Eagle eyed drawings

Pic info: Centre fold cutaway Eagle comic circa 1966. Artist Roy Cross.

Taken from Eagle Annual Of cutaways Orion Press.

It goes like this one of our family stories was that my Dad use to read Eagle in 50’s and had collected a number of these centre page cutaway pictures. A rare splash of colour in the black and white world of rationing Britain. Sadly as parents do his mum chucked them out which is slightly ironic as my Nan's house was full of dusty useless old tut in later years.

Anyway I found this reprint book (the Eagle Annual of Cutaways)in a comic shop a while ago and bought it for my Dad’s Birthday. It full of the most wonderful drawings.

I know most of the world isn’t turned on by cutaway diagrams of 1950’s cargo planes etc but I would heartily recommend you at least open the book in Foyle’s as its a marvel for anyone interested in drawing, design, history, culture, graphics etc.
It's a 100 pages of incredibly detailed technical drawing mostly in colour. It’s dripping with the sensibility of 1950-60’s Britain and even though everywhere is smoky chimneys and meat and 2 veg there’s refreshing optimism of the choice subject.

The enthusiasm for science and for a better world is pleasing. It’s also refreshingly un-patronising towards children as the artists assumed that they’ll be interested in more things than football and trainers. They perhaps naively assume that not only racing cars and jet fighters might spark interest but also dustbin Lorries and spectacularly oddly a potato harvester might pique some interest in young minds.

Jonathon Glancey writes an entertaining introduction revelling in a world were we still made stuff and even where even the most glamorous of motor boat is piloted by men in car coats and trilbies. So have a look you never know what you’ll learn.

This picture if the X- 15 is one of a number of space themes spreads including Telstar and Mercury capsules. The X-15 is a what might have been on space craft after a number of successful years of record breaking experimental flights it's funding dwindled to pay for the moon flights the contention of X-15 supporters is that it had been developed further we would now be flying into space much like Dan Dare in sleek rocket planes.

This striking drawing is by Roy Cross who some of you may know was the genius behind the classic box art from those other essentials for any 1960's childhood Airfix kits!
Roy's work is always full of excitement and action even if now the PC police have removed the bullets and bombs from modern boxes in case presumably any kids decide to restage the strafing of a German U boat.

Ps. there's a GPO tower cutaway on my other site as a Brucie bonus
Go here for the more details of Eagles Cutaway

Drawn to the Skies

Pic info:
Taken from "longacre Book of Aircraft" 1963
no author/artist listed
designed by Peter Sulivan

Picture Books:
One of the overlooked benefits enjoyed by post WWII children was the gradual improvement in the design and production of books. Today’s book shops are a riot of colour with Kids books particularly being full colour throughout. But it wasn’t long ago when books came on rough acid paper with a few pages of often black and white plates in the middle, the odd diagram in the text the only colour being a dust jacket.

Thankfully by the time me and my brothers were taken to Hanley library colour books were more mostly the norm. The MAIN reason of course to go to Hanley library was the chance if there was time to go and see the Spitfire in greenhouse across the road (aren’t the government missing a literacy trick here, forget new books put more fighters, dinosaurs and killer robots in libraries)!

The book we loaned from the library, were a particular golden age of illustration; with photography still costly and complicated children’s books were filled with wonderfully hand drawn illustrations and paintings. These where a special boon to technical books allowing exciting cutaways of space ships or the fiery separation of yet un-built rockets to be depicted.

Also freed from the realism of photography artists could use dramatic angles and inspiring perspectives to brings scenes to life. One the most appealing aspects of these books are the simple bold palettes this type of printing used. This is why this sort of commercial illustration is still sort after much like the colour magazine spreads and print advertising of the period.

I know this book is about flight in general but it has got rockets in it and I wanted to share the cool picture of the chopper carrying a speed boat, reminiscent of the scene from Apocalypse Now, Charlie don’t surf!

Sadly there’s no illustrator listed in the book and I can’t see any signatures on the painting, whoever they were they had bold clear consistent style much more interesting than prose!

Satellite's of Lo......

Picture Info:
Satellites by Robin Kerrod
Illustrated By Mike Tregenza
Franklin Watts 1980

So as well as archive photos I’m planning on some scans from my space books here’s a good one to start.



Even for space mad types like me a whole kids book on satellites might have been pushing it, that being said you’ve probably used one at least 10 times today!

Some a marvellous drawings pay attention to the diagram as there will quiz at the end on how the phone system works!

Here's the link to bigger versions of the scans