Web Logs
6/17/2005 - Ultimo
Ultimo - An imaginative narration of life under the earth with projections by John Vassos and the text by Ruth Vassos
I came across a very interesting book: Ultimo. It was created in 1930 by a husband a wife team and strikes me as a very early version of the graphic novel. The pages alternate between sparse blocks of text and striking grey-scale modernist illustrations. A great deal of the text seemed haunting similar to what one might find in Dean Motter's Terminal City or Alan Moore's Tom Strong. Consider the book's prelude:
"Cities became perpendicular. Buildings stretched their tremendous elongations in the air. Zeppelins with swollen, whale-like bodies glittered in the sun, darkening the earth beneath with their amorphous shadows. Airplanes landed on transparent platforms obstructing light with their vast winds. The noise of whirring propellers and powerful motors was oppressive and life to be bearable had to be lived at even greater heights."
The book's story goes something like this: A dimming of the sun causes a massive ice age which forces mankind to retreat deep underground to utilize geothermal heat. Humans perfect their society and physical selves to the point where all disease, conflict, and societal ills are cured, but they become stagnant and restless as a result. Eventually life is sought on other planets.
Searching for info about the illustrator, John Vassos, I found he was quite the interesting chap. Illustrator, industrial designer, and painter who's unique graphic style carried him quite the distance. He even designed the first commercial television set. More about him can be found at these sites:
