PAPER PROPS - The Magazines Reimagined

[joberg]

Thanks Tom; she probably needs it.

[Replicant 13]

Oh Magoo . . . You did it again! Thanks Tom! - R13
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Gosh, you've really got some nice toys here . . .

[SKIN JOB 66]

[retrogarde]

Hot damn! Thank you Tom!

Mine was close, but I gave the poor fellow a mustache where there was really just a shadow...

SKIN JOB66: I would welcome any input from you on improving the cigarette pack design. You mentioned a green stripe above BALAJI as well as the red. Could you elaborate?

[Tom Southwell]

Retrogarde,
You are welcome Mr Lobsterman, and fellow film maker, and asst. To Steven King! And fellow fan of the Wyeths.
I was giddy when I found it. Knew it would bring a few smiles.

Oh , I thought your pack was great. Pictured myself chain smoking, like a George Clooney sailing out to haul up my traps on the way to a perfect storm.
TS
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I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Tom Southwell]

And the mustache...
Every artist unconsiously puts a bit of himself in his work.



And I guess his kids too.
TS
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I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[SKIN JOB 66]

[retrogarde]

Tom: I think my subconscious is frustrated by my lack of facial hair, and acts out both on paper and with costumes. Unfortunately my kids often get dragged into it too. In that photo I swear my two boys look like Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. from the Sherlock Holmes films!

Fred: I've used a dark red for the stripes, but I could try it with one being green. I just think the Aspen Beer green is too light. Since the text on the bottom front is too small to be legible I improvised a bit based on the nationality of Bolaji himself. The Arabic script on the side (inspired by the woodcut) is actually a cancer warning taken from a real pack.

The size of the pack is based on the packaging for Dunhill's, but looks correct (to me) beside a Tupperware stackable mug.

[Replicant 13]

In cleaning and organizing The Studio's storage "closet" at work (an act that apparently had not been performed for some time), I ran across a couple of old vellum tracing tablets and sketch pads with rather dated designs on the cover flaps. While none matched the one you mentioned using as a background on the CREATIVE EVOLUTION cover, - I know it's been decades - but I wondered if you had any recollection of what brand that was(?)

I saved the covers since they reminded me of that pattern -


As with many hand-drawn grids of the past, this Quikdraft cover, and the pages within, suffer from the noticeable irregularities common at the time.

HAB1! - R13
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Gosh, you've really got some nice toys here . . .

[Tom Southwell]

Rep13,
The thickest of those vellum sheets is what Sherman Labby drew on with
a dipped pen and India ink, corrected with xacto knife or white out. Tones
added with charcoal pencil sharpened by razor blade ( very old school ).

And I love his work.

I will look to see if I have what you need.

Retrogarde,
Your humor is endearing .
I'll try to keep up.
( did you notice Larry, David, and I looked like The Smith Brothers
back in 1980?) ...the cough drop box.
TS
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I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Replicant 13]

Thanks, Tom. I loved Sherman Labby's work as well. Of course now storyboards are generally not as detailed, and conceptual work has risen to amazingly complex levels with Photoshop and the like.

It may seem "old school" to many here, but I think the old approaches still have more value than the new in many ways. As Alvin and Drew have said, there's something about the discipline of not being able to so easily "fix" your mistakes. And, sometimes having those "happy accidents" are beneficial. That dependency on just "undoing" your errors is nice, but it can be quite a crutch as well.

Thanks for any light you can shed on the art tablet.

- R13
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Gosh, you've really got some nice toys here . . .

[Tom Southwell]

Rep13,
I'll answer over in the TS Q & A thread, OK?
TS
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I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Replicant 13]

Thanks, Tom!
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Gosh, you've really got some nice toys here . . .

[retrogarde]

And I'll continue the BALAJI discussion on the "Drinking Birds and Gashupons" thread over in the Alien sector so that this thread doesn't get bogged down.

A quick BR magazine question: now that Blurb is offering one-off magazine printing, has anyone considered making these that way? I don't know what the interior would be filled with, but with these covers (and Esper and Off World adverts for the back covers) you could at least have the exterior of the magazine look fantastic. I bet we could generate some page filler pretty quickly though!

[joberg]

Would be an interesting excercice for sure Feel free to use any of my stuff I've posted here over the years.

[Tom Southwell]

While I am unable to make the reproductions mentioned , there are many (almost limitless ) company logos from BR to fill with 2020 ads. Makes my mind spin. And I would love to see feature articles hinted by the cover headlines on the covers (particularly by SkinJob66 and Rep13 as well as the others).

Let the Dorgon floodgates open wide.

When the guests were allowed to visit the BR set in 1981, the car guys were all over the cars (seeing the cars of the future), but the press was all over the newspapers and magazines, fashion folks focused on clothes, and the sign-graphics folks only saw the neon. It's interesting to watch the faces of people seeing this world for the first time. Lawrence G Paull mentioned this in DD: "what are these people doing here? (They must think we are crazy)."

I think all of you could have some big fun with a project like this. My only hint may be to keep a bit of PKD and SRS in the work to anchor it to this 2019 world.
TS
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I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Replicant 13]

I received the second clipart book today and aside from the (surprisingly small) clip of our piped friend from the cigarette pack in ALIEN (page 69, BTW), I have to say that this is now my favorite of the two Dover books.

I was thrilled to find the elements of the DORGON cover in the first book, but this second one is much more extensive and the food for further covers seems endless.

Dare I say, "Thanks again, Tom". I know that is getting old here, but your contributions are appreciated!

As an illustrator I was never a big fan of clip art, but this vintage stuff is quite amazing. It's just a shame that Dover Publications seems to place so little value and have no apparent access to their past catalogs. Their current soft cover releases are but a shadow of the books they released in the 70's and 80's.

Truly worth the cost to those who wish to increase their graphic assets.

Too Cool! - R13
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Gosh, you've really got some nice toys here . . .

[Tom Southwell]

Replicant13,
You are welcome. I was pretty excited that I found the pipe man from
Alien. And let's not forget all those long pipes in BR (Taffy Lewis' place) .
Perhaps Ridley has a "thing" for those long pipes.

And you should know that newest book has a companion volume of mostly
typographic samples, which comes in handy if you ever have a period
project.

And the fat man Dover book is soft cover and printed on only one side so you
wouldn't feel bad about mutilating it, which I hope you wouldn't do with
your new hard cover Dover.
If you use clip art boldly (like Monty Python) then there is no disgrace .

It can work well with humor, and wasn't that cig pack nice in Alien?
TS
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I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Replicant 13]

I had a hard enough time cutting out clipart in the 80's - often shooting stats, then carefully taping them back in place for future use. With today's tech I would never think of cutting up a book.

Ever use one of those dreadful self-contained SmartCar-sized stat cameras? The ones where you insert your arms into them, look down thru red plastic to see a projected image, then load, expose and process it all on photo paper? The mess, the smell and the cleanup.

Ah, 80's technology - a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far from here.

Good times. Good times . . . - R13


It's all those little touches - the props we only truly discovered with the DVD and Blu-ray releases - that fuel our fires over 3 decades later. Little did I know what I was in for when I stepped into the theater on that Friday evening in May, 1979.
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Gosh, you've really got some nice toys here . . .

[Tom Southwell]

Replicant 13,
Your smoking Alien with the long pipe is a hoot.

When Alien opened here in Hollywood I was working on that cute
movie The Muppet Movie. All sweetness and light laughs. Alien was
at The Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd and they made a big deal
of it bringing Giger original art, costumes, vehicles, and sculptures
( models of space jockey , and egg chamber). Seeing this stuff
changed me forever. No one had ever done art like this for a movie.
Then I went into the theater and Ridley scared the hell out of me.
I remember it all very clearly. Got all the books, tapes and DVDs.

I even went to Ron Cobb to ask his advice in 1989 when I started
using a computer.

And I do remember that stat machine. It could have been a piece of
dressing in Alien or BR. And the smell would fit right in.
TS
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I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...