Fun illustration in two colors: black and blue of a young girl holding up a piece of paper.
Fun illustation of a man in a rocket with swirly cues for exhaust.
More by Jerry Smath, 1961.
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Fun illustration of a man with a mustache working on a wild, crazy contraption with wheels and buttons and levers and gadgets and whozits.
Illustration by Jerry Smath, 1961.
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Stylized illustration of a man walking in a dilapidated castle with a lantern and there's a shadowy figure following him.
Cover to The Complete Father Brown - illustrated by Javier Olivares.
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Cover to a 16 Magazine from the 1960s with an illustrated scene at the dock, with figures all hanging out at the dock, but with actual photos of celebrities for the heads.
16 Magazine from 1964 or '65 -from my mom's collection of teenybop magazines of that time. She was a big fan of the Beatles, esp Paul McCartney. I remember poring over these magazines because of how they incorporated the cutouts of the faces with the illustrated scenes. Loved it.
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Illustration from the book This is Cape Canaveral of a welcome back parade for the astronauts with lots of people cheering as a little boy is holding up a sign that says "Welcome to the Earth". There's a big banner overhead that says "WELCOME BACK to Cocoa Beach."
WELCOME BACK ARTEMIS ASTRONAUTS!
From This is Cape Canaveral, by M. Sasek (1963).
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Richly detailed illustration of an astronaut inside the Gemini capsule spacecraft.
Amazing illustration of an astronaut inside a Gemini spacecraft by M. Sasek.
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Great illustration filled with details of a NASA control room with a huge map of the earth featuring orbital lines for spacecraft that're orbiting currently. There are a lot of men (again, men only) with headsets and microphones looking at monitors and computer screens and lots of gadgets and buttons.
Another great control room spread from "This is Cape Canaveral" by M. Sasek.
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Wonderful illustration of a control room with lots of men (no women, I notice) looking at monitors, with headsets on, writing things down and talking amongst themselves.
More from "This is Cape Canaveral" by M. Sasek (1963).
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Illustration of a multitude of people looking up, mostly with various cameras - both regular and film cameras, all aimed up at the sky, watching a launch of a rocketship at Cape Canaveral.
From "This is Cape Canaveral" by M. Sasek. Love this one.
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Illustration of an astronaut by Miroslav Sasek.
The book was retitled, "This is Cape Kennedy" in a later edition when the town was renamed after JFK's death. Then, in 2009, the book was again retitled to "The is the Way to the Moon" when it was reissued with updated info and added pages with art by Jessie Hartland.
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Fun illustrated cover to the book, This is Cape Canaveral by M. Sasek. There's a family of three looking up at rocketships with palm trees nearby.
This is Cape Canaveral - by Miroslav Šašek (1963).
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Fun illustration from the Space Alphabet book. This page: a young boy in an astronaut suit, floating in space. Text: "Y is for you in your new space suit."
And finally, Y for YOU - from Space Alphabet.
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Fun illustration from the Space Alphabet book. This page: Illustration of a stylized earth on the left page and there's two astronauts floating in space, looking at the United States. On the right, a rocket goes around the moon. Text: "U is for our United States as seen from outer space. V is for the voyage to the moon and back."
U and V from Space Alphabet.
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Fun illustration from the Space Alphabet book. This page: A dog with a clear domed helment floats in space. Text: "L is for Laika the first dog in space."
Fun illustration from the Space Alphabet book. This page: a man is covering his ears with each hand. Text: "N is for the noise of rockets blasting off."
Fun illustration from the Space Alphabet book. This page: a spaceship or rocket orbits the earth. Text: "O is for an orbit 'round and 'round the earth."
Fun illustration from the Space Alphabet book. This page: a young boy is peering through a telescope. Text: "T is for a telescope to focus on the stars."
More from Space Alphabet, illustrated by Peter P. Plasencia (1964).
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Fun illustration from the Space Alphabet book. This page: an astronaut is floating in space and looking through a sextant. Text: "A is for astronaut a sailor among the stars."
Fun illustration from the Space Alphabet book. This page: It's a big flying zeppelin. Text: "D is for the dirigible a motor-driven balloon."
Fun illustration from the Space Alphabet book. This page: A very fast jet airplane. Text: "J is for jets mighty kings of speed."
Fun illustration from the Space Alphabet book. This page: A girl is hulahooping with several hula hoops. Text: "K is for kinetics the science of force and motion."
