Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

The 70s in Graphic Form (Museum of Weird Books)

This entry your intrepid correspondent takes you to the decade of disco.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these book illustrations say it all.

Ralph Nader: Voice of the People is part of the Creative Education Close-Ups series, published in 1974.  My own suggestion for an alternate title-- Pretty in Pink: the People's Politician.


Even the Corvair is pink.  Along with the television.  "He doesn't own a car.  He doesn't have a T.V. set... He doesn't smoke.  He doesn't drink."  I hope at least he went dancing when he wasn't speaking truth to power!


Remember when children's books could be political and pictorial at one and the same time?  It's a good guess that the eventual  Donald Trump: Housecleaner of the Grand Old Party will lack the visual panache of this classic manual.


 Everything you need to know about Nader right up until 1974, when he turned 40.  High time for a sequel, say we.


Self-Protection: Guidebook for Girls and Women (or Dance Moves that Will Leave Your Partner Gasping) is another classic of the era, though photographs can't match original drawings.


But as a record of what predators looked like the 70s it is engaging.  Because it is for Girls first, the senstive area chart glosses over the more obvious choices.


We'll never be this innocent again.