Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Child's Dream

I dunno, perhaps, perhaps, just perhaps this poster might have been an inspiration for Winsor McCay to dream up Little Nemo in Slumberland—coming out several years before Nemo's debut. Y'know, Nemo's dream friend Flip was a sort of a clown . . .

Well, anyway, this is a fun approach for a circus promotion, although the graphic layout could have been done a wee bit better by not spreading all the characters out so evenly.

Barnum & Bailey — circus poster — 1896

3 comments:

LC Douglass said...

Your blog is such an oasis in the desert, Thom. I kind of like the spacing between the figures, there's a naivete and literal mindedness about it that isn't permitted these days.

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Yes, it's not bombastic and in our faces.

Annie said...

I love the child's expression, and the simple attractive border around all of that activity.