Randomly

For a while now, until I get caught up with my misbegotten schedule, I'm going to only post random images with little or no comment, and/or little or no information about them. 

The images are randomly filed in my image morgue as they serve as inspiration when my mind is numb—and I apologize in advance if it's an image of yours that I should have credited in one way or another. If YOU feel inspired to comment and/or supply missing information, I always love to hear from you. 

Between my business projects and family plans I won't have time to comment much until sometime in January, though I will try to keep posting up images as often as I can.

Take care of each other, we're all in this mess together.

K. Givian? — unknown title

Special Denizen

The Disney universe is an odd duck, so to speak. Much of it is loved, globally, and much of it is criticized for its white bread values. Under various bosses, its film library has wandered all over the map, and considering its immense success, it's hard to critique it in general. Known as the 'Disney version', classic fairy tales have been sanitized and sentimentalized, and has 'corrupted' generations of little minds to a princess mentality. Not a horrible thing, but disturbing if it becomes obsessive.

These days, efforts are made to correct some of the idealism, such as in "Brave" (though the little heroine is still a princess and somewhat ideal).  Where are the average but extraordinary little girls?

Ah, Lilo and Stitch, one of my favorite latter-day Disney creations, presents Lilo with her 'ordinary' modern day frustrations of family issues, compounded by the 'extraordinary' problems of a little extraterrestrial — Stitch — a characterization that I find very entertaining. Lilo is a very enjoyable characterization as well, but I think that Stitch, with his manic-depressive personality, is a special denizen of the Disney universe.

 The Disney Studio — "Stitch"

The Disney Studio — "Stitch"

Time-Honored Tradition

Many a time an artist under deadline or other pressures finds the need to 'resource' an image, basically stealing it, for composition, poses, or 'authentic' details. Many of the great illustrators of the past had the financial resources to hire models, pose, light them, etc, as well as spend time at the museum or riffle through old National Geographics to steal images as well.

I confess that I've appropriated images more than once, and quite blatantly, as I faced a deadline and couldn't begin to think of using models. I do make efforts to transform the stolen images into something new (I especially recall painting a mural for a museum depicting an Aztec battle skirmish, showing men wounded and falling in action, where I used photographs from Sports Illustrated that showed tennis players flinging themselves around the court in agony, anguish and tantrums as they fought to win at Wimbledon). 

Anyway, it's a time-honored tradition for artists to steal from the best, which is demonstrated here, as pointed out by Ken in the previous post, wherein the bottom image of Wally Wood and Joe Orlando is appropriated from an earlier painting by Dean Cornwell of an ancient slave auction. The resemblance is unmistakable even as we see that little changes were installed as well.

Fascinating to see the source, and thank you Ken for recognizing the similarity to the painting so precisely that was displayed on Armand Cabrera's interesting blog (Art and Influence) which you can access here.

Dean Cornwell — Ancient Slave Auction —early 20th century

Wally Wood / Joe Orlando — Space Detective — 1951

Inside Front Covers

The late Joe Kubert had probably the record for the longest career in comic books, from the early days in the '40s to just recently. His art style was highly distinctive all that time, though it did evolve consistently. The quality of his style took a leap upward in the early '50s, seemingly quite suddenly. But the first item below seems to be a 'missing link' in his evolution. It has hints of years to come, while still showing youthful experimentation. Even his signature is experimental, rarely used elsewhere like that.

This was an inside front cover for Avon Periodicals, a publisher with a propensity for assigning the best artists to create pen and ink illustrations to 'draw' readers inside the comic, assuming the cover also did its job. As the samples further below showcase, many of those inside covers were by Everett Raymond Kinstler, an illustrator in the making, and Wally Wood with Joe Orlando—two of the most compelling comic book artists of the 1950s.

All of these gentlemen were helping to keep the Golden Age of comic books alive as long as possible, until smothered by the oppressive Comics Code Authority.

 Joe Kubert — Attack on Planet Mars — 1951

 Everett Raymond Kinstler — The Phantom Witch Doctor — 1952

Wally Wood/Joe Orlando — Space Detective — 1951

SANCtuary

Don't you want, sometimes, to escape to an island? I'd build a sanctuary somewhere in the high rocky quadrant. This particular island can turn into two islands at high tide.

Sigh. I guess this is another sign of depression.

Humor is Truth

Humor is truth in disguise. I love the gag in that first panel.

Braudis & Truxaw — Dr. Katz

Here's My Sign

I'm finding lately that my sleeping hours are more pleasurable than my waking hours. Isn't that a sign of depression?

