Convict Life - Serving Time in the City of Sorrow and Vain Regret

Convict Life - Serving Time in the City of Sorrow and Vain Regret, originally uploaded by pantufla.

Shooting to Live - W.E. Fairbairn & E.A. Sykes (1942)

Shooting to Live - W.E. Fairbairn & E.A. Sykes (1942)
Originally uploaded by pantufla.

BYEPA 1935

BYEPA 1935
Originally uploaded by pantufla.

"WE" by Charles A. Lindbergh

"WE" by Charles A. Lindbergh
Originally uploaded by pantufla.

Unveiled - The Autobiography of a Turkish Girl by Selma Ekrem

Unveiled - The Autobiography of a Turkish Girl by Selma Ekrem
Originally uploaded by pantufla.

The Cosmological Eye - Henry Miller

The Cosmological Eye - Henry Miller
Originally uploaded by pantufla.

Queer People with Paws and Claws - Palmer Cox (1888)

Queer People
Originally uploaded by pantufla.

Palmer Cox (April 28, 1840–July 24, 1924) was a Canadian-born artist and freemason[1], best known for his series of humorous verse cartoons about the mischievous but kindhearted Brownies. The cartoons were published in several books, such as The Brownies, Their Book (1887). Due to the popularity of Cox's Brownies, one of the first popular handheld cameras was named after them, the Eastman Kodak Brownie camera. (from wikipedia)

Sermons by The Devil

Sermons by The Devil
Originally uploaded by pantufla.

Reverend W. S. Harris (1865- ?)

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William Shuler Harris is the author of 7 books which have become collectible less for their religious content than their usual presentation. Unlike the vast majority most religious books written for the general public of his day, Harris offered books whose covers alone captured the attention of the potential reader. Venturing beyond the striking cover graphics, the reader found unusual allegorical illustrations, moral & religious education presented through parables, allegories, and other appealing literary devices. (from TomFolio.com)

see also "Hell Before Death" by the same author at google books

Impressio Librorum - Poteft ut una capi aure plurima :

Impressio Librorum - Poteft ut una capi aure plurima :
Originally uploaded by pantufla.

Mr Men in the 21st Century

Sam Harris at Idea CIty '05

Germano Facetti | Self and Others by RD Laing

Germano Facetti | Self and Others by RD Laing

Germano Facetti, art director at Penguin from 1961 to 1972, died last weekend. Below are a handful of the iconic jacket designs that allowed Penguin to set the benchmark for exemplary design in the publishing world.
Courtesy of MeFi

http://books.guardian.co.uk/gallery/0,,1752252,00.html

Fantastic Then Press

Fantastic Then Press, originally uploaded by courtneyp.

Spend the weekend at the Ape Expo with Ted Jalbert of Fantastic Then Press. Cool to see the show from behind the tables. See http://www.cafepress.com/pantufla for tees and postcards.

NYPL Digital Gallery | Library for the Blind: Man with bags of mail

Above: Library for the Blind: Man with bags of mail,
"one days mail, free service, May 1926."

NYPL Digital Gallery | Detail ID 106146

In: New York Public Library Visual Materials > Lantern Slides > Branch Libraries > Branches > Library for the Blind
Library Division:

Humanities and Social Sciences Library / New York Public Library Archives
Subject(s): Lantern slides
Libraries -- New York (State) -- New York
New York Public Library
Notes
"one days mail, free service, May 1926," 5 copies.
Digital ID:106146NYPL Call Number:RG 10

NYPL Digital Gallery Gem: American Slave Trade Print, 1822

Above: Portraiture of domestic slavery in the United States.

More on this image
More from the book

"American slave trade; or, An account of the manner in which the slave dealers take free people from some of the United States of America, and carry them away, and sell them as slaves in other of the states; and of the horrible cruelties practised in the carrying on of this most infamous traffic : with reflections on the project for forming a colony of American blacks in Africa, and certain documents respecting that project. "

