EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 29 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

52 become most economical—and thus even more comical. Wilson’s famous scene-within-a-scene inventiveness was often in evidence and his ‘audience’ animals (a cat watching the action, two snails ‘piggy-backing’ each other across the bottom of the panel) had by now become a trademark. Throughout the I930s the demand for Wilson’s work increased but the high standard he had set for himself was unflaggingly maintained. His perfectionism was such that there were occasions when, after he had been working on a set late into the night, he would rise in the morning, see a part of it he didn’t like, and immediately sit down and start work on it all over again. However tight the deadline he would never skimp on the amount of detail he poured into each frame that he drew. He would regularly re-draw the whole thing over again if he felt something didn’t quite work. This was a nightmare for editors who feared that their deadlines wouldn’t be met. One of his editors threatened to come down to Surrey and snatch Wilson’s drawings away before he had a chance to discard them and start again. Wilson’s deadlines, however, were invariablymet, even though sometimes it was necessary forWilson’s wife to travel up to the Amalgamated Press’ headquarters in London with his drawings to make sure that they arrived in time. Themid1930swere halcyondays forWilson, with1936being a particularly good year for new creations with new front-page sets for Sparkler and Puck . The covers of most of the comics were now being printed in full colour, ABOVE: Terry-Thomas , pen and ink on board, 1959. This is the first panel (pen and ink on board), for the strip, Terry-Thomas, that appeared on the cover of Film Fun in 1959. BELOW: The cover of Film Fun , January 31st, 1959, featuring the panel above.