which was seen as a rare combination in the early twentieth century) and his early career was in the employment of Fairey Aviation, joining the company in 1936. As a trained draughtsman, or technical illustrator, it was his job to provide engineering drawings (often referred to as blueprints) that showed both third angle and isometric projections of an object, the latter giving the impression of 3-D on a flat page.

His earliest published drawings for public consumption are believed to have appeared in the children's factual magazine The World of Wonder which consisted of two series of 52 and 26 issues respectively, beginning in 1932. His drawings in this series were signed as just 'LW' rather than the later universally recognised 'L. Ashwell Wood.' These two series were followed by Modern Wonder/Modern World which was first issued in May 1937 and ran until March 1941 when wartime paper rationing likely caused its cancellation. These were followed by a series of hardback books published by Odhams which feature in the first section of the webpage after this introduction.

It is believed that Leslie Ashwell Wood worked for the Ministry of Information during wartime. Other artists who later joined him at the boys' weekly comic come newspaper Eagle are also known to have worked for the government at this time. Laurence Dunn worked in the Admiralty's Naval Intelligence Division and Hubert Redmill was in the Air Intelligence branch of MI6.

Ashwell Wood had a distinct illustrative style that featured in many books and magazines, notably working as Eagle's longest-running artist. His intricately detailed annotated sketches, often featuring a familiar 'cut-away' section, were not only artistically clean and sharp but also educational, offering clear explanations to complicated scenes.

Eagles' fascinating and educational cutaway illustrations weathered the changes to the comic throughout the 1950s and 1960s, running with few gaps from the New Gas Turbine Electric Loco in the first issue to the Gas Turbine Truck in the penultimate issue Vol. 20 No.16 (19th April, 1969). Both these cutaways were illustrated by Ashwell Wood who was by far the most prolific cutaway artist Eagle had, contributing almost two thirds of the nearly 960 cutaways published in the weekly title.

He also produced a cutaway in the Dan Dare Spacebook, articles in the first five Eagle Annuals and a factual series of illustrated features in the weekly comic entitled In Her Majesty's Lifetime which ran from Vol 3 No. 46 (20th February 1953) to Vol. 4 No. 4. (1st May, 1953).

In the early years of Eagle, it wasn't uncommon for Wood's cutaways to be published every week for up to two months at a time before another artist would appear. This shows that he must have been able to regularly research, design, paint and deliver these complex illustrations in around a week, working at an angled art board on a table with an anglepoise lamp adding extra illumination to that provided by nearby windows.

During his entire time working for Eagle, Leslie Ashwell Wood lived in the same house at Willesden Green in north-west London and later, when he passed away in 1973, he had only recently completed a 12-part small landscape hardback series for Benwig Books known as Inside Information.

Leslie Ashwell Wood was one of the highest-paid Eagle artists, his renumeration being £42 per cutaway, while Hubert Redmill earned £36 15s and Laurence Dunn £31 10s.

When working for Eagle he began each cutaway by making highly detailed pencil sketches but it is not clear whether he then painted directly over these or just used them as a guide. It has also been proven in more recent times that he was personally responsible for the cutaway text rather than a writer or one of the Eagle editorial team.

The accuracy of his illustrations is rarely questioned, though it is clear that at times internal detail of certain military subjects was likely to have been educated guesswork. An EAGLE cutaway of April 1958 of the English Electric P1B (later developed into the Lightning) drew the unwanted attention of the authorities who were concerned that the 'Official Secrets Act' was being contravened. Ashwell Wood was compelled to prove otherwise!

It is known that Marcus Morris, the founder of Eagle, received several 'D' notices from the government attempting to prevent what were considered to be military secrets being published as illustrations in a children's comic.
Source: Illustration Art Gallery & Bear Alley