Aren't You Ashamed... of Anything, Gentlemen?

Apparently, not so much.

I spent quite a while last night searching through magazines, both general interest and those targeted specifically at men, and found only a tiny percentage of ads that tried to exploit men's insecurities about hygene, body image and sex appeal.


Its would seem that advertisers of the 40's and 50's did not feel that this strategy would win over very many male consumers. Most ads directed at men took a positive tack. I guess guys respond better to ads that reinforce how great we feel about ourselves!

In all seriousness, this week's topic has been a real eye opener for me about how long is the history of advertising reinforcing female insecurities about self image. Whether this is a symptom of an industry that was for the longest time dominated by men - that is to say, if more women had been in a position to determine how women's products would be presented to their target audience back in those days - I'll leave for you to decide.


For now let's put all this negativity behind us. Next week, we once again "accentuate the positive".

* A reminder to check out the current issue of PRINT magazine - The Consumption Issue - for an article by Steven Heller to which little ol' me contributed some images related to this week's topic.

* Also, a note to once again thank all of you who have thrown off your blurking cloaks to introduce yourselves and comment on recent posts. I get a huge kick from learning who you are, visiting your blogs and websites, and just hearing how much Today's Inspiration means to you. Many thanks!

* Finally, a note to those who have signed up to the Today's Inspiration mailing list but have not been receiving your full size art scans. Unfortunately, about a dozen emails are bounced back each day by various spam detection programs your ISP has installed in their networks. I suppose this is the inevitable consequence of sending nearly 500 emails with attachments in one burst. Some email servers will suspect that my message is spam. Unfortunately I don't know how to correct that problem from my end so if you are one of those folks who had signed up but has not been receiving Today's Inspiration, that's probably the reason. Just so you don't think I'm ignoring you.

Aren't You Ashamed... of Everything, Ladies?

Ladies, it pains me to report that you are a mess, from head to toe.

Your teeth are dull.


Your dress is wrinkled.


And "your shoes are showing! Embarrassing, isn't it?"


My gosh, this is just so unfare! It seems that advertisers of the 40's and 50's spent all their time exploiting your insecurities about body image. And just who were those advertising execs? Men, of course! Its shocking, really.

I promise I'll try to find something, anything, to level the playing field with the guys for tomorrow's post.

But don't hold your (bad) breath.

*A note from PRINT magazine's editors that author Steven Heller has made his article about this week's topic available for download on his website in PDF format.

Aren't You Ashamed... of Your Dishpan Hands?

I'm sorry to have to inform you, ladies, that advertisers of the 40's and 50's seem to have found far more female shortcomings to exploit than male ones.


Men's magazines like Esquire have only the barest minimum of ads trying to take advantage of potential male insecurities. I found only the occassional ad about thinning hair, for instance.


But women's magazines of the day were filled with images of embarrassed and discomforted females worrying about everything from girdle shape to dishpan hands.


So don't blame me that the rest of this week will focus pretty much exclusively on your real or imagined shortcomings, ladies. Blame Madison Avenue!

Aren't You Ashamed... of Your Stinky B.O.?

Let's face it guys, we stink! And America's ad agencies have been telling us so for a long time.


B.O. is just one of the many shortcomings Steven Heller discusses in his article in the current issue of PRINT magazine.


You can see these ads at full size and many more that deal with men's, erm, issues in the Amazing Paula Wirth's Flickr group, His Secret Past

Aren't You Ashamed... of Your Bad Breath?

"Though selling urgent solutions to imaginary needs is as old as snake oil, it reached a high pitch of hysteria in the late ’40s and ’50s," says the introduction to an article by Steven Heller in the current issue of PRINT magazine.
This week, let's take a look at some of the ads that "equated benign conditions like B.O. and halitosis with moral and social crime."

The editors of PRINT contacted me about providing some imagery for Heller's article, so I especially wanted to make sure to bring this issue to your attention. Be sure to look for it on the magazine stands or find out how to subscribe at this link.


And if you'd like to see today's images at full size, go to my new You Stink! Flickr set.

American Mythology

No time to write a post at the moment... but here are some wonderful illustrations by Herbert Danska from a 1952 children's book called "The Real Book of American Tall Tales".




You can see all of these images at full size in my Herbert Danska Flickr set.

American Legends

In my final year of highschool I took an elective course in American History. Our excellent instructor, Al White, one of the finest teachers I ever had the privilege of learning from, began the first day of class by giving us a pop quiz: ten questions on American history and then, rolling up the world map, he revealed to us ten more questions... on Canadian history.


