Illustration Magazine has announced that it will end publication. The quarterly print magazine has spotlighted most of the great American illustrators from the 20th century in lavishly illustrated articles. The magazine was the brainchild of Dan Zimmer, who almost singlehandedly did the research, interviews, writing, editing, and publishing.
I asked him a few questions as we look back on his remarkable achievement.
Gurney: You're ending the 20+ year series of 84 issues on an amazing high note by releasing four issues all at once. How were you able to pull off four simultaneous issues?
I began looking at ending the magazine a few years ago, as the numbers were declining and I could see the end was nigh. The problem has always been my overhead of subscribers. I didn’t want to cheat people by suddenly going out of business or something. So… How do I fulfill my obligations to everyone in the most cost effective way? I didn’t want to do “double issues” or something.
The only real solution was to produce a year’s worth of issues at one time in China, which would save a ton of money ($18,000 vs. printing in America), and then to ship them all at once, which would also save money on postage, boxes, etc. Anyone with a subscription beyond issue #84 was sent a refund check for their balance of issues. I think I wrote 105 checks.
As far as getting all of the issues together, I chose artists that were somewhat easy to cover, as I had the material readily at hand in my archives.
It was a lot of work compressed into a short period of time, but I tried to make the issues as solid as any of the others in the past. I didn’t want to “phone it in”. I think I succeeded.
Who were some of the key unsung heroes behind the scenes who helped you bring out the magazines?
I’ve had some great contributors over the years who have supplied me with wonderful articles, scans of artwork and tear sheets, etc.
The advertisers, of course, many of whom probably realized little return at all from their ads in the magazine but who continued to support me regardless. Grapefruit Moon, Fred Taraba, Kayo Books, Illustration House, Heritage, there are too many to list over the years.
David Saunders in particular (the son of famed pulp illustrator Norman Saunders) was one of the greatest supporters of the magazine, and contributed in many ways over the years and he became a great friend and confidante.
The late Charles Martignette was also a wonderful supporter, though his overwhelming blocks of ads in the magazine quickly became a bit of a problem. But it was hard to turn down the extra revenue!
As far as actually physically making, designing, retouching, packing, making the website, etc. I have always done all of this on my own. I would laugh when someone would refer to my “subscription department”.
Do you have any advice for small or individual publishers?
At one time publishing was a great way to make a living, in the 90s especially as desktop publishing turned everything upside down and one person could suddenly produce a magazine by themself. TODAY it’s all about the internet. An art magazine in print is kind of a crazy thing now, as everything is instantly accessible online. It’s an anachronism. I think my own magazine was overwhelmed by Facebook groups and websites, where the imagery is now readily available and best of all—FREE! I can’t compete with that.
Anyone who wants to be a publisher must wear a lot of hats. You will need to know how to do it all, from writing and editing to website design, social media maintenance, Photoshop, graphic design, the list goes on. If you aren’t doing it yourself, you’ll have to pay someone else to do it, and that gets expensive quick!
Print on demand enables you to do extremely tiny print runs, but the unit cost of the product is extremely high compared to “real” printing, so I don’t see where the money is at with such a venture. Each single copy ends up costing $25 or more. There’s no way to sell them wholesale at that rate, so distribution is not possible. It’s a fun hobby at that level, but you can’t do that to make a living.
Only get into publishing if you really love it, and you aren’t worried about making your money back.
Let's go back to the beginnings. How did you first become aware of the history of illustration? Were there any exhibitions, galleries, or personal encounters that grabbed you and got you into it?
As far as getting all of the issues together, I chose artists that were somewhat easy to cover, as I had the material readily at hand in my archives.
It was a lot of work compressed into a short period of time, but I tried to make the issues as solid as any of the others in the past. I didn’t want to “phone it in”. I think I succeeded.
The last four issues include features on John Held, Jr.,
Howard Chandler Christy, Robert Meyers,
Bernard D'Andrea, Frank McCarthy, Paul Bransom,
N.C. Wyeth, and Ward Brackett.
