Ward Jenkins

Illustration of a mother ringing an actual dinner bell for her family to come and eat.

Illustration of a woman on a bus and she's taken off one of her shoes and rubbing her foot while she has lots of purchases in boxes and bags next to her.

More illustrations from the Metropolitan Life Insurance booklet by J.P. Miller.

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Cover illustration for a booklet on life insurance and there's a family of four in a grid pattern, along with a house in the middle square, some food, and sports equipment.

Cover to a booklet for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1956). No artist credit was given, but I think it's J.P. Miller. It's pretty much his style. This scan is from my own collection.

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Just added it to the thread!

Just added it to the thread!

Screenshot of a music playlist featuring songs from the late-70s to the early 80s. Mostly rock.

Screenshot of a music playlist featuring songs from the late-70s to the early 80s. Mostly rock.

Screenshot of a music playlist featuring songs from the late-70s to the early 80s. Mostly rock.

Screenshots for the non-Spotify peeps:

Running With Dad

Here's the link: open.spotify.com/playlist/2tY...

If you're curious for what's in the mix, I can link to it, but it's on Spotify. So, if you'd rather not go there, I can do screenshots.

Collage of old photographs of me and my dad, from the early 1980s, running road races. At the top it says, "Running with Dad."

After my dad passed away in 2024, I made a playlist of songs that reminded me of our time when we ran road races together: 1978-1983. We went to a lot of races around Atlanta (and further, if Dad was so willing) listening to 96Rock, a staple AOR station at the time. Anyway, here's the cover I made:

HOUSE of [redacted]

Pretty masterful stuff.

And it loops.

Also? Read the thread. Adds depth and dimension to the whole thing. 🙌

Illustration of a boy in middle school, walking around with a backpack that's filled with so many books, it makes him walk with his head leaning forward.

Drew my son, Ezra 10 years ago when he was in middle school. I swear all the kids walked around like this because of the all the books they had to carry around.

Sketches of a mother of a toddler boy with different hair and frames.

Sketches of a mother of a toddler girl, with different expressions, hairstyles and poses.

Sketches of a parent couple, with some different expressions for the dad on the right of the page, and a few of the mother.

Here's sketches for the parents/guardians of the kids for the City, Baby! book series. For San Francisco, originally I was going to go with a couple, but decided to go with just one parent, like the NYC book, to keep it simple.

Sketches of a young toddler girl, with different expressions.

Sketches of a young toddler girl, with different poses. One, she's wearing a rain slicker and holding an umbrella.

Sketches of a young toddler boy, with different expressions.

Character design sketches for the City, Baby! book series I illustrated for Chronicle Books back in 2009: New York, Baby! and San Francisco, Baby!

I saw Satrapi speak in Portland years ago and it was amazing.

Ha! That's awesome

Ugh it really does - thanks! Hoping to see an ENT doc at some point

Ah, gotcha. So sorry you’re having to go through this your entire life! Commiserating with you 😩😭

Ooof. Have you had chronic sinusitis? Based on my constant issues I’ve been having I think I might have that, but what do I know. I’m no doctor! 😩 but it’s been a constant problem for me

She's 25 now. Getting her masters in Library Sciences. 📚

Drawing of a four year-old girl playing on the floor with miniature play sets and Polly Pockets.

Drawing of my daughter Ava, when she was 4 years old. Playing with her Polly Pockets.

This is art 🙌

What could go wrong

Screenshot from an animated industrial film featuring a woman in pink looking very happily at a refrigerator in a store window and a salesman is holding up a sign that says "Fine Quality."

It's Everybody's Business (1954) produced by John Sutherland Productions. Directed by Carl Urbano, with art direction by Maurice Noble.

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OpenAI Raises $110 Billion to Fuel Growth, Extending A.I. Boom

Oh, sure. Let's just dump even MORE money into an industry that's contributing 0% to the GDP, is as reliable and safe as a Ford Pinto in traffic, and is pillaging the environment 🙃🙃🙃 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/b...

Illustration of two middle school-aged girls and one is holding a phone up so they can take a selfie together.

Selfie with my bestie (do the kids still say these things?)

Excellent collection of great midcentury illustration. Highly recommend checking this archive out! Makes me want to do the same with my collection. Some day. Some day!

Oh man, I can't get started on this because I've got so much to do today, but wow - I'll definitely check it out extensively at some point! Thanks for the heads up! And thanks @kottke.org for sharing!

HOLY ****!

Colorful, trippy poster for Fantasia with bold, glaring colors of fuschia, pink, neon green and yellow.

For the UK quad poster, they added "The Ultimate Experience" tagline - a nod to 2001's "The Ultimate Trip" advertising campaign.

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