Bull, Reina M
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Artist.
(1924-2000) UK artist and book/magazine illustrator whose works were variously signed Sington (her birth surname), Reina, Janine, and RMB. Under the last byline she produced all of her sf work, which comprised four memorable covers in 1951 and 1952, two apiece for Science Fantasy and New Worlds; aside from being stylistically very different from the standard fare of the time, these covers carried a sexual charge that went well beyond their subject matter – scantily clad women in futuristic situations – and showed considerably more sophistication than roughly contemporary treatments of similar material by the likes of Earle K Bergey and Rudolph Belarski. As well as supplying the cover for the November 1952 New Worlds, she also did interior Illustrations to accompany one of the stories within, "Unwanted Heritage" by Charles Gray (i.e., E C Tubb). Brian Aldiss called her "one of the most remarkable artists to enter the British field"; her style has been compared to that of Margaret Brundage's work for Weird Tales, but the comparison does neither artist justice. [SH/DRL/JGr]
Reina Mary Bull, née Sington
born Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex: 24 July 1924
died Uttlesford, Essex: November 2000
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