CAWTHORN, James

(1929-)

   UK illustrator, critic and writer. He entered sf around 1954, early becoming friendly with Michael MOORCOCK through a shared interest in Edgar Rice BURROUGHS, and working with him on Tarzan Adventures, a COMIC book ed Moorcock. As Philip James he wrote The Distant Suns (1969 The Illustrated Weekly of India; exp 1975) with Moorcock. As JC he wrote book reviews for NW, but was best known as an illustrator, his work appearing often in NW but also in comics and on occasional book covers. At his best his naive, rough lines work vividly; sometimes they simply seem too crude. His SWORD-AND-SORCERY illustration is uneven. Books in GRAPHIC-NOVEL form are Stormbringer (graph 1975), The Jewel in the Skull (graph 1978), The Crystal and the Amulet (graph 1986), all existing works by Moorcock adapted by JC, the latter based on Sorcerer's Amulet (1968; rev 1977; vt The Mad God's Amulet), the second of the Runestaff books. He co-scripted with Moorcock the 1975 film The LAND THAT TIME FORGOT . The critical book Fantasy: The 100 Best Books (1988) by JC and Moorcock is, according to Moorcock's Introduction, mostly by JC, and is notable for the heavy emphasis it places on early FANTASY, only 24 of the 100 works discussed being post-1955.

   PN