Pause a Moment: Louis Glanzman

Broken equipment makes you do things you wouldn't normally do. The bulb to my projector died. Which meant I couldn't trace my sketches onto a larger canvas. Since completing any projects was off the table, I decided to clean our book closet.

The things one finds when they clean. Multiple copies of the same books (three Scarlet Letters), old diaries (embarassing), and bookcovers that make you say, "Oh my Gawd! We thought those outfits were hot?!" I'll have to do a separate post on those book covers.

Looking through these books also made me remember that those larger size chapter books (the ones targeting 7-10 year olds) sometimes contained black and white illustrations. Little spot illustrations or full blown 2 page layouts. Books like Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Babysitters Club Little Sister Series. We seem to forget those pictures because we are so use to typically seeing brightly colored children's books.

Two other books containing black and white illustrations are The Noonday Friends and Veronica Ganz. I couldn't find the artist of Noonday Friends anywhere on the cover. But, while I was flipping through Veronica Ganz, I noticed the similarities between both books' illustrations. Veronica Ganz illustrator was Louis Glanzman. And he also (thanks, Google) illustrated Noonday (uh....later on I realized that they list the artist on the copyright page, FYI).

Although both books were originally published in the mid/late 60s, Glanzman's illustrations are not out of date. They have a cool, gritty vibe.

Images from The Noonday Friends.
(click on images to see larger size)




Images from Veronica Ganz.
(click on images to see larger size)





Moral of this story: Good art resides between the pages of unlikely books. I'm off to the thrift store to see if I can find some more hip illustrated children's chapter books.