"Dad, What Did You Do in the War?" "I Slept, Son, I Slept."

Speaking of my dad, and WWII, that's him below, full page in Life magazine, February 22, 1943, bless his tired soul. 

And the newspaper clipping verifying it:

Christmas Gifts

Georges Lepape — Vogue — December 7, 1929

Special Number

An Art Nouveau cover from 105 years ago:

Vogue — December 5, 1907

Oh, How the Twenties Did Roar

Das Plakat — 1921

If You Can Read This . . .

Guy Hoff, an under-valued illustrator of yester-century, shows us cute usage of a now common phrase, pre-bumper-sticker. 

When was the first bumper-sticker used, anyway?

Guy Hoff — Judge — November 21, 1925

Momentous Time

This Time magazine cover has been sitting on my desk for the last couple of months, waiting to be posted right on August 30. I've been so tied up with stuff that I overlooked it. But seeing as it's been sitting around in my image morgue for over 40 years, I'm not going to wait until next August 30 to pull it up.

1968 was a momentous time by any reckoning, with assassinations, the war in Viet Nam, the riotous conventions, world-wide protests, the capture of the 'Pueblo' by the North Koreans. And the cold war exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, as starkly and powerfully portrayed on the Time cover, from a time when Time's covers were powerful most every week.

Louis Glanzman — Time — August 30, 1968

Great Chassis

What a beautiful cover. Where are the modern equivalents?

Scott Evans — Liberty — 1936

What a great chassis.

Erasing the Line

George Lucas — best hair beHIND the camera!

Forbes — 1996

A Size Smaller

Now I'm not giving credence to this modern stereotyping, but it certainly showed up any number of ways in the 20th century.

Judge — September 1925

Pure

Simple and pure elegance.

Joseph Platt —British Vogue —1920

Sweetheart

What a sweetheart of a cover!

Henry Clive — Picture-Play Magazine — January 1923

Elegant

When magazine covers were elegant . . .

Erté — Harper's Bazar — August, 1922

Fabric of Our Destiny

Sometimes it seems that the fabric of our destiny is woven by the gods, with all the complex arrangements of the fibers of our existence lifted, adjusted, shuttled, threaded and bundled by the beams, heddles and harnesses of the loom of life.

Bertha Lum — Weaving Goddess — 1930

Bertha Lum — Fortune — July 1933

Nineteenth century print of Japanese loom

What's to be Done?

The basic question that I have been aiming for the last few posts was, 'what's to be done, to make the world a better place—for EVERYone?' Just a minor little question, ey? We all see imperfections of the world machine, maybe on a daily basis, especially if you pay attention to the news.

As some folks point out, people are basically good. The daily news just shines a spotlight on the few bad ones. Yes. But. There are MANY of the basically good that are suffering at the hands of the 'few' bad ones. We have justice systems constantly at work, trying to round up the bad ones and put them where they can do no harm. And the justice systems are overwhelmed by the numbers of people trying to infringe on the rights of others.

There are comparatively few 'bad' people in the world (though by numbers, still very many), but there are MAJOR numbers of people making bad decisions, many times oblivious to the harm being perpetrated. For instance, child abuse comes in many forms, subtle or not, that can affect a victim for a lifetime. Or likewise for someone to drink and drive and cause horrendous harm. Bad decisions.

What's to be done?

I have no delusion that my words will make any difference. So many people, so much more qualified than I, have written with so much more wisdom & authority than I, and been listened to more intently than I — and STILL made little difference in the scheme of things. But they made the effort, and so must I. Even so, nothing I say is unique or new, but I have daydreams that by getting enough people to put their thought to it, it could be revolutionary. I admit, that's a daydream.

What's to be done?

I have been living a philosophy for a while now, that advises me to live for the 'now'. Do not be regretful of the past, do not be concerned for the future. With day to day situations that philosophy works fairly well, keeping my mind in a peaceful state.

But in reading some current literature about the many ways the world can go wrong, perhaps putting ourselves on the verge of extinction in a very short amount of time—well, I have to put some thought into the 'future', thinking perhaps of our '7th generation of descendants.'

The Future of the World

A portrait of our daughter at the age of 8

Above, Copyright ©2000 Haller-Buchanan — All Rights Reserved

That begins with ourselves and our children. We and they make the future. We need fewer bad people and fewer bad decisions.

What's to be done?

This.

We need to create a world that is better for our children. That involves love and compassion, lack of superstition, an abundance of good decisions, a sense of humor and perhaps new ways of thinking and solving problems.

The world DOES have an abundance of love and compassion, there's no doubt about it, even Hitler had his moments. The world is FULL of superstition in ways we sometimes don't even recognize, beliefs that cripple our full potential for love and compassion. Good decisions, well, I know I haven't made nearly as many as I should have. How about you? A sense of humor—yes, most of us have that in good quantity—but some of us can't laugh at ourselves and then get so riled up that harm can be done.

New ways of thinking and problem solving— aye, there's the rub. That, I believe, is what's to be done. Education: radical thoughts on teaching our kids AND ourselves. That is my thread of thought for a few more posts.

Matt Groening — Newsweek — 1990s

Don't forget that sense of humor!

Make a Difference

This cover image is straight science, but somehow has a flavor of science fiction. I'm in a strange mood, but to me, the cover is frightening and hopeful all at once, as the universe itself seems — frightening and hopeful. Lonely, but not alone.

We must work together to make our time on this planet mean something. We must stop hurting each other. We must make a difference to the universe. We must lift the veil of ignorance. We must believe in ourselves.

Ervine Metzl — Fortune — July, 1932

Great Stylist

Some June covers by JC Leyendecker, the bottom cover from 83 years ago today. Wotta great stylist.

J.C. Leyendecker — June 2, 1928

J.C. Leyendecker — June 8, 1929

J.C. Leyendecker — June 29, 1929

Got a Beat and You can Read to It

Did any of you stray cats score yersef a copy of Bop, when it come out in '82? Cuz, only a few copies sold and there never wuz a 2nd ish.

John Pound — Bop — 1982

Background for Fleshtones

Surprisingly, green makes a lovely background for fleshtones.

Elle — October, 2000

Sorry, but I de-blurbed all the pesky non-pertinent cover blurbs.

Theme of Dominant Green

It seems I've got a little theme of dominant green going on here.

The Dance Magazine — March, 1931

TV Romances

Commenter in the last post had it right when he said that, back in the day, illustrators knew they'd arrived if they had a TV Guide assignment.

Well, I never even tried for an assignment, but just for the fun of it in the early '80s, I did mock up a cover. I produced the art, using watercolor and colored pencil, the same size as the publication and then used Letra-Set press-type for the lettering.

Drew Struzan I was not, but maybe if I'd tried a little harder . . .

Thomas Buchanan — faux TV Guide cover —early 1980s