Chapomatic

David Bull is an artist in Tokyo who I’ve learned from on the Internet. He set up woodblock.com, with all sorts of useful knowledge

Bu about the art of the wood block print. (I’ve much enjoyed shin-hanga, particularly Hiroshi and Toshi Yoshida’s work, and appreciate the painstaking nature of the process.)

Bull’s idea is to do subscriptions of prints, where one sends money for a periodic piece of art. He started with principles informed by Michener’s outstanding essay–”do the hard job”–and decidecd to make that job hard by creating a ten year series of prints. Bull has in time become quite an educator on the way. One day I hope to afford a subscription.

This post, however, isn’t really about Bull. Mr. Bull bought his home from a fellow who turns out to have been an in-demand illustrator in the sixties, Toru Kanamori. Kanamori-sensei showed Bull a big ol’box of artwork he did back then–Start Trek-themed book illustrations.

I’m not that much of a Trek fan but these illustrations are evocative of that time in science fiction–when the Golden Age was giving way to the New Wave grudgingly, and guys like Kelly Freas were in their prime.

This is shown as a typical cover artwork. It would have the title put on the top–the book cover is shown at a Japanese fan site, here.

Bull’s page on Kanamori and his trove is here, and they’re going to try to figure out a way to license these artworks to help an aging retired artist be a little more financially comfortable. This is typical of Bull’s gentle style I see throughout his Internet work. I sure hope they put a book out.

(h/t Boing Boing)