Thanks again to Alex Jay for another priceless contribution. Here we have a postcard to Alex from Mike when he returned to stay in his native New Zealand between 1983-1984 (Mike would have been age 53 when he wrote this postcard). I have copied and pasted Alex's email as he explains the contents and context of Mike's message.
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Hi Ivan,
I was cleaning out a box of papers and found this New Zealand postcard from
Mike. Here's what he wrote:
Hi! Alex, that Star Wars book [Return of the Jedi] you designed finaley
[sic] turned up in a city bookshop.
Found no interesting &'s [ampersands] yet. Its still raining off &
on here so must be one of the wetest [sic]
summers ever which makes me curious about N.Y.C. if it had that severe
winter as predicted. NZ as a
country goes into a total stop/siesta/holiday period around Xmas, so been
slow…I'll bet your as busy as
ever. Have designed one logo, painted a Romantic Illus, for a sml [small]
poster (ice cream) & two storyboard
for household cleanser. Hearing the standard pop music on the radio nothing
outrageous & the color tube has
so many bad British soaps, or chuckle-alongs it makes me cringe. The
"Police" played here so Rock Riot
written up in paper.
Regards Mike
I designed two Star Wars: Return of the Jedi books, the novelization and a
sketchbook; I don't know which
book Mike referred to. I have a small collection of wood type ampersands,
which Mike saw, and recently I
posted them on my blog, alphabettenthletter.blogspot.com/2012/04/wood-type-ampersand.html
He found work in NZ but he didn't bring printed samples when he returned to
NYC. I'm sure he was desperate
to hear new music; things were too quiet in NZ. He grew restless and
returned to NYC.
...
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I wonder if anyone has, remembers or knows of the painted romantic ice cream illustration?
I have looked at one of Mike's later resumes and during Mike's time back in New Zealand between 1983 - 1984 he worked at Campbell Advertising in Auckland as an Advertising Designer.
