For a "Big Little Book" this tiny volume amassed a pretty big body count. If one wants to understand gun violence today, peer back to what Gramps was reading in 1937. Maybe the Kefauver Commission who wanted to tone down comic books in the 1950s avoided the Big Little Books because no senator wanted his picture taken of him reading one. They were for kids, and they were as violent as the most of violent, well… fairy tales. And then some.
Big Little Books are cool, but I am interested here in one particular artist, Henry E. Vallely. Before I go any further, check out THIS little gem in which scholar "DSK" seemingly proves Batman comic artist Bob Kane swiped from Vallely. Holy smokes, Batman…our inventor is a CROOK!
I swear. No honor among thieves or comic cook Illustrators.
There are literally hundreds of fantastic illustrations by Mr. Vellely in books for children There are nearly that many in one book alone, and all shown here came from just one.
The problem with Big Little Books is that they are brittle with acid pulp and literally disappearing while we twiddle our thumbs on smart phones. They can be frozen or treated in other ways to preserve them, but like capitalism, I guess, they held within them the seeds of their own destruction. (Marxist theory from my college days!)
The other problem is that no one can SEE the work of the artist anymore, as if you even touch the spine to read one, the entire little book cracks into a puff of brown paper dust. Wear a mask. Those collectors might as well be wrapping dead fish in their mylar bags…they're not going to last much longer and you can't stop it.
In order to illustrate my profile here of Henry Vallely, I have solved the problem of opening a book to scan it by shelling out four dollars for a completely beat copy of "In The Name of the Law" copyright 1937 by Stephen Slesinger published by Whitman Publishing Co. of Racine, Wisconsin. If they feel I have violated their copyright, I will gladly remove the images here (and ask vigorously what THEY are doing to preserve the work) but my initial check reveals they never renewed it. I'll proceed to tear and scan. Whitman gave up on Little Big Books and concentrated on those blue folders for coin collecting.
I am RIPPING IT APART and RUINING IT Comic book guy! Physics, chemistry and time are going to do it anyway. Someone better scan this work before it goes, and I don't think Google is including the little buggers in their massive book scanning program, deciding instead to concentrate on things no one is interested in while running rampant over copyright laws of their own.
Vallely's work is simple, effective and astounding. Vallely did more with a few black shadows than most artists do with full color. Endlessly creative, not a thing repeated. He did clothing ads, book covers and children's books mostly, but Vallely did Bible stories too. Why doesn't that surprise me? Big Little Books seem to have paid most of his bills.
Now for the biography! THERE ISN'T ONE. Not only unfamiliar and unrecognized today, the ASK ART website indicates there are NO biographical sketches to speak of. According to The Vallely Archives blog, he passed away in 1950…but even that source stopped seven years ago. No Wiki entry. Nothing. It pisses me off, and here I am doing it for free. What the hell ARE Phd. candidates in the arts writing about for their dissertations anyway? Effing BANKSY?
All illustrations by Henry E. Vallely from In The Name Of The Law 1937
Above Text by Jim Linderman
Books and affordable Ebooks ($5.99 each) by Jim Linderman are available HERE
Working with sand! Sand Sculpture where I live is done with your toes and with every step, but the REAL art flourished in Atlantic City in the late 19th century. Talented artists began creating temporary statues and, as shown here, relief sculptures for passing boardwalk visitors.
They always had a purpose other than mere beauty. Some were commissioned by boardwalk businesses as advertising, others were sponsored by local fraternal organizations. There were independent artists as well, they worked for tips...but like all boardwalk "artists" many were con men. I don't know how you can pick the pocket of a fellow bending over to look at your sand sculpture when he is wearing bathing trunks, but it happened, and the practice of drawing crowds to sand art was outlawed in 1944.
Some artists worked close enough to the boardwalk to catch coins tossed by the strolling masses, early versions of "The Situation" and drunken shore slut "Snookie" (both who actually hang a few miles north at Seaside Heights, once one of my favorite places to escape from New York City for a weekend.) The only sculptures up there are The Situation's sculpted abdominal muscles.
Some would work on commission and create a sculpture of a paying customer. Many of the artists were African-American. Although not too well known, the Clarion magazine, (published by the American Folk Art Museum) describes Black artists working on the beach in a 1992 article, and as I recall, documenting an instance of an African-American artist being "lightened up" for a postcard.
For the silica masterpieces shown here, sand was densely packed into a box surrounded by 2 x 4 wood section and shaped with sticks and trowels. The sand surrounding the work was then painted black. I have found no less than two dozen postcards depicting the artists and their work, most dating to around 1910 (including one dated 1911 showing this very group of sculptures) but this is the only actual photograph I have seen. It dates to 1910 or so as well, I have seen the same group of works shown in a magazine around that time. As you can see, the artist added a few more works before the picture was taken for the postcard. Maybe they lugged them under the boardwalk when it rained.
Original Vernacular photograph of Atlantic City Sand Sculptures, circa 1910 collection Jim Linderman
Collected articles on art by Jim Linderman on ArtSlant
HERE
