Following on from the previous post here we have a beautifully illustrated Scare Bears book published in 1988 by Cartoon Aid. I haven't read the actual story yet but the bits I have read do seem to be quite funny and ghoulish at times. There are 60+ pages of story and illustrations. Each 2 pages has the story on the left and picture opposite. The pictures has you can see above are really nicely illustrated by Mike Gibas and Caspar Williams, these are wonderful to look at as there are so many different things going on in the pictures, not sure what the age this book is aimed at but some of the illustrations are quite grisly; It does say on the back cover 'Not Suitable for Adults!', which I think is a nice comical addition to the book as well as having comments on the back from such creatures & Macabre know-alls as Christopher Flea [like it], Graverobber's Quarterly, Doctor Inthahaus, Werewolf World, etc. 'The Scare Bears Monster Party Book' is devised by Graham Cooke and words by Leslie Kett.
12 comments:
Thanks for posting that Paul!
i had never seen it before.The artwork is really good, maybe a bit overpowering in places though!.
I wonder what happened to Casper Williams and Mike Gibas? they did all the Scare Bears artwork, but I can find no trace of them on the internet now? wonder if they are still drawing monsters somewhere...
Hi Peter
Glad you liked this, I forget where I bought this from now. I agree the artwork is a little overpowering, but certainly very stunning. Maybe put some more pictures up from the book sometime. I didn't know Casper Williams and Mike Gibas did all the Scare Bears artwork. I thought there would be something about them on the net. I'll let you know if I find anything on them.
Nice to see this again for the first time in years. I often wonder what happened to me as well. I'm not drawing monsters nowadays, but I am at least still drawing - see www.casparwilliams.com.
Mike runs a design studio called Nomad Graphique in deepest darkest, er, Hertfordshire. Mike & I didn't do all the Scare Bears artwork - as I recall, a lot of it was done by George Nicholas.
Hi Guys!
Mike Gibas here. Thanks for the nice comments. You may be interested to know that the book was originally designed to be a glow-in-the-dark book...and although a few copies were made that way, it was so expensive that it ended up as a standard version. The original Scare Bears artist was scouse legend George Nicholas who was a genuine force of nature! Myself and Caspar kind of 'inherited' the Scare Bears from him. Nowdays I am a mere graphic designer, while Caspar stars still shines brightly as a brilliant illustrator and graphic novelist.
Thanks for the brief wave of nostalgia!
Hi Caspar
Great to hear from you and so pleased that you are still drawing these days. I really like all the artwork in the Scare Bears book by you 3 talented artists. Did you all work together on any other projects?
Thanks again for visiting The Cobwebbed Room.
All the best
Hi Mike
Great to hear from you and pleased that you liked the comments.
No I didn't know that the book was originally going to be glow-in-the-dark, sounds fantastic. Did any of these copies end up in the shops? Would love to find one of those.
Which pages did yourself and Caspar work on, was it all the non-scarebear parts?
Nice to hear that you are both doing ok.
Thanks for visiting The Cobwebbed Room.
Glad you enjoyed your brief bit of nostalgia.
All the best
Greetings Cobwebbers.
What a blast from the past. Together with the other miscreants (George, Mike and Casper) we did quite a few mad projects!
This books did hit the shops and all the profits went to The Swiss Red Cross to fund a refugee camp in the Sudan... noble 'right-on' ghoolies them Scare Bears. We made some full size costumes as well and started work on a book that would be part infra-red photography and part illustration... but the cash ran out!
I've still got a copy in the attic :-)
All the best
Leslie
Hi Leslie, nice to hear from you. Is the Glow in the dark book that hit the shops? Nice that all the proceeds went to the Swiss Red Cross, not many book proceeds go to charities like that. Very interested to hear about the full size costumes you made, sounds great fun. Do you have photos from this time? Would love to see images from the book you still have, fantastic. Shame the funds ran out would of loved to have bought that.
All the best
Paul
Hi there - I'd love to know a little more about this book - what's the best way to get in touch with you? thanks
Hi Richard
My email is:
monsterscud@yahoo.co.uk
All the best
Thank you! I’ve been searching for this for ages! I had it as a child and loved it! Now I have children of my own I want to read it to them, unfortunately I couldn’t remember the name so was googling everything I could think of 🤣 but where can I get a copy?!
Hi Laura
That's quite alright. Nice to hear that you had it has a child. I really hope you manage to find a copy so you can read it to your children. I have also googled the book and I just can't find anything on it at all apart from this post.
Good luck with your search
All the best
Paul
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