December 21, 2009

Mummy Was A Robot, Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil

This post now resides on my other site 50 Watts:



33 comments:

  1. Brilliant stuff. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. It was one of my favorite childhood books. Thanks a lot!

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  3. Great illustrations. We love robots.

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  4. interesting... my dad was a non-stick kitchen utensil too..

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  5. Love how the robot has an abacus in her brain...how hi-tech!

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  6. Great stuff - and a near-reference to Quiet Sun in the title too...!

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  7. Wow... When I one day put together my Floydian prog rock group, we'll have to look into acquiring these for liner art.

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  8. Just wondering if you've received permission to scan and post these illustrations? These are the property of the artists themselves. It's wonderful to be publicizing the work of these little-known artists, but not necessarily to be using their work without permission.

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  9. I remember reading this book as kid. I got it from the local library.

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  10. There's no copyright infringement if you scanned the se images right from the original printing from the Soviet State-runned publishing house. USSR was proclaimed in 1922 as meant for the world, and the properties of that former state now do belong to the world.

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  11. And there is a thing called 'fair use' Kelly. These images weren't reproduced for profit so the scans are legal.

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  12. Thanks for all the kind comments. (And Peter, always nice to find another fan of Quiet Sun.)

    Steven Heller featured a cool book today in his "Daily Heller" column: Russian Artists and the Children's Books 1890 - 1992. If I wasn't trying to get out of debt from buying books like "Hello, I'm Robot" I would buy this $195 monster immediately.

    Will

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  13. Thanks for another round of great illustrations - I love your blog!

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  14. Superb illustrations. I didn't know you were on flickr - I'll go across and look at your photos.

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  15. Hey Will,

    FYI - http://gizmodo.com/5432146/beautiful-soviet-childrens-books-make-me-wish-i-was-born-behind-the-iron-curtain

    -Set

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  16. OMG! what a fantastic post and great finds.

    A friend just sent me a link to your blog, this is unbelievable. Can't wait to fully peruse your selections! and learn about all sorts of cool stuff.

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  17. Aw, I was hoping it was an 801 reference and not a Quiet Sun reference. (Sorry, 801 was the better band!)

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  18. I need to hear the 801 version now. I wound up with the Quiet Sun record in high school (don't remember how or why) and think of it fondly without ever actually playing it.

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  19. Fantastic. I can't wait to see the rest of your new collection!

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  20. Wow -it's like Bloc-meets-Lichtenstein filtered through Metropolis. Truly imaginative, gorgeous work.

    And to think I just wrote a blog today touching on steampunk and contemporary reinvention issues in art. So glad I came across this! Thanks for it!!

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  21. Great site, you've put together a real treasure trove of unheard of inspirations. Amazing how much the art establishment and educational institutions stick to a handful of familiar European and American names, leaving whole continents of fantastic illustration unexplored or even considered. Kind of ironic that every single bookstore or art you walk into (ok, as an American) has volumes of 'classic' Japanese block prints from the 1700s but absolutely nothing from Japan in the 1900s... not here though, leave no stone unturned!
    Thanks

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  22. Pure nostalgia for some, I guess. Haven't seen these before and so my thanks to the poster. The artwork oozes a kind of innocent simplicity, in spite of the rather complex subject, that is surprising.

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  23. I get a little weepy when I see a gentle robot admiring a butterfly. Thanks for sharing! Best, S

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  24. Reminiscent of the illustrations for "The Cyberiad" by Stanislav Lem

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  25. Thanks for share,. it's very Brilliant,. Keep share,.

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  26. that fifth one is actually an automaton that was created by jacques de vaucanson in the 18th century. it's a duck that "digests" food. tasty, right?
    according to wikipedia, voltaire wrote that "without...the duck of Vaucanson, you have nothing to remind you of the glory of france."
    haha.

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  27. beautyful,,, thanks for share

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  28. I love progressive sounds specially 801, and matching mole.

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