Calendar Girl

My ol' pal Dame Darcy sent me a 2011 calendar.

I have her 2010 calendar above my desk.  In September, Dana from WNET pointed out that I hadn't changed it since May.

I keep most of my calendar in my head -there's plenty of empty space, or on the dry erase in the studio.

This is a nice backup.  Each month is illustrated with one of her signature Victorian/Ed Gorey inspired drawings and the calendar itself lets you know the dates for things like "Festival of Flora" (4/29), "Full Moon with Lunar Eclipse" (6/15),  or just marked with advice "$ Bless your inner sexy witch, take a memaid bath in epsom saltwater" (9/1).

They're for sale on her Etsy Shoppe.

Great Fish

I was recently reminded of R. O. Blechman's "Book of Jonah".

Published in 1997 by Stewart Tabori and Chang as part of three book deal which included a reissue of "The Juggler of Our Lady" and the new title "The Life of Saint Nicholas", "Jonah" was sadly neglected.

In my opinion, it's not only Blechman's greatest work -it's amongst the top illustrated books of all time: comic books, graphic novels, or children's books.

You see his timing and perception of space in these few pages.

The images tell the story.  It's practically Ernie Bushmiller in it's graphic essence.  The words are punctuation.

The above sequence harkens back to "The Juggler of Our Lady".  The drawings here are better, of course, beyond that the progression of the images -full scale to single line evokes fear and abandonment better than 1000 words could. 

Timing, the space between the drawings, is finely tuned here.  The differences in Jonah's poses are weighted by the space around him and the progression through the pages.

At times the scale transforms and images devour entire spreads.

The color is as precise as the line is tenuous.  Tom Hachtman did the airbrushing on the original artwork.  R. O. is specific on the tones and application of the color.  Just like the line, it's deceptive simplicity belies a rewarding sophistication.

A book of beautiful images.

And solid storytelling.

And inventive graphic layouts.

A Marvel Super Special: Rock & Rule

If ambition is the highest aspiration for film, Rock and Rule would be an all time great.

Sadly, there's more to it than that.  Rock and Rule stands as an historical aberration, a path not followed, a piece of archeological interest to animation academics not so much for its quality but for the many factors floating around its production.

One of those interesting artifacts is this comic book adaptation from Marvel.

The art itself appears to be clipped from the film and suffers from the same murky ugliness -right down  to the aggressive page layouts.

The binding prevents a true centerfold, so this is the closest the book gets.

Most interesting is the series of essays written by David Anthony Kraft at the end of the book.

The first is a simple, articulate description of the production process. (click images to enlarge and read the whole thing)

These spreads feature story sketches and rough color design work.

The layout of these articles is very nice.  Probably not the same person who laid out the comic.

We're treated to various sketches and versions of the characters, different stages of production art and even a photo of animator Robin Budd hard at work.

This page begins an article on the special effects in the film.

Some of the film was shot on the multiplane camera.  Other effects like "streaking" (which is essentially moving the artwork during a long exposure) and "Slit scan" (best known for it's use in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek).

This page offers good detail into how many of the shots were actually produced.

The article also claims that cow brains (actual cow brains) were used in the art production of the Demon.  It's too bizarre not to be true.

The next two spreads are about the musicians and voice talent.

Even these articles are interesting.  Leagues above the press releases that pass for journalism in today's trade magazines.

The last page is a piece on the producers.  Nelvana has gone on to be a premiere producer of children's animation.

Had Rock and Rule been a success I wonder if they would have followed it with other semi-mature fair and ultimately form a sort of Canadian rebuttal to the kiddie pictures of Hollywood.

Mad Men -Jaffee and Aragones on Sundance

The pieces we did for Sundance on Al Jaffee and Sergio Aragones are now on line.




After running the last few of our "Naked Campaign" film on air, Gail Levin struck up a good relationship with Sundance.

They had these interviews with the two great cartoonists and weren't sure what to do with it. They (rightly) loved the content, but the video and audio quality was a little rocky.




They suggested we treat them in a similar to our "Naked Campaign" pieces, having Steve Brodner play a sort of foil -commenting and illustrating -to their interviews.




It's kind of a strange combination, but it works and its oddly illuminating. Brodner works in a very different field from Aragones and Jaffee, but he's clearly learned a lot from them.

Just as different branches of film can positively inform animator's work, the same is true for illustration.




We're pretty happy with the results of the pieces.

Fabrizio Fante was the producer at Sundance. He was a pleasure to work with.

The usual Naked Campaign/Need to Know credits: Gail Levin, Steve Brodner, Ben Shapiro, Christina Capozzi-Riley, Richard O'Connor. Elliot Cowan did some of the animation on these. The Aragones talking. Jonny A did some of the Jaffee animation.

