Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Three Investigators

The Three Investigators were a trio of boys who became involved in investigations through the patronage of Alfred Hitchcock. I loved the early adventures when I was a kid... I read the first dozen or so in Armada paperbacks although these had covers by Peter Archer rather than Harry Kane, who was the artist for the original hardcover editions published by Random House which were reused for the Collins hardcover editions. Roger Hall only produced internal illustrations.

If you remember the Three Investigators, there are plenty of websites about them across the internet. These covers came from here via Mark West's website. There is some fascinating material about the background to the series here, including material about the authors and correspondence between the original author (Robert Arthur) and the original publisher.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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3 comments:

  1. Roger Hall, my grandfather, did paint some of the outer hard covers; you can see the difference in the artwork actually: definitely the work of more than one artist.

    This work of his that is being sold. Who has the copyright of it?
    Is his estate aware?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Roy,

    Can you identify which ones are his? I've seen them credited to American artist Harry Kane.

    As for copyright, almost all illustrative and cover artwork was sold outright to whoever was commissioning the piece, so the artist (or his estate) have no claim.

    Regards, Steve

    ReplyDelete
  3. Roy,

    As a massive fan and admirer of your grandfather's work, would you be able to shine more light on his life and career? And also whether any of his original cover artwork for the Hitchcock series survives to this day?

    Regards,
    Ian.

    ReplyDelete

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