Showing posts with label Reddy Killowatt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reddy Killowatt. Show all posts

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Reddy Killowatt!


Reddy Killowatt is an exquisite design. His bright effusive smile, his spindly but bristling limbs, and those cute little shoes somehow add up and the whole is far greater than the sum. Reddy was nigh ubiquitous in all sorts of ads for new-fangled ways of living life in the 20th Century, he was in fact an icon of that new way forward, a time of positive feelings and downright progress. Here are some classic Reddy appearances.




Reddy appeared in comics often. Above is a 1946 appearance.


The Mighty Atom is exactly what it seems to be, a comic extolling the virtues of electricity, especially that electricity derived from atomic power.  Here's a look at the wraparound cover.


And here's the splash page.


To check out the complete comic book adventure, see this link.


Reddy Killowatt's heyday is long gone, sadly along with the sense of progress which once marked our society. But there have been attempts to revive him, such as this one above which updates his design a bit (note the tennis shoes) and adds a little blue buddy Reddy Flame. Yikes.

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Friday, May 17, 2013

Tales From The Ozone!


This lush and vivid cover by Carl Lundgren is from what is apparently quite the collectible and quite the expensive underground comic. Published in 1969 Tales from the Ozone features stories by Robert Crumb, Vaughn Bode, Gilbert Shelton, and others.

What attracted me is the use of Reddy Killowatt, the advertising icon, and one of my childhood friends since I was the proud owner of a Reddy nightlight. I've long thought Reddy Killowatt was one of the cleverest character designs in all advertising, and his satirical use here is proof of that.

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