Tag: 1960s

Ultraseven [Review]

Ultraseven Tsurubaya television series 1967 – 1968 Originally shown on Tokyo Broadcast System (TBS) and later syndicated I was eight years old when I was introduced to the original Ultraman, which ran midafternoon, after school hours, on a now-defunct UHF station from Philadelphia. Ultraman was a creation of Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects guru who …

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Beauty and the Boar

Illustrations for the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast all seem to highlight the same moment, as portrayed here. The two are seated together, the beast pledging his devotion, while Beauty looks away, pleased but ambivalent. This one, using the palette and style of the 1960s, shows the encounter in slightly abstracted form, with a …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 9/8/21: Models of the 1960s

Fashion models of the 1960s were a special breed. They may not have been conventionally pretty, but they stood out as individuals in a way the models of the 1950s never did. Donyale Luna (left) and Benedetta Barzini (right) certainly did with their sculptural poise and elegance. Unfortunately Luna met a sad end in the …

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Atompunk Space Junk

Except for the X-15, none of these space vehicles ever took flight. But that rocket at the top, slightly left of center, resembles this Space-X one.

Worldbuilding Wednesday 5/19/21: Beatles Songs

The Fab Four in their Western cartoon version (above) from the 1965 Saturday morning cartoon, and an Eastern version of them as Japanese manga figures, below. One thing about the Beatles is that their song titles evolved over time. Here’s a listing from A Hard Day’s Night, released in 1964: And then Abby Road (1969): …

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Getting Around in the Atompunk Age

  One of the futurism themes of the post-WWII era was transportation. This makes sense. Innovations in manufacturing and aircraft design,  the growth of large cities, and the need for improved highway systems and vehicles  all came together in a magic moment, in the Western world at least. Germany had its Autobahn, Britain the M- …

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Gyron

In the glory years of the Atompunk Age it was customary for major automakers to create buzz by depicted futuristic “concept cars” showing what may be coming down the assembly line in the next few years.  This marvelous illustration not only shows the Ford Gyron with its rocket-like tailight/exhaust piece, but also what were thought …

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Chanteuse

Distinctive cover for a pulpy men’s paperback, I’m guessing from the late 1960s by the singer’s teased hair and polka-dotted bodysuit. However the chest straps are very un-1960s, even for Paco Rabanne. And note those clawed hands, hard eyeliner, and sad Francoise Hardy face!

Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/28/20: Scooby-Doo

If you were an American child of the 1960s, I can’t emphasize how awesome Scooby Doo, Where Are You? was when it debuted on Saturday Morning TV in 1969. It was radically different from anything that went before. The animation was top-notch and the storylines more complicated than animals chasing each other around with hammers. …

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Future Tokyo

In 2011 we should have been wearing jumpsuits and whizzing up and down spiral ramps to airports  in the sky. Jeez, what went wrong?