All artwork by David Souter
David Souter got in touch to let us know that he was the artist responsible for the Letraset Super Heroes Stationery range. He says:
"Back in the day (70’s) I was a freelance artist. I had studied at The Royal College of Art. An advertising agency contacted me and commissioned me to produce the artwork for the contract they had with Letraset to produce stationery items with a cover and a storyline verso. It was the first time Marvel and DC characters had appeared together; they were sold throughout the UK — Hamley's, etc. etc."
Here's a sample of his much more recent work:
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
If you are interested in purchasing any of the items shown here, please message me via the Facebook Action Transfers Page & I will forward any offers so that you can then deal directly with David.
Most of the images below are photos sent to us by David, but some are scans we already had in the SPLAT Scan Archives.
Thomas Salter 1981 Trade Catalogue:
Most of the Super Heroes Stationery items are copyrighted 1978, but some are 1979; therefore we can be sure the range appeared in 1979, after the Super Hero Doodle Kits.
Thomas Salter 1981 trade catalogue
- As you can see, there were nine Super Heroes stationery products:
- (Marvel) Super Heroes 32-page Scrapbook
- (DC) Super Heroes 32-page Scrapbook
- Superman 56-page Ruled Exercise Book
- Hulk 56-page Ruled Exercise Book
- Super Friends 24-page Ruled Exercise Book
- Wonder Woman 24-page Writing & Drawing Book
- Batman 56-page Ruled Notebook
- Spider-Man 56-page Ruled Notebook
- Hulk 50 Sheet Jotter Pad
(Marvel) Super Heroes 32-page Scrapbook
SPLAT Scan Archives
For those of you who don't remember scrapbooks, they generally consisted in bound sheets of coloured sugar paper onto which you stuck your… well… scraps, often using some inoffensively weak glue. In this case, the previous owner had obviously spent some holidays firstly in Wales viewing power stations, & subsequently Moscow. Nothing suspicious about any of that.
SPLAT Scan Archives
As you can tell from the postcards, scrapbooks are pretty big: this one (& the next, of course) is 36x14cm.
(The particular scrapbook shown here is from the SPLAT Scan Archives, so the postcards are not available!)
(DC) Super Heroes 32-page Scrapbook
Photo of Scrapbook by Ed Kelly, to show the orientation of the front & back.
All the stationery has a front & back — or 'verso', as David rightly refers to it — apart from the Hulk Jotter, which just has a front. The interiors are blank. That is, after all, how stationery usually works! Here's the front:
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
…And the back:
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
David's pencil sketch for the front cover:
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
And a preliminary rough:
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Superman 56-page Ruled Exercise Book
SPLAT Scan Archives
Preliminary ink sketch:
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Hulk 56-page Ruled Exercise Book
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
You'll have got the idea by now! David's preliminary ink sketch:
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Super Friends 24-page Ruled Exercise Book
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Front page pencil sketch:
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Back page pencil sketch:
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Wonder Woman 24-page Writing & Drawing Book
SPLAT Scan Archives
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Batman 56-page Ruled Notebook
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Spider-Man 56-page Ruled Notebook
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
In David's front page ink sketch (above), that looks suspiciously like D.C.'s Aquaman. This has been fixed in the final artwork; can't have the Universes colliding!
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Hulk 50 Sheet Jotter Pad
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
Original artwork & photo by David Souter
So that's the complete range. Be sure to contact me via the Facebook Action Transfers Page so that I can forward your offers to David, & then you can deal with him directly.
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