Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

Enid used many illustrators in her books. Discuss them here.
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Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

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Eric Robert Parker was born in Stoke Newington, London, on 7 September 1898, the second son of Edwin Alfred Parker (a clerk with Waterbury Watch Co.) and his wife Helen (née Morton). Parker was a London County Scholar attending Northwold Road School where his artistic talent so puzzled the local authorities that they were uncertain what to do with him. The Council had no school sufficiently advanced to give him the scope he required, so the Education Committee decided to award him an advanced scholarship and a maintenance grant to cover the cost of his travel to an art school.

His studies were soon interrupted by the Great War in which he served with the Bucks Hussars. After the war he resumed his artistic career but as a freelance illustrator. His first commission had come in 1915 for a series of humorous postcards but his big break came in 1921 when he placed his first work with the Amalgamated Press.

He found his true metier as the illustrator of the Sexton Blake detective yarns in 1922. His first Blake cover appeared on Union Jack in October 1922 and Parker soon became one of the main Blake artists. His strength, like Arthur Jones before him, was atmosphere. Some of his drawing could look crude—although his characters were always recognisable—but the atmosphere he imbued into his drawings was always perfect for the story it illustrated, whether the dark, sombre gloom of the Paris catacombs or the open prairies. Parker also proved to have a lighter side when required that could bring humour to the illustrations that accompanied 'Tinker's Notebook' and the 'Detective Supplement' pages.
Parker was involved heavily in the early creation of Experimental Art's next two successes: for Princess, launched in January 1960, Parker illustrated various stories by Enid Blyton and, in 1963-64, produced the full-colour strip 'The Daughter of Lorna Doone'; and for Look and Learn, launched in January 1962, he produced 'scamps'—rough layouts, sometimes in colour—of pages so that artists would know how the feature was envisaged. He was to provide similar roughs for other papers, including cover layouts for Valiant and page layouts for Ranger.
http://illustrationartgallery.blogspot. ... arker.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The cave contains an amazing selection of his work.
Often illustrated are books that we are perhaps more familiar with illustrated by their original illustrator.
I find Parker's take on these well known scenes very interesting.

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Here is a selection of his work courtesy of The Enid Blyton Society Cave of Books:
I have really enjoyed looking through all the illustrations Tony has scanned and posted in the cave.

http://share.pho.to/9s6lr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Eric Parker's illustrations are certainly bold and dramatic, though some of the characters' faces look rather zany and wild!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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Re: Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

Post by Courtenay »

With all due respect to the late Mr Parker, I have only one word for his illustrations — ghastly. He makes Betty Maxey look like Rembrandt by comparison!! :shock: :x

This is one of the most hideous, in my view — not only do the humans look like cartoon figures from some dodgy 1960s advertisement, but that attempt at Timmy has got to be the most inept portrait of a dog by an adult artist that I've ever seen:

Image
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Re: Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

Post by Tony Summerfield »

There are some interesting ones in Princess for the Famous Five, which I have discussed with Norman Wright and we couldn't make up our minds whether they were by Eileen Soper (some definitely are) or Eric Parker trying to copy her style!

I am not certain, which is why I haven't put it, but I think the Princess Annual illustrations are also by Eric Parker, he certainly did a great deal of work for Fleetway.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... Girls+1962" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Ah yes - we discussed that illustration once before, and it does look like the work of Eric Parker:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... on#p197814" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I said at the time that George looks as though she's wearing a a Hallowe'en mask. It occurs to me now that some of Eric Parker's faces remind me of H. R. Millar's pictures of the Ugly-Wuglies in E. Nesbit's The Enchanted Castle:

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Courtenay wrote:This is one of the most hideous, in my view — not only do the humans look like cartoon figures from some dodgy 1960s advertisement, but that attempt at Timmy has got to be the most inept portrait of a dog by an adult artist that I've ever seen:

Image
Is it worse than this? :wink:

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Re: Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

Post by Kate Mary »

I was an avid reader of girls' comics in the 1960s (I still have many of the annuals) and I like Eric Parker's illustrations. I agree he is not the greatest artist but it is so nostalgic for me. I remember reading the strip 'Amber Ridd - The Daughter of Lorna Doone', I enjoyed it so much I went on to read R D Blackmore's novel. Thanks for the info. about Eric Parker.
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Re: Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

Post by John Pickup »

I don't mind some of the illustrations but the facial expressions are quite frightening in some cases. I didn't think his dog was that bad.
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Re: Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

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It's all about nostalgia for me, Kate Mary. Thankfully, we can always rely on Pete to stir up our memory banks. :P
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Re: Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

Post by Courtenay »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:
Courtenay wrote:This is one of the most hideous, in my view — not only do the humans look like cartoon figures from some dodgy 1960s advertisement, but that attempt at Timmy has got to be the most inept portrait of a dog by an adult artist that I've ever seen:

Image
Is it worse than this? :wink:

Image
Hmmm... OK, Parker's is the second most inept. :P
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Re: Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

Post by pete9012S »

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More info about Eric here.
I don't think the work he did for Enid Blyton reflects the lifetime of excellent artwork he produced,especially the Sexton Blake covers:
THE ERIC PARKER STORY
http://www.mark-hodder.com/Blakiana/parker/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Eric R. Parker 1898-1974

Post by Rob Houghton »

I don't mind his illustrations, but I don't think they stand up well out of context, or compared with Enid's other illustrators. I like him as a comic/annual illustrator, and some illustrations, such as the one from Caravan Holiday of the children sitting on a hill top, have a certain 'retro' style which I like. I think I would have liked seeing his illustrations in an annual if I'd had it given to me at Christmas as a child, but comparing comic book illustrators to people like Eileen Soper etc, is never a good idea. Parker's illustrations were, for the most part, 'throw-away' illustrations, not meant to stand the test of time.

I find it quite interesting that, given his birth year (1898) he was pretty much a contemporary of both Enid (1897) and Eileen Soper(1905) and yet his style is much more modern than Soper's, even if it isn't as accomplished. 8)
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

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