Josh Kirby

Ronald William "Josh" Kirby (27 November 1928 – 23 October 2001) was a commercial artist born on the outskirts of Liverpool in the town of Waterloo, Lancashire, United Kingdom. With a career spanning across 6 decades he is world renowned as the original artist for Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, as well as some of the most critically acclaimed science fiction book cover illustrations.

Born Ronald William Kirby at 58 Argo Road, Waterloo (at that date this was in the sub-district of Crosby, County of Lancaster), Liverpool, to Charles William and Ellen (née Marsh) Kirby. Father's occupation at the time of birth: ship owner's freight clerk. Kirby's parents ran a grocery shop. Kirby lived at this address throughout his period at Liverpool's School of Art.

Josh’s prolific career seemed written in the stars when Ronald William Kirby dreamed of his future career. He was seven years old when he made the trade sign that said “KIRBY - ARTIST”

As a boy, Kirby found a magazine for young people called The Modern World, which pictured a valley of giant insects and futuristic vehicles. Science fiction fascinated him from that point on. It was the genre in which "the realm of the possible was extended."

As a young adult he spent six years studying various art techniques at the Liverpool City School of Art (1943-1949), gaining a certificate and diploma in drawing and painting respectively. It was here that his Old Master-style portraits earned him the nickname "Josh" when colleagues likened his work to that of the great painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. The nickname stuck and, from that time forward, few people ever called him by his original name.

After the Liverpool City Council commissioned him to paint the Mayor in 1950 - quite an honour for a twenty two year old artist at the beginning of his career - Kirby ultimately decided against portraiture as a career. That decision proved to be history in the making, launching a prolific career that spanned six decades.

His professional freelance career started in the early 1950s when Kirby illustrated film posters for studios in both London and Paris. His first published cover art was for the 1955 science fiction novel Cee-Tee Man, by Dan Morgan. His next milestone was in 1956 when he created a ‘Bond’ with the greatness that was to follow him throughout his career, by illustrating the cover for Ian Fleming's Moonraker.

Kirby began to produce artwork for book covers ranging from westerns and crime novels to non-fiction, as well as painting covers and interior art for science fiction magazines His groundbreaking illustrations have graced the covers of some of the greatest literary science fiction, fantasy and horror books of the 50’, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The renowned authors list reads like a veritable who’s who, including Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Hitchcock, Guy de Maupassant, Jimmy Sangster, Richard Matheson, Ursula Le Guin, Jack Kerouac, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs Robert Heinlein. H. G. Wells, Robert Rankin, Craig Shaw Gardner, Stephen Briggs, Ron Goulart, Brian Aldiss . . . and of course, Sir Terry Pratchett.

...
Wikipedia