Tullio Pericoli —self portrait —1980s

Underground World

This is gorgeous art deco storyboard art for one of the animated Superman films of the '40s. If comics could be illustrated this way, I think comic books would make their way to more people. In fact, really, why not comic books that are more 'illustrated' than 'cartooned'?

I love that throne!

Animation story board art — The Underground World — 1943

With Trembling Pseudopods

Among many talented cartoonists over the years, Will Elder was one of the top, even though he specialized in satire, and much of it with his compatriot Harvey Kurtzman.

Originally published in Trump magazine in 1957, this illustration satirizes good girl pulp illustration from a decade before. Elder brings his usual 'chicken fat' (extra little sight gags) to the drawing and shows that he could have given Virgil Finlay a run for his money if he had seriously worked for the pulps.

Will Elder — Trump magazine — 1957

Welcome to My Nightmare

No, no. Don't let the title of this post mislead you. My computer is still working. I'm pushing it really hard so that if it fails again, it might derail during the slightly extended warrantee on the recent repairs.

I love any art that Drew Struzan creates, and here he channels JC Leyendecker who also never failed to deliver enjoyment for the eyes.

Drew Struzan _ record album cover

Send in the Clowns

Don't Bother. They're here.

My apologies to anyone suffering from Coulrophobia.

Ringling Bros & Barnum & Bailey poster — 1928

Cresting the High Wave

Well, well, well, I appear to be back in ship shape order . . . I hope. 

I'm skimming the surface of various applications, apprehensive of hearing the theme from Jaws. But at this point, I'm cresting the high wave, and seeking calm on the far side. I've a lot of work to catch up on, but I wanted to say 'hey' and hope to see more of you sailing through here again. 

And yes, after taking the longest possible time, the geniuses from Apple called me in on Black Friday to pick up my machine. Aarrrghhh.

Hal Foster — Prince Valiant panel — 1940s

Pointing the Way

We had a great Thanksgiving get-together with our extended family of long time friends. Amazingly, I didn't over-eat, and I didn't over-stress that Apple still hasn't returned my computer, and has probably ruined my credibility with clients.

I'm thankful for a great many things, including all of you for being such nice cyber-folk.

I'm still having to rely on my iPad to supply me with "pictorials" to post. This is a sweet little guy hanging in the hallway, pointing the way to the studio water closet. I got him from a thrift store for a hard-earned 99 pennies.

BEWILDERED

Still no computer tonight. I am bewildered.

This is a shot of my constant studio companion, Rango by name, with his pet gerbil. These two accompanied me when I used to put on art demonstrations at elementary schools. Notice the hairspray on the shelf---it makes excellent fixative for charcoal drawings. You'll have to click on the image to see the whole picture, my iPad doesn't let me have any control over the size.

I'm trying to stay calm, but I am bewildered with Apple.

The Apple of My Eye-yi-yi

I've been told that the part for my computer arrived today and that my repair is on the bench this evening. I inquired as to which part was so elusive that it took so long to obtain. The video card. I calmly informed the polite Apple person that I had a work order that showed that a video card was replaced by them on October 24 and I wondered why it took nearly a month more to determine by the geniuses that the video card was the culprit (again?) and to lay their hands on the part in time to install it on the very day that my deadline was due so that I would now have to work on Thanksgiving Day and the following week so that my client was late to their client and would lose a large portion of their fee, insuring that my @55 was gonna be grass.

Or words to that effect.

The polite employee politely stonewalled me. When I asked if I could expect my machine to be in my hands tomorrow in fine working order, he politely hemmed and hawed that barring other problems---"hopefully".

If I ultimately have to go in and pick it up on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday---the busiest shopping days of the year, I'm going to show up with my daughter's old red wagon to haul my VERY heavy machine the mile or more that I'll probably have to park from the mall that the Apple store is in the middle of.

And then I'll get busy on the letter that I'll be sending to Apple's CEO. I don't fault the various employees that I've dealt with over these past few weeks. I blame the company for the lack of professionalism, communication, and organization. They're busy bragging about their sales of gizmos, while my business is spiraling down the drain without my most essential production tool.

My posted image tonight is a photo I just snapped with the iPad that I'm writing this post with, hunting and pecking one letter at a time.

This is my favorite reading lamp, next to me now, in my 1940s style studio (especially now with the big empty space on the desk where my 21st century magic machine would otherwise be sitting if it wasn't for a very special video card that has taken nearly a month to hunt, capture and send by runner from somewhere in the far reaches of our planet.

Peace be with you through the Thanksgiving weekend.

Mandala of Goodness

I STILL don't have my big magic machine (they are replacing every gd part to give me a new machine in the old shell). I--I don't understand the 21st century way of doing business.