by Jesse Torrey, Jun. Physician, London, 1822

More from Jesse Torrey
Burning of Capitol Seen as Divine Judgement

The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo - Archie's Artist

Above: We're not in Riverdale anymore

Dan DeCarlo was the artist who drew the most beloved version of the Archie comics characters (Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Moose, et al.) The Archie's series is a light-comedy rendition of the whitest, most affluent suburbs of post-war America where the biggest problems that arise are choosing the right dress to go to the prom or having your beloved Jalopy break down. Despite this, or indeed because of this, many people find nostalgia and comfort in the gentle stories of the Riverdale teens. As Jung said "The brighter the light, the darker the shadow" and that's the case here as well. Lurking perhaps over in the next town of "Bachelorville", lurked the hypersexed alter-egos of the snow-pure Betty and Veronica. From 1956-1963, DeCarlo was also drawing Playboy style "Men's comics" for various girlie digests like "Fun House", "Joker", "Laugh Riot", "Zip" and "Comedy". Betty and Veronica sashay and giggle through double entendres and visual gags focused on their buxom bodies. Of course, this humor is often dated and sexist. So why am I writing about it? Well, the drawings. The drawings are goregous. DeCarlo was a master with brush and ink. And I think every man of a certain age has a thing for Betty and Veronica. Fantagraphics has published a collection of over 200 of DeCarlo's pin-ups in "The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo"


Hi-res scan of the cover

Hi-res scan of the back

Technical Drawing pointers

Above: Ok, boss, I'll try!

I picked up a copy of Basic Technical Drawing, Spencer/Dygdon, 1980, at the recent SF Library book sale for $2. It looks like an excellent guide to learning how to do the kind of drawing that you can do in Illustrator in 10 minutes, but by hand, in an hour! Anyway, the book contains some funny do's and don'ts. Here's a page of them.

Happy drawing!

Nicholson Baker's The World on Sunday - the colorful world of the turn of the century newspaper

Above: "The Bathing Girl of 1900" / Hy Mayer, "The Plunk Family at the Paris Exposition" New York World, Sunday June 3, 1900

The World on Sunday: Graphic Art in Joseph Pulitzer's Newspaper (1898-1911) by Nicholson Baker and Margaret Brentano, which is a goregous collection of charming, vibrant, and strange artwork from the oversized Sunday pages of the New York World ca. 1900. Author Nicholson Baker, known for novels like Vox and The Fermata, has been on a quest to save the rapidly decaying and disappearing remains of the original printed editions of newspapers, many of which featured fantastically illustrated, lavishly colored Sunday articles on such charming and arcane topics as "W.K. Vanderbilt Jr.'s 'Red Demon,' His New Automobile Weighing 1 Ton with 42 Horse Power, Running 70 Miles an Hour,"and Fun in the Year 2000,".

Many prominent libraries have either scandalously dumped their all their vintage newspaper archives into the trash, and kept no record of their contents, or disposed of them but kept a sadly inadequate memento of their existence. Besides being a visual treasure, hopefully "The World on Sunday" will help encourage overly zealous librarians to preserve this part of our shared cultural inheritance.

Winsor McCay-John Canemaker book reissued

The cover of Winsor McCay : His Life and Art (Hardcover)

Today I flipped through the revised edition of Winsor McCay : His Life and Art, by John Canemaker. Overall it seems well put together, but pretty similar to the 1987 edition. Considering all the work that went into creating the new Little Nemo in Slumberland Splendid Sundays 1905-1910 book by Sunday Press, I'm not impressed. At the least it seems that the artwork newly restored by Sunday Press could have been used in the new "Life and Art" book.
I think I'm a bit more sensitive to this because I recently was reading the slim Mary Blair book that Canemaker also authored, and there seems to be a trend of disappointingly thin content married to high prices (the new McCay book sells for $45, and the Blair book, which clocks in at a mere 128 pages, lists for $40) This doesn't make sense, as Canemaker is the dean of American animation, and as such should have no problem asking collectors and museums to open their vaults for his source material. One last thing: what the hell's up with that cover? The title font screams 1992 computer font, a wholly inappropriate choice for a book about an early 20th century artist. I also think the tilted panels on the cover could have been handled in a more interesting way. I used to work with John in NYU's Animation department, and I do stress that these are all great books--it's just that some of them could have been much better.
Anyway, I did order the Spledid Sundays book at $120 and I can't wait to get it!

Andrew Loomis - Save the Books!

Andrew Loomis - Save the Books!:

Fun With a Pencil

Great site that contains several pdfs of hard to come by art instruction books by Andrew Loomis. Loomis was a mid 20th-century American Illustrator whose out of print books fetch high prices, but mysteriously haven't been reprinted (Paging Fantagraphics and Chronicle Books!) You may want to brush up on your Figure Drawing, Creative Illustration techniques, or Drawing the Head and Hands.