Illustrators #27 (magazine review).

For a change, the 27^th edition of ‘Illustrators’ takes a western slant, looking at the work of two significant artists and a certain masked man. If I haven’t hooked you into buying these magazines by now, you will know that it’s the art regardless of subject that is always a point of interest.

 

Our first artist is Frederic Remington (1861-1909) and seeing how he captured horses in motion here, with a little help from the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge, is jaw-dropping. His time in the west and seeing his sort of life close up certainly helped and he was in demand. Remington also knew how to get his original paintings back and they are worth millions today.

Editor/writer Diego Cordoba presents a complete picture of the man who is prepared to try anything, including sculpture and even a couple novels along the way. Remington shows an amazing grasp of colour from any time of the day and about the only thing missing is how long he took on each piece of work.

The second is Charles Schreyvogel (1861-1912) and despite Remington ridiculing a painting for inaccuracies. Cordoba champions this was also wrong. Schreyvogel did spend some time in the west and his emphasis on Native Americans is an interesting contrast. For much of his life, Schreyvogel was a downtrodden poor artist and wasn’t even aware that he won the Clark Award and that people were now prepared to buy his work.

Both artists relied on the same subject as their main painting sources and there’s a demonstration from seeing their work just how much life they brought into an otherwise static medium. I came away thinking I need to work on my wildlife.

Finally, the Lone Ranger and Tonto – who in Spanish was renamed Toro as Tonto meant dullard in their language. The history of Brett Reid who became the Lone Ranger hit all the markets from 1932 onwards. Seeing the samples here, it seems everyone contributed to creating his stories. Even Tonto and the Lone Ranger’s horse, Silver, had their own comics and it’s pointed out the latter’s title lasted longer than the former.

I did think the 2012 film based on him was using new cloth but appears to be based on the 2006 Dynamite Entertainment mini-series. It’s rather interesting seeing the shape of the Lone Ranger’s mask changed over the generations and his shirt was originally red, changed to blue to match Clayton Moore’s version in the TV series. There’s loads of information here. Although it’s pointed out that the Lone Ranger has lost his appeal today, I think he’ll ride again.

As always, ‘Illustrators’ is a joy of art and the included advert inside saying what will be in the next issue will make even more want to buy it, too. The name: Frank Kelly Freas. I can see a sell-out coming.

GF Willmetts

September 2019

(pub: The Book Palace, 2019. 98 page illustrated squarebound magazine. Price: £18.00 (UK), $21.99 (US). ISBN: 978-1-907081-66-8. ISSN: 2052-6520)

check out website: www.bookpalace.com