hybrid vehicle

This steamroller is obviously in violation of some vehicular maximum-occupancy statute. The question is—who gets ordered to court? Most likely young Fletcher (at the controls), the only homo sapien on the scene. He's the most convenient scapegoat (though not the only goat).

All the other animals jumped on top of the steam roller as fast as they could. It was the only safe place to be.

"STOP!," everyone was shouting.

But the steam roller kept right on at full speed.

Page from The Day The Cow Sneezed, Flora's 1957 children's book (his second), reprinted in October 2010 by Enchanted Lion.

After Uplift, Ka-Chow!

In the Nov. 20 Wall Street Journal "Bookshelf" column, Meghan Cox Gurdon reviews Flora's 1957 The Day The Cow Sneezed, recently reprinted by Enchanted Lion Books:

"Flora's style is about as goofily retro as it's possible to get, with wide-eyed men in suits, amazed-looking wild animals, and an old-fashioned matte palate of red, pink, green and gray. In the story a series of wild events unfurls when a boy neglects his cow, which catches cold and lets loose a colossal sneeze. The force of it bowls half the farmyard first onto a motorcycle and then onto a steamroller, which topples statues and scrunches through a zoo."

The Day the Cow Sneezed mini-print

JimFlora.com has issued a low-cost ($25) fine art print of the cover of THE DAY THE COW SNEEZED, Flora's second kiddie book. Originally published in 1957 by Harcourt, the book was just reprinted by Enchanted Lion. Our 11" x 8-1/2" print features the complete cover art (used on both editions), including Flora's playful hand-cut letters. This is an open, unnumbered edition (i.e., there is no limit on the print run).

balancing act

Spot illustration, dedication page, The Day the Cow Sneezed, now back in print thanks to Enchanted Lion Books.

The first review—favorable!—courtesy the For Immediate Release (Kids) blog:

I like his habit of calling attention to certain words by putting them in all caps, nearly on every page: POW! WHAMBO! and my personal favorite KA-BLOWIE-BLAM! I also enjoy the language he uses, specific phrases such as "scrunched as flat as corn flakes." It's just plain good reading paired with some spellbinding illustrations that make this a book you won't want to miss.

Ferris Wheel Fireworks (new print)

Today we launch a new Jim Flora fine art print: Ferris Wheel Fireworks, adapted from Flora's second kiddie book, The Day the Cow Sneezed (1957). The long-sought book will be reprinted this fall by Enchanted Lion. At that time we'll issue a print of the book cover, which includes the artist's fabulous hand-typography. However, during the image restoration process, Flora archivist/printmaker Barbara Economon saw the print possibilities of the book's chaotic two-page (34-35) tableau. The book's sequence of catastrophic events that caused the above turmoil were triggered by a cow's sneeze.

The work is now available as a limited edition (30), archival-quality fine art print.

The Day the Cow Sneezed

For years we've attempted to interest publishers in reprinting Jim Flora's 17 popular children's books. At the top of our wish-list were four titles: The Fabulous Firework Family (1955); The Day the Cow Sneezed (1957); Charlie Yup and His Snip-Snap Boys (1959); and Grampa's Ghost Stories (1978). We consider these the top-tier Flora kiddie books on an artistic level—with The Day the Cow Sneezed the most outlandish of the quartet.

We've had inquiries, offers, meetings, draft agreements, proposals—and subsequent turndowns from six or seven publishers (we've lost count). Reasons vary, but they never seem to have much to do with the quality of the books. They are business decisions, which we're in no position to second-guess.

Patience has paid off, as we recently signed with Enchanted Lion Books to reprint Cow Sneezed in Fall 2010. Publisher Claudia Zoe Bedrick is a Floraphile, and depending on the success of the first reprint, she hopes to continue republishing two Flora titles a year. There is even the possibility of printing Grampa's Ghost Stories, a two-color format work which contains some of Flora's most bizarre figures—in an all-new full-color edition.

Detail, The Day the Cow Sneezed

cow chaos

Tempera overlay, The Day the Cow Sneezed, 1957, courtesy the Dr. Irvin Kerlan Collection, University of Minnesota Children's Literature Research Center.

no fight in this dog

Postman bites dog! Or at least appears to be attempting to turn the tables. Tempera draft from The Day The Cow Sneezed, courtesy the Dr. Irvin Kerlan children's literature collection. Although the book was published in 1957, archival correspondence between Flora and his Harcourt editor Margaret McElderry indicates the book was being developed as early as 1955, the same year Flora's first children's book, The Fabulous Firework Family, was published.

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).

barnyard balancing act

Draft overlay, The Day the Cow Sneezed, 1957, found amid the James Flora Papers in the Dr. Irvin J. Kerlan Collection, University of Minnesota. Who was Dr. Kerlan?

The Kerlan Collection

Farm scene draft for The Day the Cow Sneezed (1957), Flora's second children's book. The landscape image is one of 80 scans Barbara and I recently acquired from the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota. We plan to reproduce a number of these early work pages in our third book of Floriana, currently being compiled and written.

Among the artifacts — donated to the University by the artist — was an eye-popping version of Flora's first children's book, The Fabulous Firework Family (1955). At first glance, we thought it was a badly preserved first edition because the pages were detached and stuffed between covers. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that Flora had reconstructed the book by sequencing his original drafts of each page, which were rendered on various types of paper in pencil, pen and watercolor. He then trimmed text sections from a printed edition and glued them in position on each page.

The one-of-a-kind copy was inscribed with affection to Dr. Kerlan.

Fauna by Flora 2

Draft illustration, The Day the Cow Sneezed (1957)
Flora's second children's book
That goat gets around.

"a mid-century deconstructive rebel mindset"

Artist Ward Jenkins reviews The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora at his Ward-O-Matic blog.

Our friend Ward had previously posted about Flora's 1957 kiddie caper, The Day The Cow Sneezed, showcasing some rarely seen draft illustrations.