David Langdon

Poster designed by David Langdon during World War II

David Langdon , OBE (born February 24, 1914 in London - † November 18, 2011 ) was a British cartoonist and illustrator .

Life and work

Langdon started drawing at the age of four. Although he later began training in "design and decoration" at the Davenant Grammar School in London, he was a self-taught artist. He published works for the first time in the school newspaper. Since his parents had spoken out against the artist profession, Langdon worked from 1931 for the architecture department of the London County Council . In the following years he occasionally contributed drawings for the employee magazine.

In 1936 Langdon was able to sell a caricature (by Benito Mussolini ) to Time and Tide magazine for the first time . From 1937 his work appeared regularly in Punch and the new magazine Lilliput . With his simple but concise drawings with short captions, he hit the fashion taste, which began to turn away from more elaborate illustrations with longer texts. Even so, Langdon was still employed by the London City Council.

After the start of World War II , David Langdon initially worked for the City of London Emergency Services. Around the same time he became more and more famous as a draftsman, who mostly caricatured everyday life in times of war. A series of advertising images he had created for the London transport company under the title "Billy Brown of London Town" was widely used . In 1941 he joined the Royal Air Force , where he rose to Squadron Leader. His fast drawing style allowed him to create numerous cartoons during this time, which enjoyed great popularity and were published in several small volumes, among other things. From 1945 to 1946 he was editor of the Royal Air Force Journal .

From 1946 he worked as a freelance draftsman, whose work appeared regularly in London newspapers or magazines, including Punch and - from 1948 - The New Yorker and Sunday Pictorial (later renamed the Sunday Mirror ). From the 1950s onwards, his work was also featured in Paris Match , The Saturday Evening Post , Collier's and Radio Times . From 1958 he was part of the so-called “Punch Table”, the weekly staff meeting of the magazine, which decided on the content of the next issue. As an illustrator, he also frequently created advertisements, for example for Shell , Schweppes and Winsor & Newton. His drawings have appeared collected in numerous of his own books. He also illustrated the works of others.

After more than forty years, David Langdon stopped working for the Sunday Mirror in 1990 . His drawings continued to appear in Punch until the magazine was discontinued in 1992.

Honors

In 1988 David Langdon received the Order of the British Empire and was inducted into the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce .

Books

Own works

• Home Front Lines. Methuen, London 1942.
• "All buttoned up!" A scrapbook of RAF cartoons. The Sylvan Press, London 1944.
• Meet me inside. Hutchinson, London 1946.
• The Way I See It. Hutchinson, London 1947.
• Hold tight there! A David Langdon omnibus. Hutchinson, London 1949.
• Let's Face It. Methuen, London 1951.
• Look at you. Methuen, London 1952.
• All in fun. Methuen, London 1953.
• More in fun. Methuen, London 1955.
• Funnier still. Methuen, London 1956.
• The Puff and Wuff Adventure Book. Allan Wingate, London 1957.
• Langdon at Large. Allan Wingate, London 1958.
• I'm only joking. Arthur Baker, London 1960.
• How to Play Golf and Stay Happy. Frederick Muller, London 1964.
• David Langdon's Casebook. Rapp & Whiting, London 1969, ISBN 0-85391-131-2 .
• How to Talk Golf. David Langdon's A to Z of Golfing Terms. Eyre Methuen, London 1975, ISBN 0-41334-250-6 .
• Soccer. It's a funny old game. Robson, London 1998, ISBN 1-86105-189-1 .

As an illustrator (selection)

• Cyril Henry Ward Jackson: It's a Piece of Cake; or, RAF Slang Made Easy ... The Sylvan Press, London 1943.
• George Mikes : About everything. Germany Explored. Wingate, London 1953. German-language edition: ... about everything. Objective trip through Germany. Translated by NO Scarpi . Diogenes, Zurich 1953.
• George Mikes: Little Cabbages. On France and the French People. Allan Wingate, London 1955. German-language edition: Allons enfants ... Reunion with France. Translated by NO Scarpi. Diogenes, Zurich 1955.
• Dennis Rooke: Campers Beware! Robert Hale, London 1965.
• Fred Trueman: You Nearly Had Him That Time - And Other Cricket Stories. Paul, London 1978, ISBN 0-09133-680-5 .

literature

• Langdon, David. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd edition. Macmillan, Detroit et al. a. 2007. Vol. 12, p. 479.

Web links

• Portrait of David Langdon in the British Cartoon Archives at the University of Kent

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DAVID LANGDON PASSES AWAY ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.