On its way from Telos Publishing in October (and available to pre-order now) is The Art of Reginald Heade, written by Stephen James Walker.
Reginald Heade is renowned amongst vintage paperback fans and collectors as the pre-eminent British pulp fiction cover artist of the 1940s and 1950s – considered by some as the greatest British artist to work in this field. This meticulously researched, lavishly illustrated book is a glorious celebration of his work, and an absolutely essential addition to the bookshelves of anyone with a taste for classic pin-up and book cover artwork.
The book will be welcomed by the many fans of his work as for many, beyond his published work, his life is quite a mystery.
Heade’s lurid covers adored pulp paperbacks of authors such as Hank Janson, Roland Vane, Michael Storme, Paul Renin, Gene Ross and Spike Morelli. He also produced some superb Western paperback covers for Archer Books in the late 1940s, four sensitively painted colour plates for The Adventures of Robin Hood published by Collins, powerful illustrations in bold colour for a series of children’s classics for Partridge Publications Ltd., dust jackets for W.E. Johns’ Worrals books, some covers for A.P.’s Sexton Blake Library and later, under the name “Cy Webb”, extraordinarily-detailed work for Pan and Panther.
Cover by Reginald Heade
Born Reginald Cyril Webb in Plaistow, Essex, in 1901, he died in West Ham on 14th October 1957 leaving no children, no will and no evidence of his existence other than his signatures on the gorgeous covers he produced. In 1954, this website notes he even stopped signing his work, when the publisher of the books he illustrated went to jail on obscenity charges. (Heade’s artwork often pushed to the absolute limits of what was legally allowed for the time).
“Sexton Blake” by Reginald Heade
Art from a comic strip biography of the famous cross-dressing pirate Mary Read, for the weekly paper Answers, published in 1952. Art by Reginald Heade. (With thanks to Phil Rushton).
Heade also worked in comics, drawing covers for Thriller Comics Library and the strips known to include “The Saga of the Red”, “The Captain from Castille”, “Sexton Blake versus the Astounding John Plague” and “Robin Hood” in the original Knock-Out (1949), “The Sky Explorers” in Comet (1952-53) and a comic strip biography of the famous cross-dressing pirate Mary Read for the weekly paper Answers, in 1952.
The Art of Reginald Heade
168pp. Large format 22cm x 28cm hardback. Fully illustrated in full colour throughout.
ISBN 978-1-84583-115-8
Published 31 October 2016
• Check out some covers by Reginald Heade here and here (be advised they could by some be considered at the very least “racy”)
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Art and Illustration, British Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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Reg Heade had a daughter. He had a heart attack in his flat in Queens Mansions, Brook Green , west London. His wife was called “Paddy “. I have some of his sketches and original photos of some of his models, plus 36 sketches for Treasure Island, with the publishers book sent to Heade for approval. I have also a nice water colour with Reg’s pencilled details on it. There is also a charcoal sketch of an African man, that was shown at a top London gallery. He did a charcoal portrait of my father which is in the US.
Thanks very much for sharing those memories and information, Michael. I’m sure fans of his work will be fascinated to know of this.
Thanks for those comments, Michael. Very interesting indeed! There’s a second volume of “The Art of Reginald Heade” currently in preparation, so I’d really like to hear more of your reminiscences. Please e-mail me at stephen@telos.co.uk if you see this message – I’d love to get in touch with you. Thanks again!