In the meantime, I have my LITTLE magic machine and I'm breaking out my personal photos so that I have SOMEthing of an image to share with you.

Like a mandala of goodness, this is a fruit pizza our daughter made before going to London to study. It tasted as wonderful as it looks, made of peaches and plums and kiwis and other fruits and cream cheese and pie crust and oh I miss our daughter.

And I miss my computer.

Hhrrrmmmmmmmmm

At the rate that my computer repair is taking, I might as well take in my shingle, go out of business and go bankrupt. I'll be the guy you see pushing a grocery cart around town while using an iPad.

Gleep beep buzz whirrrrr . . . Wtf Eeeeeeee

Glub Glug Glurgle

Hang on Sloopy. Sloopy hang on.

Demons

Well, here I am again, and barely. I am not finding closure with my computer woes. After handing over my beloved computer thrice to the Genius Bar, I have to go in for a fourth time, for the exact same problem as the three times before. I've only got a few days left on my extended warrantee and I fear that I'm being stalled until my time has expired, and then it's "whoops, too late sir, maybe it's time to buy a new computer". And perhaps it is time, as I am losing credibility with my clients and cannot afford the long terms of holding my machine and then not returning it in working order. 

I've been able to limp along between screen freezings by saving my work every 30 seconds or so and then, sure enough, sooner or later, wtf, it's done it again. And when I reboot, the screen jiggles and wiggles and gives me the razz.

Well, all this whining is to explain . . . once again . . . why my posts are rare-ish, and why there won't be many this coming week . . . no comPUter! I love my Mac, but the customer service has been lacking  and was even rude to me when I last picked up my machine.

I believe in the spirit of Apple and Steve Jobs. But sometimes I feel like demons are gnawing on my bones.

Sanjulian —Demons

Loco and Looney

Ding bing, dog bonnet and shukaloo! This computer is still acting loco and looney. It's been in to the fix-it people 3 times in the last couple weeks and I've gotta take it in again tomorrow. My work schedule is like a pile up on a foggy mountain highway. 

A person can be loyal to someone or something that they love and yet still be ticked off at 'em. I love my Mac, but if it isn't fixed this time, I'm gonna be thinking about a quick divorce from it.

Judge magazine — 1931

Hope to be back with you soon!?!

Gothic Manner/Manor

The character of Batman has been drawn by a plethora of artists and interpreted in a multitude of ways. Yet it all started with Bob Kane, though quickly he became more of a publicity hound as other artist and writer ghosts toiled in his shadow. 

Still, among a number of brilliant Batman artists, it is this somewhat crudely drawn image by Kane that set the tone and manner for the best interpretations to come. Early on, Batman was of a gothic manner, here looming over a gothic manor, and ventured into mystery before turning his full attention to thugs and gangsters and the occasional alien or two.

Bob Kane — Batman to the Manor Borne 

Andromeda

Here's another mythological scenario, though not so bucolic as previous posts, in fact rather chaotic what with the all the floral foo-fah-rah. At first glance, with this image, I thought it was by Rubens — but it's not. I had a mild crush on Rubens' work back when I was attending the Art Institute of Chicago, especially the mythological richness and complexity he could imbue, but I haven't looked at his work for years now. I'll have to seek out his oeuvre to see how I feel about it all now. In the meantime, this is Andromeda and Perseus by Filippo Falciatore, the Italian artist of the 1700s, who painted a fair amount of mythological allegories himself. 

I have quite a few images of Andromeda and Perseus that I thought I would post all together, but I have them all filed by artist and not by subject, so I will end up just having them posted here and there. Most all of them have Andromeda as having been stripped naked in her plight, and yet when they made movies about this adventure Andromeda is pretty modestly dressed. Go figure.

Filippo Falciatore — Perseus Rescuing Andromeda

I love the name Andromeda. If I was to have another daughter (which I won't) I'd be tempted to name her 'Andromeda', not for this daughter of an Aethiopian King, but for the beautiful galaxy which we will one day merge with.

The Voice of Pan

More pastoral tranquility and innocence . . .

Emile Aubry — La Voix de Pan

A Weakness

Mythological scenes are a weakness of mine, appreciating the magic and mystery of a pastoral life. But if I were truly there I might miss Coca Cola and Charmin . . . and my iPad. 

So maybe it's best that I gaze at these kinds of images from the armchair in my den . . . on my iPad.

Charles Natoire — Orpheus Charming the Nymphs & Animals

Oh, How the Twenties Did Roar

Das Plakat — 1921

Windy Nights

'Tis a windy night where I am, spooky and drear. I love it. Here be a fine illustration to accompany a bit of verse from Bobby Stevenson.

