[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] indeedsir_backup
Oh, it's going to be hard to follow up Henry Raleigh's Right Ho, Jeeves illustrations! In the meantime, here's something a little more low-key, but also highly entertaining: "The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace", illustrated by our friends A. W. Mills and T. D. Skidmore. 



Let's start with some Mills:

You wound me, sir.

Look, it's the old Etonian spats! I'm sorry, Bertie, but I'm going to have to side with grumpy Jeeves on this one. You look like you have a couple of wasps strapped to your feet. You're looking pretty sharp otherwise, though!

Meanwhile, Skidmore decides to kick things off by introducing Claude and Eustace (and poor long-suffering Marion):

Marion contemplates a restraining order.
(The "one Britisher who sees the humor in his own countrymen", eh? I think Ronald Frankau might have something to say about that.)

I'm always fascinated by which particular scenes these guys choose to illustrate. When the same story is illustrated by two different people, there's generally at least a little overlap, but I don't think there's a single scene in common in this case.

Dang, there are a lot of pictures of Bertie in bed in these stories:

Poor Bertie can never get any rest.

Bertie is ridiculously adorable in this drawing. Claude and Eustace aren't bad either. *waggles eyebrows*

Claude and Eustace get themselves expelled:

I like the hat flying off.

Opportunity of a lifetime indeed! Meanwhile, back in The Strand, Marion complains to Bertie about his creepy cousins:

Nor should she have!

And that's all from Mills. Let's have our first look at Aunt Agatha:

Bertie gets jellified.

I think I've finally realized what bothers me most about Skidmore's Bertie. It's not his age or even his mustache. It's the fact that he always looks so dour and world-weary. I mean, he has reason to here, of course. But he always looks that way. Mills's Bertie radiates a sweet, wide-eyed energy; Raleigh's Bertie exudes a kind of lanky, insouciant elegance; even Leete's goony-looking Bertie has a certain goofy spunk about him. But Skidmore's Bertie just looks depressed all the time.

Party time with Claude and Eustace:

Bertie, you old stick-in-the-mud.

Hey, look, it's Uncle George!

Uncle George freaks out.

Is this the same Uncle George who married the barmaid?
Other entries:
"Comrade Bingo"
"Bertie Changes His Mind"
"Leave It to Jeeves"
Right Ho, Jeeves
"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count"
"Jeeves in the Springtime"

Date: 2011-12-17 05:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ironicbees.livejournal.com
Jeeves's stance/expression in the first image is hilarious to me. He looks like he's going to go stomp off like a kid and sulk.

Agreed about Skidmore's Bertie. He does seem pretty dour, and if there's one thing Bertie's not it's that. And that moustache...I know he's not the only artist who consistently puts Bertie in one, but it really annoys me, because the stories make it very clear that Jeeves won't let Bertie have one.

I like Mills' Bertie. He's cute. :)

Isn't Uncle George supposed to be really fat?

Date: 2011-12-17 06:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ironicbees.livejournal.com
The perpetual 'tache takes away from the conflicts he and Jeeves have over his growing one. I could forgive it if his Bertie weren't so gloomy, though. He looks like he should be a bank manager or something.

I just checked "Indian Summer of an Uncle", and Bertie says that "right back to the time when I went to school, this bulging relative had been one of the recognized eyesores of London. He was fat then, and day by day in every way has been getting fatter ever since..." But to be fair to Skidmore, I don't think Uncle George's size is mentioned in Delayed Exit.

Date: 2011-12-17 07:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hazeltea.livejournal.com
I like how Bertie's forehead slopes backwards like a collie or one of those other breeds of really stupid dogs loool.

Overall, though, I approve of this art, and amazed and grateful that you have so much of it to share <3

Date: 2011-12-17 07:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymoondancer.livejournal.com
YAY, more illustrations!!

I agree with you on Skidmore's Bertie, he looks like a depressed basset hound or something.

I also think a lot of Skidmore's drawings fail to capture the craziness of the stories. Like the twins and Marion in the third picture from the top. There's nothing wrong with it, exactly, but you don't really get a sense of the utter inappropriateness of the Wooster twins and the desperation of Marion in having to deal with these two bimbos. His style just seems so, I don't know, literal? Like he has to illustrate something really obviously wacky (like Claude & Eustace getting expelled--which I do love) to make it funny, instead of using body language or stylistic choices to make an illustration funny.

The Mills' picture of Claude and Eustace glaring at each other over Bertie's bedrailing is a perfect example of making exaggeration and just the sheer inappropriateness of a situation work. I am liking Mills' Bertie more and more. :D

On a sidenote, is "Britisher" even a word? I thought it was "Briton"? Wow, and Wodehouse is the only one? Poor Noel Coward . . .

Also, those spats, dear God. DEAR GOD, BERTIE. YOU HAVE SUCH TERRIBLE TASTE.

I am rapidly becoming fascinated by how these various artists draw the Wooster feet. Raleigh gave him positively petite, girly trotters.

Date: 2011-12-17 07:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com
you pretty much summed up my feelings on these illustrations.
plus YAY RAINBOW DASH!

Date: 2011-12-18 03:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymoondancer.livejournal.com
Jeeves frozen glare at the spats just says it all. I think Bertie must have subconsciously realized they were destined for "destruction" even at that early stage.

I'm pretty sure I've heard "Britisher" before, but it does sound weird. It sounds like some kind of comparative. ("I'm Britisher than you!")

This seems topical enough to post in reply:



Nothing improves a thing like making it a bit Britisher! :D

Date: 2011-12-17 09:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gini-baggins.livejournal.com
LOL Jeeves is actually cringing xD poor fellow.

It's that stern, dark look about Bertie that puts him so out of character. I don't blame him for his moon when confronted with Aunt Agatha, but even with a b. and s.? Something is wrong with this Bertie indeed.

Date: 2011-12-17 09:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erynn999.livejournal.com
I find it odd that they tend to make Bertie much older than he's generally stated to be in the stories, and that they so often give him a mustache. I really really can't see a Bertie who looks like he's in his mid-40s, or one who looks so grumpy. Seriously. Even Claude and Eustace look considerably older than a couple of Oxford kids. What is with that?

Date: 2011-12-18 07:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erynn999.livejournal.com
Yeah, it really puts paid to the "young" master. And Bertie was not using that in the least bit ironically.

Date: 2011-12-18 08:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ironicbees.livejournal.com
Indeed. This (http://www.ebay.com/itm/CAT-NAPPERS-JEEVES-AND-BERTIE-STORY-P-G-WODEHOUSE-/290565433171#ht_521wt_905) is the version of "The Cat-nappers" that my library has. I think that's the oldest looking Bertie I've ever seen (assuming that guy with the pipe is supposed to be him). :(

Date: 2011-12-18 02:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] storyfan.livejournal.com
"Even Claude and Eustace look considerably older than a couple of Oxford kids. What is with that?"

That was my immediate thought — why are a couple of thirty-year-olds still mucking about at Oxford?

I like the younger illustrations of Bertie — they're so much more charming and more in need of Jeeves' assistance.

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