The Retro Kid hits 2,000 Members

The Retro Kid, the Flickr group that I started up in 2005, has hit a major milestone recently: we've reached 2,000 members! That's quite an accomplishment. Excitement is hardly the word for what I'm feeling now. I'm extremely proud of this group, checking it every day and searching the vast pool of artwork & illustration that's been submitted for inspiration. This couldn't have happened without my moderators, Glen and Julia, and especially the group's members. You all help make the internet a wonderful place for me. Thank you.



So, what is The Retro Kid? Glad you asked.

From the group's description:

We are interested in illustrated children's books from the mid-1940's through the mid-1960's, give or take a few years. As long as it has that cool, mid-century modern stylized look that was so popular during that time. Some of what I dig are books and anything illustrated by Mary Blair, JP Miller, The Provensen's, Art Seiden, Aurelius Battaglia, and the like. I'm not limiting to just these illustrators, but willing to be open to just about anything similar.

This group is not limited to just children's books, but also anything that was illustrated for kids at that time: albums, 45's, commercials, magazine ads, games, toys, etc. If it's retro, and it looks cool, let's see it! (See below for examples.)

If you're a member of The Kid, stop by and tell us who you are. We'd love to meet ya.

You can check out submissions from the top 5 contributors: Eric Sturdevant, Glen Mullaly, Dan Goodsell, Julia Miller, and oh yeah...me.

Some examples from the group:





Image courtesy of Glen Mullaly.


Image courtesy of MrMack.


Image courtesy of rock-paper-scissors.


Image courtesy of - julia -.


Image courtesy of grickily.


Image courtesy of Glen Mullaly.


Image courtesy of David at Klockarp Foundation.


Image courtesy of Eric Sturdevant.


Image courtesy of Leif Peng.

If you like this sort of thing, there are plenty of other Flickr groups that might interest you. The first one that's of particular interest is Mid-century Illustrated, featuring artwork from the same era, but opened to ALL illustration, not just kid stuff. Leif Peng heads that one up with Julia.

I've actually started up a sister group to The Retro Kid, called The Retro Teen. Other groups I administer:

Vintage Science
Mid-Century Science
Vintage Education
Jim Flora Art

Other groups of interest:

Vintage Children's Books
Vintage Cookbooks
Golden Age of Advertising (1950's - 1970's)
Eye Candy: Children's Books from the 60's and 70's
Vintage Christmas
Mid-Century Illustrated Originals
Typography of the 50's
The Atomic Housewife

Enjoy!

Flickr-itis

Interesting. This shot of my Primal Screen business card is currently in the #1 spot for Flickr's Explore for January 18th, 2007. (However, this changes constantly, so it probably won't be there for long.) Nice to see it on the calendar page. In fact, it's pretty wild to see it there.

Funny isn't it? Most of what you see in the Explore pages are pros struttin' their stuff. I mean, some serious camera-headz sporting their talent to pick the right lens, the right filter, the right moment. These dudes are deep in it. And here's this simple shot right in the middle of it all -- just a quick close-up shot of my hand holding up my new business card at my desk at work. No special lighting, no big props or special lenses. Just a simple Canon Powershot A610, and a super-cool business card. Honestly, I have no clue how that Explore thing works, with its "interestingness" and whatever-ness. It doesn't go by views or favorites, that's for sure.

For the record, let's check out a couple of my Flickr images and see what's the most viewed, most favorited, most commented on, etc.

Most Viewed:

Fallout Shelter Handbook: Cover: 11,585 views

Because of the mention on Boing Boing back in November of '06, it's been my second most viewed post on my blog, behind my posts on The Polar Express. However, I suspect it'll be #1 soon, since the interest in this handbook never ends. I get SO MANY visitors to my blog who do a search for "fallout shelter" on Google. Go ahead, do a search. See what comes up. It's crazy.

Second most viewed:
While You Are in Shelter, with 8,232 views. But only because it's right next to the Fallout Shelter cover in my Flickr stream.

The third most viewed (with 7,108) is also my...

Most Favorited:


Party Perfect: 117 people call this photo a favorite.

A delightful scene depicting the seemingly perfect 1950's teenage party, the cover to Party Perfect has been favorited by 117 people. And I don't blame them -- it's a fun and quirky image. Oh, and the author is none other than Gay Head.

Most Comments:

A tie:

Vertigo!: 34 comments


Sawyer sketch: 34 comments

But only because both these images were springboards for conversation -- trying to stay connected with all these Web 2.0 sites, and LOST. Not much going on in these conversations besides the usual, "hey, I'm with you on that!"