Who were some of the key unsung heroes behind the scenes who helped you bring out the magazines?
I’ve had some great contributors over the years who have supplied me with wonderful articles, scans of artwork and tear sheets, etc.
The advertisers, of course, many of whom probably realized little return at all from their ads in the magazine but who continued to support me regardless. Grapefruit Moon, Fred Taraba, Kayo Books, Illustration House, Heritage, there are too many to list over the years.
David Saunders in particular (the son of famed pulp illustrator Norman Saunders) was one of the greatest supporters of the magazine, and contributed in many ways over the years and he became a great friend and confidante.
The late Charles Martignette was also a wonderful supporter, though his overwhelming blocks of ads in the magazine quickly became a bit of a problem. But it was hard to turn down the extra revenue!
As far as actually physically making, designing, retouching, packing, making the website, etc. I have always done all of this on my own. I would laugh when someone would refer to my “subscription department”.
Do you have any advice for small or individual publishers?
At one time publishing was a great way to make a living, in the 90s especially as desktop publishing turned everything upside down and one person could suddenly produce a magazine by themself. TODAY it’s all about the internet. An art magazine in print is kind of a crazy thing now, as everything is instantly accessible online. It’s an anachronism. I think my own magazine was overwhelmed by Facebook groups and websites, where the imagery is now readily available and best of all—FREE! I can’t compete with that.
Anyone who wants to be a publisher must wear a lot of hats. You will need to know how to do it all, from writing and editing to website design, social media maintenance, Photoshop, graphic design, the list goes on. If you aren’t doing it yourself, you’ll have to pay someone else to do it, and that gets expensive quick!
Print on demand enables you to do extremely tiny print runs, but the unit cost of the product is extremely high compared to “real” printing, so I don’t see where the money is at with such a venture. Each single copy ends up costing $25 or more. There’s no way to sell them wholesale at that rate, so distribution is not possible. It’s a fun hobby at that level, but you can’t do that to make a living.
Only get into publishing if you really love it, and you aren’t worried about making your money back.
Let's go back to the beginnings. How did you first become aware of the history of illustration? Were there any exhibitions, galleries, or personal encounters that grabbed you and got you into it?
When I was a child, I was exposed to a Norman Rockwell art book and some framed prints. We also had a collection of Peanuts cartoons, MAD magazines, some 50s horror comics. I quickly got into comic books, bubblegum cards, there were so many cool visual things in the 1970s. (I was born in 1969.) My grandparents had some old Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s magazines, so I was able to see illustration art from bygone eras from my earliest days. And I loved it. So I started seeking it out wherever I could. Walt Reed’s book was in my local library, along with Andrew Loomis art instruction books, and so on. I learned to draw by copying Loomis’ work.
Star Wars prompted the publication of a lot of science fiction related picture books that reproduced old pulp covers, which were a revelation to me. What was a pulp magazine?? I had never seen one or heard of anything like that. Strangely I was a member of the Wizard of Oz fan club when I was 12 or something, and they published a directory of their members. Ray Bradbury was listed in there, with his actual home address! Crazy!
Around that time I had purchased a used and waterlogged copy of a book called The Pulps that had come out in 1970. The book had a small color section poorly reproducing incredible pulp covers that just blew my mind. (This was my very first exposure to artist H.J. Ward’s work.)
A guy named Sam Moskowitz contributed to the Pulps book, and I happened to see the same name in the Oz fan club member directory. Was it the same guy?? I wrote to him, and yes it was! I asked him about pulps, and how do I find out more about this stuff? He kindly wrote me back and turned me on to some fanzines and other information that was invaluable in those days.
I was in middle school in St. Louis, I knew NOTHING at that time about comic book conventions, or that a PULP CONVENTION was actually held in St. Louis regularly in the mid-70s. (I never knew about it, so I never went!) I learned much later that Moskowitz was a seminal figure in the history of science fiction. I was a kid, what did I know?
