Mal Ware

Mal Dean
Bluecoat Gallery
Liverpool, 1993 

Catalogue for a retrospective exhibition of the graphic work of Mal Dean (1941-74), designer, cartoonist, artist and jazzer extraordinaire. 

Herbie Goes Bananas: Mal didn't like Mann

Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry

Stan Tracey

Keith Tippett, Julie Tippetts, Ray Babbington, Frank Perry, 1972

Hogarth Goes Pop!

London A La Mode
Paul Hogarth and Malcolm Muggeridge
Studio Vista, London, 1966

Artist Paul Hogarth was a descendent of William Hogarth, well known chronicler of 18th century London's high and low life, and inherited his predecessor's skill at capturing the people of the capital at work and at play. His drawings possess a swiftness, capturing a moment or a face in the crowd before it slips away into the hubbub of Swinging London.

He teams up with Malcolm Muggeridge, the recognizable Catholic curmudgeon from the infamous BBC 'debate' on Monty Python's Life of Brian, though previously a bit of a lefty and former British spy, who here supplies a dry and detached text, occasionally satirical and with some interesting observations of the bustling metropolitan life.

Hogarth is perhaps best known for his designs on a long run of Penguin Shakespeare paperbacks, where his inky lines have a distinct character. Here he uses mostly pencil, reminiscent of some of Geoffrey Fletcher's London sketches, gathering some familiar places and faces (The Colony Room's Muriel Belcher, the Ace Cafe) with some more unusual angles and social commentary, somewhere between an art student's reportage sketchbook and a child's drawing. I challenge anyone not to be caught up in the lines and energy.

This is Modsville: note top Mod band The Action listed on the poster

Outrageous Fortune

How to Tell Your Fortune
Peter Brent 
Marshall Cavendish, 1974

Mellow Birds is not substitute for tea leaves.

Dymo Glen

Jennings

There were 25 Jennings novels written for children by Anthony Buckeridge between 1950 and 2004. It seems slightly odd to me that the author's political sympathies lay with the Left but he chose to write about the humourous antics of private schoolboy J.T.C. Jennings and his chum Darbishire. It also seems unusual for Armada to have staged photography for the covers of these 1970s reissues, rather than standard issue artist illustrated covers such as Richmal Crompton's contemporary Just William books did. 

Photo covers were usually reserved for television or film tie-in editions, and unlike William Brown, Jennings never made the jump to TV. My warped view of the world can't help wondering about the erotic possibilities of the imagery for those of a certain persuasion. Operation Yewtree have been informed.

Also, why Tippex out the book prices if you've got nothing to hide?