Other Blogs: Enoch Bolles

This week I'm taking a break from posting material from my own collection to direct your attention to some other great classic illustration blogs. First up is a new blog by an old friend, Jack Raglin.

Jack had been sharing his passion for the work of Enoch Bolles with us on Flickr -- but that came to a sudden stop one day: Jack explains...


"The Flickr site seemed a great platform. My goal was to create an Enoch Bolles appreciation site that would showcase both classic and unusual examples of his art as well as pass along information about Bolles that even long-time fans would find interesting. It ended up being a big success, maybe a bit too successful in retrospect. In a little over a year the site had more than 40,000 visits and got linked to several popular blogs and web-sites. Aside from the gratification of enlarging and building on Bolles' reputation as an illustrator beyond just pinup, I had a lot of fun checking out other groups and posting comments."


"But all that was gone the day Flickr shut down my site. Without any warning they wiped out every trace I was ever on flickr, not only my own images, folders and networks but all my posts to other Flickr sites. The official word, which came a week later after repeated inquiries, was that the material I uploaded wasn't my own. Yes, but this is true for tens of thousands of posts on Flickr of vintage art, advertising and all sorts of printed ephemera. So who can say why I was targeted. Perhaps it was because the site had a fair amount of activity and caught the attention of a bored or overzealous administrator. Maybe somebody complained. But I've finally regained my lost momentum and now the new Bolles site is up and running!"


Regarding the images you see here today, Jack writes, "The reason why I chose them is to show Bolles in a different light, as I would imagine most people who know the name are familiar with his pinup art (and you've already got great examples from Film Fun and other similar mags). The mayo ad has a lot of charm and it includes some of the signature touches that are unique to Bolles. The other ad is not so much a favorite as an example of Bolles' professionalism at work. Just think of how daunting the instructions for this assignment were: your job is to create an attractive ad depicting pickles, margarine, relish and mayo in a single illustration oh, give it a Christmas theme. Talk about Mission Impossible, but Bolles knocked himself out doing it. There's a lot going on in this but just the attention he gave to the details in the tablecloth (which intensify the composition) amazes me... and couldn't help but add one of my favorite [Bolles magazine covers] from the 1920's."

* Be sure to visit Jack's new Enoch Bolles blog today - and for future reference, the link has been added to my sidebar.