Denis McLoughlin

Who was Denis McLoughlin?

Denis McLoughlin was a well-known British illustrator.

After a career that touched eight decades, British illustrator Denis McLoughlin gained a degree of long overdue recognition in the late-1990s for his hard-boiled detective illustrations that graced book covers produced primarily for the London publishing house of T.V. Boardman, Ltd.. It is this work, no doubt, with which McLoughlin will always be most strongly associated. Bio-bibliographer David Ashford claims for McLoughlin, "In the history of British Illustration there is no one who can be reasonably compared to him. He does not fit anywhere into the British tradition." Ashford concludes that when it comes to hard-boiled illustration, McLoughlin is simply the best.

Despite having produced over a hundred paperback covers, about 550 monthly Bloodhound Detective dust jacket illustrations, "scores" of Bloodhound Detective Story Magazine and other pulp magazine covers, and over a hundred other book covers, it is for his work in British comic books that Denis McLoughlin is best known. However, it would be impossible to consider the biography of Denis McLoughlin without touching the history of the Boardman publishing house at the same time.