Jim Holdaway and The Vanishing Lady

This treasure came to me from John Henley, a magician who once commissioned Jim Holdaway to illustrate a puzzle for him.

"Back in the 1960s/1970s, I owned and ran a magic shop in London, England, and was a keen follower of the Modesty Blaise cartoons, not just for the stories but also the style of artwork. When I was going to update a puzzle that we were going to reissue, I contacted Jim Holdaway to see if he would illustrate it, and was delighted when he agreed to come to my magic shop to discuss it. He was a nice guy, and occasionally I spoke to his wife too, but she had a nickname which escapes me... I think it was ‘Chip’. Anyway, after a long, long wait (artists always seem to be under the gun for their work), Jim provided me with the artwork, from which we had the plates made. If you check the picture, you will see Jim's signature and the 1969 copyright — not long before he died.

There are three parts that make up the full picture which relates to a puzzle called The Vanishing Lady. I was always appreciative of Jim's effort to produce this puzzle, and his artwork was first rate (I still have the original drawings).

The puzzle is, in fact, extremely clever, and Jim worked from an old-fashioned model that I used to sell in the early 1960s. There are three pieces of card: one long and two short. The two short pieces, when placed side by side, are the same length as the long piece. The three pieces are assembled with the long strip at the bottom and the two shorter pieces on top. With the pieces thus assembled, you see pictures of 15 pin-up girls. If you swap the positions of the two short pieces, the picture size is the same as before, but now you can see only 14 girls. One has disappeared. Which one, and where did she go?"

You can enlarge the images below to see the puzzle in the two different formats: one with 15 girls, one with 14.

 

John Henley is the international copyright holder of the illustrated puzzle; many thanks to him for sharing his story, as well as this beautiful Holdaway artwork that most of the world has never before seen!
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Holdaway Originals in the Cartoon Museum

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The Cartoon Museum in London sounds like it is well worth a visit, not least of all because it contains some Holdaway Modesty Blaise originals.

"The museum was established to preserve the best of British cartoons, caricatures and comics and to make the creativity of cartoon artists past and present accessible to people of all ages, and it does just that.

The origins of British cartooning are set out here, beginning with the work of Hogarth, Gillray and Cruikshank, and travelling through decades and centuries right up to the present, with examples from the finest British contemporary political cartoonists, such as Matt, Steve Bell and Peter Brookes.

There are original works by Thelwell; Thurber; Giles; Norman Pett, who created Jane; Jim Holdaway, who gave Modesty Blaise her start in life; and Reg Smythe's unforgettable Andy Capp and Flo."

You can read more about it in this article from Adelaide Now.

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Souvenir Press Reprints

Souvenir Press has confirmed that they will be reprinting the Modesty Blaise novels that are currently sold out. Those who missed them the first time round can now complete their collection with A Taste for Death, I Lucifer, The Impossible Virgin, and The Silver Mistress.

I suspect one reason that these sold out so quickly after the first reprint was the use of the original Holdaway and Boldero covers. Some were changed slightly, howeve; compare the new and older versions of the Taste for Death cover, below.

The reprints should be available in the UK in a few weeks; no word yet on when they'll be available in other countries. Keep checking back!
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Searching for Original Holdaway Artwork

There's an annoucement on Sekvenskonst's blog that the editor of the Swedish Agent X9 comic is looking for original Holdaway strips for a new reprinting of the entire Modesty Blaise series. Please check out the blog posting if you have any: the purpose is to create the highest quality reproductions possible.

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