Twitter Ye Not - The Cuban Missile Crisis

Twitter Ye Not - The Cuban Missile Crisis

A regular piece for the Daily Mail Weekend magazine about how figures in history might have twittered or tweeted or whatever, had they the chance, inclination and technology.

On October 14 1962, an American U2 surveillance plane flying over Cuba photographed a Soviet missile site under construction. Those photographs precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis, now regarded as the closest the Cold War came to a nuclear conflict. Here, we imagine the Twitter feed for that tense week-end.

On the left I have shown British premier Harold Macmillan, known affectionately as SuperMac, looking on anxiously at Soviet missiles pointed towards the West, and puffing away nervously on his habitual pipe. Opposite him stands Cuban president Fidel Castro, also puffing away, but not at all nervously, on an Havana cigar (possibly not rolled on the thighs of a Cuban beauty).

This incident, of course, more closely involved US president JFK and Soviet president Nikita Krushchev, but I have already done those two for the Twitter feed regarding Kennedy's famous 'Ich Bin Ein Doughnut' speech.

Restaurant Magazine - October 2011

Restaurant Magazine - October 2011

A piece for my regular Strets & the City slot (written by financial analyst Mark Stretton) in monthly trade publication, Restaurant magazine.

Here the idea was suggested to me by the Art Director so I didn't really look at the copy too well. But it would appear that Aviva, the company in question, have a Hire 'em - Fire 'em policy when it comes to HR.

I was told to make it look like London (there are sharks in London, right?) and had to check twice that St Katherine's Dock near the Tower of London is in fact St. Katharine (with an 'a'!) Docks. And I thought I knew London!

Not a large piece, so kept pretty simple.

A New Webpage

A New Webpage

For sometime my website www.paulbommer.com has been in a sorry, sad & neglected state. Hard to read, and with links going no-where - like Kafka, but with jolly sketches.

but not any longer! Please check it out, and let me know what you think.

Many thanks
Paul B

Twitter Ye Not - Stephenson's Rocket

Twitter Ye Not - Stephenson's Rocket

A regular piece for the Daily Mail Weekend magazine about how figures in history might have twittered or tweeted or whatever, had they the chance, inclination and technology.

On the 8th October 1829, Stephenson's Rocket won the Rainhill Trials, an engineering competition designed to select a locomotive design to be used by the almost completed Liverpool and manchester Railway. Here we imagine the Twitter feed from that exciting day.

On the right-hand side stands civil engineer Robert Stephenson, son of the equally celebrated railway and locomotive engineer George Stephenson, with his (or, according to some, their) invention the Rocket behind him. Robert was president of the Institute of Civil Engineers for two years from 1855, a fine institution that I myself was once a member of some decades ago in a former life of mine!

Opposite him stands hero of Waterloo and Prime Minister at the time Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (aka the Iron Duke). Dublin-born and a strong advocate of Catholic emancipation the Duke of Wellington, twice British premier, was a fascinating character. I have shown him here as he looked in the 1820s, with greying hair and dressed in a long frockcoat (and without boots!).

Ten locomotives were invited to compete in the trials, but only five showed up - they were the Rocket, the Sans Pareil, the Novelty, the Cycloped and the Perseverance. The Prize money was £500, a considerable sum back then.

Museum Journal - Part 16

Museum Journal - Part 16

Part 16 of the Director of the National Museum of Britsh History's Diary, for regular client Museum Journal (MJ).

This month our man finds out exactly how important government policy and spending decisions are made - by a drugged and drunk tripping octopus in a tank called Mystic Mash picking one or other of two coloured balls!!

As always with MJ the final print size is minute (3 or 4 cm across tops) so its crucial to keep the design very simple and the detail to a minimum.

Twitter Ye Not - Ford Model T

Twitter Ye Not - Ford Model T

A regular piece for the Daily Mail Weekend magazine about how figures in history might have twittered or tweeted or whatever, had they the chance, inclination and technology.

On the 1st of October 1908, Henry Ford put the world's first mass-produced car, the Ford Model T, on the market. Here we imagine the Twitter reaction.

On the left-hand side I have shown Henry Ford, proud of his new invention. Opposite him stands fat and fun King Edward VII, resplendant in suit and homberg and resting against an Art Nouveau plant-stand, who apparently wanted one of the new inventions for his own. Between the two men is the Model T.

The Edwardian period (often defined as the period between the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and the outbreak of the the First World War in 1914) was a time of great style, design and optimism. Here Edward looks a little sour, essentially his mother Victoria with a beard, but was, by all accounts a great bon vivant, enjoying many of the fine things in life - exquisite tailoring, food, drink and women (including the actress Lillie Langtry and socialite Alice Keppel, mother of Vita Sackville-West's lover Violet Trfusis, and great grandmother of Eggheads' Judith Keppel and future Queen (?) Camilla Parker-Bowles)!

Twitter Ye Not - The Golden Hind

Twitter Ye Not - The Golden Hind

A regular piece for the Daily Mail Weekend magazine about how figures in history might have twittered or tweeted or whatever, had they the chance, inclination and technology.

On the 26th September 1580, Francis Drake sailed into Plymouth Harbour on the treasure-laden Golden Hind, having circumnavigated the globe. Here, we imagine the Twitter feed for that momentous occasion.

Here I have shown Sir Francis (he was actually knighted three years later in 1583) on the left-hand side, standing proudly with his foot upon a chest of stolen Spanish gold he had looted on his voyage. Between his legs is also one of the bowls he was famously reputed to have been playing upon Plymouth Hoe when he received news of the coming of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Behind him I have shown a beacon, lit from hill-top to hill-top to spread the word to the Queen's Palace at Greenwich of his arrival back in England.

On the far side I have shown William Shakespeare (one of my heroes, and also mentioned in the Twitter feed), in a pose reminiscent of Scheemaker's statue of the Bard at Poet's corner in Westminster Abbey.

Between the two men we can spy Drake's ship the Golden Hind moored at Plymouth Harbour. The ship was named in honour of the crest of Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor and court favourite of Queen Elizabeth I.

The No-Body Was Keen To Get A-Head (Print for Sale)

The No-Body Was Keen To Get A-Head (Print for Sale).

My latest screen print design, executed for me with deftness and aplomb by M. Yann Brien.

The No-Body (literally, the figure of a man with arms and legs but no torso) was a popular folk character during the Elizabethan, Stuart and Georgian periods and featured in a play ("No-Body and Some-Body"), street pamphlets, ceramic statuettes (the V&A Museum have a fine pair!) and shop-signs. He represents the very (dis-)embodiment of the hapless and insignificant English Everyman.

Here our No-Body, tired of his lot, is keen to get a-Head and climb the elusive and slippery social ladder. A poster-boy for the Modern Age if ever there was one! I see him week-in, week-out talking nonsense too loudly in Soho cafés and outside Shore-ditch House. Good luck to you No-Body!

The print is the first of my new Small Standard (A3) screen-prints, and measures 297 mm across by 420 mm down (approx.). Printed in 2 colours on high-quality 300 gsm paper. It is a Limited Edition of 45 and is available to buy for £45 + P&P - a most reasonable and affordable price-tag!