Today's Inspiration is a blog "for those with an interest in illustration from the 40's and 50's to share their knowledge, views and opinions." This week it is featuring a guest blogger analyzing Norman Rockwell's illustrations for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. This blog can always be counted on to inform you about illustrators and cartoonists you've likely never heard of. Also advertising icons and my favorite: Smokes for Mom! It's all on Flickr too. [more inside]
posted by marxchivist on Jul 9, 2009 - 11 comments

Beautifully designed, quirky, colorful late 19th-century "artistic" and "gaslight" printing at Dick Sheaff's ephemera pages. [via, via] [more inside]
posted by mediareport on Jun 8, 2009 - 11 comments

Travel Posters — a Flickr set from the Boston Public Library. "Combining superb illustration and hand-drawn typography, they produced dazzling images in rich vibrant colors rendered through the magic of stone lithography." (via)
posted by netbros on Jun 6, 2009 - 15 comments

The Táin lithographs In 1967 Louis le Brocquy was commissioned to illustrate Thomas Kinsella's translation of the great Irish prose epic the Táin Bó Cuailnge. The resulting collaborative volume is widely acknowledged as the great Irish Livre d'Artiste of the twentieth century; Le Brocquy's "brush drawings merged seamlessly with the text; stark, fluent images, they expressed with great economy of means an epic breadth, evoking the movement of vast masses of people. Individual participants in the drama were also pulled into close focus."
posted by Abiezer on Jun 6, 2009 - 19 comments

We previously discussed the similarities, or lack thereof, between Emily the Strange and Rosamond from Nate the Great. Apparently, Nate the Great's writer (Marjorie Sharmat) and illustrator (Marc Simont) started making noise about the situation, though they have yet to file suit. Now Cosmic Debris, creator of the Emily empire, have beaten them to the punch by going to the U.S. District Court in California seeking a declaratory judgment (.pdf) that Emily does not infringe. (via) [more inside]
posted by schoolgirl report on May 21, 2009 - 33 comments

Lost At E Minor is an online publication of inspiring art, illustration, photography, music, fashion, film — basically contemporary pop culture.
posted by netbros on May 20, 2009 - 23 comments

Spam by Elliott Burford. An ongoing project illustrating the titles of emails found in your spam/junk box.
posted by chunking express on May 14, 2009 - 19 comments

Images from The Complete Book of Space Travel illustrated by Virgil Finlay, including an analysis of the space-crew candidate.
posted by Artw on May 7, 2009 - 30 comments

Lucy Pepper is an English artist living in Portugal. Her illustrations, animations, and cheeky blog, illuminate the cult of the bata, Portuguese beach culture, just how weird British tourists can look, and what it's like to have one's daughters humiliated by your very presence in public. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on May 4, 2009 - 8 comments

Frank Soltesz was a master of fascinating cutaway illustrations depicting "modern businesses" in the '40s and '50s - from hotels and hospitals to breweries, grocery stores, and more. (via Telstar Logistics Blog) [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on May 3, 2009 - 50 comments

"Everything begins with complex cladograms I scribble down on large sheets of paper. Before any pictures, these family trees serve as the 'backbone' of the project; allowing me to develop the relationships among different animals and derive ideas from one another." Welcome to the beautiful nonexistent world of Snaiad. Inhabitants include Titanoformes, Cardiocetes, Sprogophidians, and Blumbomeniforms. There are also maps and a timeline. Fantastic speculative zoology from Nemo Ramjet.
posted by HumanComplex on Apr 16, 2009 - 22 comments

The art of Jason Courtney takes a personal tour on some of the moments of Margaret Atwood's dystopia Oryx & Crake - a visit to the pigoons or Snowman's morning view, pausing to reflect on the enigmatic beauty of Oryx. [more inside]
posted by panboi on Mar 30, 2009 - 42 comments

From cops vs. hoods and other toughies to mad science and dramatic ledges and bridgewalkers, a vast and entertaining collection of vintage pulp art categorized into themes.
posted by madamjujujive on Mar 26, 2009 - 17 comments

