The Enid Blyton Society

I thought maybe some people might not have come across much of Will Nickless's work - especially the internal illustrations for 'Mr Icy-Cold'. They are line drawings but also some full colour plates.

I've had this book a while, and have always been simultaneously impressed and slightly 'freaked out' by Will Nicklass's illustrations! He doesn't seem an obvious choice for a Blyton book, and he wasn't used all that often - just twice, I think.

Here are a couple of the colour plates from Mr Icy-Cold.

Thanks, Robert. I hadn't seen Will Nickless's work before but I like that style very much. Intricate and fanciful with a touch of the grotesque. Perfect for fantasy tales!

I love Will Nickless' work. He did the illustrations for a (Collins edition?) of The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald and for many Rider Haggard titles. He seemed to illustrate a lot of historical stories and he did work for Girl and Eagle comics. I think he did the pictures for the Worzel Gummidge books too. Thanks for posting those beautiful plates Robert.

Not heard of him at all, and sadly not keen on any of those illustrations.

At first glance, I thought I was looking at illustrations from a Dickens novel. Definitely not suited to Enid's work.

John Pickup wrote:At first glance, I thought I was looking at illustrations from a Dickens novel. Definitely not suited to Enid's work.

I agree. That first photo is definitely in the style of a Dickens novel...even the characters share similar names - like the cook, who is called 'Mrs Puddimg'!

The illustrations arent to everyones taste...I love them, but I think they would have been more suited to Lord of the Rings or a similar fantasy novel.

Kate Mary wrote:I love Will Nickless' work. He did the illustrations for a (Collins edition?) of The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald and for many Rider Haggard titles. He seemed to illustrate a lot of historical stories and he did work for Girl and Eagle comics. I think he did the pictures for the Worzel Gummidge books too. Thanks for posting those beautiful plates Robert.

I have that copy of Princess and the Goblin also. Looking him up on Google, he had a wide variety of styles. I love his comic strip work - bold and striking.

I quite like those illustrations, Rob, especially the second one. Thanks for posting them. While I'm not sure he would have made a good fit for Enid's mystery and adventure books, I think he'd have been excellent on some of her fantasy novels. I'd love to see an illustrated "Book Of Brownies" done in that style for example.

Yes, that style would be great for Book of Brownies. It also suits the stories from which the above pictures were taken. I don't have the book with the Will Nickless illustrations but I do have a 1990s Award copy of Mr. Icy Cold and Other Stories and it seems that the above illustrations were for 'The Little Green Imp' and 'Chinky Goes Adventuring'. They're tales of fairy-folk, quirky and alarming, and Mrs. Pudding is indeed a somewhat Dickensian, larger than life character.

Never heard of the guy but I do like those illustrations. As others have said they are very intricate and slightly grotesque.

Those illustrations are beautiful. And perfect for Enid Blyton's fantasy books. I have never heard of him before, though.