Stella Im Hultberg
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Im always on the look out for second hand books, so yesterday when I walked past a church with a sign outside saying ‘book fare’ I couldn’t resist!
Got this rather nice book; True to Type by Denys Parsons for £2. It was published in 1955. The yellow of the cover and its illustration caught my eye, the drawings in the book are by Haro. Can’t find anything online about Haro, which is a shame as the illustrations in this are really lovely and simple. Plus there are lots of them, way more than other old illustrated books I’ve almost bought before.
I love the mid-century modern furniture in the 3rd picture, and the policeman in the 4th. But they are all great!
In a strange coincidence I saw the exact same book minus the dust jacket for sale at the flea market today for the same price!
The rest of the illustrations and some more photos are on my flickr here
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You follow Leif Peng’s wonderful Today’s Inspiration blog, right? RIGHT?
This week Leif looks at the inimitable Jack Davis, and today he shares some of Jack’s work for Sesame Street. What I love about 1970s, and even 1980s-era Sesame Street was the freedom given to illustrators to draw the characters in their own styles, rather than stick to strict character models and house styles.
We can surely thank the simple shape-driven character designs of the Muppets for that. I still have all my Sesame Street books from childhood, and they are filled with a variety of illustration styles. But still, there’s only one Jack Davis.
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David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” Recreated As Children’s Book
ComicsAlliance readers should by now be familiar with the work of Andrew Kolb. We’ve spotlighted the illustrator’s work a couple of times before, first for his groovy representations of The Walking Dead and other beloved artifacts of pop culture, and most recently for his work with some of comics, film and television’s most famous double-acts like The Muppets’ Bunson and Beaker and Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob, but in the style of carved wooden blocks.
Kolb’s latest work is more ambitious, telling the story of David Bowie’s classic “Space Oddity” in the style of an illustrated children’s book. The tale of doomed Major Tom plays out in Kolb’s bright and retro animation style, giving a face to the legendary Bowie character and making the conclusion that much sadder.
Released in 1969 and considered a classic today, David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” is obviously a reference to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Like the film, Bowie’s song tells the story of an isolated astronaut whose life is threatened by a malfunction. Unfortunately for Bowie’s Major Tom, the character’s ultimate fate is decidedly grimmer than that of Kubrick’s Dave Bowman (Unless you want to get into Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes” or the Pet Shop Boys remix of “Hallo Spaceboy” or the Peter Schilling fanfiction of “Coming Home”)
If Bowie’s telling of the story sounds a bit dire from the start, Kolb’s reinterpretation is decidedly optimistic. Kolb’s illustrations also take their cues from that 1960s vision of the future seen in Kubrick’s films, but with the artist’s distinctly cheerful vibe that humanizes every aspect of the story, not the least of which are Major Tom’s space capsule and Ground Control themselves. Everything looks shiny and new, everybody is smiling and happy, and there’s no reason to think anything is going to go wrong. But of course it does, and in a way that fans of Bowie’s song will find quite clever. Without giving too much away, Kolb looked to the curious lyric, “And the stars look very different today” as a way to depict what exactly went wrong far above the moon.
Read the entire book at ComicsAlliance.EDIT: We should point out that Andrew Kolb also has a Tumblr blog you can follow and drool over: http://news.kolbisneat.com/post/9454284501/full-space-oddity-book-downloading-goodness-hi
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Zombies! Walking Dead! Tony More! We reprinted Every Night I Have the Same Dream, Issue 2, Vol. 1 by Tony Moore.