Modok March Madness. via Drawn.
posted by signal on Mar 17, 2009 - 5 comments

"Quentin Blake doesn't need a website. But Quentin Blake has a website." [more inside]
posted by doobiedoo on Mar 9, 2009 - 16 comments

Tom Gauld draws cartoons for the Guardian. [more inside]
posted by Rinku on Mar 3, 2009 - 7 comments

Classic game characters redrawn
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Mar 1, 2009 - 35 comments

"These are like cool Magic Cards!" - the sometimes disturbing (and sometimes NSFW) art of Alfred Kubin.
posted by Artw on Feb 22, 2009 - 8 comments

Can't talk, too busy looking at Andy Smith's art and typography
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Feb 18, 2009 - 7 comments

Make your handwriting into a font with Yourfonts. Download the PDF, draw your alphabet, scan and upload, then download the finished result. Examples. Via Drawn!
posted by Rinku on Feb 2, 2009 - 31 comments

The "I Can Read Movies" Series is a set of fake film novelizations, done in 1950's and 1960's illustration style. [via]
posted by piratebowling on Jan 30, 2009 - 20 comments

Andreas Aronsson makes interesting impossible figures, documents the process, and philosophizes. Via lines and colors and Neatorama, where Aronsson shows up to call himself "an Oscar Reutersvärd ripoff." Reutersvärd is often credited as the founder of the impossible figure. [more inside]
posted by mediareport on Jan 28, 2009 - 12 comments

A curated collection of web comics over at Greylock Arts, with creator interviews and lots of links to strips like Underwire, Persimmon Cup, Truth Serum, Wondermark, The Process, Amazing Facts...and Beyond!, Phil McAndrew and more, including a few previously featured on the blue. [via Bookslut]
posted by mediareport on Jan 26, 2009 - 4 comments

This dad draws cool pictures on his kids' brown paper lunch bags. Every day.

A new bag each day for my kids. I'm the dad. I make these during my lunch break. His kids, Dylan and Dana are getting not only kickass sacks for their lunches, but also an awesome education in pop culture. Highlights include: Mugato, Toad from Super Mario Bros. video games, Red Ryder, characters from MTV's "Daria", and more vintage-y type stuff, such as V.I.N.Cent.
posted by Rudy Gerner on Jan 23, 2009 - 67 comments

old comics and illustration (-v-)
posted by vronsky on Jan 17, 2009 - 14 comments

An Awesome Book : About the power of dreams. Ostensibly "for children." [more inside]
posted by grapefruitmoon on Jan 4, 2009 - 63 comments

Christoph Niemann illustrates: his sons' obsession with the NYC subway (previously), bathroom tile art, New York cheat sheets, and his experiences with coffee (illustrated with coffee on napkins). Check out his excellent portfolio of illustrations and don't miss the ones on illustrating. You can see Niemann talk a bit about his work here.
posted by parudox on Dec 26, 2008 - 18 comments

Just some cool dark fantasy art by John Jude Palencar, including covers for Lovecraft, de Lint, Tolkien and other popular books.
posted by mediareport on Dec 25, 2008 - 11 comments

You've got some sugar in your eye: 100 Cereal Box Covers
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Dec 18, 2008 - 27 comments

When the House of Commons required a portrait of outgoing PM Tony Blair, to whom did they turn? Phil Hale. [more inside]
posted by infinitewindow on Nov 15, 2008 - 22 comments

A complete archive of French magazine L'Officiel de la Mode, from 1921 to 2008. It's a treasure trove for fans of fashion, photography, advertising and design. [more inside]
posted by jack_mo on Nov 14, 2008 - 16 comments

Chicago jam-comics group Trubble Club boasts an all-star line-up of amazing illustrators, collectively creating surreal, hilarious and somewhat disturbing comics. [more inside]
posted by 235w103 on Nov 14, 2008 - 7 comments

Lars Veldkamp. I happened upon Lars through his Flickr sets, in particular Typocalypse.
posted by netbros on Oct 23, 2008 - 12 comments

We wanted to hold onto them for as long as possible. Not as much as a tribute to the early history of MAD... but because these paintings were covering up quite a few holes in the walls.
posted by R. Mutt on Oct 17, 2008 - 8 comments

