Filed Under: "checkerboard coloring"

That’s what we call this beastie, who seems to be self-administering a third-eye implant while balancing a bird with no eyes on his fingertip. The original art is—well, we have no idea. The image appeared in very reduced form (postage stamp-sized) on a Flora business card from the 1950s.

Pencil sketches for Till Eulenspiegel LP cover, 1955. The above skeletal figures eventually morphed into this rough layout: … which was refined as this unfinished tempera setting: … which evolved into this finished RCA Victor Red Seal cover: Till Eulenspiegel was an impudent prankster in German folklore. Flora rendered several pen and ink drawings of the trickster in the 1990s. Perhaps he recognized a kindred spirit.

Detail, untitled tempera on paper, 1970

Bridgeport, tempera on paper, early 1960s

A new fine art print of a wild 1970 Jim Flora tempera painting has been listed on eBay. We have editioned 20 prints of Chance Encounter, and only two are being offered at the launch price. 15 minutes later: SOLD.Further prints of this edition are available at JimFlora.com.

7″ EP, 1954 (probably not released on LP)

Cover detail, Morton Downey Sings Songs You Love (Camden CAE 245), 1954

Sketches for RCA Victor LP cover, 1955; final design below:

The cover of the Weekly, anyway (print edition, September 19-25 issue), in conjunction with the just-opened exhibition at Fantagraphics Bookstore/Gallery. The illustration is a detail from Flora’s 1954 RCA Victor LP cover Shorty Rogers Courts the Count. The Weekly’s Fall Arts section includes this nifty Flora cavalcade and a dozen interior spot placements:

Jim Flora Art LLC recently sold #100 of the Mambo For Cats limited edition screen print. As originally announced, the first 100 prints (of 200 produced) were sold for $150/ea., with the caveat that prices would be increased as stock was depleted. JFA is now releasing a block of 25 more prints at $175/ea. The 1955 illustration originally appeared on a 12″ x 12″ RCA Victor LP cover, but the print measures an outsized 20″…

Holly of Sweetheartville, a self-described “bitch kitty on wheels,” finds a vintage Flora cover in—well, you’ll never guess where. She also observes that “covering a dining room wall with record sleeves hung with thumb tacks [is] too college.” Perhaps decoratistas can agree on a Flora exemption. UPDATE (02 MAY 07): Mr. Hall wonders if we’re “making fun of [Mrs. Hall] in some way.” No way!

On one of his earliest album covers for Columbia Records, Flora, with typical anatomical perversity, endowed jazz drummer Gene Krupa with four legs and five arms, the better to swat a Mattel-sized trap set amid a lemon meringue backdrop. Krupa’s face also got a makeover—the red and black checkerboard skin tint was Flora’s way of proclaiming, “I can’t do likeness!” (The cover was featured in The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora.) FF to the early…