Eric Kincaid — Windy Nights

Spooky

Spooky stuff from Fabian.

 Stephen Fabian — scratchboard

Stephen Fabian — In Dracula's Crypt

Tales from the Crypt

This image is rather morbid, considering his passing, but Frazetta had to have known that his paintings would outlive him.

Frank Frazetta —Tales From the Crypt — 1964

 Frank Frazetta — original painting — 1964

Keep 'Em Flying!

WHEEEEeeee hee hee. I think we're up and flyin' again!

George Petty

Testing Testing — one two three

Starting to come back on line, but have a few bugs. 

Com check. Com check. Do you read me?

Ken Laager — 1993

Loyal to Apple

Well, this just takes the cake. I haven't been this long without a computer since I got my first Amiga during the first Gulf War (anybody remember 'scuds'?). I was going to fill this lull with an essay I've been yearning to write, but it's so overwhelming typing the words letter by letter, hunt and peck style, as I need to on this iPad.

When I do finally get my beloved Mac back, I'll be scurrying to get back to the deadlines that I've somehow put in stasis, thanks to the gracious good will of my clients.

I miss having y'all popping in! I truly will try to make up for my absence.

Even though my machine went awry, and is so long in returning to me, I'm still loyal to Apple products, and always will be.

Cheers

This is an image I have floating on my iPad and so can post it so as to give you SOMEthing to look at. This kind of early graphics cheers me up, just looking at it. It sort of seems to have been an influence on people like Bobby London. Maybe not.

Anyway, please keep coming back. Sooner or later I'll be back to business as usual.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Hi! My computer machine thingie is still on some adventure somewhere over the rainbow, waiting for The Wizard to give it a hard drive and graphics card, and I'm stuck on auntie Em's farm, so to speak.

My iPad is my only connection to the world right now and for the next few days. I think I have a new image on here that I can post. I'll try that soon.

Technology: love/hate

Having major troubles with computer

It's Been a Hard Day's Drive, I Should be Sleeping Like a Log

Ouch. Three to five days until I get the magic machine back from the witch doc.

It's the hard drive that was going into failure and will need to be replaced. When he asked if I was under warrantee, I said 'no', feeling like I'd bought the thing ever so long ago. But when he looked it up, I still had 25 days to go on the extended warrantee that I bought when I bought my workhorse machine. So it gets replaced free, but deadlines are blown.

It's kinda like when ya get the flu. You do what you gotta do to get well and deadlines just-have-to-wait. Now's my chance to clean up the studio and organize it.

I've got tons and tons of cool images for you, but they're all sitting in this cute little black box known as an external hard drive—waiting to be plugged back in and shot into the cyber-ether. 

I hope to be able to post up an essay sort of thing in the next day or two, minus pix, cuz some of you appreciate words as well as images.

And if it's only the images that keep you coming back . . . 
well, gee . . . okay, come back in a few days.

Loco

Ay yi yi, my computing machine is loco. I'll take it to the witch doctor's hut tomorrow and hope for the best. I may have to bury something nasty at the foot of my bed, or whatever it takes. 

Hey Jeffy, I don't know yet how ya did in the 24 hour comic book thingie. I'll look in on it on my iPad, but I don't think it's gonna let me leave a comment. 

The rest of you guys, and by that I mean gals too, I luv ya, stay like u always r, and as the ex CA guv sez, aisle bee Bach.

My Friend the Witch Doctor Told Me What to Do

Well, it's gone and happened—my lovely main computer has malfunctioned, crashing several times today and is down for the count. I'm told that it's probably correctable, but will probably be out of commission for a couple of days. I'm posting now with my nifty iPad, and fortunately my most important files are backed up, but I won't be able to post images until the witch doctor shakes a rattle at it. Ooh ee, ooh ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang . . .

Until then, please stand by.

Mea Pulpa

It didn't use to be cool for a person to admit to liking comic books. For a while in the '40s, it wasn't such a bad thing, as soldiers, sailors and fly-boys read them for quick and cheap entertainment. But in the '50s, it was pretty shameful for an adult to be caught reading comic books (the exception being Walt Kelly's Pogo—that was a hip trip). In the '60s it was cool to read Zap and Fat Freddy's Cat and anything by Crumb or Jaxon. Then the '80s started the trend toward adults frequenting comic shops and finally the industry pretty much relies on adult obsession with pulp adventures. Mea Pulpa.

