Sci-Fi-O-Rama

Here’s something a little out there to say the least!

Super freaky sweatshirt designs adorned with completely over the top 8-Bit coloured, LSD tinged, David Shrigley-esque drawings – a quick taster of the work of Parisian collective Shobo Shobo… Love all the primitivism and neon/mettalic colours, Great stuff! there’s a real art to styling something this outrageous!

Shobo Shobo make drawings, art work, installations and fashion and is the brainchild of Mehdi Hercberg and Kanh Linh La. Check out more of their Fashion at: http://grogore.free.fr/accueil/accueil_set.htm or visit the main site: http://www.shoboshobo.com/

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“The strange and beautiful Tarot cards form a system of communication through symbols, showing the relation between God, man and the universe; the symbols act as stimuli to the imagination and it is for each student to interpret them for him or herself….” Taken from Man Myth & Magic Issue #100

Full post to follow soon…

The Werewolf mythology depicted here in three Old World Etching/Woodcuts. These scans are taken from a lengthy essay featured in Man Myth and Magic Issue #107 ( from around 1971?).

Article synopsis: “Stories of men having the power to change themselves into ravening beasts have gained currency in almost every part of the world; a universality which suggests that the under-lying idea emanates from deep within man’s own mind”

Mention Werewolf and it’s impossible not to think of scenes from John Landis’s 1981 Horror / Black Comedy An American Werewolf in London particularly the stunning metamorphosis sequence and the immortal lines “Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors – Beware the moon, lads”. This article predates that film by 10 years or so, and references material back to antiquity, most interesting is it’s discussion on the mental illness known as Lycanthropy  a kind of insanity in which the patient believes himself to be a beast, especially a wolf. Although this condition was diagnosed as far back as the 16th Century it had little effect on the superstition,  the articles surmise is that known instance of werewolves attacks and tyranny probably had more to do with the rapists, maniacs, and serial killer’s of the day…

The Scans relate to: (Top and Center) The Werewolf of Eschenbach, Germany 1685, said to have preyed on children. (Below) Werewolf attacking a man, from a 15th Century German Work.

Full article scanned and hosted over at Flickr: http://twurl.nl/drh3qo

I’ve been running a little bit low on original Blog resource material until yesterday when a trip to my local antiques centre yielded a selection of this obscure magazine publication ‘Man Myth & Magic’ with it’s tagline’s: ‘An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Supernatural’ & ‘The most Unusual Magazine ever Published’

Man Myth & Magic was a UK based publication that ran for 112 weekly issue’s starting in 1970 – as mentioned the magazine feature’s many Illustration’s ranging from quirky woodcut’s of Ye-olde spooky folklore; Werewolf’s, Witches’s, Demon’s through to double page spread reprint’s and analysis of the work of master Artist’s/Illustrator’s such as Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grunewald, Aubrey Beardsley and many more…

The cover art used here is Teutonic Mythology  ’Siegfried Killing The Dragon’ taken from a 19th century German edition of nibelungenlied.

A selection of images taken from the excellent Ufopop.org a mammoth resource/archive which seeks to document all visual references to that most elusive of enigma’s – “The Flying Saucer”. The site includes scans and Photos of magazines, books, comics, merchandising and toys, samples start from as far back as 1915! that’s well before the term “Flying Saucer” was first coined – June 1947 – when American pilot Keneth Arnold spotted several unidentified flying object’s above Mt Rainer, Washington State.

Ufopop.org is run by dedicted Ufologists Jim Klotz and Les Trecce-Sinclair,  and whether your a believer, sceptic or just looking for some Retro Sci-fi nonsense do check it out – highly recommended !!

A note on the images selected (top to bottom)

1. The Film Journal – Magazine cover 1974

2. Dwarf Rapes Nun; Flees in UFO – Book Cover – Arnold Sawislak – 1985…  A Daily/Sunday Sport Headline if ever there was one!

3. The Flying Saucer Bernard Newman 1950 – Book Cover

4. Flying Saucers C.G. Jung 1959 – Book Cover – Extremely ominous, very cool… deceptively simple.

5. Discover 1984 – Magazine Cover – Like this too, very 80’s

6. TV Guide  June 1978 – Magazine Cover – Very Close Encounter’s… anyone bored on Illustrator? this looks ripe for a 21st Century style revamp…

7. The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF Donald A. Wollheim, ed. 1980 – Book Cover… pretty weird!

8. Interplanetary News Service Report No.4 1964 – Magazine Cover

9. Pursuit  Spring 1977 – Magazine Cover

10. Flying Saucer News No.4 April 1974 – Magazine Cover… a typical example of a fanzine like cover, crude perhaps, but striking and fun looking.

All images abducted (sorry!) via http://www.ufopop.org

One final note on the subject of all things hovering & unexplained I’d also recommend Nick Cook’s investigative novel ‘The Hunt for Zero Point’ which treads the line between science and science fiction -  loads of speculative goodies such as how the US Army plundered secret Nazi weapons, future proplusions systems, time distortion, disappearing battleships etc etc… an intersting well researched read that stops short of absurd sensationalism.