Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Saving Beauty
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Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Sunday, September 30, 2012
On Tap: National Beer Drinking Day
Our man Bolles pulls a pint for us to celebrate this effervescent occasion. The subject matter was as far removed from his speciality as could be, but he still really nailed it. It should be no surprise that at the same time he painted this cover in 1922 he was busy working as a food product illustrator for one of the largest advertising companies in the U.S. Bolles himself was only a modest imbiber who never would be found in any of the gin mills his fellow "picture-makers" frequented such as the Kit Kat club. His grandson once told me he went rediscovered a taste for beer late in his late 80s! A decade later this cover reappeared, the editors of Judge had another artist duplicate this image (or try to) and they were equally lazy to the point of recycling the exact same copy line. Bolles was long gone from Judge by then, but he was prideful enough about his work that if he happened to have passed it on the newsstands he wouldn't have been any too pleased.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Judge for yourself
I haven't posted many of Bolles covers from Judge, the periodical that launched his magazine career back in 1914. Here we see one of his most his most energetic compositions, published in 1924. Enoch crowds more ladies on the page here than he has in all but one other example (do you know?) among his other 560 (and still counting) magazine covers. After this, he would go on to paint only a few more covers for Judge and my guess is that Bolles, like the majority of artists and writers who contributed to the magazine, ended up getting stiffed more than once and finally said enough is enough.
Among magazine editors the staff at Judge had a notorious reputation for delaying payment. Theodor "Suess" Geisel was thrilled to get his first regular gig with Judge but within two months they had not only reduced his pay, but would then resorted to an odd form of IOU' vouchers that Geisel could redeem for products or services of companies that advertised in Judge (not that he had much of a choice,Judge consistently lagged in selling ad space) but not money. The editors even dared to skip paying James Montgomery Flagg until he showed up unannounced at the editors office and threw a pique until the cheque was cut (more than likely he demanded cash). Bolles milder temperament was not conducive to such tactics and by 1924 he had diversified, not only painting covers on a regular basis for Film Fun, Snappy Stories and other periodicals, but also producing art for the advertising and film industries. Norman Anthony, the art editor at Judge, would likely have been thrilled if Bolles had just put one dancehall on this cover but to his delight and ours, Enoch packed the house.
Among magazine editors the staff at Judge had a notorious reputation for delaying payment. Theodor "Suess" Geisel was thrilled to get his first regular gig with Judge but within two months they had not only reduced his pay, but would then resorted to an odd form of IOU' vouchers that Geisel could redeem for products or services of companies that advertised in Judge (not that he had much of a choice,Judge consistently lagged in selling ad space) but not money. The editors even dared to skip paying James Montgomery Flagg until he showed up unannounced at the editors office and threw a pique until the cheque was cut (more than likely he demanded cash). Bolles milder temperament was not conducive to such tactics and by 1924 he had diversified, not only painting covers on a regular basis for Film Fun, Snappy Stories and other periodicals, but also producing art for the advertising and film industries. Norman Anthony, the art editor at Judge, would likely have been thrilled if Bolles had just put one dancehall on this cover but to his delight and ours, Enoch packed the house.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
June 22: National Handkerchief Day
No, it's not. For once I'm kidding about it being a special holiday. But there is a small thread of connection between this image and the previous one I posted so I figured why not. She's the only reason I could imagine celebrating the handkerchief. I can't image many people under the age of 30 (40?) even know what a hankerchief is, much less ever used one. Sorry about the image quality. I don't have a copy of this issue, but do have a photo of the actual painting, which alas will have to await the book. And on that topic, my agent just told me a couple of publishers are interested so perhaps it won't be that long before you can see our knotty girl in the original.
Last, I noticed that this blog just reached a sort of milestone, 250 followers! In gratitude for all your support and interest, I'll be sharing some extra special Bolles work in the next few weeks.
Thanks!!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Cha Cha!!
