Sunday 15 February 2009

John Bull magazine and The Passing Show UPDATED!!!





Permission granted to use these images from
Larry Viner
London
http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk/



















Change to post...








John Bull

John Bull magazine had super drawn covers like the american The Saturday Evening Post, the John Bull covers encapsulated post-war Britain and employed some of Britain's finest illustrators. quote from wikipedia.
http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk/gallery_johnbull.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull_(magazine)

I love these witty drawings on magazine covers of the past..
Juat discovered www.advertising archives which have 50,000 pictures...so loads of these great British magazines to enjoy. It really shows the era of the 40's..50's..60's and 70's.
The artistic, pleasing to the eye and skill of these works which no photo can capture. Todays magazines use photos mostly...I feel they are missing out on a drawing visual feast...these covers are good enough to be collected and put on the wall.

Are we tired yet of the celebrity...man and women photo covers on todays magazines...can we learn from the past...
Its time for a change!!!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you nicked all those images from ebay? Risky.

Anonymous said...

Hi I've just emailled the person on ebay for permission to use his photos in this way.

Anonymous said...

eBay can get funny about it sometime, that's why they put their watermark in the corner of the photos.

Anonymous said...

I've discovered that
http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk
already show these covers John Bull and The passing show magazine and many more...you have to join with your email to see...great to see...50,000 images to see..

So I'll won't put up any more images of these magazine covers as they already done it..

Peter Gray

Peter Gray said...

I've changed the post to be an advert for
http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk/

It has lots of these covers and inside the magazine already.

So deleted the ebay pictures and used a few from advertising archives to advertise there super website..

Anonymous said...

Well a blog should be a persons own scans not using somebodys elses scan really when you think about it. Cheers Peter.

Rob Davis said...

Just wanted to say how much I love this blog, Peter. Essential stuff. Keep up the good work!

Peter Gray said...

Thanks Rob that cheered me up..:)

Peter Gray said...

Just a quick note the ebay seller chris has given me permission to use his photos of John Bull which he is selling..

so I'll be more careful in future..
With his permission I could take the ebay copyright symbol off the photo and use them for the blog..

Anyway I've gone off the idea now..

Anonymous said...

sorry if I put you off Peter. Carry on, great blog!!!

Anonymous said...

Great covers Peter,It's thanks to people like you that we can see these covers, or they would be lost for ever.

keith said...

Loved those John Bull covers that so beautifully capture the spirit of the fifties.
I remember a small weekly feature inside called 'Can You Spot the Lawbreaker'drawn by Rowland Hilder, who became of Britain's best loved landscape artists. It was a highly detailed pen and ink fifties street scene and hidden somewhere was someone Breaking the Law! These had a big influence on my drawing as a kid and I'd love to see them again if anyone out there has any John Bulls(can't remember the year but would guess around 1957) I'd happily pay the expenses of doing photocopies.
Fingers crossed that someone can help or just remember!

Mike said...

I am 69 and remember lovingly John Bull magazine from the late 1940s, through the 1950s. It was published by Odhams, as was Woman magazine. My mother bought both each week, I got Eagle comic. But John Bull introduced me to some superb fiction by authors like C S Forrester, and Neville Shute, serialsied each week. And I'll never forget reading Agatha Christie's 'The 3.15 from Paddington' on the pages of John Bull. Oh yes, the covers were always superb. Shame they are not on open access somewhere.