Norman Saunders, damn.

September 18, 2003 2:17 PM

the dynamic AMAZING artwork of Norman Saunders.PULP ART to die for
Early works, Paperbacks, Men's Magazines, Comics, Pulps, TOPPS trading cards - including mars attacks, batman and wacky packs, heck even a spoof diploma. this site which is maintained by his son, publishes the painter's entire lifetime of extremely significant pop-cultural work. Packed with pages and pages of art ...Really amazing and quite something.
posted by Peter H (8 comments total)

oops, messed up the link to the TOPPS cards, here ya go
quite an impressive lifetime body of work, i'd say.
posted by Peter H at 2:23 PM on September 18, 2003

Excellent! What a treasure trove. Good to see the story behind Wacky Packages - probably as big an influence on my psyche as Mad Magazine itself. I also love the pages like this, where Saunders obviously spent a good deal of time and effort painstakingly drawing, month after month, what was essentially the same picture.

[this is good]
posted by soyjoy at 2:33 PM on September 18, 2003

I dunno why but the trading cards have always disturbed me a great deal.
posted by mcsweetie at 2:44 PM on September 18, 2003

This is fantastic, thanks, Peter!
posted by jonson at 3:12 PM on September 18, 2003

I dunno why but the trading cards have always disturbed me a great deal.


i have no idea why either, mcsweetie!

thanks jonson and soyjoy, i think this work is fantastic, too
posted by Peter H at 3:38 PM on September 18, 2003

what's with all the swastikas?
posted by kickingtheground at 5:25 PM on September 18, 2003

hm, kickingtheground - that is pretty strange. it'll sound dishonest but i really didnt even see those as such a swasti-cluster when i went through his stuff. i figure from the headlines on the men's mag that it was just a very oddly explicit magazine from that time and needed racy images like that. i wonder more about all the castros and bound ladies, tho. that's a stranger problem! during the 60s nazi imagery can be found in a lot of pop cultural underground things. it doesn't date well and it isnt much of an apology but it's all over the work of people like robert williams (zap comics) and some others during that time. it was the first generation to grow up as babies from wwII - so i expect there was still a lot to process and poke at mentally — and not a political opinion.
posted by Peter H at 7:16 PM on September 18, 2003

Wow! truly beautiful. thanks. whata find!
posted by zenpop at 10:58 PM on September 18, 2003