Look and Learn
Encyclopedia
Look and Learn was a British weekly educational magazine for children published by Fleetway Publications Ltd from 1962 until 1982. It contained educational text articles that covered a wide variety of topics from volcanoes to the Loch Ness Monster
; a long running science fiction
comic strip
, The Trigan Empire; adaptations of famous works of literature into comic-strip form, such as Lorna Doone
; and serialized works of fiction such as The First Men in the Moon
.
The illustrators who worked on the magazine included Fortunino Matania
, John Millar Watt
, Peter Jackson, John Worsley, Patrick Nicolle, Ron Embleton
, Gerry Embleton
, C. L. Doughty
, Wilf Hardy
, Dan Escott, Angus McBride
, Oliver Frey
, James E. McConnell
, Kenneth Lilly
, Graham Coton, Ralph Bruce, R. B. Davis
, Severino Baraldi and Clive Uptton
.
Among other things, it featured the Pen-Friends pages, a popular section where readers could make new friends overseas.
A British edition of Conoscere was brought out in 1961 under the title Knowledge and Matthews reassessed his original proposal and approached the Board again, this time receiving the go-ahead to produce a dummy of the proposed magazine.
The dummy was put together by the firm's Experimental Art Department headed by David Roberts and Trevor Newton. David Stone, a former sub-editor with Everybody's Weekly
was appointed editor and, with the dummy approved, the magazine began publication. However, before the new title reached the newsstands, John Sanders replaced Stone as editor.
, "The Dover
Road", "From Then Till Now"), science ("Eyes on Outer Space
"), geography and geology (The Grand Canyon, "The Quest for Oil
"), art (Vincent van Gogh
), nature ("The story of a seed
", "Your Very Own Basset Hound
"), literature (The Arabian Nights and its editor Sir Richard Burton) and travel ("The Children of Tokio
"). The debut issue also contained the first episodes of "Three Men in a Boat
" by Jerome K. Jerome
and "The Children's Crusade" by Henry Treece
and a feature on the founding of the World Wildlife Fund.
The first issue of the magazine sold about 700,000 copies and settled down to a regular sale of over 300,000 copies a week. The success of the magazine has been put down to the high quality of the magazine's content. Historian Steve Holland has said, "The premise of Look and Learn was to delight and inspire the imaginations of its young readers. To advance this principle, the features were clearly and briskly written and illustrated by some of the finest artists of the era resulting in a magazine of unmatched quality."
The first major change to the contents of the magazine came in 1966 when it incorporated Ranger
with issue 232 (25 June 1966). This amalgamation brought with it a number of comic strip
s including The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire
, written by Mike Butterworth
and drawn by Don Lawrence
. The French comic strip
Asterix
also featured. The adventure Asterix and Cleopatra
appears under the title In the Days of Good Queen Cleo, with the Gaul
s turned into Ancient Britons, with Asterix
and Obelix
renamed "Beric" and "Doric".
This amalgamation was overseen by recently appointed editor John Davies who had replaced Sanders when the latter left to edit the short-lived Ranger
in 1965. Davies had previously edited The Children's Newspaper
until it merged with Look and Learn (issue 173, 8 May 1965).
Davies continued the magazine with the same mixture as before (the page count of the magazine having increased from 32 pages to 36 to accommodate the additional content), as did the editors who followed him, Andy Vincent (1969–1977) and Jack Parker (1977–1982).
It was under Parker's editorship that the paper underwent a facelift with issue 844 (18 March 1978) and celebrated its 1,000th issue (9 May 1981). Sales had, however, been declining throughout the 1970s, a decade which had seen the price of the paper rise from 7½ pence to 30 pence due to sharply increasing production costs. Price increases in the early 1980s added a further 10 pence to the weekly cost of the magazine and the editor had to admit that "we simply do not sell enough to meet the very heavy cost of producing a magazine of the quality of Look and Learn and we are therefore unable to continue publication."
