Comments on: Space Art in Children’s Books

By: GN

GN — Fri, 13 May 2005 22:09:06 +0000

Cool term nonetheless. I especially like the nearly contradictory / oxymoronic feel of the term “retro-futurism” – basically, a look at past visions of the future. I imagine someone hopping back and forth on the timeline. So much for my weird visions.

What do the “Disney Tomorrowland DVDs” contain? Never heard of those. Home Movie, a documentary on unique homes, features a short film on Disney’s “Monsanto’s Home Of The Future,” a futuristic conceptual house which was one of Disneyland’s main attractions in the ’50s (probably in Tomorrowland, at that!). Totally cool. The whole movie is pretty good, but that Monsanto thing was a great special feature.

By: GN

GN — Fri, 13 May 2005 22:09:00 +0000

By: Darin

Darin — Fri, 13 May 2005 20:48:17 +0000

Well, I came up with the phrase ‘retro-futurism’ when I wrote the email, but I’m sure I’m not the first one to use that. Some of my favorite examples can be found on teh Disney Tomorrowland DVDs and in Ward Kimball’s excellent animations for Mars and Beyond.

By: Darin

Darin — Fri, 13 May 2005 20:48:00 +0000

By: GN

GN — Fri, 13 May 2005 15:06:30 +0000

I was just about to go on Ebay to do a search for vintage science and space books, since I really dig those things. There’s something really great about artists’ renditions of the moon / mars / future cars, and to see how accurate (or way off) that they were. One example is the way some artists in the 50s depicted how “a car from 1984″ would look like – a straight up Jetsons hovercraft with the glass bubble canopy and thrusters poking out the rear!

Funny that I should run into a post linking to a great collection of these wonderful books. Ah, now I have something fun to do during break.

So that’s what they call it – “Retro Futurism.” Killer. Thanks for the post/link.

By: GN

GN — Fri, 13 May 2005 15:06:00 +0000

Funny that I should run into a post linking to a great collection of these wonderful books. Ah, now I have something fun to do during break.

So that’s what they call it – “Retro Futurism.” Killer. Thanks for the post/link.

By: Spinneyhead

Spinneyhead — Thu, 12 May 2005 07:48:43 +0000

To the Moon!

A collection of space art in childrens’ books, from 1883 to 1974.