More Sickles for Readers to Digest

More mid-50's Noel Sickles scans, courtesy of TI list member Tonci Zonjic, from an old Readers Digest Condensed Book:





Many thanks to Tonci Zonjic -- be sure to visit his blog and check out Tonci's excellent work!

* My Noel Sickles Flickr set.

*AND speaking of excellent work, Charlie Allen keeps pulling out surprises of more gorgeous artwork from the various decades of his career. Check out the latest CAWS at Charlie Allen's Blog.

Some Sickles for Readers to Digest

TI list member Tonci Zonjic sent me a note last week:

"Hey! I got my hands on a Readers Digest Condensed Book from 1957 and dissected it- didn't notice these in your Flickr stream so I thought you'd like them."


Wow, no kidding, would I ever like to have these gorgeous pieces by Noel Sickles, from a 1956 book called "The Philadelphian". Failing that, I'm grateful to Tonci for generously sharing these scans with us. There will be a second batch by Sickles tomorrow, then three groups by Austin Briggs to round out the week.


So buckle up. This week's images will knock your socks off!




Many thanks to Tonci Zonjic, who is an enviably talented young artist himself -- be sure to visit his blog and check out the remarkable range of styles and subject matter he is capable of. (Its no surprise that Tonci is a fan of the likes of Sickles, Briggs and Fawcett... the inspiration these masters provide to the observant illustrator are evident in his skillful renderings).

* Also, Los Angeles - based illustrator Alex DeLeon shows us a cool animatic he not only drew - but also 'animated' himself for an independent film project-in-progress at Storyboard Central

*AND* if you could use a chuckle ( and who couldn't use a chuckle) drop by Leifdrawing101 for a new batch of cartoons by another upcoming young artist - Simon Peng!

Science + Industry = ... what exactly?

Just look at these serious fellows in the picture below. They must be working on something very important. Just look at them studiously studying that ... big... bubble... er... thing. Their safety glasses tell us that this is dangerous work. That bubbly thing could explode at any moment! How brave to hold it in one's bare hands!


Yes science is an essential part of industry. Why, if the scientists back in 1,000,000 B.C. hadn't done the research of rolling a log down a hill we'd all still be riding on dinosaurs like Alley Oop.

In the critical area of Research and Development, scientists do the research that uncovers new materials and processes, and industry takes those discoveries and develops them into products we can all use.

So its fun to look back half a century and see how industry imagined the world of "the future". A world built on scientific research packaged for a society of consumers -- our world.

Just what did all those R&D dollars give us anyway?


Flying chairs? Nope.


Flying saucers? Nope.


Flying buses? Nope.

Beer in cans? Yes!


And let's face it folks, if you've got beer in cans, what else do you really need?

Cheers!

* A brief history of the beer can.

* My Industry Flickr set.

"Energy... We Gotta Stop Usin' You Up"

Flipping through 1951 issues of Fortune magazine it seems like an energy party was in full swing... and Industry was making sure the bar remained well stocked.


The party lasted 20 years. Then came the hangover. Ol' Mr. Earth had a message for all of us party animals and he called it "The Energy Crisis."



I could go on about what it was like to live through the startling change in attitudes we experienced during the early 70's (My dad: "TURN THAT LIGHT OUT!") but why not let Ol' Mr. Earth teach you all about it as he did me back in '73. Click the play button and enjoy a musical accompaniment while you scroll through images of the world as it seemed to be... before reality set in.

0:31


0:51


1:21

1:46


2:04


2:22



* My Industry Flickr set.

The Army in Overalls: Appreciation for the Blue Collar Worker

This illustration always blows me away... and not just because I marvel at the effort the artist put into it.


But also because it so effectively represents the zeitgeist of industrial America during those times. I live an hour from Buffalo, have visited it often, and have a wistful appreciation for what that place must have been like when this ad appeared in 1951. All of that is gone now. It ain't much better here in Hamilton, where our once mighty steel mills and manufacturing sector are a shrivelled, hollow shell of their former selves.


Say what you want about the titans of industry who built industrial empires from the comfort of the boardroom. They could never have accomplished a thing without the back breaking efforts of 'the army in overalls'.


Its kind of bizarre to think of it like this but consider: these guys toiled like slaves to give their children a better life... a higher education... and those children grew up to be the corporate financiers, mergers and acquisitions brokers and lawyers that dismantled and off-shored this entire sector of the North American economy.

How ironic is that?


What's left behind is a fascinating historical record in the form of these beautiful illustrations from America's industrial heyday. This piece, incidentally, looking like it might have been done by Robert Fawcett.


Finally, just to lighten the mood a little (and to show that even the titans of industry had a playful side ) three delightful little cartoon ads featuring great little scenes of factory floors buzzing with activity.




* My Industry Flickr set.

*AND* Charlie Allen's latest CAWS, featuring artwork that spans four decades of Charlie's illustrious career (including high school yearbook illustrations by a talented 16 year old!) Go right now to Charlie Allen's blog to check it out.

The Union Carbide "Hand o' God"

Anyone doubting the the sense of self confidence (dare I say arrogance?) of the industrial corporations of the mid-20th century need look no further than the long-running 1950's ad campaign of Union Carbide. Each of these ads featured one or both hands (supposedly representing the hands of modern man) engaged in activities that can only be described as "miraculous".


With these hands usually extending down from on high, emerging from a swirling ether, often assisting tiny humans in some industrial process or another, it doesn't take a degree in chemical engineering to appreciate the implication: the might of modern American industry rivaled the power of God.


Thus, as I have collected these ads over the last few years, I have (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) come to think of them as the "The Union Carbide Hand o' God" series.


Sometimes the Hand o' God is benign, gently sheltering a humble strawberry plant so it may better provide us with sustenance...


But sometimes the Hand o' God is vengeful... reminding us that Nuclear Annihilation is an ever present threat.


(Luckily, God's on our side.)


The Hand o' God demonstrates that the Earth's riches are plentiful, and ours for the taking...


... and the mighty Hand o' God miraculously transforms these raw resources...


... into the modern conveniences that satisfy our every whim.




Yes the Hand o' God can move mountains! Which is great... unless you happen to live near the mountain...


But such concerns are beneath the notice of one who can turn liquid into solid and effectively "walk on water".


And when it seems that some things may be out of reach, even to the Hand o' God...


... rest assured that with the switch of a molecule here, the flick of an atom there...


Nothing; no secrets of the universe, will long remain beyond the grasp...


... of the Hand o' God!

* My Industry Flickr set.

'Colossus Americanus': The Mid-Century Ad Art of the Mighty American Military Industrial Complex

Some of the most interesting, creative (and amusing) ad concepts of the 40's and 50's are the ones that were devised by and for American industry in the period after World War II.


President Dwight D. Eisenhower didn't use the term "Military Industrial Complex" until 1961, but the notion of industry playing a dual role of defense contractor and supplier of domestic goods is telegraphed in many of the ads that appeared in Fortune magazine a decade earlier.


Also intriguing are the multitude of ads that signaled the dawn of the technological age - and the fervor with which industry embraced its role in steering America to its manifest destiny of world leadership through scientific advancement...


... atomically fused to the tenets of capitalism.


And that philosophy reveals a particularly amusing irony of mid-century industrial advertising, because this bastion of Capitalism thoroughly embraced the style and symbolism of Communist propaganda art: the handsome, noble, bare chested worker, heroically pounding away with a hammer on hot iron; beating swords into ploughshares while glorious factories rise all around him.


I mean really, if it was "better to be dead, than red"...

... what's with the preponderance of red in these ads?


* My Industry Flickr set.