American WWII Aviation seen through advertising.
In 1944 George Grod, a strip cartoon, modeling and aviation
enthusiast, discovered with amazement some American magazines which an MP
billeted near his village lent him. What he liked best were the gleaming
advertisements scattered throughout the pages.
In the eighties, during an “old papers” fair, George came across some
old numbers of Life Magazine and from there he started an unbridled search for
original magazines dating back to between 1942 and 1945. Now presented in this
single volume, we see the return of all his great themes - aviation, kits,
cartoon strips, the love of art and even the cinema. The book is not just a
collection of beautiful pictures all strung together or a sample from a huge
collection; it is above all the testimonial of a period, the reflection of that
immense war effort the American people made during the last World War, seen
through the kaleidoscope of publicity and propoganda. It is also a tribute to
the most glamorous of our liberators.
George Grod worked alongside great film-makers like Verneuil,
Minnelli, Zinnemann, Lumet and Zanuck before working on the television series
les Dossiers Noirs with his friend Jean-Michel Charlier who took part later in
the Grands Maïtres de la BD (Grand Masters of the Cartoon Strip) which he
created for the Visiteurs de Mercredi (Wednesday’s visitors).
This book is a must for anyone interested in art, history or World
War II; an impressive edition to anyone’s collection.