Look and Learn folded with issue 1049, dated 17 April 1982.
comic series written mainly by Mike Butterworth
and most notably drawn by Don Lawrence
which first appeared in Ranger magazine
in September 1965. It transferred to Look and Learn in issue 232, June 1966 when the two titles merged. The series ran in Look and Learn until the title ceased publication. It told the story of an alien culture that contained an educational blend of science and Earth-like ancient civilizations.
A reissue of Look and Learn containing the best features and strips is now available by subscription. The first new issue appeared in January 2007 and is due to run fortnightly for 48 issues.
The Bumper Book of Look and Learn (ISBN 978-1-846-05291-0), a 256-page collection of features from the original magazine was released in August 2007. The selection, much of the material illustrated from original artwork, was compiled by Stephen Pickles.
Loch Ness Monster
The Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid that is reputed to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next....
; a long running science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
, The Trigan Empire; adaptations of famous works of literature into comic-strip form, such as Lorna Doone
Lorna Doone
Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor is a novel by Richard Doddridge Blackmore. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly around the East Lyn Valley area of Exmoor....
; and serialized works of fiction such as The First Men in the Moon
The First Men in the Moon
The First Men in the Moon is a 1901 scientific romance novel by the English author H. G. Wells. The novel tells the story of a journey to the moon undertaken by the two protagonists, the impoverished businessman Mr Bedford and the brilliant but eccentric scientist Dr. Cavor...
.
The illustrators who worked on the magazine included Fortunino Matania
Fortunino Matania
Chevalier Fortunino Matania was an Italian artist noted for his realistic portrayal of historical subjects, including nude women.-Life:...
, John Millar Watt
John Millar Watt
John Millar Watt was a British painter, illustrator and comics artist who created the comic strip, Pop.-Life:...
, Peter Jackson, John Worsley, Patrick Nicolle, Ron Embleton
Ron Embleton
Ronald Sydney Embleton was a British comics artist and illustrator whose work was much admired by fans and editors alike...
, Gerry Embleton
Gerry Embleton
Gerry Embleton is an Anglo-Swiss artist, born in London. He is the brother of Ron Embleton.-Career:Embleton began as a comic strip artist, and worked on TV Century 21 in the 1960s. He later began working in children's educational illustrations and then advertising. He also paints landscapes and was...
, C. L. Doughty
Cecil Langley Doughty
Cecil Langley Doughty was a British comics artist and illustrator, best known for his work in the comic Knockout and the educational weekly Look and Learn.-Life:...
, Wilf Hardy
Wilfred Hardy
Wilfred Hardy is a British artist and illustrator who contributed many painted pages to Treasure, Look and Learn and Speed and Power magazines. He specialises in painting aircraft, producing posters and private commissions.-External links:*...
, Dan Escott, Angus McBride
Angus McBride
Angus McBride was an English historical and fantasy illustrator.Born in London to Highland Scots parents, Angus McBride was orphaned as a child when his mother died when he was five, and his father in World War Two when he was twelve. He was educated at the Canterbury Cathedral Choir School...
, Oliver Frey
Oli Frey
Oliver "Oli" Frey is a magazine illustrator and artist who worked on comic strips in the 1970s and 1980s.- Biography :Frey was born in Zurich, Switzerland on 30 June 1948. He grew up fluent in Italian and German...
, James E. McConnell
James E. McConnell
James Edwin McConnell was a British book and magazine cover artist best known for Western and historical subjects.-Life:...
, Kenneth Lilly
Kenneth Norman Lilly
Kenneth Norman Lilly was a British wildlife artist who contributed many painted pages to Look and Learn and Treasure magazines.-External links:*...
, Graham Coton, Ralph Bruce, R. B. Davis
Reginald Ben Davis
Reginald Ben Davis was a British wildlife artist who contributed many painted pages to Look and Learn and Treasure magazines. Davis also drew comic strips and cover illustrations for girls' comics.-External links:*...
, Severino Baraldi and Clive Uptton
Clive Uptton
Clive Uptton was a widely regarded British illustrator and painter of landscapes and portraits.-Life:Born in Islington, London, the son of Clive Upton, who worked for Swain's, the engravers, as a touch-up artist and later for the Daily Mail newspaper.Clive Upton was educated at Brentwood Grammar...
