'The Captain from Castile'.
Reginald Heade was a mid-20th century British illustrator of sensational paperback novels, who flourished in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. He also had a brief career in comics, working for the magazines Knock-Out and Comet, both by Amalgamated Press. He also published under the name Cy Webb. Most of his output were realistically-drawn historical adventure comics or biographical comics.
Cover illustrations for Michael Storme's 'Hot Dames on Cold Slabs' and Hank Janson's 'Vengeance'.
Early life and career
Reginald Cyril Webb (Reginald Heade's real name) was born in 1901 in Plaistow, Essex, England. Heade was mostly praised as one of the best cover illustrators for British pulp fiction books of the 1940s and 1950s. He is best-known for his painted covers with scantily clad ladies for Hank Janson's thriller novels at Gaywood Press. He also worked for Raymond and Lilian Locker's Archer Press, providing covers for Paul Renin's romance novels and gangster books by Michael Storme, Gene Ross and Spike Morelli. In 1933, he began producing covers for the popular magazine Britannia and Eve, and continued to do so for a decade.
Comics for Knock-Out
Near the end of the 1940s, Heade drew realistically-drawn adventure comics for the magazine Knock-Out, namely 'The Saga of Eric the Red' (1949) and 'The Captain from Castile' (1949). The final installments from the latter story are, however, credited to Norman Pett. Together with Jos Walker, Eric Parker, Alfred Taylor, Roland Davies, Graham Coton and Mike Dorey, Head also drew comics based on novelist Harry Blyth's detective character 'Sexton Blake', though in his case, it was only one single episode: 'Sexton Blake vs. the Astounding John Plague' (1949).
'Sexton Blake', 1949.
Comics for Answers and Amalgamated Press
In 1952, Heade drew the comic 'Mary Read – Soldier and Pirate' for the Saturday paper Answers. It told the story about a real-life early-18th century female pirate who spent most of her life masquerading as a man. Heade continued to do occasional fill-in work on other Amalgamated Press titles in the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1954, he drew a 'Robin Hood' serial strip for Amalgamated Press' Sun. This was reprinted in 16 full-color pages in the 'Robin Hood Annual 1958' (1957), shortly before the artist's death.
Death and legacy
In 1957, Head passed away in West Ham. It has not always been easy to pinpoint to which comics he contributed, because most stories were printed without credits. When trying to recognize the graphic style by eye, his work has often been confused with artwork by Mike Hubbard or W. Bryce Hamilton. For instance, some sources credit Heade for drawing 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' in Knockout (1947), while this was actually Hubbard. He is also often listed as the artist of 'Journey to Jupiter' (1952-1953) in Comet, while this story was drawn by Hamilton instead.
Books about Reginald Heade
Stephen James Walker compiled a lavishly illustrated overview of Heade's work as a pulp illustrator and comic artist under the title 'The Art of Reginald Heade' (Telos Publications, 2016).
'Mary Read'.