"The Pan Book Of Limericks" Edited By Louis Untermeyer, Illustrated By R. Taylor of the New Yorker (published in Great Britain in 1963 by Pan Books Ltd; this edition is from 1977) Part 1

 

 

 

 

"Vere Foster's Copy Books: Lettering, Plain And Ornamental" (published by Blackie & Son Limited, London and Glasgow, year unknown)

 

An interesting calligraphy manual from a long time ago - when people took writing and type seriously... The book offers practical hints and technical information on how to produce fancy lettering while providing lined pages for the user to practise copying it. As you can see on the third image, someone's had a pretty good go at it!

"LOBEY DOSSER: The Indian War" By Bud Neill (published by The Evening Times, Glasgow 1949)

 

The final book from my Lobey Dosser collection. I was very lucky to find these as they are quite rare and sought after by collectors! The more you read the stories the funnier they and the characters grow on you. The set is somewhere in the American wild west, at a town called Calton Creek - all the residents are from the Calton area of Glasgow(!) and the dialogue is, naturally, in the Glaswegian accent. Except of course from the main villain Rank Bajin who speaks in "evil" English! (Stewie from Family Guy comes to mind...)

 

In 1995 a bronze statue of Lobey and Rank Bajin riding El Fideldo (Lobey's two-legged horse) was erected in Glasgow's Woodlands Road, near the city centre, in honour of Bud Neill. The concept and drawings for the sculpture were done by Ranald MacColl who also collected Neill's work and had it republished in 1992. The pictures below are from Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Neill

"LOBEY DOSSER: His Life Story" By Bud Neill (published by The Evening Times, Glasgow 1949)

 

Lobey Dosser was the creation of Glaswegian Bud Neill (1911-1970) and ran as a comic strip on "The Evening Times" in the 1940's, 50's and 60's. It acquired huge popularity over the years and the characters gained cult status after the author's death. Here's the Wikipedia bio on Bud Neill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Neill

 

"LOBEY DOSSER: The 'Reform' Of Rank Bajin By Bud Neill (published by "The Evening Times", Glasgow 1949)

 

 

The Very Closed Circle

 

I've been meaning to pay tribute to this brilliant blog - from Greece - ( http://theveryclosedcircle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/500-epilogue.html )   for a few weeks now since they announced that it was to be terminated. It's a collaboration by several talented cartoonists/illustrators/writers from Athens who got together some three and a half years to create this project. The format remained the same - ie a comic strip with four panels - but the style would be different each time depending on who the contributor was. The text is in Greek but they always provided a translation in English (and a very good one too) for audiences around the world. The stories are superb - often about small and trivial things in life but with deep philosophical and cynical undertones! Needless to say, they are also very funny! Really sad that it's come to an end and I'm sure it will be missed by many. Links for each artist from the team can be found on the blog so that you could get to see more of their work and other publications.

"The Virago Book Of Fairy Tales", edited by Angela Carter, illustrations by Corinna Sargood (publ. by Virago Press Ltd, London 1991) Part 3

 

I tried to scan some of the head lettering at the start of each story - I just love the way she incorporates a little narrative from the story into the typeface! Also a couple more  bizarre and funny spot illustrations.

Finally, here's Corinna Sargood herself on a youtube video, describing one of her recent pictures! It's fascinating to watch, as she unravels details of more and more scenes within the main picture (some of them painted on separate panels attached to it!) while telling the stories behind them...   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPMUbGjVu64