New Book: The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons From 1913-1940

[Vanessa]

Robbins' coffee-table-sized book compiles a bunch of breathtaking cartoons Nell Brinkley drew for Hearst newspapers. The images are sexy, glamorous, colorful -- Brinkley clearly appreciated and understood her subjects, and some of her work made me feel as if I were stepping right into the flapper era.

Brinkley wrote several popular serial stories to accompany her illustrations, too. Among them was one about a woman named Golden Eyes, whose husband is sent off to war. In the romance Betty and Billy, the two lovers gaze into a crystal ball and see their past lives together.

Nell Brinkley is one of those women I feel like I should have learned about in college, but for some reason, she was overlooked. Her artwork demands appreciation. At the height of her popularity, you could find "Brinkley Girls" in the Ziegfeld Follies and women copying her style.

Read more about it here.

Download a 12-page preview here.

 

[LizzieMaine]

*Wonderful* stuff, and highly recommended not just as an insight into the work of one very talented and forgotten artist -- but also as a glimpse at just how visually-rich the newspapers of the Golden Ara could be. Hearst may have had the personal ethics of a night crawler, but his Sunday supplements were breathtakingly gorgeous to look at.

 

[scotrace]

Thanks, Vanessa. Off to learn more I go.

 

[Foofoogal]

fabulous. thank you. :eusa_clap