I'm an old guy, and I've always loved the funnies in whatever format they came, some of them not so funny. Although, I haven't always wanted anyone to know that. They're certainly not my only interest, as I love the whole spectrum of printed matter and I'm a social type person as well. But here's a confession that some of you might understand: when I'm feeling blue and overwhelmed and frustrated with life, I retreat to a cozy spot and pull out the OLD comics to revel in their primary colors, bold drawing styles, and esPECIALLY to bury my nose in the pages and smell that old musty pulp smell that the comics used to have even when they were new and in 'mint' condition. I close my eyes, take a deep whiff and all my troubles melt away.

I LUV COMIC BOOKS (the old ones).

A.C. Holly — Inspector Roc — from Famous Crimes Comics — 1948

In these days when comic book stories drag on for issue after issue after issue, it's enlightening to know that in the old days a mystery could be told in ONE page, and even have you share in trapping the killer.

Rarity

A rarity! On this day absolutely nothing happened in the DC Universe!

DC calendar page 

This is from either 1976 or 1977, I can't remember. Pre Final Crisis though, in the good ol' silly DC daze. I miss that daze and those days.

Your Line is Divine

Ad from an old pulp mag — 1949

Nocturnal Plane

I used to think that sleep was an awful waste of 8 hours that I could be doing something useful. I've discovered lately that sleep is a wonderful little invention, as I give into it fully and soundly. I have great dreams as I walk foreign times and places. Perhaps we've run into each other on some other nocturnal plane, you and I. Perhaps not.

Charles Chaplin (not the silent film guy) seemed to be mildly obsessed with naked women sleeping the soft sleep (alright, maybe the silent film guy too).

 Charles Chaplin — La Nuit — 1870s

Charles Chaplin — La Nuit — 1874

Mysterious and Ancient

I love the subtle coloration and lighting of this acrylic painting. I fantasize that this is a detail from a grove temple, deep in a mysterious and ancient grotto.

Kazuhiko Sano — circa 1993

Make the Jump

I love comparing original illustrative art to the printed page—to see how well it reproduces, to see how color adds to the impact of line drawing, and also to see any changes along the way. Such is the case here where the title logo-type jumped from an older blocky style into a more modern (for the time) organic style. Unfortunately the artist's name, Al Gabrielle, didn't make the jump with it.

Al Gabrielle — The Black Cat — printed page 1940s

Al Gabrielle — The Black Cat — original art

Psyché et l'Amour

High drama from the Victorian Age . . .

Robaudi — Psyche and Cupid — circa 1885

If You Can Read This . . .

Guy Hoff, an under-valued illustrator of yester-century, shows us cute usage of a now common phrase, pre-bumper-sticker. 

When was the first bumper-sticker used, anyway?

Guy Hoff — Judge — November 21, 1925

A Hint

Somewhere along the way new-world architecture went totally left-brained and became 'stream-lined', and thus boring for the most part. 

This beautiful rendering in ink and watercolor gives us a hint of what a metropolis might look like if the old-world right-brain still had a hand in it as well.

© 1993 Albert Lorenz —Architectural Fantasia

Extra! Extra!

One of the greatest double page spread splash panels of all time, by one of the greatest comics partnerships of all time, Simon and Kirby:

Joe Simon & Jack Kirby — Stuntman — 1946

It's amazing how the 'new and improved', 'stream-lined' blogger interface won't allow me to post an image 'big' size, like I've been doing for 4 years now, without cutting off an edge in the main viewer. If you click on the image though, you'll see it larger, without any cutting off shenanigans.

When somebody goes to improve something, they usually don't.—me

Fearless

I love this pic of Carole Lombard. 

She looks fearless, despite her ultimate destiny.

Demon Battle

I'd like to apologize for several things. First, for being away from blogging on not just this site for the last several days, but also away from my other blogs for really long periods. I'm always belly-aching about back-to-back deadlines, but this last one really hit me hard and wiped me out. I finished it off at 4am on Monday morning after a final 48 hour frenzy to turn out illustrations and cartoons that I should have had a couple of weeks to do, getting it all sent in one hour before the drop-dead deadline. And I've got 2 more killer deadlines these next two weeks. This last one came on me so viciously that I had to just turn my back on everything else. That's no way to live. I've got to make changes in serious ways.

My other apology is to all my cyber friends that have been expecting things from me that I still haven't done—responses, promises, thanks and various other want-to do's. (I know that apostrophe doesn't really belong with that last phrase, but you might wonder what I mean by "dos"). Some of you have sent wonderful things that I'd like to blog about, or provide links to, or respond to. Some of you, I've lost communication with entirely, and I feel really awful about that.

I'm going to make a comeback, I know I will. I just have a few demons to do battle with until then.

John Buscema — Conan Battling the Demons of Hell