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WILHELM M.BUSCH was before WWII and after the war in the early fifties a PRESSE-ZEICHNER, a drawing artist hired by a newspaper to cover events with drawings where no photographs were available. today you still have one job like that left, the courtroom illustrator.
the first 2 illustrations are an example for that, the next is from his time as a soldier in 1944, a pen+ink drawing. the following 2 are from 1972 and 1979.
someone asked about his technique, well – he probably did some rough outline sketch in pencil or light ballpointpen and drew right on top of that in ink. his final illustration is so loose that I can’t imagine he traced a very elaborate sketch. in some cases you can still see the sketchy lines of his rough. the classroom drawing was just ‘written’ down like that without any sketch, I am sure. I have a lot more to come form work catalogues where the reproduction quality is much better.

© wilhelm m.busch

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JOHANNA SPYRI, 1827 – 1901, was a swiss author of children stories. probably her best known book is HEIDI, what some of you might remember as a japanese ANIME series – HEIDI, GIRL OF THE ALPS, produced in 1974. the series was directed by ISAO TAKAHATA and – HAYAO MIYAZAKI did the scene design and the layout!
WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated in 1948 a collection of 6 stories by johanna spyri- AUF BERGESHOEHEN -, HEIDI AUF DER ALP was one of them. the illustrations are all drawn in pen and ink, but you can still see the influence of the woodcut technique, wilhelm busch concentrated on for a while during his studies.

© wilhelm m.busch / buchdienstverlag w.schmidt

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in 1976 WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated a collection of short stories around horses in a paperback edition of the german wilhelm heyne-verlag, DAS PARADIES DER ERDE ( paradise on earth ). there are dozens of very small printed illustrations in the book, done in pen and ink, ballpoint pen and pencil.

© wilhelm m.busch / heyne verlag muenchen

magic violin

WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated in 1950 the novel DIE ZAUBERGEIGE – THE MAGIC VIOLIN, written by KURT KLUGE and published by deutsche buchgemeinschaft. below compilations of most of the beautiful pen and ink illustrations.

© wilhelm m.busch, deutsche buchgemeinschaft

gripsholm castle

KURT TUCHOLSKY, 1890 – 1935, wrote the multi-layered allegorical lovestory GRIPSHOLM CASTLE ( schloss gripsholm ) in 1931, predicting the rise of national socialism in germany. the ERNST ROWOHLT VERLAG published a new edition of the novel in 1964, illustrated by WILHELM M.BUSCH. different from most of his illustration work BUSCH created here caricatures, effortless written down in pen and ink.

© wilhelm m.busch / rowohlt verlag hamburg

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the following pen+ink illustrations were created by WILHELM M.BUSCH in 1969 for the novel THE KING OF THE CASTLES ( DER SCHLOSSHERR ) written by VICTORIA HOLT.

© wilhelm m.busch / wolfgang krueger verlag stuttgart

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the following pen+ink drawings were created by WILHELM M.BUSCH for the novel collection INGELHILD written by ALFRED LUECK in 1948. when you compare these early published illustrations with the ones BUSCH did later in the sixties you will see a big difference in style. his earlier work looks much more like woodcuts, what he actually studied at the art-academy in berlin. his later work is much lighter, even in the composition of the characters and the choices of backgrounds. but nevertheless his older work is beautiful as well.

© wilhelm m.busch / jung-stilling verlag kreuztal

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WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated in 1965 the novel MEMOIRS OF A MADMAN, written by one of the greatest western novelists GUSTAVE FLAUBERT ( 1821 – 1880 ). the book was published by heinrich ellermann verlag, hamburg. different from busch’s usual ballpoint-pen drawings, these illustrations are pen and ink.

© wilhelm m.busch / heinrich ellermann verlag