Going back to the
Western Australian article by Colin Clews, 'Noddy: The Last Hurrah', it implies that Robert Tyndall took over straight from Beek in 1953, and that he was the only illustrator who worked on Noddy for years:
'Robert Tyndall is the man who drew Noddy.
From 1953 until 1968 he worked tirelessly to illustrate the prodigious output of Enid Blyton. As well as Noddy books there was also a weekly cartoon strip, illustrations for Noddy products and endorsements, and set designs for a Noddy pantomime. If Blyton wanted it drawn, Tyndall drew it. There were no exclusion clauses in his contract.
He was not the first person to draw the character. That honour fell to Dutch artist Harmsen Van Der Beek in 1949...
...But Van Der Beek's health began to fail shortly after he began work on Noddy and he died in 1953. Tyndall still wonders whether the pressure of work contributed to his death.
"There was an enormous amount of work to do," he says. "Noddy was extremely popular and it was necessary to work very long hours to keep up with the demand."
As Van Der Beek became increasingly unwell Blyton's publishers started to look around for a replacement. They chose Tyndall because they had seen some posters he had drawn promoting coach tours in Britain. He had adopted a particularly colourful style and the publishers felt that it was sufficiently similar to Van Der Beek's to warrant giving him the job.
Tyndall was 23 years old at the time. His age and the fact that he had a young family to support ensured that he kept up with the demands of the job. Even his agent had advised him "Behave yourself and you could do very well."
Behaving himself meant doing as he was told. Every week he would be sent copy from Enid Blyton and he would dutifully illustrate it and return it.
As well as illustrating her stories he would also design everything from Noddy eggcups and slippers through to promotional material and snow domes. When Noddy's face was to appear on cereal packets, biscuit boxes and other products Tyndall was expected to draw that too.'
A glance at the Cave shows that there were in fact a number of Noddy artists, including Peter Wienk, Mary Brooks, Robert Lee and Charles Seez. Robert Tyndall was of course a major illustrator, but Peter Wienk was another. According to Tony Summerfield's article in
Journal 20, 'A Nod is as Good as a Wienk', Sampson Low approached Wienk and another Dutchman (Martin Toonder) after Beek died and asked them to provide sample artwork for an upcoming Noddy book. Their drawings were assessed by Sampson Low and Enid Blyton, and Wienk got the contract because his illustrations resembled Beek's - hardly surprising, as he had actually worked with Beek on Noddy artwork from the very first book. Wienk's wife helped her husband with the illustrations following Beek's death.
Anita Bensoussane wrote:I don't think I'd heard before about Robert Maxwell owning Noddy.
I've since remembered that Robert Maxwell owned Macdonald/Purnell, who published the Noddy books (in abridged versions, I believe) with covers and illustrations by Edgar Hodges, in the mid/late 1980s.
