Born in
Newcastle, Landells was apprenticed to the wood-engraver
Thomas Bewick. In 1829 he moved to London, and before long managed to start his own engraving workshop. After attempting a short-lived fashion journal,
Cosmorama, he joined with the journalist
Henry Mayhew and the printer
William Last to found
Punch in 1841. Initial difficulties forced Landells to sell his one-third share to the publishers
Bradbury & Evans; after the new owners replaced Landells with
Joseph Swain as chief engraver, Landells responded with a pamphlet entitled
A Word with Punch (1847).
Herbert Ingram consulted Landells about launching his weekly
Illustrated London News in 1842: after a commission to sketch
Queen Victoria's first visit to
Scotland that year, Landells became the paper's first artistic correspondent and continued to supply prints for the newspaper until his death. Landells was also involved in several other magazines: the less successful
Illuminated Magazine (1843–45),
Great Gun (1844, in imitation of
Punch), the ''
Lady's Newspaper (1847–63, then incorporated into the Queen), Diogenes (1853, another attempt to imitate Punch
), and the Illustrated Inventor''. Responding to the growth in the children's book market, he wrote and illustrated several books for children: ''Boy's Own Toy-Maker
(1858), Girl's Own Toy-Maker
(1859), and Illustrated Paper Model Maker'' (1860). Landells He died at Victoria Grove,
West Brompton, in south-west London on 1 October 1860 and was buried on the western side of
Highgate Cemetery. The grave (no.420) no longer has a headstone or any memorial. Landells Road in London's
East Dulwich is purported to be named after him. ==Family==