.
Among other things, it featured the Pen-Friends pages, a popular section where readers could make new friends overseas.
Pre-publication history
Look and Learn was the brainchild of Leonard Matthews, the editorial director of juvenile publications at Fleetway Publications which was already publishing the long-running Children's Newspaper. An early attempt by Matthews to launch a new educational title along the lines of Italian educational magazines Conoscere and La Vita Meravigliosa had been turned down by the Board of Directors.A British edition of Conoscere was brought out in 1961 under the title Knowledge and Matthews reassessed his original proposal and approached the Board again, this time receiving the go-ahead to produce a dummy of the proposed magazine.
The dummy was put together by the firm's Experimental Art Department headed by David Roberts and Trevor Newton. David Stone, a former sub-editor with Everybody's Weekly
Everybody's Weekly
Everybody’s Weekly was weekly tabloid founded 1913 in London, England, as The Competitor’s Journal. The publication was widely syndicated in the United States. Everybody's, then owned and published by Everybody’s Publications Ltd., was acquired by Amalgamated Press in 1950 and then merged with...
was appointed editor and, with the dummy approved, the magazine began publication. However, before the new title reached the newsstands, John Sanders replaced Stone as editor.
Publication history
The first issue of Look and Learn was dated 20 January 1962, and contained a wide spectrum of features ranging from articles on history (Rome, the Houses of Parliament, the story of King Charles ICharles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, "The Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
Road", "From Then Till Now"), science ("Eyes on Outer Space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
"), geography and geology (The Grand Canyon, "The Quest for Oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
"), art (Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
), nature ("The story of a seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
", "Your Very Own Basset Hound
Basset Hound
The Basset Hound is a short-legged breed of dog of the hound family. They are scent hounds, bred to hunt rabbits and hare by scent. Their sense of smell for tracking is second only to that of the Bloodhound....
"), literature (The Arabian Nights and its editor Sir Richard Burton) and travel ("The Children of Tokio
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
"). The debut issue also contained the first episodes of "Three Men in a Boat
Three Men in a Boat
Three Men in a Boat ,The Penguin edition punctuates the title differently: Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog! published in 1889, is a humorous account by Jerome K...
" by Jerome K. Jerome
Jerome K. Jerome
Jerome Klapka Jerome was an English writer and humorist, best known for the humorous travelogue Three Men in a Boat.Jerome was born in Caldmore, Walsall, England, and was brought up in poverty in London...
and "The Children's Crusade" by Henry Treece
Henry Treece
Henry Treece was a British poet and writer, who worked also as a teacher, and editor. He is perhaps best remembered now as a historical novelist, particularly as a children's historical novelist, although he also wrote some adult historical novels.-Life and work:Treece was born in Wednesbury,...
and a feature on the founding of the World Wildlife Fund.
The first issue of the magazine sold about 700,000 copies and settled down to a regular sale of over 300,000 copies a week. The success of the magazine has been put down to the high quality of the magazine's content. Historian Steve Holland has said, "The premise of Look and Learn was to delight and inspire the imaginations of its young readers. To advance this principle, the features were clearly and briskly written and illustrated by some of the finest artists of the era resulting in a magazine of unmatched quality."
The first major change to the contents of the magazine came in 1966 when it incorporated Ranger
Ranger magazine
Ranger was a British weekly comic/text magazine published by Fleetway Publications which debuted on 18 September 1965 and ran for 40 un-numbered issues until 18 June 1966...
with issue 232 (25 June 1966). This amalgamation brought with it a number of comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
s including The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire
Trigan Empire
The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, later called simply The Trigan Empire was a science fiction comic series written mainly by Mike Butterworth and most notably drawn by Don Lawrence...
, written by Mike Butterworth
Mike Butterworth
Mike Butterworth was a British comic book writer, best known for his comic strip The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire in the British weeklies Ranger and Look and Learn...
and drawn by Don Lawrence
Don Lawrence
Donald Southam Lawrence was a British comic book artist and author.Lawrence is best known for his comic strips The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire in the British weeklies Ranger and Look and Learn and the Storm series, first published in the Dutch weekly Eppo...
