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Andrews UK - Mel Croucher

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178 pages

English

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Description

This collection of artwork and words is a unique record of the life-long partnership of Mel Croucher and Robin Evans, and their bonkers mission to disrupt and corrupt an entire generation. The cartoons, the illustrations, the graphic novels, the book covers, the anti-heroes and the femmes fatales - they're all here. The work of Croucher and Evans achieved cult status in the pre-digital world, and is now published in its entirety for the first time, along with the scabrous truth on what was going on behind the scenes.

Sujets

Graphic novel

Informations

Publié par	Andrews UK
Date de parution	23 février 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785388286
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Insπred
the collected artwork of
Mel Croucher
and
Robin Evans
Volume 1
Short Pants

Published in 2017 by
Acorn Books
www.acornbooks.co.uk
an imprint of
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Copyright © 1988–2017 Mel Croucher & Robin Evans
The right of Mel Croucher & Robin Evans to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Any views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Acorn Books or Andrews UK Limited.

Introduction
Welcome to Volume One of a three-volume special edition celebrating the 40th anniversary of the pioneering multimedia company Automata, founded in 1977. This first volume is a unique record of the illustrations and artwork created by the two blokes who were responsible for disrupting and corrupting an entire generation of magazine readers.
Once upon a time, in the pre-digital world, a younger skinny man named Robin Evans came to the attention of an older skinny man named Mel Croucher. Both are neither now. Here’s how Mel and Robin remember it in their own words.

Foreword by Mel Croucher
“Robin Evans was working as a washer-up in a holiday camp on the Isle Of Wight, which is a penal colony off the South coast of England. It was me who plucked him from obscurity, and kept him there. I remember that he carried a huge portfolio of unwashed artwork, which was full of top-heavy dames, windy dragons and priapic elves. We soon discovered we both had the same favourite word, “gub.”
Robin cut a remarkable figure. He was a sort of spring-loaded automaton. His think speed was twice as fast as his talk speed, and his talk speed was very fast indeed. His words came out in short pants. Which is the title of this book. Sometimes his think speed would completely outrun his talk speed, at which point he had the tendency to topple over. Backwards. I never managed to catch him. But I liked him. I liked him even better when I discovered how cheap his rates were.
I was publishing crummy travel guides and radio magazines at the time, and Robin Evans agreed to draw the cartoons and advertising artwork. Later, when I rented my soul to a load of proper publishers and went freelance, I just couldn’t shake him off. I’ve been stuck with him ever since. He’s defaced my book covers, record album sleeves, video games, in fact everything I get involved with, there he is. Spring-loaded, short pants, toppling over. Backwards.
From our fist meeting it was obvious we were going to work together, and enjoy it very much. But I never imagined it would turn into a life-long professional partnership. One day I’ll tell him how much I love his glorious artwork. Not yet though.”
Mel Croucher,
Southsea, Hampshire, 2017

Mel then

Mel now

Foreword by Robin Evans
“It was April 1980, when the communal phone rang in the building where I lived. I was not at all well at the time, and had probably been out of touch with the universe for several days. I picked the phone up, and a well-spoken man, whose name I didn’t catch, said, ‘We’re doing a local radio magazine, and we need someone who can draw. I got your name from our printer. I tried to call you yesterday, but you were in bed.’ Getting better fast, I stuffed every piece of artwork I could lay my hands on into a folder, and went the office of Mel Croucher, because the voice on the phone was his. As soon as I got there, I spilled my scrawlings and cartoons onto the floor. The well-spoken Mel Croucher helped me pick them up.
At that time, I was making (not much) money from drawing cartoon strips for ‘adult’ magazines, and so the majority of my samples featured top-heavy ladies without their tops on. Probably partly because of this, partly in spite of it, but mostly because I was dirt cheap, I got the job!
My work with The Piman was still several years away, and after a year of drawing cartoons for street maps and various radio tie-in magazines for Mel’s firm, I went loony, and ran off to The Isle of Wight to be a washer-upper. After more than two years of that madness, I was lured back to the mainland, where Mel was now creating Pimania, and I was recruited to paint cassette sleeves for the games and draw the notorious Popular Computing Weekly Back Page every week.
That was a lifetime ago, and there are now people I know who are somehow older than me, who at that time, were yet to be born. I’ve continued to draw pictures to the words and ideas of my old friend since the dawn of the eighties, and I will probably continue to do so when we’re in our eighties. I really hope so.”
Robin Evans,
Kendal, Cumbria, 2017

Robin then

Robin now

The Early Years
Automata was founded on November 19th 1977, which was as good a way as any for Mel Croucher to celebrate his birthday. In the beginning, was the word. And the word was advertising. So to generate revenue, Mel dreamed up a bunch of excuses to hang advertising on. These excuses included holiday guides, magazines, radio shows and video games. And he persuaded a few suckers to help him.
This is the first known photograph of Mel and Robin Evans together, and it’s of the original Automata team posing for the camera. Standing, from left to right: Robin Evans (with sketchpad), Christian Penfold (who’s job was to bully random victims to advertise), Mark Bardell (who disguised the adverts with padding), Geoff Roberts (who photographed things for a few weeks then ran off). Seated, Mel Croucher (who was quite good at sitting down). There was also an African Grey parrot called Percy, and an Irish Setter called Rory, who are not in the photograph because animals cost extra. Mel belonged to them both, and often inflicted them on his co-workers.

The original Automata team, 1980
Robin and Mel’s very early work together has been described by people who know about these things as ‘a bit crap.’ It involved advertising for seedy tourist traps in mythical resorts like Benidorm and Miami, with text typeset on an IBM punch golfball, and crude printwork banged out on a state-of-the-ark Heidelberg 4-colour press. Sometimes, if budget allowed, tones and textures were achieved using sheets of Letratone, applied by primitive razorblade techniques.

Panel from The Pathfinder , published by Automata, 1979 to 1981
After a couple of years, when their welcome had been worn out in every cheapskate holiday resort on the planet, Mel looked nearer to home to earn a living, and hijacked his local radio station to force-feed listeners late-night pub quizzes, and later-night broadcasts of computer code. Publishing a radio magazine that nobody wanted seemed like the next logical step, and in the summer of 1980 he gave Robin free reign with all the artwork that appeared between the sheets. Mel would lay out each page with the meticulous precision of an architect. Which he originally was. And Robin would ignore Mel’s masterplan with the enthusiasm of a loony. Which he originally was.

First issue cover Radio Victory Magazine , published by Automata, 1980
Robin has had numerous pen names over the years, including Gremlin and The Goat. In the early days he started to use the alias Hermit, and took up smoking a rancid pipe. Smoking was compulsory by law back then, as was swearing, in which Mel was fluent. Several hallmarks of their future style are evident in these early pages, like putting themselves in the illustrations, insulting their audience, taking the piss out of competitors, and what is probably the first example of their surreal comic strip style.

Hermit’s Cave double page spread from an early issue of Radio Victory Magazine , 1981
With the Automata company now running like a well-oiled rag, Mel set about signing up other radio stations in the South of England, to see if he could pull the same trick using their goodwill to publish bad magazines. All Robin had to do was keep up with the workload, and try not to get sued by the celebrities and Royals who had begun to feature in their work. The cover price of One Britannic Pound for each copy of Mel’s publications allowed for ever-increasing numbers of glossy pages, in order to wipe out any chance of a profit. Variations of this business model would be applied for most of their future projects together.