Paul Trevillion interview

Shaqui · Post by **Shaqui** » 25 May 2007, 06:44

All things being equal, I hope to interview artist Paul Trevillion this coming week, mainly about his work for 'TV21' and City Magazines, but I'd also like to touch on his wider career including 'Roy of the Rovers' and 'You Are The Ref".

Is anyone here aware of what other comic/illustration work he did, so I have a broad context of the interview questions? Also, any questions anyone would like asked?

Humorist · Post by **Humorist** » 26 May 2007, 10:59

I seem to recall that Paul Trevillion did some work for "Eagle" in the early 60s - illustrating the weekly strip "Can You Catch a Crook?".

philcom55 · Post by **philcom55** » 26 May 2007, 21:23

Humorist wrote:I seem to recall that Paul Trevillion did some work for "Eagle" in the early 60s - illustrating the weekly strip "Can You Catch a Crook?".

Yes. This ran until Eagle Vol.17 No.2 (8th Jan !966) when a caption at the bottom of the final episode announced that next week's issue would mark the debut of a brand new series called 'U.F.O. Agent'. Paul Trevillion then went on to draw the early B&W episodes of this too until he was replaced by the likes of Luis Bermejo and then (I think) Jose Ortiz when it began to appear in sumptuous colour on the centre pages and the cover. With features like Dan Dare, the Iron Man, and the Guinea-Pig already established it's likely that Eagle was attempting to increase its ratio of SF strips in order to compete with the success of TV21. However I suspect than Trevillion himself felt rather uninspired by this type of subject matter; it's particularly noticeable that he didn't show any aptitude for futuristic design as the 'UFO' flown by his heroes was clearly based on the ones in TV's "The Invaders", whereas their alien employers operated from a space station called 'Satellite Zeta' that was an almost complete rip-off of Thunderbird 5 (possibly via Frank Bellamy)! Hopefully this should be apparent in the detail from the second episode (Jan 22, 1966) shown below:
[img:400:518]http://uk.geocities.com/philcom55/ufo.jpg[/img]

As far as the interview is concerned it would certainly be interesting to hear his opinion of Science Fiction in general and SF art in particular (but then I guess you were planning to ask something along those lines anyway...!

)

- All the best, Phil Rushton

Richard S. · Post by **Richard S.** » 27 May 2007, 07:48

Jose Ortiz was def. resposnsible for the artwork on the Smokmen strip when it went into colour and was promoted to the front page of Eagle.

Riichard Sheaf

john56peter756brit · Post by **john56peter756brit** » 27 May 2007, 12:56

I remember him doing football stuff for the striker comic when i worked at martspress i was impressed by his use of zipper tone and his clean style a great artist.

Shaqui · Post by **Shaqui** » 29 May 2007, 12:04

Wow!

Just got off the phone to Paul Trevillion, and all I can say is - what a guy! In his seventies but so astonishingly vital and vivid in his recollections as conviction as an artist - and still going strong. I just hope I do justice to him when I get it all typed up...

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