Hmmm - I can't agree with that! As you know, I hate the caricaturing of human characters - but then Moonface is a fantasy character and magical, so I don't object to him having a moon head. However, many years went by before child characters were drawn in such a way - since 1971 when Moonface first appeared like that, there were numerous editions of Famous Five and Secret Seven etc with human looking illustrations. That type of caricaturing has only been happening for the last 10 years.Daisy wrote:I agree.. it is the same with the Eileen Soper v. Betty Maxey illustrations for the Fives books. For me it is Eileen Soper every time!sixret wrote:I think which illustration we prefer is down to which one we first saw when we were young.
To me, looking at the development of illustrating, Moonface with a 'real' moon for a face was the start of the caricaturing of other characters in subsequent years.
I've never been a big fan of Betty Maxey - but I agree that it tends to be the illustrator we first came across that we like best - for me, with The Famous Five, it was the annuals of 1979 and 1980 that informed my own impression of The Five. I never encountered any other Famous Five stories until I was in my 20's, so I tend to like Eileen Soper's depictions just as much.