Denis McLoughlin (15 April 1918 – 22 April 2002) was a British illustrator who illustrated magazine and book covers as well as British comic books.
Over the course of his career, which lasted 70 years, McLoughlin produced over a hundred paperback covers, about 550 monthly Bloodhound Detective dust jacket illustrations, several Bloodhound Detective Story Magazine and other pulp magazine covers, and over a hundred other book covers. He was best known for his illustrations for British comic books.Ashford, David, The Art of Denis McLoughlin. Published by The Book Palace: London, 2012.Ashford, David, and Denis McLoughlin. The Hardboiled Art of D. McLoughlin. Published by David Ashford: Harrow, England, 1994.Gore, Matthew H. Collector's Corner: Denis McLoughlin, Goldenage Treasury Volume One. AC Comics: Longwood, Florida, 2003. Unpaginated.Gore, Matthew H. (editor) The Comic Art of Denis McLoughlin #1 (April 2007). Boardman Books: Ellendale, Tennessee, 2007.Hertzberg, Francis. Denis McLoughlin: The Master of Light & Shade. Gryphon Books: Brooklyn, New York, 1995.Hertzberg, Francis. Denis McLoughlin Reprint Art in Moring and GT, Paperback, Pulp, and Comic Collector, #4 (February 1992), 84–85.Hertzberg, Francis. Illustrated by Denis McLoughlin: A Study. Published by the Author: England, 1978.Holland, Steve. Denis McLoughlin, Book and Magazine Collector, #102 (September 1992), 54–65.Holland, Steve. The Lancashire Cowboy and the Bloodhound: The Art of Denis McLoughlin, Paperback Parade, #24 (June 1991), 60–62.Holland, Steve. The Mushroom Jungle. Zeon Books: Dilton Marsh, England, 1993.Lesser, Tom. A Conversation with Denis McLoughlin, Paperback Parade, #24 (June 1991), 53–59.Lesser, Thomas M. The Boardman Hardcovers, Paperback Parade, #38 (April 1994), 21–44.McLoughlin, Denis. Correspondence with Matthew H. Gore, 1980–2001.Nicolson, Dave. The Life and Art of Denis McLoughlin. Published by the Author, England, 1993. Additional margin notes added by Denis McLoughlin, 1999.
Biography
Early life and background Denis McLoughlin was born on 15 April 1918, in Bolton, Lancashire, England, where he still resided at the time of his death, 22 April 2002. Always interested in drawing, McLoughlin credits his artistic influence as film, pulp magazines (particularly the covers), and American comics. In the 1930s he collected American True Detective type magazines and American pulp magazines. McLoughlin also sought out the work of Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon, Secret Agent Corrigan) who he also calls an influence. On scholarship, in 1932, he attended the Bolton School of Art under a scholarship and two years late joined Ward & Copley Art Studio of Manchester. At Ward & Copley from 1932 until about January 1940 when lack of business ended his employment, McLoughlin found himself creating product illustrations for catalogues and newspaper advertisements for 10/- a week.
Boardman Books T.V. Boardman, Ltd., was but one of many London publishing houses turning out both paperback and hardcover books, pulp magazines, and comics. Boardman pioneered British reprinting of American comics. During the week of 16 October 1937, the first issue of a Boardman tabloid comic in the traditional British format, Okay Comics Weekly, arrived at newsagents all over England. The content was mostly American newspaper strips and the first issue sported a cover strip by Will Eisner. Okay lasted only until 26 February 1938, or a total of twenty issues. At about this same time, other British publishers experimented with reprinting American comics and imports of the real thing began to land on British shores. It rapidly became apparent that a significant British market for American comic books existed.
However, the British declaration of war on Germany on 3 September 1939, immediately halted the official importation of American comics into the United Kingdom although masses of American comics intended for G.I.s began arriving in 1942. Already with a taste for American comics, Thomas Volney Boardman, Sr., made an arrangement with Everett Arnold of Quality Comics to produce British editions of two titles, Feature Comics (#29–33) and Smash Comics (#7–11) all appearing in 1940–1941. Because Boardman needed low priced titles to please his primary outlet, Woolworth's Department Stores, the British editions reprinted only about half the content of the American originals. To use the rest of the pages, Boardman created two additional corresponding titles in the American style, Super Funnies (#29–33) and Mystery Comics (#7–11).
British Army in World War II Drafted in March 1940, Denis McLoughlin served with the Royal Artillery's 101st Light Anti-Aircraft and Anti-Tank Regiment (later the 1st Armoured Brigade). He managed to practice his art by painting a rhino insignia on the regiment's vehicles and by painting at least 37 murals of different sizes in various military buildings. His unofficial position of regimental painter gained McLoughlin much greater freedom than the common soldier and allowed him several opportunities to practice his art. In the beginning, he painted officer's portraits for 5/- each. Soon, however, a London publisher, Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., offered him work painting book covers at the rate of £5 each. The first of these covers was for Frank Gruber's Navy Colt which appeared in 1943. Other covers followed for Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. which eventually recommended McLoughlin to Boardman Books. Having no work, however, Boardman passed Denis on to Australian-owned Kangaroo Books.
