10.24.2007

My Mom's 16 Magazine Collection

16 Magazine: Sept

My Mom was a big fan of The Beatles, right at the height of their popularity, from 1964 to 1966. (Remember, she wrote this previously.) She had a big collection of teeny-bop magazines that featured all the big hot movie, tv and music hearthrobs at the time. She would only buy the ones that had anything to do with The Beatles, most importantly Paul. She was a big fan of Paul.

16 Magazine: Feb

Growing up, I remember digging these 16 Magazines out of the closet and checking out all the covers, studying in detail all the fun and kooky cartoon activity going on. Big source of influence for me right here, folks. Loved how all the run-of-the-mill press photos were transformed into brand new scenarios by ingenious positioning and pasting. I really admired the artist who worked on these covers -- I could tell that they had to work with only what was available, and that inspired me.

16 Magazine: Dec

16 Magazine: July (2)

16 Magazine: Apr

16 Magazine: Aug (2)

16 Magazine: Aug

Check out the entire set HERE.

(Oh, and if you like more of this type of stuff, then The Retro Teen is your bag, baby.)

Mom had some other publications in her collection, mostly one-shot deals that were basically 'special issues' from 16 Magazine or Photoplay. Here's one specializing in the Great Debate of 1964: Who's better -- The Dave Clark 5 or The Beatles? Oh, the world must know!

Dave Clark 5 vs. The Beatles

This next one is my favorite. It's my Mom's notebook that has been stuffed with newspaper clippings on the Fab Four. The band played one of their last live shows in Atlanta in 1965 and my Mom was there. There's lots of clippings about that event in here:
My Mom's Beatles notebook

Thanks, Mom, for being a teenager and being so passionate over four mop-tops from Britain. And thanks for keeping these fun & silly magazines around the house as a souvenir so that they may become a big influence on my creative upbringing. You never know what will influence young, budding artists.


13 comments:

  1. Ha, the Dave Clark five -- what a timeless and lasting contribution they made to music history. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. these are just great...and it's great to read about how they influenced you. "kooky" is a perfect description for these haha! i recently posted about Ed Emberley on my blog. he was a big influence on me...still is.
    cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What about my collection of Spice Girls mags?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Late at night I often wonder, "Has England gone too far?" or what Bobby Vinton considers "too too personal?"

    These are great, man. I would have loved to have received this illustration assignment with the direction "Leave the heads off for now, okay?"

    I wish more mag covers were done this way now, even teeny bopper ones.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I gave you a shout out on my blog today, can you dig it?

    Your blog rocks, I had to.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love this. Got in trouble doing a Junior High School "Composite" in this manner, around 1975. (they gave me the photo heads of kids in the school, and I drew a scene for them, But I was a little too oddball for their tastes, and it never saw the light of day)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ah, it takes me back to 12 years before I was born! Good times!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Whoa! These are so rockin'!!!!!!!
    LOVE, LOVE, LOVE 'em. I can see why they made such an impact on you as a kid. Very cool.

    ReplyDelete
  9. We didn't like the first head you
    came with, so we pasted on the one
    you have now instead.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ward!

    Thanks much for sending along the link to your flickr set.

    I've posted that and a link to this post in the notes to my 'Paul Revere & the Raiders in 16 magazine' piece.

    Love your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Say Hi to your mom for me, just from another old beatles fan. i have many of the mags you showed and many, I mean many, more! I have rare brittish publications, life and look mag's for the months they (Beatles) were featured, Dig mag, hit parade, top picks mag, and the list goes on and on. great times...

    ReplyDelete
  12. fun fun fun! love these!! wow didn't realize this post is from 2007!

    ReplyDelete