Chestnut Trees

An astounding use of color from the art nouveau period:

Carl Strathmann — Chestnut Trees — circa 1900

The Beast Within

In some ways we must all deal with the beast within.

Berni Wrightson — Who's the Fairest of Them All? —1980

Come Hither and Frolic and Play

Known mostly for his faerie-world color work, Warwick Goble was also pretty adroit with pen and ink rendering.

Warwick Goble — The Sea-Fairies

Slow sail'd the weary mariners and saw,

Betwixt the green brink and the running foam,

Sweet faces, rounded arms, and bosoms prest

To little harps of gold; and while they mused,

Whispering to each other half in fear,

Shrill music reach'd them on the middle sea.

. . .

O hither, come hither and furl your sails,

Come hither to me and to me:

Hither, come hither and frolic and play . . .

Teaser

This is a teaser poster for the 1936 movie, The Dancing Pirate, the third Technicolor film to be made, but true to its advertising, the first dancing musical to surrender to glorious color. The cast is barely remembered, but for an uncredited specialty dancer, Rita Hayworth.

The design, color and rendering of this poster is remarkably like something Robert Peak, the great illustrator, would have created—but for the fact he was nine years old at the time of this film. Perhaps he saw it and lay dormant in his mind for many years . . .

The Dancing Pirate — 1936

Drapery Study

A nicely vignetted drapery study by the ever elegant John LaGatta.

John LaGatta — Ladies Home Journal — 1938

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

The Big Sixteen

Good goggley woggely, look at the entertainment a dollar-sixty cents could buy for a kid in just one month's time, from just one publisher back in the 1940s. What a great time to be a kid!

Channeling

This is a pretty nice cover by Mike Vosburg, who seems to be channeling a bit of Bill Sienkiewicz channeling a bit of Bob Peak.

Mike Vosburg —Sisterhood of Steel #1 — circa 1980s

King Kong Kover

Back in the day, I would have bought a box of doilies if it had a Dave Stevens graphic on it. A Dave Stevens' Faye Wray rendering on a King Kong Kover was a pretty easy sell.

Dave Stevens — King Kong —1991

Battle Cry

One of the finest comic strip panels in the history of the medium:

Hal Foster — Prince Valiant — panel detail from June 19, 1938

The Old Man

As if Time didn't speed along fast enough, we had to go invent speedier ways for the Old Man to drop his grains of sand.

poster — circa 1900

Another What Th'—!!

Dr. Seuss painted this "State of the World in 1931".

Um, yeah . . . and . . . that must've been . . . some kinda year.

Dr. Seuss — State of the World in 1931 — 1931

What Th'—!!

I don't know what's going on here, but in my mind I'm hearing the opening chords to Thus Sprach Zarathustra.

John Charles Dollman — The Unknown — circa 1900

My use of an icon for befuddlement

Not a Duck in Sight

This painting almost looks like a scene from How to Train Your Dragon, the animated film from DreamWorks (that I really enjoyed), but it's by Carl Barks (The Good Duck Artist, you know—Donald, the boys, Uncle Scrooge) from decades before the film was made.

Not a duck in sight in this work.

© 1978 Carl Barks

Dwindling Daze

The days of summer are quickly dwindling away. Get out there and laze around a pond before it's too late, baby.

Benner — Sous les ombrages (In the Shade) — 1897

Scream of Horror, Cry of Delight

No wimpy sparkling vampires here!

Nosferatu The Vampyre — 1979

Dancing Maenads

What a lovely effect to have a bas relief emerge from a sketch.

Claude Michel, called Clodion — Relief with Dancing Maenads

1765

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

Faerie Folk

I recently received this phone charm as a gift. Pretty cool, huh?

I love the faerie folk.