That's mistletoe Santa's helper is standing under so you better give her some attention. As you've seen in recent posts, our man Enoch has 'presented' us with a a lot of classic Christmas cheer, and I think he deserves he deserves than he's gotten. Just yesterday on NPR there was a piece on how a marketing campaign by Coca-Cola in 1930 was largely responsible for ushering in red (Coca-Cola red, to be exact) and green as the official colors of Christmas, along with the red-cheeked Santa we all know and love. The artist--not identified in the segment--was the talented Haddon Sundblom (who spawned a generation of pinup artists, most notably Gil Elvgren). But before him, others, including Enoch were already mining. I'll share more in the coming days including a classic Santa image Bolles painted in 1924, and another that I think is the best Santa ever!
Today we have another example of Bolles' Christmas themed covers, this a charming example from 1926. Sorry about its condition but Snappy's just don't hold up very well. The covers were done on cheap paper, the magazine was thicker than most other pulps and the binding was often overglued. But beat up or not I just love to see Bolles' Snappy Stories. work. These covers reveal a relaxed aspect to his painting which had already begun to disappear from Film Fun. And there's a narrative that you rarely see in his magazine art. I'm assuming this illustration has something do to with the story but I've never managed to to read far enough into one to figure it out one way or another. The art may be fresh but the text has gone stale.
Santa sure scored this holiday season, though it helped that he spiked the mistletoe with a little something extra sure to make our Bolles girl happy. Or are those slippers meant for santa. This December we'll be featuring Christmas themed magazine covers, and maybe a few ads too.
