art – Page 18 – Tacky Raccoons

M.A.R.S.* PATROL TOTAL WAR

November 1969 issue No. 8 of M.A.R.S. PATROL Total War:
“When the M.A.R.S. Patrol destroys an invader weather-control ship, they capture a badly wounded courier whose name translates as Victor. Victor explains that his is an army of aliens, intent on capturing Earth for its resources. Through their interrogation, M.A.R.S. concludes that the next major attack will be on Miami. Gold Key Comics Club News. In ‘Part II: Seek and Destroy’, M.A.R.S. helps fend off the attack on Miami even as ‘Victor’ escapes, determined to redeem himself. A booby trap from his own side kills him just as M.A.R.S. discovers the secret underwater base, which they then destroy.” [source]

…and one of them appears to be a football star.

Monkey Pastry Chef

“When wound and the start/stop pull actuated, the incredibly detailed and realistically modeled standing monkey chef begins his performance by looking left then right whilst opening and closing eye lids as mouth moves to speak, lowering head slightly to indicate his latest culinary creation…”

This mechanical wonder (ca. 1880) sold for over $36k in 2014, and was presumably purchased by someone to keep their little brats and pets in line.

[More photos and background story here and here.]

Retro-Future Beetle Stretcher

Retrofuture Volkswagen prototype was designed by Mikhail Smolyanov / Solifuge Design, and he’s got a similar VW Bugsled in black. Since there are no images of modications in progress, I assume that the version above was never built.

HOWEVER, there is this:

Similar design, yet not the same. Image searches for this work in progress produced no matches.

[Top & bottom images found here. Not quite Rat Rods, but I stuck them in The Archive anyway.]

Got Squid?

No tank? No problem! Nice selection of paper fishies (and more) found here. Plans are in .pdf format, A4 size printout, provided by Japan’s Fishing Research Agency (FRA).

[Related post here; cephalopod archive here.]

Blank Canvas

Although I can appreciate the talent and effort, a couple of those look better without the noisy artistry. Click any image to enlarge.
[These and more Trompe-l’œil found here.]

Banksy’s Spraycation

[Spraycation Model Village found buried in here, unknown media, date.]

Button Creek

There are other versions of the same scene with different buttons, so there’s likely a “color by button” pattern book out there somewhere.

[Found here, h/t Charlene604.]

One Beautiful Spring Day

“During the course of creating the 100 pages that brought ONE BEAUTIFUL SPRING DAY into existence I redrew a number of pages several times. In the case of the drawing here I drew this large 2-page spread no less than three times. Why? Because of the aerial elements. The plummeting ball with the twisting smoke was too literal, having been foreshadowed in a way intended to be symbolic. The other objects in the air had too much personality, which raised unwanted questions; and there weren’t enough background explosions. In short these’s nothing at all wrong with this drawing; in fact in some ways it’s the best of the three. But it wasn’t exactly matched to its connecting moments, so I re-drew it.” -Jim Woodring, india ink on bristol, 18.75″ x 12.25″, 2020.

Jim Woodring is selling off some stuff, and that one sold for $6,000. [Related posts here.]

Homunculus Loxodontus

Homunculus Loxodontus is also known as Zhdun, “The One Who Waits”, Snorp, Wosh and Ждун.

The Leiden University Medical Center originally awarded artist Margriet Van Brevoort a grant to create the sculpture for an annual art competition held by the Leiden Sculpture Foundation, where the sculptural theme for 2016 competition was biological sciences. Brevoort did not want to depict something related to the grim side of medicine or disease, and instead focused on the patients, ordinary people waiting to see a doctor for a diagnosis. According to her, the sculpture meant to convey the message that “you should calmly wait for diagnosis with hope for the best”.

[Images found here, caption from here.]