Oliver Passingham

[Peter Gray]

Went to an exhibition of his work in Arundel today..very good and many different styles...also good humour...liked the dinosaurs making a snowman...some nice quirky stuff..

What did he draw at DC Thomson...what comic? etc..

[philcom55]

Sounds good Peter - wish I lived nearer. I mostly associate him with the female detective Lesley Shane who starred in her own newspaper strip and 21 issues of AP's Thriller Detective Library during the 1950s. David Ashford memorably - and rather unfairly in my opinion - dismissed him as "someone with no style of his own". Personally I rather liked his work, even if it wasn't quite up to the standard of other SDL artists like Ron Turner, Ron Embleton, Bill Lacey and Alex Raymond.




- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

Thanks Phil...
It reminded me of my Dads drawings and paintings which I don't see very often in other artists ...meaning the amount of styles he used and the stories in his art and paintings..

I'll do a blog post on him now..

UPDATE
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... undel.html
see the free booklet I got..and info and pictures on the exhibition...booklet by Peter Hansen 2005.

[philcom55]

Nice booklet by the estimable Peter Hansen (even if he does Spell Lesley Shane's name the American way! ). Thanks for putting that up Peter; I love the watercolours (if your dad's work is in the same league he must be quite a guy! ). For the record I'm not sure who drew that Super Detective Library cover but it could easily have been someone other than Oliver Passingham. I must admit I'd also be interested to know what he drew for DC Thomson. (Cue Kashgar...? )

- Phil Rushton

[Peter Gray]

http://uk.geocities.com/pjgrobingray/
heres the website to my Dads work..

http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogs ... 0my%20Dado

One day I'll put up his drawing art as well...and his advertising work he did as a graphic designer..

Dads been on my mind a bit more recently its the month when he died...a year ago..
dreamed my wife died and my Dad was at the funeral..then she came back as a ghost..
think I'm watching too much sci-fi..

....................
Glad I can show you Oliver Passingham booklet...to give you an idea of the exhibition..

[philcom55]

I see what you mean about the similarity Peter; your father was obviously a very talented man.

- Phil Rushton

[Kashgar]

Oliver Passingham drew loads of stuff for the Thomson girl's papers, mostly Mandy and Judy. He didn't draw anything for the boy's papers though.

[Peter Gray]

Thanks for the info...I've updated the post with the info and thanks to you..

[Brendan McGuire]

Peter, your Dad's jazz painting should be called Eel Pie Island. Loved them by the way

[Peter Gray]

Just looked it up what Eel Pie was about...quite an exciting place..
my fault the spelling..I'll correct it..also made the pictures bigger on the website..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel_Pie_Island



note the boy reading the Eagle comic..


I sggested read the Beano on the bus...

[Kashgar]

I think you are right about the SDL cover not being by Passingham Phil. I think it's the work of James McConnell who did a lot of covers for the various picture libraries in the 1950's.

[matthew emery]

I've posted a little bit on Oliver Passingham here: Tobruk Original Art Boards http://bit.ly/SaX1D8

[matthew emery]

Does anyone have a copy of the Lion Epic spectacular special? I'd like to find out how many pages were in Passingham's Tobruk adaption.

[philcom55]

There were thirteen pages. The boards shown on your blog are pages 1,2,9 and 4 respectively.

Here's how the final page appeared in print:



- Phil Rushton

[matthew emery]

Thanks Phil, I now have all 13 boards!! I'll scan them and post them up at some point.