And now for a REAL treat: these are some of my most favourite covers (but really there are so many to choose from...), from my small pile of 'Cricket & Company, the Magazine for Children'. If you look close enough on some of them you can see the pencil marks / stickers where they were sold to me for 25p! The really lovely thing about this process is, that because I'm so used to seeing these covers, it's actually never occured to me to look at who drew them. Now I know I'm going to have to have a bit of a rootle around the internet to see what's happened to some of my favourites, particularly: Jan Pienkowski, Margot Tomes and Friso Henstra!
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Cover: Jan Pienkowski, October 1975
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Cover: Quentin Blake, curiously this one doesn't have a date but
through deduction I think it must be
from March 1976
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Cover: Margot Tomes, October 1976
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Cover: Wally Tripp, July 1976
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Cover: Trina Schart Hyman, October 1974
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Cover: Friso Henstra, January 1976
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Cover: Tom Centola, August 1975
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Cover: Emily McCully, July 1975
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Cover: Garth Williams, April 1975
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PARCELS FROM AMERICA:
Well, WHAT an exciting package arrived all the way from the good old U.S. of A today:
 
The most joyful pile of children's magazines from the 1940's - 'Directed Play Moulds Character' - I love the colour choices and the way they're printed. They're pretty big (35cm by 26cm), which is far larger than I want to do, but the fonts and graphics are seriously pleasing. I'm going to have a good read through them and try and choose some good page examples to put up on here - but in the meantime, I think the covers are pretty lovely in themselves... It does keep coming up that American children's magazines are consistently better. I spoke with one of my tutors today who remembers having a weekly magazine that he loved as a child - amazingly he's kept them and is going to bring some in for me to look through - and he's from the UK, so maybe he can prove me wrong!
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A CURRENT REFERENCE:
 
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ANOTHER PARCEL FROM AMERICA(!):
I don't know quite why it seems to always be American children's magazines that seem to pull me in the most but really I've seen very few British children's magazines to explore. Here are another few beauties from the 60's and 70's that arrived in the post today - I particularly love the tag line: "A Character Building Magazine" - food for thought...
         
On Sunday I ventured into Bristol for what was a very rewarding Zine Fair. It was small but special. I met a really lovely Illustrator there, called Jess Bradley, who writes and illustrates these great Zines for children (see below). She was incredibly kind and generous with her methods and she talked to me for a while about how she went about making and printing everything she produces (among other things sticker books, badges, key rings etc.). I like the fact that she plays around with her paper, she doesn't have a tried and tested method that she sticks to. You can't tell from the photo's but each of the Zines below are all different paper: gloss, matt and recycled. I like them all.
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BRISTOL ZINE FAIR:
I talked to Jess about my ideas for Piccolo and she was very enthusiastic - her positive response was a real boost and she also very kindly said she'd be happy to help with any questions I had putting it together - people are grand.
This is another Zine I picked up - it's aimed at adults but it's doing the same sort of thing I want to do with literature and poetry (it's also just really gorgeous so I most likely would have got it anyway!)
It's made by sisters Jemma and Katie Green, they've included work from writers and illustrators they both know - a fabulous collaborative project.
  
Happily I discovered that Katie is also the author of the Green Bean Zine (see below) which I've already bought in the past and have been keeping an eye on. I love her simple style and I can see both Zines helping form a style I'll end up using for my own.
Finally I found this little gem for only 50p - it's all knowledge and ALL knowledge helps!
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