Jim Cherry’s Cartopia
In a comment on the Bobby Darin post, I was prompted by the always-on-it-like-a-bonnet Mr. Bali Hai to ask my friend Jim Cherry about his cars-of-the-future book project, Cartopia.
Predicta, the Personal Car With a Hint of Tomorrow
Science and Mechanics magazine cover
A funny coincidence — it just so happens that Jim Cherry met with Taschen this afternoon to sign the deal for the book. It turned out the agreement paperwork needed a little work, so it’s not actually a signed deal yet, but it’s “definitely on.” Taschen has turned out some real beauts over the years, so it’s great to see them taking this one on. They want Jim to expand the book to include futuristic prototype cars from throughout the 20th century, so it’s going to be an even bigger book than he thought, and he gets to make some field trips to Detroit to hit the manufacturers’ archives. No word yet on a release date, but a rough draft is scheduled to be done by August, so maybe early 2008? Congratulations, Jim!
To tide you over until Cartopia the book arrives, spend some time at Cartopia the website — there’s a trunkload of great midcentury images of futuristic cars, including advertisements, magazine covers and even toy models.
Wow, talk about your serendipitious moments!
Jim mentioned his Cartopia project to me back in 2005, so he’s been shopping this around for quite a while now. Hope the deal goes through.
posted on March 30th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Hey Hu,
Just ran across this again. Amazing, but I did just actually sign a contract with Taschen for Cartopia. . . one year to the day from this post.
Book should be in the shops about a year from now.
posted on March 7th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Sorry to say, the cratered economy has caused Taschen to put several projects on the back burner while the company concentrates on its core titles. They’ve never done a car design book and a bum economy has made them skittish. The book is done, it’s even been translated into four languages. I’ve been paid in full. But still, Cartopia languishes in limbo. I will be giving a talk ion this subject Feb. 20, 2012 as part of Palm Springs Modernism Week.
posted on February 7th, 2012 at 3:43 pm