Meanwhile in Biggles

[sholio]

Why do I keep looking at this artwork.



It's from this website; click the image to embiggen so you can see the details.

Mostly it's young WW1-era Biggles just being so young. I first ran across this when I was reading the books for the first time, and I think I had kind of vaguely osmosed this as some later book when he's in the Arctic or something, not noticing what book it's from. But that's actually WW1 high-altitude pilot gear, not an Arctic snowsuit, and I really like how the artwork makes him look the way the books describe him (small, pretty, boyish-looking, and in this case he literally *is* a kid, he's only 18 or so) and now I have feelings about this. ;__;

But also - that signature at bottom right. It looks like W.E. Johns doodled little airplanes when he'd sign something for someone, and it's actually a nicely executed little scene with clouds and a few strokes indicating farmland underneath and a tiny biplane; how cute is that??

Comments

[sheron]

The airplanes thing is very cute!

Also it's funny that he's smoking his pipe in the photo (someone's an addict XD )

I love Biggles circa WW1 T_T (but then when do I not love him).

[sholio]

WW1 Biggles needs approximately 200 hugs for a start. T__T

Also it's funny that he's smoking his pipe in the photo (someone's an addict XD )

xD

Now thinking about Raymond in canon telling Biggles that he smokes too much and it's not good for him. *Does* Biggles end up smoking less in the murder mystery book? It'd be interesting if it's at least partly a stress trait for him...

Biggles Goes Alone spoilers

[sheron]

Well I don't know if he starts smoking less while on vacation, because pretty soon someone is murdered and...

Biggles sat on the terrace, alone, unconscious of the passing of time, staring with unseeing eyes into the darkness as he strove to untangle the web of mystery in which inevitably he found himself involved. Around his feet lay the ends of the many cigarettes he had smoked, without being aware of it, in his profound examination of such evidence as had come to light.

^_^;

Anyway he does smoke a lot more when thinking about a problem or stressed.

Re: Biggles Goes Alone spoilers

[sholio]

Raymond: sends Biggles to the seaside for his mental and physical health
Biggles: encounters a murder, chain-smokes 3 packs immediately

(I really want the fic where he tells the others about his peaceful seaside vacation.)

Re: Biggles Goes Alone spoilers

[sheron]

I have always pictured it as an earlier book when I read it, but have since found out that it's post Hatchet, which makes the line from Raymond about Biggles looking tired very RTMI.

Re: Biggles Goes Alone spoilers

[sholio]

.... and mine.

(There will be fic about this when.)

[scioscribe]

AWW. I so want something signed by Johns, complete with a little doodled airplane.

Young Biggles breaks my heart, as always. I just want to feed him soup.

[sholio]

Maybe someday if we keep looking at old editions of Biggles books, we will find one with a little doodled airplane. It would probably go for a mint, though ...

Young Biggles needs soup and shock blankets and all the hugs.

[osprey_archer]

Those little airplane doodles by Johns' signature are so cute!

[sholio]

I LOVE THE DOODLED AIRPLANE. It makes me wonder if he was actually a little bit of an artist or just got really good at drawing cartoon airplanes ...

[wateroverstone]

I love J E MC Connell's depictions of Biggles he did three illustrated volumes:Cruise of the Condor, Black Peril and Flies Again. They're stuffed full of gems

[sholio]

Oh that's right, I remember looking at those and I believe I must go look at them again.

[philomytha]

Oh, that’s so neat with the signature!

And yes, I like Stead’s Biggles a lot, he definitely paid attention to the young and pretty and delicate-looking description in his introduction.

[sholio]

The airplane is SO CUTE. It makes me wonder if Johns was actually an amateur artist or just practiced drawing airplanes until he got it down.

I appreciate the attention to detail of the pretty-looking delicacy of Biggles in Stead's art, which is so different from typical pulp heroes of that time period. Honestly I would buy an entire book of Stead paintings (I already have some books of pulp art illustrators' artwork like Robert McGinnis, I love that stuff and I'd buy a Stead book in a hot minute if there was one available.)

[philomytha]

Oh, same! Your little Biggles playing cards are a start at a collection of Biggles Artwork :-D

And I have a vague memory of there being illustrations done by WEJ somewhere. The Forum will know, or Dr Biggles's website...

[black_bentley]

I like a lot of Stead's illustrations :D and I love WEJ's little plane doodles <3

[sholio]

I wonder if WEJ was actually an artist or just learned to doodle airplanes! It's just so cute. And Stead really nails the character descriptions at least some of the time ...

[black_bentley]

I might be completely making this up, but I *think* in some of the original Biggles serialisations WEJ might actually have done his own illustrations. Although tbf this does not mean he could draw anything other than planes, I suppose...

Some of my favourites across the series are by Stead, although I'd definitely echo wateroverstone's praise for the McConnell ones in the illustrated Thames editions. The illustrated Black Peril is particularly good :D (and that's where this particular icon came from!)

[krait]

That's very neat! Love the 'flourish' of adding a tiny illustration to the signature, and the framing is very well-done.

[sholio]

The flourish-y little doodles are very common in the comics world (lots of comics artists and writers have little sketches they draw in a book, I used to doodle little spruce trees) but you don't see them in prose books all that often; it makes me wonder if he was an amateur artist or just learned to draw airplanes for book signing purposes.

[timespirt]

I like the little airplanes doodles. Very cute.

[sholio]

I love stuff like that! Signature doodles are an under-appreciated art form.

[anna_wing]

Tolkien could draw too. They were of the same era; perhaps it was just something that educated-class people learned as a matter of course?

[sholio]

I think it's very plausible that you're right, which is giving me about 5 different fic thought simultaneously ...

[wateroverstone]

nd I really like how the Leslie Stead artwork makes him look the way the books describe him (small, pretty, boyish-looking, and in this case he literally *is* a kid, he's only 18 or so) and now I have feelings about this. ;__;

JUst to say the illustrator of the above pictures is JE Mc Connell not Stead.He's clearly credited on Dr Biggles' site

[sholio]

Oh, thanks for the update, I'll edit it!

[ivyfic]

A propos of nothing, but I was just listening to Jethro Tull's album-length song "Thick as a Brick"--and there are multiple references to Biggles both in the song and in the original album art (which was a full fold-out fake newspaper).

[sholio]

And I was today years old when I learned there's an album-length version of the song! I had no idea; I've only ever heard the radio version.

[ivyfic]

Yup, forty-five minutes long! Both sides of the record. Legend has it people called Aqualung a concept album and Ian Anderson said *that's* not a concept album, *this* is a concept album.

There are a couple verses referencing childhood heroes, and one of them contains: "Where the hell was Biggles/When you needed him last Saturday."