I love printed material. So when an opportunity comes up to get a little something printed, I'll always jump at the chance. The promotional card above was just such an opportunity. The image is from a New York Times Book Review cover illustration that I was commissioned to do that ended up running inside when they changed cover stories mid-stream.  As such, the piece has always bothered me a little bit because it's unbalanced, with large areas left open for the masthead and contents.  Cropping it for this promo made the piece work for me again. Maybe I'll post the original some time in the future. We'll see.

With summer here, and a sea of illustration students fresh out of school, portfolios in hand, trying to figure out how to land that first job, I thought I'd post the cover of the second mailer I sent out, many moons ago. The first one, which I'll post if I can find a copy lying about, was a pretty small run.  About ten units, all told.  Still, it was enough to land me a few sweet jobs.  This one did a little better. Ten pages, one colour (with coloured stock for a back cover), I think I printed 250 copies.  Some high profile work followed. I really don't know if these type of mailers work any more.  They're not as cost effective as an email promotion, that's for certain, but I would hope that, in tandem with an on-line presence, they'd make quite an impact (get it?) when they land on a potential clients desk.  Stand out from the sea of postcard promos, as it were. I'd like to receive one if I was an Art Director. But then again, I've always liked getting stuff in the mail.

Topps #198, Tom Woodeshick, Philadelphia Eagles. 1969.

"General Ferdinand Foch was born in 1851, and fought in the war of 1870-1. He studied at Fountainebleau, and at the Ecole Suprérieure de Guerre; received a staff appointment, and subsequently an artillery command at Vincennes; was Professor at the Ecole de Guerre 1896-1901, and became General 1907. Gen. Foch, in command of the new 9th Army, made the decisive attack on the Germans on the Marne, which compelled them to retreat to the Aisne. He also led the French offensive of May 1915." - From Allied Army Leaders, A Wills Cigarette Card Issued by the Imperial Tobacco Company Limited.

Foch considered the Treaty of Versailles to be "a capitulation, a treason" because he believed that only permanent french occupation of the Rhineland would grant France sufficient security against a revival of German aggression. As the treaty was being signed Foch said: "This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years". How right he was.

Foch died on 20 March 1929, and was interred in Les Invalides, next to Napoleon and many other famous French soldiers and officers.

A statue of Foch was set up at the Compiègne First World War Armistice site when the area was converted into a national memorial. This statue was the one item left undisturbed by the Germans following their defeat of France in June, 1940. Following the signing of France's surrender on 21 June, the Germans ravaged the area surrounding the railway car in which both the 1918 and 1940 surrenders had taken place. The statue was left standing, to view nothing but a wasteland.

A quick trip to the liquor store yesterday reminded me of this piece I did for The Globe and Mail a few years back.  It seems that the panhandling has become a little more aggressive in Toronto over the past few years.  Or maybe it's just me.