Placencia's work is deceptively simple, working with a limited color palette of blue, orange, grey and black line - he manages to evoke such joy and wonder through each image. Love his work so much here.
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Cover to a midcentury children's book, Space Alphabet. There's two kids with clear domed helmets on and sitting on a floating block with A, B and C on each side.
Today, in honor of the Artemis II liftoff, I'll share a book I scanned and posted about years ago and is still one of my favorites in my collection: Space Alphabet by Irene Zacks, illustrated by the talented Peter P. Plasencia (1964).
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A man is grilling food on a kebob while his family stands around him.
A man and woman are preparing salads outdoors while their son is playing in the background.
And finally, the last two from Better Homes & Gardens Barbecue Book, illustrated by Roy Mathews (1959).
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A family is about to do some outdoor cooking.
A man is about to light a grill while his boy stands off the side, watching.
More from BH&G's Barbecue Book, illustrated by Roy Mathews (1959).
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Cover to a book on barbecue and outdoor cooking, with a fun illustration of a man holding up a plate of food and a kebob. His family is in the background all happy to be eating this bbq meat.
Better Homes & Gardens Barbecue Book, illustrated by Roy Mathews (1959).
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Illustration for a London Transport poster.
London Tansport poster, 1954 - designed by Sheila Stratton.
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Fun illustrated poster for the UK post featuring a woman holding up a letter with an address on it and a postman is giving her the thumbs up.
Please check your postal address - poster designed by Harry Stevens, 1970.
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Illustrated cover to a children's book, I Want To Read! with two kids, a boy and a girl reading a book.
I Want To Read! by Betty Ren Wright, illustrated by Aliki, 1965 (this cover 1970 ed.).
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Ad from 1953 for Meadow Gold Milk featuring the same little girl by Mary Blair and she's sharing milk with a cat and her kittens.
Very much in line with the I Can Fly Little Golden Book, this Meadow Gold Milk ad is pretty cute with the little girl offering milk to a cat and her kittens.
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Close up of an ice cream ad from 1953 featuring a little girl in a spring outfit eating some ice cream.
Ad from 1953 for Meadow Gold Ice Cream with a photo of Springtime Chocolate Revel ice cream in a bowl. There's the illustrated girl mentioned before in the bottom left corner.
Another one by Mary Blair from the same ad campaign for Meadow Gold Ice Cream, 1953.
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Close up of an ice cream ad from 1953 featuring a little girl dressed up in Irish traditional attire, doing an Irish jig, holding up a box of ice cream.
Ad from 1953 for Meadow Gold Ice Cream with a photo of Emerald Mint ice cream in a bowl and some cookies with a shamrock drawn on them in icing. There's the illustrated girl mentioned before in the corner.
Meadow Gold Ice Cream ad from 1953 with illustration by Mary Blair.
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Illustration of a man singing with a guitar, while a young boy listens. They're outside with rolling hills and the countryside around them.
Illustration of Robin, man with a guitar, tipping his hat as he walks away.
From When I Met Robin, illustrated by Aurelius Battaglia (1968).
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Illustrated cover of the book When I Met Robin with a man in a cowboy hat, singing and strumming a guitar, while a young boy listens on.
When I Met Robin - illustrated by Aurelius Battaglia. A song book dated 1968.
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Black & white illustration of a 50s teenager looking at himself older in the mirror.
Black & white illustration of a teen boy giving a present to a teen girl.
Black & white illustration of a mother reading a book on child care at the dinner table with a young child sitting next to her.
Black & white illustration of two women talking on a sofa while a young boy sits in a chair nearby.
More interior illustrations for When Children Start Dating, 1951. Artist is Janet La Salle.
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Black and white illustration of a teenage couple, skating.
Teenage boy from the 50s tinkering with a radio.
Black and white illustration of a teenage girl from the 50s talking with her mother.
Black and white illustration of a teenage girl from the 50s talking with her father on an old fashioned couch.
More interior illustrations for When Children Start Dating, 1951. Artist is Janet La Salle.
Some of the descriptions below the illustrations are priceless.
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Black and white illustration of four teenager girls from the 50s, hangin' and chillin' on a couch.
Black and white illustration of a teenage boy from the 50s being reprimanded by his mother.
Black and white illustration of a teenage boy ringing the doorbell while a teenage girl awaits on the other side of the door.
Black and white illustration of 1950s teenagers hanging out.
Janet La Salle is one of my favorite midcentury illustrators. Here, her earlier work is more angular with a certain stiffness to it, but still works for me. Love these poses and expressions.
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