Tony's COLLIER's style was more direct and jokey with logical spaces in which cartoonish figures made their play for the readers' sense of humour. The Towing Trucks and the Pilgrim covers are highly conventional for him. Only in the Wedding scene (June brides of 1933) does he let rip with his flattening of form and patterns made interesting with caricatures. The detail of the artwork showing the variety of guests makes my point best.

He was particularly proud of the graphic conceit of the wrapping of the Christmas present, December 1933. The similarities between this early Petruccelli and a 1959 Dick Sargent cover pissed him off. He was half persuaded in taking up the cudgels over the plagiarism, had I given him any encouragement.

 

Later covers saw him retreat from single figures which sometimes revealed frailties of drawing.Later, human figures became intricate units of pattern which neverthless retained their narrative purpose in company with each other. It is as if, in 1933, he was scouting round for designs that capitalised on the successful cover concepts already used. Perhaps he saw how elements from the textile designs could be used for magazine covers. I keep thinking of how the FORTUNE style developed after 1933 into those glorious carpet pages that were entirely his own.

 

The middle cover in the top row is obviously not a Petruccelli. I put it in because he had it in his studio and urged me to copy it.