But his information opened up a lot of doors in the pre-internet days, so I was able to start buying pulp fanzines and learning about the great artists of the pulps. Around the same time I also discovered the book 40 Illustrators and How They Worked, which was a great introduction to a lot of great magazine illustrators of the past.
What books or magazines inspired your editorial approach to Illustration magazine?
I was heavily inspired by Communication Arts magazine, as far as the minimal “non-design” of my layouts. The emphasis being on the art, and not on any kind of flashy or distracting design. I didn’t want anything to ever look “campy” or “zany” as so many other books have looked that covered vintage or retro subjects. I wanted to treat the art as you would see it in a book on Money or Sargent. With respect. The boring layout was not intended to be a showcase of MY ability as a designer, I wanted the art to always be the main focus.
I was also inspired by Walt Reed’s auction catalogs, and Russ Cochran’s auction catalogs. The “Methods of the Masters” articles in Step-by-Step Graphics magazine were also a key inspiration. I would be so frustrated when they would skip the column from time to time, as that was my main interest in the magazine in the first place, and I thought how great it would be if there were a magazine devoted ENTIRELY to illustration from the past. I knew it would never be a mainstream kind of thing, but I knew it would make a great fanzine. I first started thinking about this in 1989 and throughout the 90s. As technology evolved and direct-to-plate desktop publishing became a reality, the costs of making a full color magazine by myself plummeted to the point where I started seriously considering it in 2000 or so.
What do you like or dislike in the coverage of illustration history by traditional art publishers or museum institutions?
Things have improved quite a bit over time. As I said, the “campy” type of coverage of the material is still an issue, but it seems like you’re seeing it taken more and more seriously now. In direct response to the MONEY that original illustration art is generating at auctions. The huge dollars always make a difference.
There's a debate in art history: Some make the case that the concept of a "golden age" is baloney. They argue it's an illusion powered by nostalgia. In other words, every age is a golden age, except our own. The other view is that there are creative periods of truly pioneering innovation and peak skills, and there other decadent periods of confusion and decline. Which of those two views of the golden age idea makes more sense to you and why?
I think the old illustrators, when they were referring to the Golden Age, were essentially referring to a time in the field when an illustrator could make enormous amounts of money and have significant cultural impact. That all faded as technology displaced illustrators as THE image and tastemakers of the day.
But as far as artistic opportunity, this may actually be one of the BEST ages yet. Artists have never had so much opportunity to have their work seen instantly all around the world. There are YouTube artists with millions of views, who sell their work to eager collectors. There are illustrators who have had $500,000 Kickstarter campaigns for their books. There are a lot of possibilities today, but you have to wear a lot of hats and master entrepreneurship like never before to be one of the stars who really makes it. Could THIS really be the new Golden Age? I think it might be!
So much of print culture disappeared after it came out, leading to a crisis of confidence for many illustrators about the value of their legacy. Were illustrators right to worry that they'd be forgotten, or do you see a trend for renewed recognition?
I think the internet has fostered a great deal of recognition and renewed interest in the illustrators of the past. The imagery and information is more accessible than ever. So work from old publications thrown out 70 years ago has a chance of being seen again, splashed across Facebook groups and Pinterest pages. The chance to be remembered is better NOW than ever before, no doubt about it.
Do you have any advice for older illustrators about how to preserve their legacy, and how to make life better for their descendants? Can you offer general rules or examples of who did it right or wrong?
Illustrators alive right now need to be very serious about taking great photos of their work and preserving their material in a permanent way.
I would say, build a great website. Share the work every day and get it out there. If you’re invisible you will certainly be forgotten.
Sign your work, probably TWICE! Never leave an original unsigned.
Making a hardcover book is probably the best way to build an enduring legacy. An artist is always taken more seriously when there’s a nice solid substantial book to point at, whether that book is a financial success or not! A book is a great catalog.
As you documented the lives of so many successful illustrators, did you discover common personality traits among them, or common work habits? Were there any that stood out as wildly different from the norm?
