The Weirdest Bolles Swipe. Ever!

I wasn't looking for her, I swear. She found me. Earlier today I got a friend request on facebook, and for a few seconds I was clueless as to why a 20 something residing in Denmark and sporting the figure on the left on her skin would try and friend me. At first I thought she might be a Bolles fan but after a couple clicks it was clear she wasn't. The request was simply an attempt to add to her her friend count, or whatever the term is for that metric. But when I spotted the thumbnail of her tattoo my Bolles bell rang out and it was no problem to ID the exact source. Take a look at the original, from a 1942 issue of Film Fun. The drawing of her figure is pretty much a flat out trace, but say what you may, as far as swipes go this one is at least interesting.

Stop Snowman Abuse day!

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After the countless posts I've made about other people's weird holidays it's time that the Enoch Bolles blog establish one of its own. Since last week's entries on Bolles variations of the figure four headlock upon several variations of hapless male-folk it became apparent to me that Enoch had a particular thing against snowmen.

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Take a look at this example, which I may have previously posted but have cleaned up and boosted the colors to what I estimate is a truer depiction of this heinous crime in all its lurid glory. Our poor snowman may think he's as snug as a bug but it is obvious that within minutes he'll be suffering from a terminal case of cranial hyperthermia, if the ashes she's flicking off her fag don't fatally singe him first. Poor old frosty hasn't a clue of the decerebrate fate that soon awaits him. He'll be facedown in the snow in mere seconds. Take a stand now. No more snowman abuse!

Keep yer (virtual) mitts off her. She's mine!

For a while I've been subscribing to Google alerts, which sends you an email whenever a search term you've specified pops up on the web. It should be no surprise that mine is set to check for Enoch Bolles, and the other day I opened a link to see this image smiling back at me. Which was a total shock. You see I happen to own this painting. No, someone didn't break into my study and snap a pic of her. Nothing quite that invasive. This image was one of many included in an article I wrote about Enoch a few years back for Illustration Magazine and due to the generosity of the publisher Dan Zimmer, I got to keep the copyrights to the article. A few people have since quoted from it and I've been noted, which is truly appreciated. Obviously, someone had to have scanned the balloon girl from the article, posted her and now she's all over the web, crosslinked back and forth so much I could never untangle the mess to figure out who was the culprit.


Don't get me wrong, I don't mind Bolles getting the publicity. In fact it's the main reason I've been doing this blog for the past year and why I'm still trying to publish a book on him. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume that anyone who regularly visits this blog will agree that Bolles deserves more recognition, both for his pinups and his work in commercial illustration. So when someone uploads an image from this blog and links it back to here I'm truly grateful and will thank them for the shout-out. But this is different and frustrating. Some of the other paintings I used in the article cost me a small fortune to have photographed and I promised the owners I would not use the image for any purpose other than for publication. Clearly, it's only a matter of time before they start to show up too, but at least in this case I can still be a bit preemptive, and display her in appropriate context to an appreciative audience. I'm sure some of you also recognize the pose, the painting was a "comp" for the October 1941 cover, which in my opinion falls far short. For one the girls' outfit was reworked to hide her navel, still a big no-no on the cover (though they quit bothering to airbrush them from the interior photos years earlier). Second, it appears that the engraver cut out part of her hair-do to keep it from blocking the logo, which was a big mistake. The other change was to the balloons, which look more like balls in the final painting.
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Talk about ironic, just seconds ago I got a new Google alerts, I checked the link and it's packed with Bolles images yanked from this site!

He's Warming Up To Her

To continue with our recent topic of hitching a ride on unlikely sources of transportation, here's a fun cover from 1936 that the Dawl used for the fabulous banner you see above. Frosty is obviously quite pleased to be providing our Bolles girl a ride (who wouldn't!), and she doesn't seem to have a care in the world about the weather, not that her scarf is doing her a lick of good. I also owe TJ a shot-out for this fabulous scan. Stay tuned, there will be more snowy goodness to come.

It's a Bear Out There!

With all the bad weather circulating around the globe it would seem only fair to recalibrate the temperature of this blog to match climatic conditions. And in keeping with the recent informal theme of Bolles girl astride various members of the Wild Kingdom here we feature one of the two known polar bear covers that Bolles completed, this one for a 1933 issue of Film Fun. Notice the long snout on our bear which is accurate and particular to the polar bear. Bolles worked hard on details like this that were clearly not a priority for subscribers to Film Fun. Notice also that the bear is not in the least sharing the girl's enthusiasm. But when the girl's mode of transportation is human, there's a remarkable adjustment in attitude.

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(Thanks Gary, for the nice scan of this cover!)

Back to the Beach

It was just a few posts ago where I was speculating about the origin of the lovely lady adorning the cover of a 1941 issue of Young's Magazine. Well since then I was doing some "house cleaning" and what did I come across but a clipped cover from a 1935 issue of Breezy Stories, featuring our girl in her original outfit and as you've undoubtedly noticed, a different beach companion. Not that I can tell whether it's a Loggerhead or Hawksbill but Bolles did use the Girl on a Turtle theme for at least one other cover (a 1937 issue of Gay Parisienne).

Aside from the turtle the cover is notable for the signature, added by the engraver. Several other covers of Breezy Stories, all from 1935 have the added signature as well as a cover art credit for Bolles on the title page, which an acknowledgement even Film Fun never afforded Bolles. This version of the cover was used again as a closeup in a 1938 issue of Breezy. I'm sure Bolles didn't get a dime extra for it and I doubt whether he got anything for the remake either. By 1940 Painter Publications was using recycled Bolles' covers for virtually every issue of Young's Magazine. The puzzle is why is this one different, and in such a special way.