Almost everyone in class scored 7/10 or better on the American history questions. However, most of us where lucky to be able to answer even 3 of the Canadian history questions. This after 12 years of education in Canadian classrooms! How was it that we all knew who discovered America and when the American Revolution was won and who the first president of the United States was - but almost no one knew who had been the first prime minister of Canada?


The answer of course, is "the media". We Canadian kids had spent a lifetime reading about American history (and mythology) in books, comics and magazines. We had seen it referenced in cartoons, television and movies. Being a one-tenth-size neighbour to the United States, Canadian kids are awash in American media. And America has a knack for mythologizing its historical figures that makes learning about them very appealing to kids. Canada just doesn't do that.

A couple of months ago there was a report that, as recently as the 1930's, the United States government had a plan in place to invade Canada. Conspiracy theorists up here believe that such a plan still exists. As I learned in my American history course some 25 years ago, why bother?

*You can see these images at full size in my American Legends Flickr set.

Happy 4th of July!

Here's a marvelous revelation: although these two illustrations were created by two different artists for two different publications, and although one of those artists was a man and the other a woman, and although one was an established master and the other a rising star... these two artists and these two illustrations were, 54 years ago, seperated by a distance of only a few feet and a wall in a downtown New York office building.


54 years ago Joe DeMers (above) was one of America's most sought after commercial artists and one of the most valued members of the preeminent art studio in New York: the Charles E. Cooper studio.

Only a few feet away, occupying DeMers' old office, was a neophyte illustrator named Barbara Briggs (later Bradley) who was only two years into her career. Speaking about DeMers, whom she considered very much a mentor in those days, Barbara says, "Joe did several Good Housekeeping Kid covers while I was there. I have one with a little girl and Cocker Spaniel puppies at the AA office. He also did at least one Life Savers ad which is one reason I was so thrilled to get my first. Though he wasn't considered a kid artist, he did many and his style with children is lovely. It influenced me a great deal. I tried to be looser."

Of her own early effort (above) Barbara modestly says, "Of course, you can run my piece, but it was an early piece and it's a little embarrassing to have it next to Joe's."

In spite of how she may feel, I want to thank Barbara for sharing her illustration with us so we could more keenly appreciate that moment in time, half a century ago, when two artists shared a common space and a common theme as they strove to interpret, through their art, an American ideal: Independence.

Happy 4th of July to all our friends, neighbours and relatives in the United States of America!

Lewis Parker: Under Canadian Skies

By now you've probably realized I'm a sucker for textbook illustrations. I guess its partly nostalgia (many of the textbooks I find are from the era of my own childhood), partly a professional curiousity (I have done quite a lot of textbook illustration myself) and partly a pure appreciation for some wonderful - but largely overlooked - artwork.


Since I mentioned yesterday that I never learned much about Canada's history as a child I thought today might be a good time to look at a terrific textbook I wish I had seen during my school days. Under Canadian Skies was illustrated entirely by two Canadian artists: Jerry Lazare (who's work we'll examine another time) and his long time illustration partner, Lewis Parker.


This tiny sample doesn't begin to demonstrate Parker's many beautiful stylistic interpretations in this book. He used a great variety of them throughout this volume and I hope to spend an entire week some time soon showing you many more of his illustrations from this book.


For now, I am pleased to report that Lewis Parker has a thorough and fascinating biography already posted on the internet. You can read all about his career at this site.


And if you'd like to examine these pieces more closely you can check out the full size versions in my Lewis Parker Flickr set.

* A special note of thanks once again to all those readers who have continued to introduce themselves over the last few days. Its a great pleasure hearing from you and discovering your diverse backgrounds, seeing your websites and blogs, and knowing how much Today's Inspiration means to you. Thank you!

Happy Canada Day!

Today is a holiday in Canada as we celebrate the confederation of our nation on July 1st, 1867.

I have to admit, as much as I love my country, I know very little about its history. This is a failing I think most Canadians would grudgingly admit to.


We could blame the government and the education system and the media for that I suppose, but really, it's each person's responsibility to educate one's self, isn't it? Luckily, I found this wonderful book last summer in St. Catherines to help with that task. Its profusely illustrated in comic book form by a Toronto artist named Huntley Brown, who was a contemporary of my friend, Will Davies.


