This is the artwork Brian drew, to prove a point,
that left Dez Skinn "speechless" when he saw it.
Dez had previously dismissed Brian's art as too old school for his new magazine, Hose of Hammer
Brian Montcrieff Lewis, 1929 to 1978,
was a lovely guy and he died way too young.
Mr. Lewis came to my attention rather late in his career.
It wasn't until he began working with Dez Skinn, in the mid Seventies, on The House of Hammer magazine, that he really grabbed my attention.
and The Man Himself
Brian Lewis had been toiling in the illustration and cartooning fields for a long time and by the time he began doing interiors and covers for House of Hammer, he was at the top of his game.
Lambiek Comiclopedia has a nice page about him and it details his career in a reasonably good way but there are a few question marks. For example, they claim that he served in the RAF during the second world war but he would only have been 10 years old when the war began and a mere 16 years of age at the cessation of hostilities! My own uncle lied about his age and joined the navy at 15 but if Brian was in the RAF, it was probably after the war.
Follow the Link to read it all:
It is interesting to note that, even in his own resume, he did not start illustrating professionally until 1954. Which means that he may well have completed his "National Service" period before being able to pursue an artists life.
Lambiek states that he was active in science fiction fandom in the early 1950s but I have never run across any examples of his work from that time period. In 1954/55 he began working for the S.F. pulp magazines, New Worlds, Science Fantasy and Science Fiction Adventures, all of which were published by Nova Publications, under the aegis of Ted Carnell.
During this time he was one of the main cover illustrators, the
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1981)
refers has this to say about him:
"LEWIS, BRIAN (1929 - 78)
British illustrator. He is a highly skilled painter, whose cover art in the mid and late 1950s often showed a strong influence from surrealist art reminiscent of Paul Klee or Max Ernst, perhaps partly mediated through the work of Richard Powers. This style was encouraged, for a time,by the editor John Carnell. BL also often painted in a representational manner. His colours were strong and plain and gave the impression of being laid on thickly, an impression few other illustrators give. He did most of his work for Science Fiction Adventures, New Worlds and Science Fantasy. Besides his work in sf he has drawn comic strips in newspapers, including a period on DAN DARE, and worked on stop-motion animation and children's puppet films. (JG/PN)"
It is a bit bare of any details of a significant part of his working life, that being the 10 years he spent drawing strips for a variety of weekly comic books. In his own recollection, Brian worked for :
1959/60 TV Comic - Sgt. Gunn of the Mounties
1960/61 A Football strip for Beaverbrook Newspapers
and steady work in
Lion
Tiger
Air Ace Picture Library
War Library
Sports Features for The Express Newspaper
Supercar (Annual)
Lion (Annual)
Tiger (Annual)
TV21 (Annual)
Odhams/ Wham &Smash, working on
Space Age Jinx,
Charlie Choice and
Baxendale characters.
Boys Own - Mann of Battle, Guinea Pig
Eagle - (Holiday Relief) on
Riders of the Range (2 episodes)
Luck of the Legion
Dan Dare - various.
All the way up to 1967, when he began working on, "various puppet projects", but we will touch on those later on, in another posting.
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