Filed Under: "trains"

Today in 1914, James Royer Flora was born in Bellefontaine, Ohio. Above our guy is pictured relaxing at home in the late 1980s. Interesting juxtaposition of bold patterns, with hunting jacket, slacks and chair vying for focal primacy. Cameo in the upper right by the Fab Four, depicted in 1964, tho it appears to be a hand-rendered (probably not by Flora) replica of a famous photo. Flora’s daughter Julia provides some family context: I love…

That’s the title of the new CD by Seattle’s quirky genre-blending jazz ensemble Reptet. It’s the group’s fourth release to feature a licensed Jim Flora illustration (all usages initiated by the band’s drummer, John Ewing). Information about Reptet, their music, and the gatefold letterpress CD package (designed by Tom Parson) can be found at the Artists Recording Collective. The above image is an inverted detail from Flora’s masterful 1951 woodcut Railroad Town.

This three-tiered montage appeared in Fortune magazine in 1947 as part of a 48-state series sponsored by the Container Corporation of America. Flora, an Ohio native, was commissioned to illustrate his birth state. A color version—as it ran in Fortune—was reproduced in The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora. Tearsheets turn up periodically on Ebay. The above greyscale version—presumably the original, described as “watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paperboard”—is in the Smithsonian collection, according to their…

The full title of this undated (early- to mid-1940s) work is The Rape of the Stationmaster’s Daughter, a tempera on paper, titled in pencil on the reverse. It was reproduced in our second Flora anthology, The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora, and its anatomically absurd actors were adapted by designer Laura Lindgren for the cover. In 2008 we issued a fine art print. A customer purchased a print last month and expressed admiration at…

Tempera overlay, The Day the Cow Sneezed, 1957, courtesy the Dr. Irvin Kerlan Collection, University of Minnesota Children’s Literature Research Center.

A lengthy gestation period: our new book, conceived two years ago, is today born. Fantagraphics, with godlike dominion, declared July 29 as the official publication date of The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora, our third anthology. Purchase at: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or from Fantagraphics. Doesn’t matter to us. Buy it. Here’s what you’ll discover: Like its two predecessors, The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora (2004) and The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora…

Detail, Columbia Broadcasting System trade brochure, 1943 or ’44

Detail, untitled tempera, ca. 1950-51. Above are eight of about 65 individual modules arrayed on the entire work. The elements are stylistically reminiscent of the Railroad Town woodcut, and cubicle art is a recurrent Flora motif.

Detail, untitled tempera on paper, 1970

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

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.