Willo The Wisp Annual 1985

Willo the Wisp Annual 1985, IPC Magazines © DN and PM Spargo 1982. Originally priced at £2.95. It’s completely clean but there is a single-sheet insert missing.

Willo the Wisp is a fantastic cartoon series, voiced by Kenneth Williams, that first aired in 1981. It features the denizens of Doyley Woods – including Willo the Wisp (the narrator), Mavis Cruet, the blue-haired fairy, Arthur the caterpillar and the wicked witch, Evil Edna. Go look for it on YouTube if you’ve never seen it – it’s a treat!

The incomparable Evil Edna

Astrognats game

Cut out models – there is a background scene later in the book

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The Original Alice in Wonderland 1988

This edition is illustrated by Eric Kincaid and published by Brimax Books as a WHSmith exclusive. It’s heavily illustrated – a mix of text and illustration and full-page and spreads.

Picked up in a charity shop sale for 30p. I also got Peter Pan – also illustrated by Eric Kincaid (I’ll post that later).

Alice has brown hair in this edition and looks more like Alice Liddell than the blonde Disney Alice.

It’s behind you! Week Four: Peter Pan

Disney – pictures adapted by John Hench and al Dempster

The last of my festive posts about stories that have been turned into pantomimes. I remember going to see Peter Pan when I was a child. I think Anita Harris played Peter.

Peter Pan the character first appeared in The Little White Bird, a novel by JM Barrie published in 1902. Peter was a baby in this story, not the young boy of the later play.

From The Little White Bird
Illustrated by Jean Winslow

From The Little White Bird
Illustrated by Jean Winslow

The story we all think of as ‘Peter Pan’ was first a 1904 stage play called Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. The story was then expanded into the 1911 novel Peter Pan and Wendy.

The following two illustrations are from my copy of The Story of Peter Pan retold by Daniel O’Connor from the Fairy Play by Sir JM Barrie published in 1917 by G Bell and Sons. The book was given to my nana in 1922 and she gave it to me when I was a baby. Sadly the book was slightly damaged in a water escape a few years ago.

Here’s Peter and Wendy

Illustrated by Alice B Woodward

The children meet the mermaids

Illustrated by Alice B Woodward

In 1953 the Disney version of Peter Pan was released. This really cemented the ‘look’ of Peter with his green tunic and tights, feathered cap and pixie features.

Disney – pictures adapted by John Hench and al Dempster

Disney – pictures adapted by John Hench and al Dempster

And finally here are a couple of the glorious illustrations by Anne Grahame Johnstone for her 1988 version of Peter Pan and Wendy.

Tinker Bell

Captain Hook

More Alice in Wonderland

Alice cover

This time it’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with David Hall’s previously unpublished illustrations for Walt Disney Productions. First published by Methuen in 1986 and with an afterword by Brian Sibley. I picked this up in a YMCA charity shop for £1.50. Sadly it has slight water damage, but I’ve been able to separate all the pages and there is no staining.

In 1939 David Hall was commissioned to create concept artwork for Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. The project was shelved at that time (because of the War) and didn’t go into production until 1948. Apparently these illustrations didn’t see the light of day again until this book was published. Hall’s illustrations are fascinating – you can see the slight beginnings of the final Disney film in some places and echoes of early Mickey Mouse in some of the characters (see the mouse below). But many of the illustrations are quite menacing and nightmarish. The court scene is particularly gruesome with its guillotine and vertiginous POV. Brian Sibley’s afterword is very interesting and covers the history of Alice on film up to and including the final Disney version.

Drink me. The bottle is an animated character. In the final film the door knob was animated.

Lobster Quadrille

The court – complete with guillotine!

Caucus race and the mouse’s tail

Peter Pan and Wendy by JM Barrie – Illustrated by Anne Grahame Johnstone

Cover

A little while ago I found a version of Peter Pan and Wendy illustrated by Anne Grahame Johnstone and first published in 1988 by Award Publications Ltd. I am sort of collecting Anne and Janet Grahame Johnstone books – picking them up whenever I see them. I particularly like their attention to period details (especially in the costumes). Many of their fairy story illustrations are beautiful – with their 17th and 18th Century style costumes.

But here’s Anne’s version of Peter Pan and Wendy (in equally lovely Edwardian and fantasy costume).

Peter Pan and Wendy, John and Michael fly to Neverland.

Flying to Neverland

Here’s Captain Hook.Isn’t he fabulous!

Captain Hook

Tinker Bell – very different to the Disney version.

Tinker Bell

Wendy sews Peter’s shadow back on.

Sewing Peter’s shadow back on