Salon.com > illustration

“Mad Men” Season 6 poster gives a nod to the 1960s

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:33:00 +0000

Gearing up for season 6 of AMC's "Mad Men," the series took a note from adman Don Draper and commissioned a poster from famed illustrator Brian Sanders, a nod to the 1960s-era setting of the season.

The New York Times reports on the vision:

"Matthew Weiner, inspired by a childhood memory of lush, painterly illustrations on T.W.A. flight menus, decided to turn back the promotional clock. He pored over commercial illustration books from the 1960s and ’70s and sent images to the show’s marketing team, which couldn’t quite recreate the look he was after.

'Finally,' he said, 'they just looked up the person who had done all these drawings that I really loved, and they said: ‘Hey, we’ve got the guy who did them. And he’s still working. His name is Brian Sanders.’ ”

The Oscar posters that should have been

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:35:00 +0000

Now that the Oscars have come and gone, it is time for Hollywood to look back and wonder, "What could we have done differently?" Our advice: look in the direction of Austin, Texas' Mondo Gallery. Through a partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Mondo commissioned a series of limited edition silk-screened posters that, we think, put the actual campaigns to shame.

Who knows – perhaps with the right poster, "Wreck-It Ralph" might have snagged best picture!

Be sure to view these in full-screen mode.

[slide_show id="13211482"]

The Oscar posters that should have been

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:34:00 +0000

Check out the movie posters that Mondo Gallery commissioned for this year's crop of Oscar movies

Edward Gorey’s strange, curious world

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 17:00:00 +0000

WHEN I WAS YOUNG, I had an unusual obsession. While most of my favorite TV shows and programming blocks were the same as everyone else’s in my peer group —Animaniacs, Saturday morning cartoons, Nickelodeon’s What Would You Do? — I also watched the PBS show Mystery! with a fervent dedication, particularly Agatha Christie’s Poirot, in which British actor David Suchet plays the incredibly polite and incredibly smart Belgian detective. The show was mesmerizing for a number of reasons: its intriguing mysteries, which, hard as I tried, I could never solve; its bewitching Britishness; and the attendant propriety that came with that culture. Even though Poirot was nearly always solving the grimmest of crimes, both the show and its hero approached them with the utmost tidiness and nothing nearly so obvious as surprise. This was murder with high tea and a pair of leather gloves on.

“Harry Potter” series to get new cover art for 15-year anniversary

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:00:00 +0000

In honor of its 15-year publication anniversary in the U.S., Scholastic has released the first illustration in a series of new cover art for the "Harry Potter" series, due out in September. All seven illustrations have been created by graphic novel author and illustrator Kazu Kibuishi, of the "Amulet" series, with the first one pictured below:

Kibuishi was hesitant to take on the project at first, however; GrandPré's original pastel covers "are so fantastic and iconic," he said, that "when I was asked to submit samples, I initially hesitated because I didn't want to see them reinterpreted."

Maurice Sendak illustrations to go up for auction

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 23:30:00 +0000

A rare collection of illustrations by the late beloved children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak is about to go on sale in New York. The collection was consigned to Swann Auction Galleries from the the wife of Sendak's late friend Reed Orenstein, the latter having forged a lifelong friendship with the writer. Among other original illustrations, Orenstein's collection contains a signed first edition copy of Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" and eight pencil sketches Sendak drew for his animated CBS show "Really Rosie," which aired in 1975.

The items go on auction Jan. 24 along with art from other greats, including Dr. Seuss, Beatrix Potter, "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, and many others, some of which are featured below:

[slide_show id="13164050"]

Image credit: Swann Auction Galleries

Maurice Sendak on publishing: “Outrageously stupid”

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:54:00 +0000

Maurice Sendak was known not just as a literary icon, but as a larger-than-life curmudgeon who refused "to cater to the bullshit of innocence." The Believer has published a contemplative but hilarious interview with the "Where the Wild Things Are" writer and illustrator, who died last May, in which he opens up about childhood, literature, old age and more.

Sendak on why publishing has become "an outrageously stupid profession":

MS: Well, nobody knows what they’re doing. I wonder if that’s always been true. I think being old is very fortunate right now. I want to get out of this as soon as possible. It’s terrible. And the great days in the 1950s and after the war, when publishing children’s books was youthful and fun… it really was. It’s not just looking back and pretending that it was good. It was good. And now it’s just stupid.

BLVR: Why?

MS: Because of Rupert Murdoch. His name should be what everything is called now.

BLVR: But he publishes you!

MS: Yes! HarperCollins. He owns Harpers. I guess the rest of the world, too. He represents how bad things have become.