1970s Graphics: Developmental Learning Materials

Here are a dozen  7 1/2" x 11" graphic cards (both sides) from the Developmental Learning Materials company. They are all dated either 1974 or 1976, and were part of an educational comprehension program for kids. No other information is available, at least not by Googling. I just liked the graphics and the colors.

These are all two-sided, on heavy stock and coated in a polymer so that a waxy crayon can easily be used to complete the mazes and drawings, and then be wiped/washed off. As usual with stuff like this, there are no artist credits. But aren't they lovely to look at?

Of special interest were these pages which invited you to finish the picture with a line or two:

SEXCAPADES THE LOVE LIFE OF THE MODERN HOMO SAPIENS by Al Ross

Above: the tattered book jacket.

SEXCAPADES THE LOVE LIFE OF THE MODERN HOMO SAPIENS by Al Ross, with text selected by Kerwin Bowles, is a lovely book little hardcover. There's a quote (by Swift, Shakespeare, Goldsmith, Keats, etc.) and a drawing (by cartoonist Al Ross) on every page. It was published by Stravon Publishers in New York in 1953 and is copyright 1953 by Al Ross.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace.
— William Blake

At first glance, the book is about mating rituals of heterosexuals — a base subject made lofty by some serious quotes. The meaty quotes are matched by the drawings — fresh and spontaneous drawings — by New Yorker cartoonist Al Ross.

O! Let me have thee whole, — all, all be mine!
That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest
Of love, your kiss—those hands, those eyes divine,
That warm, white lucent, million-pleasured breast—
Yourself—your soul—in pity give me all!
— John Keats

From the SEXCAPADES dustjacket:

"After years of cartooning for Colliers, Saturday Evening Post and other mass circulation media, Al Ross one day looked at himself in the mirror. The face with the lather on it began to ask:

"'If this then love? Is sex always a symptom of psychoneurosis? Was Kinsey right? Or don't you suspect that there may have been a time, somehow, somewhere, when Boy did meet Girl and True Love's course ran true?'

"Al Ross cleared the lather from his face and brushed away a cobweb from his mind. He resolved to draw a whole bookful of cartoons, exactly as he felt, not as a caption writer prescribed. He would express his essential, romantic self in sensitive, simple strokes; he would wreck the sex hex. The result— Sexcapades."

Well, actually, he has some of the best caption writers around, as chosen by Mr. Bowles.


Love is a species of warfare.
— Ovid, Art of Love


Above: the girls in the distance, and below, the guys having a sports-related dispute.

Alas! Regardless of their doom
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come
Nor care beyond today.
— Thomas Gray

Banish the canker of ambitious thoughts.
— Shakespeare, II Henry VI

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness.
— Robert Herrick

He unabashed her garter saw
That now would touch her skirts with awe.
— Robert Louis Stevenson

O pwerful love! That, in some respects, makes
a beast a man, in some other, a man a beast.
— Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor

From the dustjacket:

"He is an accomplished painter, having studied at the Art Students League under McNulty and Lebrun; traces of this background have been discerned in his delineations by connoisseurs. To round out the picture it must be reported that he is a devotee to billiards, a weight lifter of sorts and an avid collector of African sculpture."

More on Al Ross:

Cartoonist Al Ross

Al Ross and his Cartoon Style

-- Edited from an original blog entry of September 8, 2008.

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Virgil Partch Part Three: VIP 1943 - 1959

From the great big cartoon files of Dick Buchanan, here are some great Virgil Partch cartoons from VIP's heyday. This is the third batch of VIP's great cartoons! Wow! Thank you, Dick, for sharing these gems! Links to the previous two and more at the bottom of the page.

---




VINTAGE VIP



Virgil Partch Part Three



1943 - 1959





Here is another collection of Virgil Partch cartoons from the 1940’s, the period when he was at his very best. These cartoons have been clipped from the pages of the magazines in which he appeared most frequently—Collier’s, True Magazine, American Legion Magazine and Liberty.





1. Collier’s July 31, 1943.

 2. Collier’s November 27, 1943.

3. Collier’s January 15, 1944.

4. Liberty Magazine March 4, 1944.

5. Liberty Magazine September 9, 1944.

6. True Magazine August, 1945.

7. Collier’s July 13, 1946.

8. Collier’s March 2, 1946.

9. Liberty Magazine May 11, 1946.

10. True Magazine June, 1946.

11. American Legion Magazine January, 1947.

12. American Legion Magazine March, 1947.

13. Collier’s November 8, 1947.

14. Collier’s December 18, 1948.

15. True Magazine December, 1949.

Related:


From the Dick Buchanan Files: Virgil Parch Part One; VIP in the 1940s

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Virgil Parch Part Two; VIP in the 1950s
The "Big George" by Virgil VIP Partch Tour parts one and two


CARTOONS OUT OF MY OWN HEAD by Virgil VIP Partch

MAN THE BEAST by Virgil VIP Partch parts one, two and three. 

The Garden As of September 1, 2018

The garden at the end of summer. The darn cucumbers got too big. 

The zinnias are great. The bees, hummingbirds and butterflies love them. 

Cucumber and tomatoes nearing the end now. 

The rose bush blooms at the beginning and end of the summer.

Many monarch caterpillars this year, feasting on the milkweed.