Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: One lovely SF cover with art by David Blossom

Not by Dean Ellis, and not by Paul Lehr, though vaguely reminiscent of both, the illustration on the cover of Robert Silverberg’s Tower of Glass is complemented rather than overwhelmed by a big block of bold, compressed, sans-serif type:

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The artist here is David Blossom, but who the heck is David Blossom? The following summary of the artist’s career appears on various sites round the Web; my source is New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA):

Though born in Chicago, Illinois, Blossom lived most of his life on the East Coast. Growing up in Rye, New York, he later moved with his family to Westport, Connecticut in 1963, where he lived until his death. Early in his career, he worked as an art director at Young & Rubicam, a communications company, where he specialized in advertising for the Ford Motor Company and Pan American Airways. His work in illustration included covers for romance novels and popular magazines such as Outdoor Life and Reader’s Digest. Blossom is also known for creating movie posters for such Clint Eastwood westerns as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars, and A Few Dollars More. In its annual awards for excellence to deserving artists, the Society of Illustrators awarded the Hamilton King award to Blossom for best illustration of the year in 1973.

I’ve done a bit of searching, and I can’t find any information about which Clint Eastwood movie posters, exactly, featured art by Blossom, but possibly/maybe it was the ones that looked like this:

Here’s an example of Blossom’s non-SF illustration work, copied from the NBMAA blog, for comparison:

Oddly enough, a later, photo-based design for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is build around more or less the same typographical idea as the design for Silverberg’s Tower of Glass, with art by Blossom:

And thus the serpent eats its tail… sort of…

Bob Haberfield · Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: Three paperbacks of Corum with cover art by Bob Haberfield

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I have a couple more Moorcocks with cover art by Haberfield in my collection. Will probably scan and post ’em soon, if not sooner.

Keywords: The Knight of the Swords, The Queen of the Swords, The King of the Swords, by Michael Moorcock; Bob Haberfield; Habberfield.

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Jeffrey "Jeff" Catherine Jones · Look Here

One last time, with feeling, it’s… BETTER THINGS!

The final phase of the Indiegogo fundraiser for the documentary Better Things: The Life and Choices of Jeffrey Catherine Jones — the distribution of the donation perks/rewards — is underway right now, and today, I am happy to report that I have received a package from producer/director Maria Cabardo that includes a DVD of the film, the Jones-tribute art book, six postcards, and two neatly folded copies of the film’s huge poster.

The art book, which bears the title, Jeffrey Catherine Jones and Better Things, is graced with a wistful cover designed by John Pinsky. Here’s a scan:

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Jeffrey Catherine Jones and Better Things also comes with a paper band designed by Christina Graf. Here’s scan of the book with the band in place:

And here’s a rough-and-ready scan of the six postcards, arranged in two rows of three on the surface of my flatbed scanner:

Please note that all of the images on the postcards are also reproduced in the art book, so if you like what you see here, you’ll like what you’ll find there.

Although I myself am happy to have the art book in my collection, I have no plans to review it for this or any other site. Just so you know.

Also, I do not plan to post a formal review of the documentary here at RCN. In case anyone is wondering.

I am pleased to note, however, that both my name and the name of this website are preserved for posterity in the acknowledgements on the inside back cover — which makes the book a doubly lovely souvenir for me.

Thanks, Maria!

It’s been fun. But now I’m done.

Over and out.

Illustration Art · Karl Alexander Wilke · Look Here

Look Here: Three strong, stylish, satirical illustrations by K. A. Wilke

From the Austrian humour/men’s magazine, Die Muskete, here are three illustrations by regular contributor, Karl Alexander Wilke; the images, which are from 1929, 1931, and 1932, respectively, have been selected, sized, cropped, processed, and posted by yours truly from scans in the online archive of the Austrian National Library:

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Specific publication information for each image is included in the file name, as usual.

Illustration Art · Look Here · Sergius Hruby

Look Here: Eight more illustrations by Sergius Hruby

From the Austrian humour/men’s magazine, Die Muskete, via the online archive of the Austrian National Library:

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Specific publication information for each image is included in the file name, as usual. Notice that all of the illustrations this time around were published in 1929.


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