EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 10 © 2015 Book Palace Books (96 PAGES in Full edition)

42 ABOVE: Example of Pat Nicolle's early work, including the 'Modern Boy's Book of Pirates', which was published in 1939 and 'Robin Hood' which appeared some ten years later and attracted the attention of Leonard Matthews, who was to have a huge influence on Nicolle's subsequent career. of his career Pat was offering material to as many publishers as possible in the hope of finding regular work. Thus it is possible to find illustrations by him turning up in many different magazines and story papers of this period, including Boys Own Paper , for which he drew internal illustrations and at least one cover, and Flying, providing the illustrations for a couple of serials. His colour work too was beginning to be noticed and, in 1939, he painted the cover for the large format Modern Boy’s Book of Pirates , published by the Amalgamated Press, depicting two pirates engaged in a lively duel. He also painted one of the internal plates entitled ‘The Doomed Fleet’, of a decoy fire-ship bearing down on a fleet of galleons. The composition is lively and his use of colour adds great visual impact to the drama of the scene. The quality of Pat’s work was beginning to be recognised by publishers and, by the time he was called up for the army, he had built up an enviable reputation amongst editors and was receiving all the freelance work he could cope with. During the War, Pat served with Number Five Company, Royal Engineers and later with the Ninety-Three Company, Royal Engineers. Talking about his time in the army it seems that Pat was still something of a rebel at heart, hating petty-tyrants and red tape and getting himself into all sorts of trouble on numerous occasions. He became the company artist and at one time was severely reprimanded for keeping his artist’s materials in with his kit instead of in the Company Office (where he thought they would get stolen). One of the artistic jobs he remembered with particular pleasure was to decorate the