I plan to do a week on Huntley Brown some time soon -- so you'll get to see more of his artwork from this volume and learn more about him and his career at that time. For today, here's just one of the important heroes of Canadian history I had never heard of (and perhaps you had not as well) but am very proud to know is a part of my heritage as a Canadian citizen: Wilfred 'Wop' May.




You can find these images at full size in my Huntley Brown Flickr set.

Thanks Blurkers!

I've got a huge grin on my face this morning after reading all the wonderful comments - and emails - from so many of you who have been blurking here at Today's Inspiration. You can't imagine how much it means to me to hear that this blog is an important little kickstart to your day. Thanks to each and every one of you for sharing a bit about yourself!


Our final word on Dom Lupo comes from TI list member Jack Raglin (who's article on vintage pin-up artist Enoch Bolles in issue #10 of Illustration magazine is a must-read). Jack's fine detective work turned up the following clues to the mysterious Dom Lupo:

"His wife's name is Maxine Van Evera Lupo (b. 1921?) and she is some sort of a golf expert. She's published several books ongolf form that Dom has illustrated and one was revised just last year so who knows if she, at least, is still alive (it was first published in 1992). Dom was illustrating golf books in the early 70s and my guess is that he must have been at least a decent golfer. He also was a very busy book cover and interior illustrator in the 70s, mainly from what I can tell, of books for tweeners/teens."

Many thanks for digging up those details, Jack!


You can see these illustrations at full size in my Dom Lupo Flickr set.

So... who are you anyway?

As this is sort of a momentous occassion (having presented you with my 500th post), I have a confession to make: I'm addicted to my Site Meter. I visit it about a dozen times a day. Its the last thing I check each night before shutting down the computer and going to bed. Why? Because it tells me about you.


That's the one frustrating thing about running this blog, dear reader... you're just not very talkative. Now I don't mean the ten or twenty folks who regularly leave comments or send me email -- to those of you (you know who you are) I am incredibly grateful. You provide the feedback and information and interaction I so thoroughly enjoy. You make the effort of putting together this blog each weekday that much more rewarding. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Its the other seven or eight hundred of you I'm talking about. We need to chat.

Really, each day I'm astonished to see that you visit me from all over the world. That boggles my mind. I'm ecstatic to know that my little blog is reaching someone in Dubai and in Dublin, in Hong Kong as well as in Hamilton (my home town).

You can see from these stats below that many of you just drop in for a brief visit ( the 0:00 timeframe means you're just looking at the first page without clicking anything... Sitemeter can't record the duration of your visit unless you click on stuff).

Its the visitors who stay for a while but leave no comment that I'm really curious about.


For example... Mr. Mandeville, Louisiana (below)...


He found me via a Google Image Search and stopped by twice for approximately 15 minutes in total to look at this:


And then clicked through to look at my Flickr Beverage set:

And then *boom* -- he's gone without a trace, leaving no comment. This drives me nuts! What was he searching for? Is he a designer? An illustrator? A student working on a research paper? Is he a she? Mandeville strikes me as a person with a mission -- and I'm dying to hear what it is.

My friend Ward Jenkins recently wrote about you guys on his excellent blog, The Ward-O-Matic. I did not know it (and perhaps you don't either) but you, dear reader, are a blurker.

Blurker (BLUR-kur): n. 1. One who reads many blogs but leaves no evidence of themselves such as comments behind; a silent observer of blogs. 2. One who reads many blogs but has no blog of their own; a blog-watcher or blog voyeur.

Now I must admit, I've done my share of blurking - even on the blogs of the people I know and love. And I understand you may not have a lot of time for fiddling around with comment passwords and usernames, especially if you are shy, busy, or just don't have much to say... but to all you blurkers out there, why not take a minute today and pop your head up into the sunshine! Tell me a little about who you are and why you visit here. Where are you from and what do you do?

I'd really love to know why you drop by every day and what you think about the blog. What would you like to see more of? Or less of?

C'mon... I promise not to bite. ;-)

Dom Lupo... and 500 Posts!

This is the 500th post on the Today's Inspiration blog. And I can't think of anyone more appropriate to be showcasing on this hallmark occasion than Dom Lupo. For every Norman Rockwell or J.C Leyendecker or Al Parker or Bernie Fuchs, there are a hundred Dom Lupos. These worthy craftsmen, who spent long, hard-working careers marrying creativity to utility, deserve some recognition and praise. It's these artists from whom I draw much inspiration every day in my own efforts at the board -- and it's my goal to make sure they are not forgotten.

