Thursday, April 9, 2009

Odd Ball by Bolles


This is the first of an occasional series of odd or atypical covers by Bolles and what a weird one it is. I don't know if Bolles painted it this way or if the handiwork was done by an engraver. It also looks as if the girl's hairdo was trimmed for the cover as well and I'll have to pull out the magazine to take a closer look. This issue hit the newsstands in 1937, on the downside of Ballyhoo which was initially a huge success for Norman Anthony who was its editor. Ballyhoo featured joke ads bairly disguised from the real product and the magazine has been credited with influencing later humor magazines ranging from Mad to National Lampoon. Anthony had a long association with Bolles having served as an editor for Judge and later Film Fun. Oddly he neglects to mention Bolles at all in his biography though he name drops left and right. The book pretty much lists every artist he ever shared a drink with, which is perhaps one reason why Bolles' name was missing. He wasn't the carousing sort.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kind of creepy. But I'd love to see examples of someone (boys or girls) pasting their face on the cover!

Jack R said...

Great idea. I wish I was clever enough to come up with some program so that people could do that.

Alan Wrobel said...

I saw that one a while ago too. Wild isn't it? Its amazing the intensity of the magazine market at that time. The earlier College Humor covers were great too.

Anonymous said...

Maybe in time the original composition will show up, if there was one. Time has a habit of revealing all.

Jack R said...

Oh how I wish for that. Every now and then a "new" Bolles shows up, so there's always hope.

marco said...

this is a beautiful idea and a strong rendering!
Bolles don't ceases to amaze me!