exuberance or chaos?

Detail, The Day the Cow Sneezed, tempera draft, 1957, courtesy the Dr. Irvin Kerlan Collection, University of Minnesota. A gallery of early Flora roughs and overlays from the Kerlan collection will be included in our next Fantagraphics book, The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora (target publication date September 2009).

cat nap

Detail, Primer for Prophets booklet, 1954

clowneries

pen & ink with pencil outline, detail, sketchbook,
ca. 1950-51, when Flora was living in Mexico

Here's an undated forebear:

Distant relative, from a 1948 Columbia Records ad
(fully reproduced in The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora)

girls + college = ??

Spot illustration, "College: Whether to Go / Where to Go," Mademoiselle, 1953

Mardi Gras quartet

One of a quartet of 5-1/2" x 6-3/4" temperas on artist board, each identical except for color scheme, presumably entitled Mardi Gras, based on figure studies by that name. The undated studies (sketches and refined tapestry) and the other three variants, which reflect Flora's early 1950s style, were reproduced in The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora. The spots on the above image indicate moisture discoloration, sometimes euphemistically referred to as an "aging artifact."

Stay in bed?

Illustration, "Are You Superstitious?" Parade Sunday newspaper supplement, December 8, 1957 (from tearsheet).

Meteor Shower

Pen & ink on sketch pad paper, early- to mid-1990s

rescuing things from Google limbo

Google yourself. Discover forgotten incidents from your past—like this 2005 interview by Coury Turczyn for PopCult magazine. The occasion was the publication of The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora, and tho the interview is dotted with Flora iconography, it also touches on outsider music, record collecting, the Langley Schools Music Project, R. Stevie Moore, and Shooby Taylor, the Human Horn.

Three years later Cory wrote an incisive cover story about Flora for Knoxville's Metro Pulse.

Valentine's Day hint hint

Say it with Flora's: KISSED — screen print from the Primer for Prophets alphabet series: an iconic 1954 illustration by Flora commemorating romantic commitment through the exchange of luxurious merchandise.

Order before Feb. 10 and we'll (almost) guarantee delivery by the 14th. Meaning, it'll be shipped in time and — barring climate interference or courier screw-up — will arrive in time for thrilling your significant something-or-other.

Order here.

behavior modification

"I'm making a list of things not to do!" Charlie was writing on paper. "It will help me stay out of trouble. Whenever I think of something I want to do, I'll just look and see if it is on this list. If it is, I won't do it."

"Things Not To Do," detail, My Friend Charlie (1964, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.)