When I began Today's Inspiration as a daily mailing list for a dozen friends some six or seven years ago, it was because I had in my possession a huge collection of clipped magazine pages, many of them illustrated with exceptional skill by dozens and dozens of artists I had never heard of.


At that point in time I had been a professional illustrator for more than a decade. How could I be so entirely unfamiliar with a generation of my peers - many of them still alive, some of them still working - who had so thoroughly dominated the printed pages of American mass media for nearly half a century? Illustration, which had once been such an integral part of mainstream media and popular culture, had quiety faded away, leaving almost no record of its passing.


Over time the TI list grew by word of mouth and with the help of better informed and enthusiastic list members my education into the history of illustration in the mid-20th century took off. Starting this blog with the encouragement of my pal, Ward Jenkins, has been an incredibly gratifying experience. Through Today's Inspiration, I've had the pleasure and privilege of meeting many kindered spirits -- other fans of the artform, friends and family members of great illustrators past and present and, most rewarding of all, some of the very artists I've showcased here.

To all of you who are on the TI mailing list - and to the many more who make this blog a part of their day - thanks for joining me on this journey of discovery and celebration... I hope you'll still be with me for the next 500 posts!

Attack of the 50 Ft. Telephone Repair Guy!

1956 - '57 was a good time in Dom Lupo's career. He landed an account with General Telephone Systems that saw him illustrating a series of magazine ads featuring a GIANT telephone repair man.


Actually, these ads are where I first became aware of Lupo's work... how could anyone miss that bold signature? No doubt this series is also where America would have really had the chance to notice Lupo. The unique (admitedly hokey) concept, repeated with the minor variations you see here, month after month in the Saturday Evening Post must have provided Lupo with unprecedented exposure...


Unfortunately, it seems to have not made a difference. As I mentioned yesterday, I have found almost nothing in the way of story illustrations by Lupo in the major mainstream magazines of the 50's.


You can take a closer look at the work of this underappreciated illustrator in my Dom Lupo Flickr set.

Dom Lupo... Trapped!

Magazines don't have the cultural impact today that they did back in the 50's. Today, they are a relatively small part of a huge conglomeration of media sources. Half a century ago, they were one of the most important.

Commercial art has always been a profession with a caste system and, during the mid-20th century, there was no status higher than to be an "illustrator for the slicks". I imagine any illustrator would have loved seeing his name in the Saturday Evening Post (or any other mainstream magazine) knowing that it meant millions of Americans - not to mention hundreds of potential clients - were becoming familiar with his work.


I don't know how the Post chose which illustrators would receive story assignments... but I don't think Dom Lupo was ever among that elite group. In fact, aside from a few line drawings done for Collier's (like the ones we looked at yesterday) I have never come across any editorial art by Lupo in any mainstream magazine.

Whether this was of any importance to Lupo, we may never know -- but he seems to have been trapped on a lower rung in the world of commercial art. Destined to only see his name in the Post if it was attached to an ad he had illustrated.


You can see these illustrations at full size in my Dom Lupo Flickr set.

Dom Lupo

Dom Lupo's a perfect subject for my "reduced service" summer program. I have only a handful of his illustrations and know absolutely nothing about him so these posts will be short and sweet.


Still, I get a kick every time I find a new piece with that bold "Dom Lupo" signature in the corner. What can I say? I'm a collector.


If you were reading this blog back when we did a week on "Big Cat Attacks" then you've already met Mr. Lupo. He did this piece for Adventure magazine in 1954 -- the same year he did the illustration with yellow spot colour (above) for Collier's.

*You'll find both these illustrations at full size in my Dom Lupo Flickr set.

Everett McNear in Childcraft

Another illustrator who really caught my attention in these Childcraft volumes is Everett McNear. He didn't contribute a huge amount of material to the books, but each of his pieces has a strong and unique approach that really appeals to me.


And by searching his name on the internet I discovered this article that will be of special interest to those of you who are designers (or who are simply interested in graphic design). It turns out that Everett McNear owned one of Chicago's leading studios in the 1950's.


As well, this page of a California art gallery's website provides McNear's birth and death dates and shows an example of his fine art painting.


We have barely scratched the surface when it comes to the Childcraft series of books. I've held back an awful lot of material this week that I'll be using for longer posts on specific artists.

* You can see today's images at full size in my Everett McNear Flickr set.