The common thread has always been the incredible work ethic. The most successful illustrators simply worked harder than everyone else. Norman Rockwell painted every day, even holidays. He was always at it, and he never cut any corners. The level of craftsmanship was astonishing. Any artist needs to realize that you have to put the time in. Writers have to write, artists have to make art. Constantly.
Were there any illustrators or illustrations you really wanted to cover, but couldn't because of copyright or other logistical reasons?
Gathering high quality material was always the greatest challenge. Photos of original art, and clear tear sheets.
People often asked me if I worried about running out of subjects, and I would laugh. The number of artists to cover is endless. I think I featured around 200 or so over 84 issues. My hard drive has file folders covering over 2000 different illustrators! I could have gone on and on for many years. It’s endless.
I think you mentioned you had an article in production on John Bauer. Were there other illustrators where you gathered some interesting elements, but for one reason or another just didn't get the articles finished?
In the case of Bauer, the magazine expired before the article was complete. There were three or four articles in the works that I couldn’t publish as the magazine was ending. I was continuously gathering material and scans for many many illustrators that I earmarked as favorites I wanted to cover. Sometimes it took many years to gather enough to fill 40 pages. I wanted to feature Mortimer Wilson, for example, but never got a good bio together. I wanted to do a book on Dell comic cover artist George Wilson, but I couldn’t find a photo of him or any link to his family. I had plenty of images, but not enough information.
What do you see coming for illustrators entering the business now? Will they all have to become animators, publicists, or coders? How will AI change things for artists?
Illustrators today have to be entrepreneurs. It’s more the lifestyle of a “fine artist” in that you have to generate your own projects, create your own worlds. You’re not working for clients as in the past. It’s possible that illustrators will still find clients in the old fashioned style of doing business, but the most successful people are working outside of that mold. I see illustrators creating their own “how to” books, video courses, YouTube channels, all sorts of things all at once. You have to be a master of social media now, and you have to be very diverse. You have to enjoy being in front of the camera and turn yourself into a celebrity of sorts. AI art is going to turn a lot of the business upside down, but there will always be room for real artists with vision creating unique things that an AI won’t be able to match. (Maybe!)
When it comes to AI art, I can only imagine that you've had a variety of reactions to the innovations in the last couple years. Have you been amazed, terrified, bored, disgusted, or some combination of those? Is there something people are missing when they talk about this new technology? Is there something about adapting to change that we can learn from the experience of previous illustrators?
The revolution in AI art has been incredible. As the founder of Nvidia said recently, the future won’t be in rendering, it will be in generating. You can make hyper real imagery without 3D modeling or rendering tools. I NEVER saw that one coming. What will it mean when anyone can “prompt” their own Hollywood style superhero movies from home? This reality is coming right around the bend. I can’t imagine how it will remake the entertainment business, the image making business.
In the end, though, someone with talent and taste is going to have to guide all of this in order to create something worth looking at. Who knows how far AI can go in terms of genuine “creativity” but I don’t think talented artists have to be worried. Things will change, but it’s a big world out there and there are always opportunities for the witty and clever to carve out a niche.
Illustrated Press
Star Wars prompted the publication of a lot of science fiction related picture books that reproduced old pulp covers, which were a revelation to me. What was a pulp magazine?? I had never seen one or heard of anything like that. Strangely I was a member of the Wizard of Oz fan club when I was 12 or something, and they published a directory of their members. Ray Bradbury was listed in there, with his actual home address! Crazy!
Around that time I had purchased a used and waterlogged copy of a book called The Pulps that had come out in 1970. The book had a small color section poorly reproducing incredible pulp covers that just blew my mind. (This was my very first exposure to artist H.J. Ward’s work.)
A guy named Sam Moskowitz contributed to the Pulps book, and I happened to see the same name in the Oz fan club member directory. Was it the same guy?? I wrote to him, and yes it was! I asked him about pulps, and how do I find out more about this stuff? He kindly wrote me back and turned me on to some fanzines and other information that was invaluable in those days.