. The French comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Asterix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...
also featured. The adventure Asterix and Cleopatra
Asterix and Cleopatra
Asterix and Cleopatra is the sixth book in the Asterix comic book series by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. It was first published in serial form in Pilote magazine, issues 215-257, in 1963.-Synopsis:...
appears under the title In the Days of Good Queen Cleo, with the Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
s turned into Ancient Britons, with Asterix
Asterix (character)
Asterix is a fictional character, the titular hero of the French comic book series The Adventures of Asterix.The series portrays him as a diminutive but fearless Gaulish warrior living in the time of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. Asterix was created in 1959 by writer René Goscinny and illustrator...
and Obelix
Obelix
Obelix is a fictional character from the French comic book series Asterix. He works as a menhir sculptor and deliveryman, and is Asterix's best friend. Obelix is noted for his fatness, the menhirs he carries around on his back and his superhuman strength...
renamed "Beric" and "Doric".
This amalgamation was overseen by recently appointed editor John Davies who had replaced Sanders when the latter left to edit the short-lived Ranger
Ranger magazine
Ranger was a British weekly comic/text magazine published by Fleetway Publications which debuted on 18 September 1965 and ran for 40 un-numbered issues until 18 June 1966...
in 1965. Davies had previously edited The Children's Newspaper
The Children's Newspaper
The Children's Newspaper was a long-running newspaper published by the Amalgamated Press aimed at pre-teenage children founded by Arthur Mee in 1919...
until it merged with Look and Learn (issue 173, 8 May 1965).
Davies continued the magazine with the same mixture as before (the page count of the magazine having increased from 32 pages to 36 to accommodate the additional content), as did the editors who followed him, Andy Vincent (1969–1977) and Jack Parker (1977–1982).
It was under Parker's editorship that the paper underwent a facelift with issue 844 (18 March 1978) and celebrated its 1,000th issue (9 May 1981). Sales had, however, been declining throughout the 1970s, a decade which had seen the price of the paper rise from 7½ pence to 30 pence due to sharply increasing production costs. Price increases in the early 1980s added a further 10 pence to the weekly cost of the magazine and the editor had to admit that "we simply do not sell enough to meet the very heavy cost of producing a magazine of the quality of Look and Learn and we are therefore unable to continue publication."
Look and Learn folded with issue 1049, dated 17 April 1982.
The Trigan Empire
The Trigan Empire was a science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comic series written mainly by Mike Butterworth
Mike Butterworth
Mike Butterworth was a British comic book writer, best known for his comic strip The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire in the British weeklies Ranger and Look and Learn...
and most notably drawn by Don Lawrence
Don Lawrence
Donald Southam Lawrence was a British comic book artist and author.Lawrence is best known for his comic strips The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire in the British weeklies Ranger and Look and Learn and the Storm series, first published in the Dutch weekly Eppo...
which first appeared in Ranger magazine
Ranger magazine
Ranger was a British weekly comic/text magazine published by Fleetway Publications which debuted on 18 September 1965 and ran for 40 un-numbered issues until 18 June 1966...
in September 1965. It transferred to Look and Learn in issue 232, June 1966 when the two titles merged. The series ran in Look and Learn until the title ceased publication. It told the story of an alien culture that contained an educational blend of science and Earth-like ancient civilizations.
Revival of Look and Learn
In November 2004, the rights to the magazine were purchased by Look and Learn Magazine Ltd. who have subsequently created an extensive website dedicated to the magazine, including a picture gallery with over 18,000 images.A reissue of Look and Learn containing the best features and strips is now available by subscription. The first new issue appeared in January 2007 and is due to run fortnightly for 48 issues.
The Bumper Book of Look and Learn (ISBN 978-1-846-05291-0), a 256-page collection of features from the original magazine was released in August 2007. The selection, much of the material illustrated from original artwork, was compiled by Stephen Pickles.