There will be more to say about this when the Bolles book gets published, and frankly this is why the pace of posts on this site has ebbed. During the last year I've been directing a lot of effort into the manuscript and now that it is off off to my agent I need to become a bit more selective about what goes on the blog, lest I give away too many goodies that need to be debuted in the book. But not to worry as I have scans of over 500 Bolles covers and plenty else to share.
So back to this cover. The printing, as far as I can tell (alas, this issue is not part of my collection) was lamentable, as was the rule for this title. The dramatic shadow over the girl's eyes, her sombrero, and the fan were all overexposed into a dark blob. The color of the entire composition muted. And you know that Bolles would not have painted her this way. So I judiciously applied a little photoshop to create what I think is a truer version, though you can bet the original (do I wish she was still around) would be even livelier.
Ole!
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Pattern Recognition: Today is Tartan Day
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Spring has Sprung
I've been saving this cover for a special occasion and thought it had a nice Spring-like feeling to it. She was likely painted in 1937 or '38 but I only have the cover, so I can't definitively date it. Bolles rarely used much pink. It was hard for engravers to get right, especially next to skin tones and even more so when the printing quality wasn't so great to begin with. But probably more important, as a printer once advised Bolles, "use any color as long as it is red."
Thursday, March 1, 2012
March Two, Dress in Blue
Today
What shall I say?
For this blog
has set me agog
So the web I peruse
until the theme I choose
March two, Dress in Blue
But which girl wins the pose
because of her clothes
Only 550 covers to view I suppose
Then my eyes fall on the wall
today’s choice is the easiest of all!
(with apologies to Dr. Seuss, among others)
What shall I say?
For this blog
has set me agog
So the web I peruse
until the theme I choose
March two, Dress in Blue
But which girl wins the pose
because of her clothes
Only 550 covers to view I suppose
Then my eyes fall on the wall
today’s choice is the easiest of all!
(with apologies to Dr. Seuss, among others)
Friday, February 17, 2012
Bolles inside Esquire
Our saga of the Bolles girl channeled on the cover of Esquire continues, courtesy of mega Bolles-fan, Alan Wrobel who wrote the magazine to alert them of the Bolles connection covered here a few posts back. While the editors may have been less than open minded about the potential legacy of Bolles' work, they were intrigued enough to write about it in a sidebar in the February issue. Given the pinup legacy of Esquire; from Petty to Vargas and then Al Moore, Ben-Hur Baz, Ernest Chiriaka and others there is a certain irony that after all these years the work of Enoch Bolles has finally appeared within its pages. For the record Bolles showed up in Playboy back in 1990 as part of an article on Francis Smith's book, Stolen Sweets. Before that, Vargas used a couple of Bolles covers as inspiration for a couple of his pinups for Playboy.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
A Bolles Valentine's Day
We can't let Valentine's day pass without a cover by our man Bolles. It was a favorite celebration for him, and he created at least a half dozen other versions of heart themed covers over the years, many of which have been well thumbed over on the internet. So today I've selected a early, neglected and a bit hard to find (well, at least for the next 15 minutes) cover. It hit the newsstands in 1924, and although Enoch hadn't even been a year at Film Fun in many ways the year remains a high water mark for him. He reworked this particular pose several more times for magazine covers and advertisements and it's one of his earliest examples of what I've labeled as the L-pose. Subsequent versions, however, omitted the helpless little men, a common motif for several magazine artists beginning about a decade earlier which seemed to epitomize the angst many felt about the rising power of the "new woman." Aside from his now regular assignment at Film Fun, the year 1924 was a particularly busy for Bolles. He was also producing a couple of covers a month for Snappy Stories and painting dozens of trolley cards. And there was the occasional film poster illustration for Fox Pictures, an association which began in 1924 and continued off and on until 1931 or so. Enjoy!!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Super Bolles!
This cover of Film Fun was published in 1932, and its always seemed to me to be a bit of an outlier. She has a more modern, almost 1950s look than just about another other Film Fun cover I can recall. I'll post more of Bolles' gridiron girls-including an original that is coming up for auction-in the weeks to come along with other good sports.
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