Hunt Bowman in Lost World

Whole lot to chew on in this cover, from the one woman jet tank to the skeleton armed sword fighter. And check out that castle behind them, squirting purple goo as it collapses. A lost world, indeed.

Planet Comics No. 58 - 1949 - Pulp Covers

Stilt House Under Construction

It takes a certain kind of person to look at the ocean and say, "Yes, I am going to build a house on that." 

Pasco County, Florida

1963

from The History of Pasco County

Seattle Tubing Society

That is what a good time should look like. A few drinks, nice hats, plenty of water. Maybe this is the year I actually go tubing.

Seattle, Washington

1953, photographer Burt Glinn

from Burt Glinn's official website

Touching

If I have a favorite pop-culture referencing visual artist, it may be this one. I love that they included Buster.

Hands

2011, artist Fro

from Fro Design Co

Band of Brothers

To adventure!

no stats available

from adski kafeteri,

but seen at (OvO)

World Adventurer and Journalist

Do you suppose he chose that small eyepatch so he could use that eyebrow unimpeded?

Lecture Booklet

1930s

from Library of Congress

Goonies are Good Enough

Okay, it doesn't look like much in the small version. But if you are a Goonies fan, click on it and look at it full sized. Everything's there, from Copperpot to their piss marks on the walls. Too cool!

Movie-Inspired Map

2010, artist Andrew DeGraff

from his blog

Buried Treasure

I spent so much time digging holes and making or reading maps as a kid, you don't even know.

(Hit the "from" link to see what all these numbers and letters refer to.)

Mechanix Illustrated

1956

from Modern Mechanix

Something Missing

A couple things:

- apparently, the white American family tree starts in pirate rape and works its way up from there

- I don't see any redheads here, so where did Howdy Doodie come from up top?

- isn't this really more of a family bush?

- seriously, this shit is some kind of white.

"Family Tree"

1959, illustrator Norman Rockwell

from 100 Years of Illustration

Shantyboat!

Fuckin shantyboat! Want to live there!

Washington State
1928, photographer Kyo Koike
from University of Washington

wreck of blockade-runner

If it was easy and safe, everyone would be a smuggler.

One half of a stereograph pair. Sullivan's Island, S.C.
1865
from American Memory

The "Birds" of HMS Mars

Every sailor is a pirate at heart.

Onboard the HMS Mars
1911
from battleships-cruisers

moving the new motor

A bunch of folks built rafts out of trash a couple years ago, see, and went down the Mississippi River one summer. And if just knowing that people are still doing that doesn't make you happy, well, we're different sorts of people.

The Garden Of Bling of the Miss Rockaway Armada on the Mississippi River in Brooklyn, IL
2007
from sucka pant's flickr stream

Stormalong Harbor

This is an early version of Stormalong harbor, the strange dock city that houses one of my favorite cartoons. It's a perfect mix of surreal humor and pirates, and it feeds my love of craggy, seaside villages (see also Sweethaven and Apalachecola). Also, it's named after AB Stormalong, one of my favorites of the American mythological figures.

Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
2008, artist Thurop Van Orman
from his deviant art page

Treasure Island

Okay, this post is a little different. I've got three different illustrators' images of a passage from the novel Treasure Island, and I can't decide between them. So you get all three.


Wyeth's Jim is ready and composed, even though he's let Hands get mighty close while they chat.

1911, artist N. C. Wyeth


Godwin's Jim, though stabbed through the shoulder, knows exactly what he's doing.

1924, artist Frank Godwin


Dulac's Jim is much more a frightened little boy, injured and shooting out of desperation.

1927, artist Edmund Dulac


`One more step, Mr Hands,' said I, `and I'll blow your brains out! Dead men don't bite, you know,' I added, with a chuckle.

He stopped instantly. I could see by the working of his face that he was trying to think, and the process was so slow an laborious that, in my new-found security, I laughed aloud. At last, with a swallow or two, he spoke, his face still wearing the same expression of extreme perplexity. In order to speak he had to take the dagger from his mouth, but, in all else, he remained unmoved.

`Jim,' says he, `I reckon we're fouled, you and me, and we'll have to sign articles. I'd have had you but for that there lurch: but I don't have no luck, not I; and I reckon I'll have to strike which comes hard, you see, for a master mariner to a ship's younker like you, Jim.'

I was drinking in his words and smiling away, as conceited as a cock upon a wall, when, all in a breath, back went his right hand over his shoulder. Something sang like an arrow through the air; I felt a blow and then a sharp pang, and there I was pinned by the shoulder to the mast. In the horrid pain and surprise of the moment - I scarce can say it was by my own volition, and I am sure it was without a conscious aim - both my pistols went off, and both escaped out of my hands. They did not fall alone; with a choked cry, the coxswain loosed his grasp upon the shrouds, and plunged head first into the water.

All illustrations from Golden Age Comic Book Stories.