Avatar, Eat Your 3D Heart Out

Unlike seemingly the rest of America, I'm not at Comicon.

I will, however, bring you the latest in comics technology: Rocky and Bullwinkle in 3D!

O. K.  So maybe it's not the latest.  But 1987 is pretty recent, right?

You'll need these.

This was published by Blackthorne Publishing.

There are no artists credits except "Cover color by Jay Oliver" and "3D effects by Nancy and Bob Fritsch".

The inside front and back cover is a boilerplate interview with June Foray.

The backpage is an ad for the Flintstones 3D comic.  Also full page ads for "The Official How To Draw Robotech" and "Gumby 3D".

These few pages should be more than enough for anybody.

Modern Dance

In professional football, I can point out the successful strategies and executions that bring a team victory -not just in the game, but on a play by play basis.

A good percentage of American males can do the same thing.

This skill can be applied to all sorts of productions: baseball, animation, painting.  Once you have a grasp of the vernacular, every act of creation can be dissected and understood this way.

Dance has always seemed alien to me.  I tune out the ballets in Wagner and get lost watching any steps short of the Nicholas Brothers.

Art Spiegelman should be admired for his energetic pushing of limits, for his tenacity in conquering far off forms like opera and dance.

His "Hapless Hooligan in 'Still Moving'" is one of four pieces being performed by Pilobolus at the Joyce Theater through August 7.   It's an odd vaudeville, largely entertaining and the motion graphics are cute but wear thin.  They compare, unfavorably, to Kentridge's "The Nose" recently mounted at The Metropolitan Opera but still hold a degree of charm.

The piece plays with antique comic strip archetypes.  You've got the Blondie style waif, the cad beau out of Fontaine Fox.  Spiegelman has spent much of his career trying to convince us that comics are something other what the English speaking world wants them to be.  He transports the newsprint tropes -Krazy Kat brick and all -to the dance stage. 

The comic has a long history going to the stage.  Buster Brown at the turn into the 20th Century, L'il Abner at the half way mark, and the Addams Family today.  Amongst the dozens of other adaptations are the most produced musical in America ("You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown") and one of the most popular with budding 8 year old Sarah Brightmans ("Annie").

It's no surprise that Spiegelman, constantly recasting the comic as a high art form, would forgo the popular venue for a high end experimental dance troupe.  Sure, dance may be apples to musical theater's oranges -but the cultural tiering is worth note.

I may not be able to competently criticize dance (and every piece was well performed and enjoyable) but like a dutiful housewife who sees a "go" route connect for a 60 yard touchdown, I can tell a "home run" when I see one.



The final piece on the program -which includes an elegant piece of animation by the talented Peter Sluszka (who you may know from his Emmy Award winning animation on "I Spy"...) -is a "home run", or a "knock out" or some other inappropriate sports metaphor.  "Rushes" is dynamic, funny and moving.  You see this and you immediately understand why people love dance.

Up With Smoke

If the Swedish Academy gave out medallions for hard work and dedication to the advancement of comic Gabe Fowler would be short listed every year.

For some reason I think he might be like a Ghandi, Dorothy Day or Bertolt Brecht -such an obvious choice, never the winner.

In addition to running my neighborhood comics shop, Desert Island, he's just published the fifth edition of Smoke Signal an 11 x 17 comics newspaper.

The cover is illustrated by Lisa Hanawalt.  It appears to be a portrait of studio cat, Begemot, in a yellow checked shirt.

The free 28 page publication features contributions by 26 artists with a full color centerfold and backpage.

Publications like this become legendary after their time.   Someone might come across this years from now -like a low-fi "Raw"- and say "It must have been so cool to be a cartoonist back then.  Hell, I'm gonna make my own comics paper!"  And a whole new generation of artists might get to make something just as fun.

Contributors include: Matthew Thurber (who emailed me once and I forgot to get back to him), Noah van Sciver, Travis Millard, Sam Henderson, Gabrielle Bell, Michael Kupperman, Vanessa Davis, Jesse McManus, Inés Estrada, Michael DeForge, Ben Marra, Jason T. Miles, Nate Gelgud, James Turek, Taylor McKimens, Tom Gauld, Joel Skavdahl, Tim Sinaguglia, Kris Mukai, Joshua Ray Stephens, Puppi, William Cardini, Leah Hayes, Malachi Ward, Ken Brown, Tim Lane.

Stupidest Giraffe

Aren't too many parts nowadays for singing giraffes, nor album cover designers.

They're still out there, sure.  Sometimes turning the limitations of 3.5 inch CD into a little piece of art, sometimes turning it on it's head entirely.