I was in middle school in St. Louis, I knew NOTHING at that time about comic book conventions, or that a PULP CONVENTION was actually held in St. Louis regularly in the mid-70s. (I never knew about it, so I never went!) I learned much later that Moskowitz was a seminal figure in the history of science fiction. I was a kid, what did I know?
But his information opened up a lot of doors in the pre-internet days, so I was able to start buying pulp fanzines and learning about the great artists of the pulps. Around the same time I also discovered the book 40 Illustrators and How They Worked, which was a great introduction to a lot of great magazine illustrators of the past.
What books or magazines inspired your editorial approach to Illustration magazine?
I was heavily inspired by Communication Arts magazine, as far as the minimal “non-design” of my layouts. The emphasis being on the art, and not on any kind of flashy or distracting design. I didn’t want anything to ever look “campy” or “zany” as so many other books have looked that covered vintage or retro subjects. I wanted to treat the art as you would see it in a book on Money or Sargent. With respect. The boring layout was not intended to be a showcase of MY ability as a designer, I wanted the art to always be the main focus.
I was also inspired by Walt Reed’s auction catalogs, and Russ Cochran’s auction catalogs. The “Methods of the Masters” articles in Step-by-Step Graphics magazine were also a key inspiration. I would be so frustrated when they would skip the column from time to time, as that was my main interest in the magazine in the first place, and I thought how great it would be if there were a magazine devoted ENTIRELY to illustration from the past. I knew it would never be a mainstream kind of thing, but I knew it would make a great fanzine. I first started thinking about this in 1989 and throughout the 90s. As technology evolved and direct-to-plate desktop publishing became a reality, the costs of making a full color magazine by myself plummeted to the point where I started seriously considering it in 2000 or so.
What do you like or dislike in the coverage of illustration history by traditional art publishers or museum institutions?
Things have improved quite a bit over time. As I said, the “campy” type of coverage of the material is still an issue, but it seems like you’re seeing it taken more and more seriously now. In direct response to the MONEY that original illustration art is generating at auctions. The huge dollars always make a difference.
There's a debate in art history: Some make the case that the concept of a "golden age" is baloney. They argue it's an illusion powered by nostalgia. In other words, every age is a golden age, except our own. The other view is that there are creative periods of truly pioneering innovation and peak skills, and there other decadent periods of confusion and decline. Which of those two views of the golden age idea makes more sense to you and why?
I think the old illustrators, when they were referring to the Golden Age, were essentially referring to a time in the field when an illustrator could make enormous amounts of money and have significant cultural impact. That all faded as technology displaced illustrators as THE image and tastemakers of the day.
But as far as artistic opportunity, this may actually be one of the BEST ages yet. Artists have never had so much opportunity to have their work seen instantly all around the world. There are YouTube artists with millions of views, who sell their work to eager collectors. There are illustrators who have had $500,000 Kickstarter campaigns for their books. There are a lot of possibilities today, but you have to wear a lot of hats and master entrepreneurship like never before to be one of the stars who really makes it. Could THIS really be the new Golden Age? I think it might be!
So much of print culture disappeared after it came out, leading to a crisis of confidence for many illustrators about the value of their legacy. Were illustrators right to worry that they'd be forgotten, or do you see a trend for renewed recognition?
I think the internet has fostered a great deal of recognition and renewed interest in the illustrators of the past. The imagery and information is more accessible than ever. So work from old publications thrown out 70 years ago has a chance of being seen again, splashed across Facebook groups and Pinterest pages. The chance to be remembered is better NOW than ever before, no doubt about it.
Do you have any advice for older illustrators about how to preserve their legacy, and how to make life better for their descendants? Can you offer general rules or examples of who did it right or wrong?
Illustrators alive right now need to be very serious about taking great photos of their work and preserving their material in a permanent way.
I would say, build a great website. Share the work every day and get it out there. If you’re invisible you will certainly be forgotten.
Sign your work, probably TWICE! Never leave an original unsigned.
Making a hardcover book is probably the best way to build an enduring legacy. An artist is always taken more seriously when there’s a nice solid substantial book to point at, whether that book is a financial success or not! A book is a great catalog.
