Adam Parfrey, a fearless, maverick independent publisher with a robust sense of humor (and a taste for the macabre), has died at age 61. We note his passing here because Adam’s Feral House Books reprinted Jim Flora‘s legendary 1978 book Grandpa’s Ghost Stories in 2017. Just last week we signed an agreement with Feral to reprint Flora’s last (1982) book, Grandpa’s Witched-Up Christmas. Feral House was known for publishing edgy titles, and Adam was the heart and…

Flora loved animals, and over the years he created countless images of cats, dogs, birds, horses, fish, and a few alligators. This previously unpublished gaggle of cats, rendered with pen and ink, dates from the 1990s, after Flora had retired from the commercial illustration profession and was spending his retirement creating new works every day. We are considering issuing this as a fine art mini-print.

Spot illustrations for Columbia Records new release monthly, Coda.

Music critic Dan Armonaitis: Sound Observations: I’ve been looking after a jumpin’, rockin’, screamin’ cat “Having volunteered to take care of a kitten for a friend who was traveling, I thought the feline might provide a muse as I struggled to come up with something to write about for this column. But every time I tried to focus on a possible topic, she’d hop in my lap and distract me with her soft fur, warm purr…

Letter from Jim to his longtime friend Gene Deitch, 1972

We recently discovered this Camden 7″ EP that might very well feature an overlooked Flora cover. The catalog number, CAE-138, dates the release to 1954, during which Flora designed 18 covers for RCA Victor, ten of them 7″ EPs for RCA’s Camden budget subsidiary (two of which were for the Festival Concert Orchestra, a generic name for an aggregate of stellar musicians who were under contract to other labels). Some were credited to or signed…

We’re grateful to Jeffrey Ferguson, who alerted us to this previously overlooked early Flora cover. Based on the catalog number (M-555) and some internet research, this cover dates from 1944, which would make it the earliest known illustrated Jim Flora cover. Though unsigned, the tiger-striped typography and horseback rider point to Flora as the artistic culprit. In 1944 he was art director of Columbia, which was issuing back catalog in 78 folio format owing to…

At JimFlora.com we’re issuing our first new limited edition fine art print in over a year. Spectators, an uncirculated 1940s-era tempera, depicts a phantasmagoria of grotesque faces, with stray limbs. This work has not previously been reproduced or published anywhere. The original is owned by Flora’s godson, Keith McAllister, of California, who granted us permission to professionally photograph the work and issue it as a limited edition print.  Only twenty-five (25) prints of Spectators were…

Our good friend and fellow Floraphile Jillian Leigh Sutton, a DJ at WGCX in Hudson, New York, passes along this Florafied invitation: Brian Dewan, who will be presenting one of his wry original filmstrips, is also a good friend and a member of the Raymond Scott Orchestrette. If you’re in the area, go and enjoy yourself while supporting a good cause – regardless of whether you have bonus legs or just the requisite two.

Illustration, Columbia Records new popular-release weekly trade mailer Hit of the Week, August 1942, promoting clarinet-tooting bandleader Benny Goodman’s new single, “I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo.” At the time, Flora was working in the Columbia art department under then-Art Director Alex Steinweiss. Another illustration from this series of ads can be viewed here.