Today, 5th October 2024, marks the 61st anniversary of the release of “Love Me Do” by The Beatles, so what better way to mark it than to highlight art by Jamie Lee?
Created in comic book style last year, Jamie says this pop art painting of the musical legends is based on early black and white photo of the Fab Four.
“I used the colours from their Sergeant Peppers uniforms to bring the two ends of their career into one image,” he says, “[of] John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr singing the song ‘Love Me Do’.”
“Love Me Do” was the official debut single by The Beatles, backed by “P.S. I Love You”. When the single was originally released in the United Kingdom on 5th October 1962, it peaked at number 17. It was released in the United States in 1964, where it became a number one hit. Re-released in 1982 as part of EMI’s Beatles 20th anniversary, it re-entered the UK charts and peaked at Number Four.
A signed copy by all four Beatles of the 1962 single sold for over $20,000 in 2021, through Bonhams.
As well as being celebrated in art countless times, The Beatles have featured in several comic autobiographies, including The Beatles Story, by Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson, first published in Look-In, The Beatles: All Our Yesterdays by Jason Quinn and Sachin Nagar, Beatles with an A: Birth of a Band by Mauri Kunnas, The Beatles in Comics by Michels Mabel and various artists, Paul is Dead: When the Beatles Lost McCartney, by Paolo Baron and Ernesto Carbonetti, The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, by Vivek J. Tiwary, and Yellow Submarine, by Bill Morrison, the latter going on to become a touring exhibition first seen at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival last year.
Jamie Lee is a British artist, living and working in southern Paraguay, in South America.
“I came to paint a mural, and didn’t stop until I’d painted more than 500,” he says. “The style I honed with the murals, combined with years of creating vector illustrations which I sell through Getty Images, morphed into my canvas work, and now it’s my goal to paint perfectly sharp lines, without hint or trace of brushstroke, almost vector-like in quality, onto stretched canvas.”
• Check out The Beatles – Love Me Do (2022) by Jamie Lee
• Check out more art by Jamie Lee to buy at ArtFinder
• Check out more art by Jamie Lee to buy at Singular Art
• Follow Jamie Lee on Facebook | Instagram
“Love Me Do” art © Jamie Lee | With thanks to Tim Quinn for the reminder
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.
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