Google Books just made more than 1,860 full issues of Life available, a run from 1936 to 1972. Naturally, the first thing I wanted to see was the October 28, 1946 issue which carried the winner (Basil Wolvlerton) and runner-up in Al Capp's Lena the Hyena contest. I had never previously seen the runner-up, Ralph Boden. Wolverton also appeared in later issues.

Go here to browse all issues. To search for specific subjects, go to Google Advanced Book Search and use commands like "shmoo source:life", "life magazine: shmoo" and "life magazine: Jimmie Fidler".





In the first "Life Itself" (a phrase created by novelist Elaine Dundy) we covered the ten million photos in Google's Life photo archive and Dagmar in the July 16, 1951 issue. My guess of "ten or less" photos of Dagmar in that issue was way off. Counting the cover, I see 20 photos. Click "life" below to see "Life Itself" #1.