EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 11 © 2015 The Book Palace (96 pages PAGES in Full edition)

64 Restoration courtesy of Facsimile Dustjackets LLC. Restoration courtesy of Facsimile Dustjackets LLC. Restoration courtesy of Facsimile Dustjackets LLC. ABOVE & RIGHT: McConnell's love and mastery of US pulp art came to the fore in the covers he produced for the Collins Detective and Mystery series of novels. FACING PAGE: More of McConnell's Crime novel covers—the more generous spine width of hardbound novels allowed the artist to have two shots at encapsulating the flavour of a story within one image and the spines of McConnell's covers made great use of the opportunity. The spines of these books, when seen in a row, create a wonderful gallery of dramatic and punchy images coupled with bold, punchy lettering. red. For Collins 'Dead Man’s Warning', he presents us with a strong close-up of a wide-eyed broadcaster at the microphone, deadly hands clasping his throat. The image is painted in tones of red and brown with the light source throwing a pale yellow hue over his face and the hands. All the crime novel wrappers McConnell designed for Collins exhibit the importance of lighting effects in illustration. As he said, “I always concentrated on getting the tones right, light and dark”. During the latter part of the ‘30s, Faber & Faber had recognised his talents and commissioned him to design dust wrappers for their Detective Story compilations; and yet another top publisher, Hodder & Stoughton , began commissioning him to paint covers for their Western series. His Western work for Hodder was more conventional than his more experimental work on the Crime novel covers but they were nevertheless forceful, produced in a vivid, painterly style. McConnell foundhimself extremely busy all through the 1940s, producing dust wrapper illustrations for many titles in the Collins Detective andMystery series of novels, including those featuring the characters, Chief Inspector Bill