The time of taking over two sides of 12 inch has gone, instead the designer has to think about what looks good on a mp3 player.

Cover art is no longer a sales tool.  It's an afterthought.

This is a 1970 bluesy-prog album produced by Shel Talmy.

I bought it for the cover about 20 years ago.

Credit to the comic goes to "Angus McGill and Steve Thomas".  The most I can find on them is that Angus McGill was a countercultural writer in the 60s, possibly along the lines of Terry Southern.

I like the apparent crudeness and naivety of the illustration.  Upon inspection, there's a sophisticated painterly quality.  Kind of like Red Grooms or Maira Kalman.

The album is gone, record stores on gone, even the music video has taken a tumble.  I hope we'll see a new resurgence of illustration and art as "marketing" for music. 


This post was inspired by the posters (which I like a lot) on Sixth Avenue for the new Christina Aguilera album. 

Above is not the poster, but the same illustration.

Joost Swarte: Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba

Joost Swarte is best known as a descendant of Hergé's clear line school of cartooning.  He's probably second best known as an industrial designer.

In animation, however, he's probably best known as the designer of the Holland Animation Festival logo.

He's third best known for playing olde tyme music with R.  Crumb and other cartoonists.

Sometime in the 20th Century I came across a CD of non-old tyme music with his name on it.

"Sound Shopping" is listed as a collaboration of Dutch electronic musicians Arling & Cameron with Joost Swarte.  Swarte is only listed as a co-writer on three tracks.

The music is, to me, an accurate representation of the illustrator's work.

Here's an example.

Girls and Boys

 

Few artists cast a longer shadow over contemporary cartooning than Lynda Barry.

 

This is a book from Brian's collection from 1981 published by The Real Comet Press of Seattle.

 

Many people learned to draw cartoons from her.

 

Above the art, the writing and the ideas couldn't work in any other medium.

 

  

Click images for full screen.

 

She instills a personal, "confessional" language to her comics which has the tone of high fiction: drawings as shorthand, words like poetry combined into literature.

 

More Wrapping

I meant to post this last week, but forgot.

Wrapping paper designed by Robert Crumb.

There were a few other patterns in the set, Mr. Natural was one.  Even Fritz the Cat, believe it or not.  This was my favorite so it's gone unused for over ten years.

In the "Brush Room" at The Ink Tank (short for "airbrush room") there was a sink and a little kitchenette  area.  Posted here was a drawing of a man pointing skyward in exclamation, a word balloon saying "Keep This Place Clean!"

Washing dishes with R. O. Blechman, I once said "That looks like a Crumb drawing."  "It is," he replied.

He then told me how he had long admired his work and befriending the cartoonist in the early 60s -well before "Weirdo" and the Underground Comix movement.

After Crumb moved to San Francisco, he even hosted Blechman for a few days on a visit.  A pairing I find ceaselessly comical.

In any event, R. O. repaid the favor having the Crumbs to dinner in New York.   Just before dining, R. O. stepped into the dining room, lifted his finger and proclaimed "Dinner is served."  A few days later he received the drawing, a portrait of sorts, as thanks for his hospitality.

Aragones on Animation

We're doing a series of short films for The Sundance Channel which use footage of Sergio Aragones and Al Jaffee which was shot last year.

This clip won't be included in any of the segments.  He talks a little about the animation he has worked on and the different process compared to comics and cartoons.







I couldn't find any of the "Laugh In" segments he referenced, but if we can dig them up I'll post them.

The Kiss of Death -Michael O'Donoghue and Peter Bramley

Comedy writers today all owe a debt to Michael O'Donoghue.

A founding writer of "The National Lampoon" and original head writer for "Saturday Night Live" his smart, acerbic humor led the way to today's "The Onion" and "The Daily Show".

I've always been little put off by his notorious refusal to write for the Muppets on SNL (better performers than Dan Akroyd, to be sure), so I was surprised to come across this illustrated story he did with Peter Bramley for the December 1969 issue of Evergreen (a leftist literary monthly).

I was first drawn in by the illustrations -in the vein of Roth with traces of underground comix, S. Clay Wilson, and maybe a little Beardsley who was in fashion at the time (although that may just be the yellow backgrounds).

Apollinaire's "Breasts of Tiresias" holds a special place in my heart.

It'd be great if Cartoon Network would allow this level of literacy to at least one of their shows.
"It's... nothing...Only...a...flash...wound" Rings of future Python.
Great graphic construction on the bottom two panels of page 36.

Written in the height of the Vietnam War, this is undeniable political -a domain of humor now relegated to a one-hour time slot on Comedy Central.