Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Enid used many illustrators in her books. Discuss them here.
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Lucky Star »

Yes indeed Maxey's Quentin looks a bit like an exhausted Lionel Ritchie. :lol: Knox's version is much more scientific looking. He also resembles Michael Hinz who played Quentin in the 70s TV series. Given that her Timmy looks like Toddy from that series it is very likely that she was influenced by the show.
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Jack400 »

Yes, I too thought there was a strong resemblance to Michael Hinz.
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I am sure that is no coincidence as this was the first book to use the Knox illustrations:-
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I have noticed in other Knox illustrations in the book that Julian bares a strong resemblance to Marcus Harris.
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Jack400 »

I'm absolutely hopeless at drawing, but if I had to illustrate a book I imagine that a glance at previous editions to see what people would expect the characters to look like would seem a good idea.The photo Tony shows above also appeared in the book "Television and Radio 1979" an IBA publication.
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Tony Summerfield wrote:I have put below two illustrations of Quentin which depict exactly the same scene and I know which one I think is the better illustration.
ImageImage
(I don't know why the two pictures came out side by side for Tony, but not for me.)

If I ask myself which artist has given Uncle Quentin the most apt hairstyle and clothes then it's Jolyne Knox without a doubt. The appearance of Betty Maxey's Uncle Quentin (or this particular incarnation, at least!) screams "1970s pop star"!

But leaving that aside and concentrating on artistic technique, Betty Maxey's drawing has a sweeping elegance and deftness that simply isn't matched by Jolyne Knox's ungainly-looking effort. Knox's pictures seem somehow "fluffy", as though they could do with a good hoover! Maxey's crisp lines are far more attractive in my opinion.

Keith has talked about Jolyne Knox's Famous Five illustrations before, in the 'Eileen Soper or Betty Maxey?' thread:
Keith Robinson wrote:I grew up with Betty Maxey's illustrations and hated them even then. Definitely Eileen Soper for me. But if you want to see some really non-Famous-Five-like illustrations, look no further than Jolyne Knox's work in a 1993 Award Publication of Five On a Treasure Island:

Image

In case you're wondering, the guy in the middle is Uncle Quentin.
Incidentally, we get a lot of people on the forums who grew up with the Eileen Soper or Betty Maxey illustrations and want to discuss them and compare them and defend their favourite, but where are all the Jolyne Knox fans? Her first Famous Five illustrations date back to 1979 but she rarely gets a mention. Didn't her pictures make an impression on any young readers?
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I think probably that far fewer people would have had books with the Jolyne Knox illustrations, because as I mentioned above the paperbacks only changed their covers and the internal illustrations continued to be by Maxey, it was only completely new publications that used Knox as the whole books were reset - for example the Award Famous Five series, although some of these were illustrated by Dorothy Hamilton.

I don't want to give the impression that I am president of the Jolyne Knox fan club as I am not - it is Eileen Soper who wins my vote any day. I'm afraid I am with Nigel on Betty Maxey, but of course I didn't grow up with them! I promise that I won't put up any more Knox pictures and I wouldn't want to offend anybody by putting any in the Cave!
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Interesting points, Tony - though there may be Jolyne Knox fans lurking who are now going to speak out and clamour for more! :lol:

Have we seen any of Dorothy Hamilton's Famous Five illustrations? :wink: I've seen some of her work in Award short story books like Twelve Silver Cups and Other Stories and I rather liked it, though those stories are aimed at younger children.
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Wolfgang »

Anita Bensoussane wrote: (I don't know why the two pictures came out side by side for Tony, but not for me.)
I suppose it has to do with the quoting - the width used for quoting is shorter than the one for the plain message.