Kangaroo Books For Kangaroo Books (their logo looked amazingly like that of America's Pocket Books), McLoughlin painted a few paperback covers but primarily produced joke books. The publisher paid £18 each for these which included writing about 50 jokes, illustrating them, and producing the cover. After doing the first joke book, probably Laughter for the Home Front, solo, McLoughlin enlisted the aid of his brother Colin (b. 2 November 1925) with the writing chore. Thus began a working relationship between the McLoughlin brothers that would last at least into the 1950s and that produced New Laughs for All, Laugh While You Work, You've Had It, and This Is It for Kangaroo.
It was for Kangaroo books that Denis McLoughlin produced his first comic book work. He created an eight-page adaptation of General George Armstrong Custer's last stand based primarily on his hazy memory of the film They Died With Their Boots On. The story seems likely to have seen publication in an unnumbered and undated threepenny issue of Lightning Comics sometime between 1943 and January 1946.
McLoughlin at Boardman Books Denis McLoughlin's "official" association with Boardman began after his January 1946 military discharge and took the form of a three-year book cover contract. Of McLoughlin's extensive cover work for Boardman Books a great deal could be said. However, in late 1947, T.V. Boardman, Sr., decided to go after a portion of the market for "American style" comic books left unfilled by the departure of the American army and the British governments continued ban on comic book importation. Boardman's re-entry into the comic field took place during a post-war comics publishing boom in England. McLoughlin's contribution to Boardman's comic publishing caused author Denis Gifford to call him "Boardman's one-man art department." Beginning in 1948, Boardman's comic book production followed two paths, inexpensive rotogravure comic books and lavishly produced comic annual publications .
Rotogravure Series Boardman's three pence rotogravure series began monthly production in February 1948. Issues were twelve pages long and used both front and back covers as story pages. They were printed in three colours (generally black, white, and red or green) on clay coated paper and saddle-stitched at the spine. In American publishing, they most closely resemble Will Eisner's Spirit Sunday newspaper inserts. Mildly inspired by Alex Raymond, Denis and Colin filled the first seven issues with the adventures of detective Roy Carson and adventure, science fiction hero Swift Morgan. Although titles changed with each issue, numbering remained consistent to the entire series. Issue eight saw the addition of Lennart Ek's Buffalo Bill reprinted from a Swiss source but always repackaged by Denis. Eventually, he would create some original Buffalo Bill stories for the series but his involvement with other projects for Boardman caused the reprint content of the rotogravure series to increase. Still holding the rights to material from Quality Comics, Blackhawk (at least sixteen issues) and the Spirit (probably only two issues) were added to the rotation of titles. These reprints were always repackaged by Denis McLoughlin. The twelve-page rotogravure format lasted for 44 issues until October 1951. In February 1953, the series numbering continued but with color covers and black & white interiors until probably sometime in 1954. It seems possible that number 61, featuring Blackhawk, was the last issue. Rebound newsagent returns of the rotogravure series were released as Super Colour Annuals (there were three, 1949–1951).
Buffalo Bill Wild West Annuals One reason for McLoughlin's partial withdrawal from the rotogravure series late in 1948 was the introduction of Christmas annuals to the Boardman line under their Popular Press imprint. The first of these, Buffalo Bill Wild West Annual number one, appeared in time for the 1949 Christmas market. The book's production was rushed because T.V. Boardman, Sr., did not decide to proceed with the project until the last minute. Success of the experiment assured that the title would continue and another Buffalo Bill Wild West Annual appeared in time for Christmas every year through the 1961 issue. Both annual series offered a mixture of American comic reprints (mostly from Quality) combined with British original comic stories (almost always by the brothers McLoughlin), text features, puzzles, gags, and games.
After the 1948 issue, each Buffalo Bill Wild West Annual took Denis, who had almost total creative control over the project, about six months to produce. He began with a blank dummy of the Annual and positioned each story and feature to get the layout. T.V. Boardman had to approve each project and a representative of Woolworth's Department Stores, which were the primary outlet for the annuals, had final veto power. McLoughlin obviously lavished his attention on the Buffalo Bill annuals. Here his graphic story-telling reached new heights. As the series progressed the amount of research for each story obviously increased contributing a high degree of realism to the series. By the last few annuals almost all of the stories were based on solid history. "Ghost Towns," for example, in 1958's Buffalo Bill Wild West Annual number ten provides a poignant comment on the passing of the American West with a level of understanding unique for the time and seldom seen in comic book westerns of any period.
Adventure Annuals Series