Animation

On YouTube I found a couple of the animated spots Searle made in collaboration with UK animator Ivor Wood. They met in the 60s while both working at La Comète studio in Paris which led to a fruitful partnership over the years. Wood was known in the UK for stop-motion TV series such as Postman Pat but was also a classically trained draughtsman and was one of only a handful who could animate Searle's line. (In fact Ronald deemed Wood his favourite animator of his style)
A couple of years ago Ronald sent me a tape of all the spots they collaborated on.  I've added some screen shots and the relevant storyboards made by Searle.  Searle fans will recognise most of these ideas  re-work older print gags.

  
Ronald told me they pitched these as artistic spots between commercials- but of course not being commercial themselves the idea never found success with TV networks.

Here we see 'The Addict' animated-I'm not sure if the book was published first or whether the storyboards inspired the book?

I'd love to hear from anyone with more info on Searle and Wood's work at La Comete studio, Paris.

Deadline!

Ronald was fastidious about annotating and cataloguing his work.  Every original I've seen has been marked in pencil with subject or title, date and often the client. No other artist I've encountered has been so meticulous about recording their output-those charged with organizing his archive have most of the work done for them!

He kept a daily journal and was an inveterate correspondent, mostly by mail, then in later life with fax and email. During the 1950s to keep track of the insane, over-lapping deadlines for all the jobs he took on, he maintained carefully plotted charts.

The example below gives us an idea of just how many projects he had on the go at any one time- it never fails to surprise me how prolific Searle was!

'Nobody who visited the Bedford Gardens studio could fail to be impressed by Ronald's 'Deadlines' chart, a thing of terrible and complex beauty involving the interests of Punch, Tribune and the Sunday Express; Lilliput, where the Patrick Campbell series continued (there were Campbell books, too); a sequence of ephemeral magazines of the Left (Circus, Seven, Our Time), in which Paul Hogarth was involved; and any number of more or less specialist publications, from The Bookseller to W. H. Smith's trade circular.'      - Russell Davies

Searle's prolific output during the 50s was formidable but he couldn't take on every offer of work. The social circle he moved in at the time must have yielded countless commissions such as this one from actor Tristan Jellinek:

Dear Mr Jellinek

I'm sorry to be turning down your idea which would have been fun to do - but I'm so hopelessly tied-up with long term stuff that I daren't take another tempting job on!

But thank you for asking me.

Yours sincerely

Ronald Searle

(October 5, 1954)



Commissions like menu covers may seem trivial but were probably quick to do and paid relatively well. I've seen several Searle illustrated menus for private dinners and events.

Omar Khayyam Club menu cartoon drawn by Ronald Searle 1955 Poem by Jack Lambert

Front has a saucy Ronald Searle cartoon & poem signed within print with a poem. Rear page is a Poem by J. W. Lambert ( Jack Lambert who is listed as present).

The Omar Khayyám Club in London was established in 1892 by Frederic Hudson, Clement Shorter and George Whale.  Jack Walter Lambert (1917-86), literary and arts editor for the Sunday Times & author.

-Ebay

Digger's Story

David 'Digger' Barrett, Thai-Burma railway survivor, has passed away at the age of 90. His story is told in depth on Diggers Story and includes a section on Ronald Searle.  Digger possessed two drawings by Searle reflecting their experiences in the jungle.

Digger was an Australian like Searle's friend and life-saving jungle nurse Lofty Cannon 

See also 'Cache of wartime cartoons unearthed'