As you documented the lives of so many successful illustrators, did you discover common personality traits among them, or common work habits? Were there any that stood out as wildly different from the norm?
The common thread has always been the incredible work ethic. The most successful illustrators simply worked harder than everyone else. Norman Rockwell painted every day, even holidays. He was always at it, and he never cut any corners. The level of craftsmanship was astonishing. Any artist needs to realize that you have to put the time in. Writers have to write, artists have to make art. Constantly.
Were there any illustrators or illustrations you really wanted to cover, but couldn't because of copyright or other logistical reasons?
Gathering high quality material was always the greatest challenge. Photos of original art, and clear tear sheets.
People often asked me if I worried about running out of subjects, and I would laugh. The number of artists to cover is endless. I think I featured around 200 or so over 84 issues. My hard drive has file folders covering over 2000 different illustrators! I could have gone on and on for many years. It’s endless.
I think you mentioned you had an article in production on John Bauer. Were there other illustrators where you gathered some interesting elements, but for one reason or another just didn't get the articles finished?
In the case of Bauer, the magazine expired before the article was complete. There were three or four articles in the works that I couldn’t publish as the magazine was ending. I was continuously gathering material and scans for many many illustrators that I earmarked as favorites I wanted to cover. Sometimes it took many years to gather enough to fill 40 pages. I wanted to feature Mortimer Wilson, for example, but never got a good bio together. I wanted to do a book on Dell comic cover artist George Wilson, but I couldn’t find a photo of him or any link to his family. I had plenty of images, but not enough information.
What do you see coming for illustrators entering the business now? Will they all have to become animators, publicists, or coders? How will AI change things for artists?
Illustrators today have to be entrepreneurs. It’s more the lifestyle of a “fine artist” in that you have to generate your own projects, create your own worlds. You’re not working for clients as in the past. It’s possible that illustrators will still find clients in the old fashioned style of doing business, but the most successful people are working outside of that mold. I see illustrators creating their own “how to” books, video courses, YouTube channels, all sorts of things all at once. You have to be a master of social media now, and you have to be very diverse. You have to enjoy being in front of the camera and turn yourself into a celebrity of sorts. AI art is going to turn a lot of the business upside down, but there will always be room for real artists with vision creating unique things that an AI won’t be able to match. (Maybe!)
When it comes to AI art, I can only imagine that you've had a variety of reactions to the innovations in the last couple years. Have you been amazed, terrified, bored, disgusted, or some combination of those? Is there something people are missing when they talk about this new technology? Is there something about adapting to change that we can learn from the experience of previous illustrators?
The revolution in AI art has been incredible. As the founder of Nvidia said recently, the future won’t be in rendering, it will be in generating. You can make hyper real imagery without 3D modeling or rendering tools. I NEVER saw that one coming. What will it mean when anyone can “prompt” their own Hollywood style superhero movies from home? This reality is coming right around the bend. I can’t imagine how it will remake the entertainment business, the image making business.
In the end, though, someone with talent and taste is going to have to guide all of this in order to create something worth looking at. Who knows how far AI can go in terms of genuine “creativity” but I don’t think talented artists have to be worried. Things will change, but it’s a big world out there and there are always opportunities for the witty and clever to carve out a niche.
Illustrated Press
2 comments:
I came across the very first issue of Illustration at my local Barnes & Noble (which soon stopped carrying it), bought it, and read it with delight. I have not missed an issue since; it is, far and away, my favorite magazine. I was disappointed to learn that its run has come to an end, but am even more distressed to learn that it was because of declining sales. While I appreciate things like the Today's Inspiration facebook pages, or David Apatoff's blog, and on-line sites devoted to particular illustrators of the past, it's a different experience from having, and being able to refer back to, organized articles about specific illustrators. Dan Zimmer has made a major contribution to the history and preservation of history of illustration. I understand he will continue to publish--at least for now--his outstanding books devoted to particular illustrators. We can, at least, look forward to that.
A fine publication. If I was visiting the U.S., I'd always try to track down a copy.
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