Chosen Exile or Not

It's fun to see Charles Schulz delineate grown-ups and cars and such. It shows that the simplicity in Peanuts was a chosen exile.

Update: Jim Sasseville drew these panels. Did not know that. Maybe it was not a chosen exile of simplicity for Schulz. Thank you commenters.

Charles Schulz — It's Only a Game — 1958

Terrific Comic Book Collection

Peanuts was a beloved strip throughout its run, but the early years had the most charm, in my opinion. From the time of the Korean conflict:

Charles Schulz — Peanuts — May 3, 1954

Adorable

I adore the portrait graphics of Chen Shu-Fen—sweet without being saccharine, light yet with substance—and her subjects are adorable.

©Chen Shu-Fen

Grand Graphic Wizard

I've been told that Mr. Frank Thorne, grand wizard of ink conjuring, perhaps looks in on this humble pictorial blog thingy.

If that is so, and Mr. Thorne if you are looking in now, I would like for you to know how much I've been entertained by your graphic wizardry over the years. Special greetings to you sir!

Frank Thorne — Conan, Sonja, Bêlit

Basic Issue

Before getting involved in the Chick-fil-A controversy, one should consider the pros and cons of the basic issue:

©1983 Matt Groening

What was so good about the 1980s? Matt Groening!!!

Mooey

Matt Groening's very existence cheers me up!

© 1988 Matt Groening

Check Out What You've Been Missing

Remember when Superman was a fairly light-hearted guy? I haven't seen the reboot, maybe he's a jolly old soul these days? I miss the late silver, early bronze Man of Steel.

Gil Kane — DC house ad

Difficult and Dangerous Times

Also in days gone by, Clark Kent, bless his heart, wasn't too concerned in his editorial about separation of church and state and comic books.

1940s

Days Gone By

In days gone by, Batman (without the 'the') would go out in the daylight and even breakfast with the President.

This drawing was part of a book that published a lot of cartoonists' thank yous to the President after a special outing where they all had orange juice with him. I can believe that maybe Bob Kane drew this Batman and Robin, but I'd bet a stack of pancakes that Dick Sprang ghosted the drawing of Ike.

Fantasy Bookplate

Yes, in times of trouble, fantasy is ideal to escape into, provided that you can come back to reality when the time comes. I treasure my fantasy collection and I have a special bookplate just for that genre.

Years ago, I met and talked with Roy Krenkel for just a short time. We made some book transactions, he signed a book for me, and then I asked if I could use one of his drawings as a personal bookplate. I offered to pay him for the use, but he declined the offer, consenting to my use of the art, "providing," he said, "that you don't try to make money from it." I haven't, I won't, and neither should you.

© Roy Krenkel

Drama

I love weather in all its drama. This unaltered shot was taken recently during an early evening tornado warning.

©2012 Haller-Buchanan — Evening of a Tornado Warning

Christmas in July

When I'm feeling low, as I have been for a while now, I try like hell to escape to one of my happy places. First, that's my wife and daughter. But to make sure I don't bring them down, I move on to one of several places: nature (I just took a long walk and the clouds were picture perfect); viewing the cosmos (relying heavily on Hubble-sourced images); fantasy literature (including old comics); and images that are cheery and wonderful (case in point, below, a completely out-of-season image by Carl Larsson):

Carl Larsson — the artist's daughter as Idun — Christmas 1901

I love this image so much.

Deep Thoughts

The copyright notice in the book this strip is from indicates that I can't reproduce it in any manner whatsoever except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

I think Matt Groening is a certified cartoon "genius", his cartoons both wise and witty. The only problem with him is that he never invites my family over to dinner.

There, I reviewed his work briefly, in quotations, and was critical.

©1991 Matt Groening — Life in Hell

The Road

©1969 Dave Sheridan

What to Expect

This collage was part of a contribution to a book about the future that was published in a previous century. Its message was meant to be optimistic about things to come, but in hindsight could be interpreted as a state of paranoia, preparing ourselves for the worst.

