John Glashan (1927–1999)

Ah, John Glashan - an extraordinary and under-rated illustrator and black humourist. Although the cartoons in this collection are forty years old, they're still horribly pertinent. (The Junior Junkie Kit! If you're six, you're old enough for a fix!) Something dark and unique was going on in Glashan's mind - he obsessed about derelicts and meths, but later progressed to an series of endpieces in the Observer magazine, which purported to tell some sort of story, a distant cousin to Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and did so in magnificent, imaginative washes of colour showing vast, imaginary palaces and pleasure grounds. Anything by Glashan is well worth grabbing - and typically, very rare.… (mais)