Artist's Sketch Pad '56: Joyce Ballantyne

I purchased my first, and certainly not last, Artist's Sketch Pad / calendar (Brown & Bigelow, St. Paul, MINN 1956) today at a local antique show. Being a huge fan of Joyce Ballantyne I couldn't pass it up, even at the hefty price the seller was asking. I spent most of the day photographing her incredibly attractive images because the overall size of the calendar eclipses my scanner. I wanted to show these stunning works of art at a larger size than the American Art Archives has them posted (see HERE for more), my apologies for any quality issues.

Liddle Red Riding Hiddle

From 1966 to 1970, Mattel had a superbly designed line of adorable miniature girl's toys called Liddle Kiddles, (find out more about them HERE!) Particularly cool and collectable, right after the Animiddles, Kozmic, Kola and Zoolery Kiddles, was the Storybook Kiddle line that also came with fairytale props and a cutely illustrated storybook. After you read the story scans below, you can find out more about these great toys HERE!

Lymington / Faragasso

A double post for two talents I've recently been enjoying. Firstly, author John Lymington (aka John Richard Newton Chance) who, aside from the film "Island of the Burning Damned" based on his book "Night of the Big Heat", I'm completely new to... he writes some really creepy, and totally original horror / sci-fi tales. I just aquired a dozen or so of his books in all, and I'm devouring them at such a rabid pace it's leaving me little time for anything else. Also interesting: five of the paperback editions contain the fantastically colorful, moody cover art of Jack Faragasso, an artist many of you may be familiar with from his excellent "The War of the Worlds" cover (click HERE) ...see the scans below for his work on the Lymington books.

(Cover artist unknown)

Shears & Ears

Finishing out the 60's Humpty Dumpty kid's mag art with some holiday fun. Happy Easter, friends... don't OD on chocolate bunnies!

Make the Martians Happy!

The Martians have just landed and you have been appointed to make them happy! How? With Happy Pills, of course! It's fun to... knock... them... hap... ummm... wow, sci-fi / drug themed games from two Humpty Dumpty mags of the 60's. Gotta love 'em. And okay, after you get the martians "happy" (and speak their language), try shooting for the moon, --unless you just overshot it with those Happy Pills! And if you get the munchies, eat a couple bowls of Quisp!

Humpty Dumpty's April Fools

April Fool's art and story fun from two issues of Humpty Dumpty Magazine (April 1962 and April 1967), with the 1962 issue sporting a typically gorgeous Dan Lawler cover. The rest of the highlights are graced with art by my favorite HD artist, Albert Aquino... his stylized approach to kid's illustration defines everything I love about these magazines from the era. As an added bonus you get a couple pages re-colored by me as a 5 year old brat.