EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 22 © 2018 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

9 having done 2 years wasting time I was a bit anxious, I suppose, to get going, and a friend of my father’s worked in the Amalgamated Press. And he said, “Look, if you want to go into this, I can probably get you at least an interview.” So I did the interview and got into the Amalgamated Press. It wasn’t quite what I imagined, and there were indeed times when I thought, what have I done? Giving up a place at Cambridge to write cowboy comics!? IQ: So you came into Cowboy ? BC: And to start with, you were learning the job and making the tea! IQ: So you come in as the tea-boy and… BC: Well, I came in as the sub-editor, but you made the tea. But, the good thing about it was with Ted Holmes, who was my boss, you were expected to write scripts. And that’s what he taught me, and I found that fascinating. IQ: So, it was a good training? BC: Well, when I had people come up to me later FACING PAGE: Dan Dare , pen and ink and watercolour on board. Artwork by John Burns, one of the British artists working through Bardon, who eventually also worked for the Spanish market drawing ‘Capitán Trueno’ among others. LEFT: Charcoal sketches by the great Jesús Blasco. Spanish fans might recognize his character Anita Diminuta in the bottom left-hand corner of this piece.