Children Reading Comics

Children Reading Comics 1954 oil on hardboard by Peter Blake (1931–).

Two half-length figures seated on a wooden bench, full-face. A flat landscape lies behind them with a small stone church to extreme left. The boy, seated on the left, wears a plain jacket, shirt and a red tie; he holds a black and white comic up in front of him, opened. The girl wears a surgical eyepatch and holds a coloured comic. Both stare directly at the viewer.

This painting is based on a snapshot of the artist and his sister Shirley reading the Eagle comic. Shirley has had first choice of the coloured front and back pages with their exciting strip cartoons which are clearly legible; Peter is having to make do with the inside pages. The children’s solemn expression shows how seriously they take the comic’s escapist world. They both appear embarrassed at being interrupted by the photographer/artist in their attempts to read the comic. Blake’s younger brother Terry, who read comics such as the Eagle, partly inspired the picture’s theme. The Eagle comic was first published in 1950. It was regarded as a respectable children’s publication and had a grown-up format resembling a tabloid newspaper. It could be read like one, but was usually split up and shared with others.

In the 1950s Blake’s pictures are characterised by unconventional pictorial devices. His figures occupy the front of the picture and their bodies are often cropped. In this picture the children’s heads and legs have been cropped and we, the viewer, see the children and their comics at close quarters. Blake was only fourteen when he went to art school. He painted this picture when he was only twenty-two whilst a student at the Royal College of Art. He chose subjects which he admired, loved and were personally significant to him. This picture expresses nostalgia for childhood and is the first in a series. Interestingly, Blake combined a family snapshot from the 1930s with a contemporary comic of 1954 in this picture.

This is also Blake’s first ‘Pop Art’ painting which shows his fascination for the ephemeral products of popular culture. Pop Art originated in Britain and America and was named after popular culture such as advertising and packaging, toys and comics, film and pop stars which inspired a number of artists’ works. It began in the mid-1950s and reached its peak in the 1960s. Blake is often referred to as the father of British Pop Art. He also designed record covers and pop concert posters including the sleeve for the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album.