Mad Meg. Since the beginning of 2001, I draw in small notebooks 11 cm X 15 cm (approximately), always with a ballpoint pen, always on same paper, always in black. (Some drawings are NSFW) Digestion Paintings, her renditions of paintings by other artists l Glam Freak Show l The Family Code l Chimères l The Patriarchs l Digestion Notebooks l Photos of Mad Meg setting up for her most recent exhibit at the Austin Gallery in London, which opened today. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Oct 14, 2008 - 20 comments

Ossining Calling. Dyna Moe presents Mad Men Illustrated.
posted by scody on Oct 6, 2008 - 15 comments

Overlooked New York, Impassioned New Yorkers from an Artist's Perspective by Zina Saunders, who is now becoming better known for her darkly humorous political images. Her blog on the illustrator blogsite, Drawger. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Oct 5, 2008 - 18 comments

Cornelia Hesse-Honegger paints watercolours of mutated insects from radioactively contaminated areas in Ukraine, Switzerland, the United States, and Europe. She has recently published a scientific article incorporating these paintings (5 MB PDF). site also available in German
posted by Rumple on Oct 1, 2008 - 26 comments

FairyTaleFilter: SurLaLune Fairy Tales features 49 annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, modern interpretations and over 1,500 illustrations, 1,600 folktales & fairy tales from around the world in more than 40 full-text eBooks. Fairy Tale timeline. l Women Children's Book Illustrators l The Evolution of the Illustrated Children's Book l Some really beautiful free graphics and clipart from Grandma's Graphics. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Oct 1, 2008 - 11 comments

"The common point of all my characters is that they aren’t nice, [they’re] either nasty or mean. They all have a personality with good and bad sides." Olivier Bucheron creates striking alien and robot meanies. Zamak.... (some images mildly nsfw)
posted by Kronos_to_Earth on Oct 1, 2008 - 2 comments

80's sillibiz, parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids. Garbage Pail Kids cards.The checklist. A few of the Garbage Pail Kids' artists: Luiz Diaz l John Pound l Tom Bunk. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Sep 28, 2008 - 37 comments

Area 56: Peeing robots, rockin' office workers, engaging panoramas, and even a few sexy girls.
posted by artifarce on Sep 6, 2008 - 9 comments

20 pretty painted guitars. (via Nag on the Lake) [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on Sep 6, 2008 - 12 comments

Eyesuck Ink is the art work of illustrator Alex Pardee. His unique style is one conceived through watching years of horror movies, writing graffiti, and listening to gangster rap. His work best represents that of a circus sideshow cemetery.
posted by netbros on Aug 14, 2008 - 7 comments

The king of comics - Jack Kirby
posted by vronsky on Aug 10, 2008 - 31 comments

The Gerd Arntz Web Archive collects graphics from the career of the man who - in creating over 4000 Isotypes for social scientist Otto Neurath in 1930s Red Vienna - can make a serious claim to be the inventor of the modern stick figure. He attacked the corruption of German society as the Nazis rose to power, then joined Neurath in an attempt to create a transnational visual language that bore later fruit in Otl Aicher's 1972 Olympic pictograms and the AIGA passenger/pedestrian symbol signs. [via Mark Larson and Austin Kleon]
posted by mediareport on Jul 7, 2008 - 9 comments

On this page
you can make a choice
out of several little stories
in different languages.
Most of them however can be enjoyed without speaking the used language.
posted by carsonb on Jun 29, 2008 - 1 comment

Lookybook lets you browse full versions of children's picture books, like The Other Side by Hungarian-born illustrator Istvan Banyai, or Alphabeasts by Wallace Edwards.
posted by the littlest brussels sprout on Jun 24, 2008 - 5 comments

Diableri, Machinalia and Neurotica. Illustrations by Boris Artzybasheff (previously) from his book As I See.
posted by homunculus on Jun 16, 2008 - 11 comments

As a child, illustrator Rafa Toro adored the creepy Monstruos Diabolicos sticker collection. As an adult, he's giving the whole set a fresh look. [Via]
posted by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] on Jun 15, 2008 - 9 comments