Friday, August 03, 2007
Illustration: Coronet Magazine 1945
This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping examples of classic illustration.

Archive supporter, Rich Borowy stopped by to digitize some classic Stan Freberg radio shows for the archive database yesterday. Under his arm was a box of old Coronet and Omnibook magazines. Rich said that he was given the box at a garage sale that was closing down. I've never looked at these particular magazines, but they have wonderful illustrations and features. Here are highlights from the December, 1945 issue. Check it out. There's a big surprise at the end. Thanks for bringing these in, Rich!
Each issue opens with an inspirational message and illustration. This one is by illustrator, Vera Bock. Many issues contain the work of Arthur Szyk, whose book The New Order we featured last year. I'll be doing a whole post of Szyk illustrations from Coronet soon.

Next up is a retelling of "The Night Before Christmas" by Golden Book illustrator, Sheilah Beckett. Will Finn recently posted about her book on Gilbert & Sullivan Operettas. These pages strongly resemble the back of Little Golden Books. Do you think Sheilah Beckett designed that?



Here's a feature on the artists who created the Famous Artists Course... Stevan Dohanos, along with his illustrator friends Albert Dorne, Ben Stahl, Hardie Gramatky, Fred Ludekens and Dean Cornwall donated their services to decorate casts in the Halloran Army Hospital in New York.


And here's a feature on exotic superstitions and religious beliefs by Stevan Dohanos...


Here's a real surprise- The autobiography of Bugs Bunny! "A Hare Grows In Manhattan"...







If you enjoyed this post, check out... Little Verses Part One, Part Two and Part Three, Baby's House, Arthur Szyk's The New Order and Artzybasheff's Neurotica, Machinalia and Diablerie.
Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
Labels: bugs bunny, cartoons, dohanos, famous artists, golden book, illustration, magazine





























3 Comments:
What a fasinating article, especially with the 'life story' of Bugs. And the illustrations, God, talent must of been plentiful back then.
Amazing glimpse into the past - love the Bugs Bunny bio - or should I say "Bugs" Bunny (fascinating to think that at the time of this article, Bugs was newer that Spongebob is today.)
Wowsers. That first set of illustrations make me want to be kid again with nothing to do but read the story by a fireplace.
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