Filed Under: "1940s"

Untitled pen drawing on onionskin paper, early 1940s, from scrapbook. Brownish residue caused by glue applied by the artist, who is also responsible for the irregular trim. There are hundreds of such miniatures in the collection.

This is a test. Go here. In the green menu at the left, click “request a song.” Select a letter (or a number) at the top — any one. Select an artist — any artist. One you know, one you don’t — it’s just a drill. (Caveat: a band whose name begins with “The” appears under “T.” Hence, there are more “T” artists than any other letter.) Click on album title (not cover thumbnail). Request…

You will buy Jim Flora fine art prints. You are powerless against our superior weaponry. We hope.

Illustration, Coda, March 1944, for Columbia Records release By the Sleepy Lagoon, by Eric Coates conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra—available on a 12″ platter for the princely price of one buck.

Not quite hot on the heels of The Mischievous Art and The Curiously Sinister Art, Barbara and I are now compiling a third volume of Floriana. Tentatively titled The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora, the book will be published by Fantagraphics in July or August 2009. Designer Laura Lindgren will once again transform our loosely organized text and Flora’s genial monstrosities into a tight, 180-page coffeetable bouquet. Over the next year, this blog will…

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has mounted the first-ever exhibit of Little Man Press memorabilia in their Library display case. Although not viewable by the public without appointment, the collection features rare chapbooks with Flora woodcuts, a narrative chronicle, original pencil sketches, and vintage Little Man ephemera. (Click to enlarge the above panorama.) Designed by Flora archivist Barbara Economon with the assistance of WAC Librarian Rosemary Furtak, the exhibition deserves a wider audience. Interested…

Detail, Green Mansions resort brochure, 1947Full work reproduced in The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora

Flora-related stuff on the web: Dan Pearson of the Pioneer-Press (Illinois) reviews the Lake County Discovery Museum‘s exhibit: “Flora’s Art is Full of Fun.” Story includes interviews with LCDM’s Steve Furnet and your Florablogger. “Scribbler,” based in San Antonio, blogs about Vintage Books My Kid Loves, including Flora’s Kangaroo for Christmas and Grandpa’s Farm. Flora illustratrations for “Will Robots Make People Obsolete?” Parade Magazine, 1959, posted at the Paleo-Future blog. And download some Flora WFMU…

early 1940s pencil sketch adapted forRobert Lowry short story “The Monkey Cane,”appearing in Gup (Little Man Press, 1942)

Coulda been clad in this onesie as a littler one. Had it been available. Just a mock-up. This image (circa 1940) originally graced the top of a box designed to collect issues of Little Man Press publications.

Detail, “Ohio,” illustration for Container Corporation of America Fortune magazine, 1947

New Jim Flora fine art print launched on eBay. Two prints offered @ Buy-It-Now price of $250/ea. Not mentioned in item description: we have already sold prints 17/20 and 18/20; after the two launch prints sell, the next two released prints (15/20 and 16/20) will be offered at $300 via JimFlora.com. Elements of this early 1940s tempera were adapted for the cover of The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora.