In Part 1, I took a look at Hans Jenssen, a modern master of cutaway illustration. In this part, I'll spotlight two illustrators from the 1940's and 50's, back when cross-sections were the method of choice for explaining all of the war-era and post war-era technological innovations to the American public. This was the time of science and innovation, mass optimization and industrialization.
British artist L. Ashwell Wood's cross-sections of machines and factories initially appeared in Modern Wonder in 1937. He eventually drew center page cross-sections for the magazine through 1941. Apparently the British government even handed out Wood's illustrations as information leaflets during WWII!
In 1950, Wood began producing illustrations for the comic book Eagle, featuring Dan Dare, for its very first issue. Over the course of two decades, he produced hundreds of cutaways for the comic book, many of which were later collected into a series of books called Inside Information.