The illustrator of the editions I grew up with was most of the time Wolfgang Henneke, only some books I owned had illustrations by Soper. They both made their point, and that was all that counted for me, I wasn't impressed by them. Maybe that's something to do with the fact that I disliked art lessons at school, I was never very good in drawing and painting.
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Wolfgang wrote:I suppose it has to do with the quoting - the width used for quoting is shorter than the one for the plain message.
Ah yes - that must be it!
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Poppy »

This is the first time I have seen these illustrations, and though at first I was unimpressed, after Tony posted the Quentin-comparison, earlier, my preference has adjusted to Jolyne Knox's interesting depictions of the Famous Five. Some of the portrayals of some of the strongest and most memorable scenes from the Famous Five made me cringe slightly (especially the second picture on the initial post on this thread). As others have established: the children's faces appear hauntingly blank and expressionless, on several occasions. But nevertheless, most of the illustrations retain the wonderful and adventurous era in which the books were set and that is a very respectable element, in my opinion. The most disappointing nonexistent aspect of Maxey's work, in my opinion.
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Courtenay »

Anita Bensoussane wrote: If I ask myself which artist has given Uncle Quentin the most apt hairstyle and clothes then it's Jolyne Knox without a doubt. The appearance of Betty Maxey's Uncle Quentin (or this particular incarnation, at least!) screams "1970s pop star"!

But leaving that aside and concentrating on artistic technique, Betty Maxey's drawing has a sweeping elegance and deftness that simply isn't matched by Jolyne Knox's ungainly-looking effort. Knox's pictures seem somehow "fluffy", as though they could do with a good hoover! Maxey's crisp lines are far more attractive in my opinion.
I agree entirely, Anita. Knox's Uncle Quentin looks refreshingly unlike Lionel Ritchie, but that's about it. Apart from being "fluffy", he almost appears vaguely deformed, in a sort of squat, frog-like way. Just looking at him, I can't stop myself instinctively thinking "Poor man, he looks quite unwell." :o
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by daanton »

I believe I did put in my two bits regarding Jolyne Knox:
daanton wrote:Indeed. Mostly in the Purnell-published annuals.
BTW, Hodder & Stoughton's hardcover versions (featuring TV covers) of FOATI, FGAA, FRAT, FGTST, FGOIAC and FOKIA, and the one-shot TV SPECIAL published by Proost of Belgium, feature illustrations done by Jolyne Knox (as well as TV promo photos and/or stills). They give the main characters a bit of a childlike quality.
Of course, I was introduced to Jolyne Knox's illustration style when I had purchased second-hand three or four of the H&S hardcovers and the TV SPECIAL.

Still, worth a shout from me.
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Have we seen any of Dorothy Hamilton's Famous Five illustrations? :wink:
Under the Darrell Waters regime there was a strange arrangement where separate licences were issued for hardbacks and paperbacks for a series. A publisher only held onto that licence as long as they kept the books in print. Hodder let the hardback licence slip and lost it to Award in 1992. They initially released the last six books in the series, before any of the others, but when they issued further books in the series they all had a different style cover (the yellow-rimmed series), all 21 books were illustrated by Jolyne Knox, who had illustrated the previous series of hardbacks for Hodder in 1986 (the now scarce blue-rimmed covers which clearly had a very short life as I only have three illustrated in the Cave!). Award then decided that they wanted to make the whole series uniform and they redid the last six books with the yellow rim and these were all freshly illustrated by Dorothy Hamilton - so she actually only illustrated the last six books.

Licencing conditions have now changed completely (though I am not sure when this happened, but probably under Chorion) and a licence is issued for a series regardless of whether the books are hardback or paperback, so you will no longer get a series out at the same time with two different publishers.
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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Poppy »

I thought the Dorothy Hamilton illustrations were quite similar to Jolyne Knox's depictions. I have two books illustrated by Hamilton, and I really quite like some of the interpretations of the children and Timmy. Here's some examples of the internal pictures in Five Go to Billycock Hill:

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Re: Jolyne Knox illustrations (Famous Five)

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Thanks, Tony and Poppy. Interesting stuff about the licencing conditions, Tony. Whether any of the pictures on those three Demon's Rocks covers were done by Jolyne Knox or Dorothy Hamilton, or whether they were all done by other artists, I like them. I'm not keen on the pale pink background or the yellow border, but the actual illustrations are pleasing as long as you don't mind the characters not being dressed in period clothing. I notice the third cover has Demon's Rock - a mistake which also appeared on some earlier editions.

Thanks for uploading the Dorothy Hamilton internal illustrations, Poppy. Those look very good indeed as far as I can tell (and not at all like Jolyne Knox! :wink: )
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