Harrington, Wallace :: Movin' it out Sale

John Burns - Modesty Blaise

Artist: John Burns (All)

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Artwork Details

Title:	John Burns - Modesty Blaise
Artist:	John Burns (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Interior Page
For Sale Status:	625.00
Views:	124
Likes on CAF:	1 2
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	10/30/2024
Comic Art Archive:

Description

John Burns was born in Essex, England in 1938. He was a self-trained artist with his first professional work coming as an illustrator for Junior Express and School Friend. During the 1960s, Burns worked on TV Century 21 and its sister magazines, including the Space Family Robinson series in Lady Penelope.

During the 1970s, Burns drew several daily comic strips for newspapers including The Daily Sketch, The Daily Mirror and The Sun. These strips included The Seekers, and the more erotic strip Danielle. And he succeeded Enrique Romero on Modesty Blaise during 1978–79.

When Romero decided to leave Peter O'Donnell and the editors sought someone who could reclaim the look of Holdaway, who had given the strip a rather signature look. John Burns's work on The Seekers, and several sample strips, came very close, and he was hired but after two stories the editors decided to move on... for reasons I never really understood. From what I have read, Charles Wintour, the editor of the Evening News simply called up his cartoon editor, Gerald Lip, and ordered him to replace Burns immediately. IMHO Burns's work was closer to Holdaway's than Romero's and this should have been a match made in conic heaven. Regardless, he was followed by Patrick Wright who also drew only two stories (from 01/07/1980 - 05/23/1980), before Neville Colvin took over and drew the strip for the next six years. At that point, Romero returned to the job and continued until the end of the strip.

After that experience. Burns moved on to illustrate TV tie-in strips for Look-in before he made the crossover to 2000 AD (along with fellow Look-in alumni Jim Baikie and Arthur Ranson) working on Judge Dredd in 1991. Some of his proudest work was a 2008 adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, similar adaptions of Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore, and later, Wuthering Heights by Brontë's sister Emily

Burns continued to work in comics until he announced his retirement in October 2023. Sadly, he passed away less than two months later in a hospital on 29 December 2023.

This is daily 4685 from the 42nd Modesty Blaise story arc entitled "Green Cobra" which spanned strips 4648–4737A, appearing in the newspapers from 2 April 1979 to 10 August 1979 - and can be found in the Titan reprint volumes. This daily has Modesty and Willy in all panels with great portrait shot in the last panel. The strip was produced with ink over graphite with an image area of 18.5" x 5.5" on a larger 21.5 x 7.5" piece of art board.... which like a lot of Modesty art, has been skimmed. The art is not signed but Burns's name is on the title stat.

As usual with me, shipping is not included in the price and must be paid by the buyer. I prefer checks or money orders. If you need to use PayPal, I need payment sent as a "gift" or via "Friends and Family". I apologize in advance if that is an inconvenience,

I have been asked if I will ship to Europe... I will, but it is expensive and if you need to use PayPal for an international transaction I warn that PayPal requires items of this value to be insured for full value and requires a signature.

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About the Owner

	Wallace Harrington ( 27 ) Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	December 2004
Last Login:	September 2025
Ebay Id:	wwh27539
Country:	UNITED STATES
On CAF:	Wallace 's Classifieds Wallace 's Want List Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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