Other Flickrstuff:


Yet another time waster for me has been Flickr's new stats feature. What's always been bugging me was trying to find out where my Flickr images have been linked -- Technorati is fine, but you can only go so far with that site. Here, Flickr finds out who's linking your images, even if they're linking the root image. Nice. And don't tell me it doesn't feed the narcissist in you to find out who's linking you and your photos & images. Quite a fascinating feature. Thanks, Flickr. Thanks for making me miss my deadlines...!


Woman aircraft worker, Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif. Shown checking electrical assemblies (LOC): David Bransby, photographer. June 1942.

I'm curious to see how Flickr's new project, The Commons works out. So far, it's a winner -- they've combined forces with the Library of Congress, of all people, and have been uploading some amazing photos. Be sure to horde some time away before you get sucked in. It's a fascinating journey you'll take through our government's photo library. Fascinating! Fascinating, I say! I love checking out color photography back before the 1950's. If you do too, then waste your time away, my friend. Incredibly crisp and stunning photos from 1939 to 1944. Oh, and by the way, I love the fact that other Flickr members can chime in on the photos, even noting that the image shown above is staged -- her pen is capped.

This week, I promise to crank up ye olde scanner for some quirky vintage goodness. I promise.

Umm...does anyone care to see any drawings I've done lately? Just checkin'.

The Retro Kid hits 1000

Image courtesy of Glen Mullaly.

Well, would you look at that! The Flickr group that I started up, The Retro Kid, recently passed the 1000 mark for members! This is amazing. I started this particular group on July 27th, 2006 -- or, I should say re-started The Retro Kid.

Allow me to explain: For those who've been there in the beginning, you would remember that I started the original Retro Kid on August 12, 2005. It was a modest start, starting with a few members whom I had invited from my close circle of Flickr contacts -- those who had the same sensibilities when it came to vintage mid-century artwork. Once we started to get some great examples of children's book illustrations, Robot Johnny at Drawn! posted about it, which, in turn, was then mentioned on the mother of all blogs: Boing Boing. The membership grew exponentially from there. By May of 2006, we were about to hit the 500 membership mark.

Then, I made a big mistake. After getting some rude comments from a troll in our discussions, I decided to make the group a private one, therefore keeping out any unwanted idiots. I figured, hey, when the dust settles, I'll just make the group a public one again. Unfortunately, I didn't read the rules on this sort of thing and it suddenly dawned on me that I couldn't do that. I couldn't turn back The Retro Kid into a public group anymore. Anyone who was not a member, who might've visited the group's link on a site or blog, would get a big ugly page saying that this group is PRIVATE and only intended for invited members only. And this killed me. I never wanted to make it private -- my sole purpose for The Kid was to have an open place for artists, animators, illustrators, etc. to come and be inspired. I never intended it to be some sort of private club.

So, after many weeks of thinking about it and asking Kid members about it, I decided to wipe the slate clean and start over again. But I was extremely worried over this action. My fear was that I was going to loose the interest of all our members, that the group's submissions from here on out would not be as high quality as what we had before. To make sure that this wouldn't happen, I contacted everyone who had submitted something in the first Retro Kid and begged and pleaded with them to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE re-submit their images to the new Retro Kid. I think I was typing all of my begging while on my knees. I so badly wanted to keep The Retro Kid as it was: one of the finest Flickr groups around by being the best resource for children's book illustrations from the 40's, 50's, and 60's that you could find.

So now, here I sit, looking at the membership number: 1,009, and I realize that all my worrying was unnecessary. Reaching this mark only took just over a year! This has been one incredible journey for me. To be able to know that there are so many people out there who have the same love of old things as I have, who are willing to share with us their collections. Incredible. It's so cool to see this pet project of mine turn into something substantial and oh so fun for us artists (and others) to enjoy.

If you're not a member of The Retro Kid, why not? You're missing out! Stop on by and check out the group's pool. Lots of great stuff to see!

PS: for fun, check this out.

Here are some other fine examples that you'll mostly likely find in The Retro Kid:


Image courtesy of MrMack.


Image courtesy of rock-paper-scissors.


Image courtesy of Julia (Ticky Tacky).


Image courtesy of grickily.


Image courtesy of Glen Mullaly.


Image courtesy of David at Klockarp Foundation.


Image courtesy of Eric Sturdevant.


Image courtesy of Leif Peng.

There's more. Many more! Over 3,500 images! Join now!