Dick Deadeye

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. The Ultimate Secret has been stolen. The trouble is, it's so secret that no knows what it is.
Obviously it has to be retrieved, and Dick Deadeye is just the man to do it."

SEARLE, Ronald. Dick Deadeye based on the drawings of Ronald Searle and the operas of Gilbert & Sullivan.
New York: Harcourt Brace Jonanovich, [1975].

First American Edition. Oblong quarto (9 x 10 1/4 inches; 230 x 260 mm.). 74 pp. Profusely illustrated in color throughout.

Publisher's red paper cloth over boards, spine lettered in gilt. Original color pictorial (price-clipped) dust jacket.
A near fine copy.

Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done is a 1975 British animated film musical, based on the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. The comically convoluted plot is a pastiche of many of the operas in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon, particularly Trial by Jury, The Sorcerer, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience, Iolanthe and The Mikado, in which the principal character, Able Seaman Dick Deadeye, is sent by Queen Victoria on a quest to recover the "Ultimate Secret" from the Sorcerer, who has stolen it. Animation and direction were by Bill Melendez, who produced the Charlie Brown television cartoons, based on character drawings by veteran cartoonist Ronald Searle. The film's release was accompanied by the original release of a deluxe-jacketed LP soundtrack recording and a colourful storybook by Jeremy Hornsby, with colourful Searle-inspired art.

"The Ultimate Secret has been stolen. The trouble is, it's so secret that no knows what it is. Obviously it has to be retrieved, and Dick Deadeye is just the man to do it." (dust jacket front flap).

Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI (3 March 1920 - 30 December 2011) was a British artist and satirical cartoonist. He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's School and for his collaboration with Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth series. After moving to Paris in 1961, he worked more on reportage for Life and Holiday and less on cartoons. He also continued to work in a broad range of media and created books (including his well-known cat books), animated films and sculpture for commemorative medals, both for the French Mint and the British Art Medal Society. Searle did a considerable amount of designing for the cinema, and in 1965, he completed the opening, intermission and closing credits for the comedy film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines as well as the 1969 film Monte Carlo or Bust!. In 1975, the full-length cartoon Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done was released. It is based on the character and songs from H.M.S. Pinafore.