Self-Portrait with Cigar

Pen & ink on heavy stock, 1990s, from the archives.
Previously unpublished and uncirculated work.

costing you an arm & a leg

Another pencil draft from the 1955 sketchbook we've been featuring the past few weeks. The purpose of this stand-alone drawing is unknown. Other sketches on the same and adjacent pages feature rough panels for a cartoon ad about Proctor toasters; none of those drawings depict a loss of limbs.

Benny Goodman's clarinet

A celebrity in its own right, brags to the media about Benny's awesome embouchure. Reporter doggedly chronicles sensationalistic account, anticipates major scoop.

Detail, Columbia Records ad, Look magazine, 1943.

Firework doggie

Detail, draft manuscript, The Fabulous Firework Family (1955)

Primer for Prophets prints now on eBay

The long-awaited series of fine-art screen prints PRIMER FOR PROPHETS are now available on eBay. Very cool Flora illustrations of the American nuclear family (and their weird pets) during the 1950s, when people had fried-egg eyes, dog food tins were edible, and teens grew bonus legs!

Subtitled "A Flora '50s A-B-C," the images derive from a 1954 trade-only alphabet booklet titled Primer for Prophets that Flora illustrated for CBS-TV. The booklet was not circulated to the public, but was intended to attract corporate advertisers to the emerging medium of television. Each page featured iconic Flora illustrations of past-tense verbs (A to Z) that reflected daily activities of the typical American family, suggesting products they would purchase.

The first four prints produced are "ATE," "DROVE," "JIVED," and "SMOKED." They are available as single prints or as a set.

The PRIMER series was produced in a limited edition of 100 by Minneapolis screen studio Aesthetic Apparatus. Production specs are detailed in the eBay listings. Each print is hand-numbered and authenticated.

Over the next few years, we'll extend the series to cover the entire alphabet. The PRIMER illustrations reflect Flora at his post-war commercial peak. That same year, he began illustrating RCA Victor album covers, creating some of his most popular images (such as Mambo for Cats). The PRIMER characters are consistent with the best of his RCA album sleeves.

NOTE: The 10-day eBay listings for these prints have expired, but the prints are now available through JimFlora.com. The above links go directly to the individual print pages on the site.