I have only just learnt that the prolific artist Val Biro passed away on the 4th July this year. It was a pleasure to meet up with him a couple of years ago at his studio in Bosham, West Sussex. Balint Stephen Biro was born on the 6th October 1921 in Budapest and studied at the Jaschnick School of Art before coming to the UK as war loomed. He continued to study at the Central School of Art in London from where he went on to painting numerous covers for PAN in the 1950’s
George Sharp Part 1
George Sharp with the original artwork for ‘Round The Bend’ by Nevil Shute
Unfortunately, due to elderly in-law problems involving several visits to doctors and the hospital this week I’ve not managed to finish the page for George Sharp as I would have liked. I will try this week but click on the link to see it so far.
One anomaly is that the James Herriot covers from around the 80’s state they are by George Sharp and Robb McCaig and the page shows three examples of the original artwork that George has. In the boxed set of 2012 using the same artwork the only credit is given to Robb McCaig, I think I may need to contact George regarding this.
I did find time to scan in another 24 Barbara Cartland covers. That was a very long session well into the night but if you need something to send you to sleep it certainly helps.
Derek (Arthur) Stowe
A few months back Derek Stowe contacted me to see if I was interested in having some details of his life and work, I jumped at the chance.
-
- Derek from the 70/80’s
-
- Derek now
Since then it’s been trying to track down examples of Derek’s covers and with the last one on the list from the Bodleian Library this week I can now launch his pages. As with other artists I include not just his work for PAN but for other publishers as well to give a wider portfolio of work. You can also find him on the Artists link on the main site.
Francis E B Marshall (1901 to 1980)
Francis Marshall studied at Slade College of Fine Art, London before entering the world of advertising illustration. In 1928 he began a 10-year relationship with Condé Nast, drawing for ‘Vogue’ In 1959 he wrote a successful book on drawing entitled ‘Magazine Illustration’ plus many other, a selection of which are shown below.
He also painted numerous covers for romantic fiction especially the Barbara Cartland titles for PAN. He also produced Cartland covers for Bantam, Corgi and NEL amongst others. I have compiled a list of list of Cartland fiction titles published by PAN and make it 129 a few of which are illustrated HERE I’m wondering if I have the will power and the stamina to try and find them all!
As I mentioned last week all the Barbara Cartland titles appear to be being reissued as part of the ‘Eternal’ collection (previously published) or the ‘Pink’ collection (unpublished) and are reusing artwork from other publishers from around the 70’s . The two examples below are both using Francis Marshall artwork from PAN. ‘The Horizons of Love’ has now become ‘A Golden Lie’
Nearly missed my favourite book sale of the year in Lichfield last Friday. I thought it was cancelled as couldn’t find it advertised but they have changed it from June to August. Thanks to an eagle eyed friend who just happened to be walking past the hall last week and saw a poster. I seem to have ended up with a very eclectic mix (my wife added a few) but to fill a bag for a couple of pounds is too good to miss.
I bought the James Herriot title ‘Vet in Harness’ as I spent the day in London yesterday visiting the cover artist George Sharp and wanted some of his work to take to be signed. More on this in a couple of weeks.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water – JAWS 2
After mentioning ‘JAWS’ last week I was surprised to see that ‘Radio Times’ had this week coincidently also mentioned ‘JAWS’ in that Andrew Collins thought the sound track was one of the best ever (illustrated using the Roger Kastel artwork)
This lead on to other coincidences in that while looking for shark pictures I found one by (William) Francis Marshall who was also the artist for a vast number of covers for the PAN Barbara Cartland series painted around the mid 70’s.
-
- Shark Attack by FM
Some of those covers have resurfaced, along with ones from Corgi, Bantam, NEL etc. in the Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection and the Barbara Cartland Pink Collection.
To be continued next week.
JAWS – 40 Years On
Tried to attempt the annual ‘throw out’ and failed due to always finding something that causes a distraction. This time it was a large pile of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books we have acquired over the years from friends and relatives who would otherwise have put them in a bin. I picked one up and was immediately hooked by the fact the artwork for one story was by Brian Sanders, a popular PAN book cover artist as featured on the website. Investigating further I found George Sharp, Roger Coleman, Michael Johnson and Alan Lee. My wife spotted a mention of ‘JAWS 2’ being shortly published by PAN that made me start looking at other covers and who painted them. I can’t find a name for ‘JAWS’ but the Roger Kastel movie poster was used for later editions as was the Lou Feck poster for ‘JAWS 2’ Ken Hatherley, studio manager at PAN in the 70’s still doesn’t get the credit for the iconic JAWS teeth he designed!
We went to see ‘JAWS’ at the cinema the day it came out, queuing for ages and then being the last ones allowed in. No seats left so we had to stand at the back but how we all jumped when that face appeared at the boat window ……..!
One seller currently has three 1st edition 2nd printing copies of ‘Casino Royale’ on eBay UK at the moment, plus a very poor copy of ‘Moonraker’, I shall be watching!
UPDATE Really tatty ‘Moonraker’ £71 (20 bids) Another on at the moment at £16 (11 bids) The three copies of ‘Casino Royale’ went for £24 (14 bids) £27.10 (27 bids) and £33.54 (25 bids) so looks like the bottom may have fallen out of the market for ‘Casino Royale’ if not for ‘Moonraker’ at the moment.
Not so much PAN – more Buku Roket
Having come across Greek James Bond titles with a distinctive PAN flavour I have now found a site showing nearly a dozen Indonesian variations on PAN Ian Fleming covers. They are on a blog by Tokohitam called Black Chamber plus I found a few more on other sites. I’ve put them together below as a slide show. If anyone has any spare copies I’d certainly be interested.
I used Google translate on the titles and got some very strange (and amusing) results. I also noticed that a John Creasey had become a Bond (OHMSS) as below and I have to admit I do quite like ‘Thrilling Cities 2’ in red.
-0.jpg)
-0.jpg)
-0.jpg)
-0.jpg)
Leslie Thomas 1931 to 2014
Following an email from Jem I was reminded that we had not only lost Sam Peffer this year but another PAN stalwarts , Leslie Thomas, winner of a Golden PAN Award for selling over a million copies of ‘The Virgin Soldiers’ 
Back in May I started to put together a page of covers and had not realised how many variations there are on his dozen or so titles published by PAN. So while I track them down I’ve adding a slide show of the 11 comic covers from the 80’s. As usual if you know of any more that I’ve missed please let me know.
{image.index}/{image.total}
Printing the ‘Invisible Ink Puzzle Books’
As I mentioned last month my wife and I were made very welcome at Henry Ling Printers in Dorchester when I approached them about their involvement in printing the ‘Invisible Ink Puzzle Books’ under the Piccolo imprint in the 1980’s. Click on the photo below to see how we got on.
The delay in this blog was while I tried to find something on the other uses of invisible ink that got mentioned but all came to a dead end so if anyone out there can help ………….?
Must Stop Buying Domain Names!
Already having 11 domain names and being constantly bombarded with opportunities to buy new domain name extensions I can usually restrain myself from purchasing more but I have recently succumbed and bought two. One I couldn’t resist as it is simply my forename, then a full stop and then my surname (that and nothing else even though people find it hard to accept) ready for my world domination scheme. The second is that us PAN Book collectors/appreciators are often called PAN Fans and imply we are in a sort of club so when the extension club came up I went for panfans.club which is eventually working as a redirect.
I mentioned last week being so near to getting the last title of the 2,391 know ones PAN published under their eclectic numbering system. Well I do have the one that looks just like it apart from not having the magic number X705 in the top right hand corner (it’s a 4th printing) I think I’ll have to count this as a half!