JIM CAWTHORN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the great illustrators that appeared in New Worlds was the late Jim Cawthorn. Another recent discovery in the basement of The Generalist Archive was this beautiful piece of original artwork by Jim, which is obviously related to the work below, which appeared in the aforementioned subscribers-only issue of New Worlds.

In my search for information about Jim’s life and times, came across an this post on John Coulthart’s excellent blog feuilleton. This is a double pleasure because it gives me a chance to big up John’s blog which is a real delight that I have been dipping into often over the years. A wonderful and informed collection of cult illustration and art, written about from a very informed viewpoint. Its is a beautifully designed site which I highly recommend.

Fans of Mike Moorcock will know of his work. John quotes Mike as follows: “Jim Cawthorn and I have been inseparable for over twenty-five years, sometimes to the point where I can’t remember which came first—the drawing or the story. It is his drawings of my characters which remain for me the most accurate, both in detail and in atmosphere. His interpretations in strip form will always be, for me, the best.”

There is an excellent interview with Jim by David Britton on the Savoy Books site.

As mentioned above, I knew Mike very well during the period I worked on Frendz magazine and was involved with Hawkwind. Jim and Mike did this wonderful comic strip for a special issue on the band designed by Barney Bubbles. An article about this also appears on feutillon

Another piece of work Jim did for Frendz was this wonderful double page spread to illustrate this extract from: ‘An Alien Heat’, Vol 1 of Mike Moorcock’s ‘Dancers at the End of Time’. The large figure on the left of the image is definitely based on Mike. I don’t think this has been reproduced before. It was in the Grateful Dead issue of Frendz  

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