John Bull magazine

'John Bull' magazine was a similar publication to 'The Strand' and 'Lilliput'.

'The magazine was published by Odhams from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Similar in style to the iconic American magazine The Saturday Evening Post, the John Bull covers encapsulated post-war Britain and employed some of Britain's finest illustrators.' - Wikipedia

Illustrations in the magazine John Bull in 1947 & 1948

March 20th 1948. Jockey scene cover. 20 pages.

April 9th 1949

9th July, 1949

1st May, 1948

23rd June, 1949

"One for All, All for One" by Herbert Hodge illustrated with a Ronald Searle cartoon

April 24th 1948 "Oh to be a Salesman" by Herbert Hodge with an illustration by Ronald Searle

April 30th 1949. "Peak Season for Love" by Herbert Hodge with an illustration by Ronald Searle

November 12th 1949. 32 pages. b/w Ronald Searle advert for Bev coffee essence with a Fireman theme

Early Searle

I'm slowly piecing together Ronald's early, post-war career after he was liberated from captivity by the Japanese and returned to England. Even in the prison camp he maintained a tiny notebook with miniscule thumbnail ideas for cartoons in the belief that survival would mean resuming his career as a cartoonist which had started  to take off just as he enlisted.

This is one of the earliest examples I've found of his cartoons published in Punch magazine. He was twenty seven years old at this point and eager to make an impression in the London magazine cartooning field.

Punch March 5 1947 Vol CCXII 5539

That same month the venerable compendium of contemporary satire published another cartoon

Punch March 26 1947 Vol CCXII 5542

In this newspaper clipping from 1948 we see Searle's early work already making an impression on the Continent.

The following I unearthed in the vaults of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

December 1947


For more early Searle also see Lilliput pt.1  and London Opinion and The Strand

London Opinion

'London Opinion magazine gave Searle some of his earliest commissions after returning from the war. In this May 1946 issue we see how comparitively crude Searle's cartoon style was (these cartoons may well have been based on sketches he made as a POW).  By October 1950 we see his style has become more sophisticated and an early incarnation of the 'thin man' appears- the typical character Searle would later evolve into the Patrick Campbell stories and then Mr. Lemonhart.
The St. Trinians girls too make an early appearance.

Scans from ECC blog

April 1947 (found here)

From the May 1948 issue of London Opinion and The Humorist (source)

 October 1950 (Cover by Bruce Angrave)

The following, from 1953, are from the Full Table site 

For more early Searle work see also The Strand magazine, Lilliput, Men Only and John Bull sections.

The Strand

The Strand magazine, founded in 1891, was a monthly, pocket sized edition by the late forties in a similar format to Lilliput magazine.  It featured many of the same illustrators and cartoonists but Searle's work for the magazine was more realistic than the cartoonier Lilliput work (e.g.. St. Trinians, Patrick Campbell's stories).
Again this shows  the range of Searle's work. Post war he was hungry for any editorial assignments he could find and was proud of his versatility. The work for 'The Strand' demonstrates an avenue that Searle could have pursued had the St. Trinians cartoons not made his cartoon style define him.  He also employed this style for other magazine work of the period including London Opinion and John Bull magazines.

'The Fourth Patient'

A Short Story by John Connell

The Strand magazine, October 1947

'The Fourth Patient' October 1947 pg 84

Original exhibited Chris Beetles' Gallery 2010

'Third Wife Lucky'

A Short Story by Alan Wykes

The Strand magazine, March 1948

'North of Bombay'

A Short Story by Bernard Fergusson

The Strand magazine, April1948

'Not In The Log'

A Short Story by A.E.W. Mason

The Strand magazine, May 1948

Below- The Strand magazine, August 1948

The Strand magazine, August 1948

'Chang's Great moment'

A Short Story by A.H. Rasmussen

The Strand magazine, October 1948

'An Honest Day's Work'

A Short Story by David Cargill

The Strand magazine, November 1948

'The Snake Charmers of Egypt'
A short story by Russell Pasha
The Strand magazine, February 1949

'The Cigarette Case'

A Short Story by Eugene Miller Campbell

The Strand magazine, April 1949