James
Cawthorn (1929-2008) Artist
Jim Cawthorn is
best known to Burroughs fans for his early work on the British fanzine
Burroughsiana, edited by Michael Moorcock from 1956-1958, and for
Erbania, edited
by Pete Ogden during the same period. He also illustrated for Tarzan
Adventures, a series of Tarzan comics interspersed with other stories
and articles, also edited by Michael Moorcock. The series was reprinted
by Savoy in 1977.
American Burroughs fans were generally unfamiliar with the British Tarzan
publications before the Internet came onto the scene, but they are certainly
familiar with the film production of The
Land That Time Forgot, for which Jim Cawthorn and Michael Moorcock
wrote the screenplay.
This Amicus film starred Doug McClure, making his first appearance in
a British film under the auspices of American International Pictures, Inc.
Cawthorn is reported to have been dissatisfied with the changes made to
their screenplay which was written and signed on October, 1973, and which
was filmed a year later. Besides changing names, characters and situations,
they blew up Caprona which did not sit well with most American fans.
Cawthorn had produced many unpublished comic strips, including The
Land That Time Forgot, and was working on A Princess of Mars
when he died on December 2, 2008. He and Moorcock edited Fantasy: The
100 Best Books, published in London by Xanadu in 1988.
Cawthorn had many admirers, including Tarzan artist Burne Hogarth who
wrote that the young artist’s work had a quality "most compelling and fascinating...
He has an authentic talent." Of the many Cawthorn illustrations available
for viewing, we found an early (1958) original in the Burroughs Memorial
Collection which he drew for one of Maurice B. Gardner’s Bantan books,
so we include it on this page (shown below).