Even now though, I still sign up on the side of optimism.

Haller-Buchanan — Expect the Unexpected — 1999

Relevance

The victims of the movie shooting are in my deepest thoughts and concerns. I hesitate to blog any more about the tragedy for fear of exploiting it. Yet, if I ignore it and move on with meaningless trivialities, I fear that I'm shrugging my shoulders and saying tsk tsk, life goes on. Yet of course, the latter is what we all must do at some point, because, well, life DOES go on. But not yet.

My intent is not to exploit, but to find relevance to society's task, however trite and minor my points may be.

We know we must guide society's beliefs and attitudes, and we know that to do that we must begin with ourselves. The majority of the citizens of the world are decent, caring and altruistic, with various degrees of intelligence, and most are smart enough to know 'the right thing' from 'the wrong thing'. Acting on that knowing is not always easy, but most of us make the effort to 'do the right thing'.

How do we reach those that are making the wrong choice, doing the wrong things?

Many of us say 'love', and that's a great answer. Many of us love ourselves enough to have an abundance of love for our families, our friends and neighbors, and love enough to feel good will toward strangers and whole populations we will never meet.

But love isn't enough. Our love is concentrated on protecting those around us. And we can't love the people who won't be loved, those that roam the hidden cracks of our society alone and brooding with terrible plans.

How do we reach those lost souls intent on sharing their pain and misery with others?

We don't.

It's not our job, 99.9% of us. Those who deal with mental problems and people with ill intent are hard at work doing their job of reaching and helping those individuals before they explode in our midst. Sometimes people slip through the cracks, of which there are many, and can only then be stopped by those who have the immediate opportunity.

It is up to each of us to spread benevolence, kindness, compassion, understanding, and yes, love, wherever we can. But especially toward those young ones who are coming into this confusing world of ours. And we need to go further. We need to question ourselves, our values, to see what is important in this world.

Is it really important to shop as much as we do, to own as much as we do, to fritter away our energies in pointless pursuits? "Pointless" pursuits. That does NOT include things like fun or relaxation. "Play" is not pointless, playing with our young teaches them wonderful things.

Is it really important to always rush around as we do? To waste time on the rushing and not spend it on worthwhile pursuits—spreading understanding of the finer concepts of our lives?

Sharing the joys of art and science and philosophy and spirit?

Spirit. There is great spirit afoot. Legions of wonderful people with wonderful passions are spreading their spirit. Teachers and dancers and musicians and technical wizards and writers and mothers and fathers and so many caring dedicated old souls.

The spirit must spread further. It must dissipate ignorance and superstition (I include much of 'religion' in that category—but that's another whole sermon on my part). Spirit must include all, permeate all so that pointless pursuits become pursuits of meaning, of substance.

All this idealistic meandering on my part accomplishes little for any of you. But in meditating out loud, so to speak, it sharpens my focus on what is important in my life, and sets me on a path of discovery. If we all are on similar paths, and we collaborate, what might we accomplish together?

. . .

The item below is too cheerful in appearance for this time of mourning, but the message is relevant in its own way and is indicative of past efforts to raise awareness, what the self can be.

from Batman comics — 1940s

Wake Up, America!

A message from a different time for a different reason, but still a relevant call.

James Montgomery Flagg — Wake Up, America! — 1917

Society's Worst and Finest

As we all are, I am shocked and horrified at the taking of innocent lives at the Aurora movie theater, during the night. Beyond the carnage afflicted on our neighbors, this should be a turning point for people everywhere to draw a line in the blood and demand no more! In the long run, not with heightened security or to have other movie patrons 'shoot back' as some politicos have positioned.

Our society needs to address these problems at the very root of our collective psyche, the way each child is raised by the global village. Different attitudes and beliefs.

I'll stop there and express my deepest sympathy to those affected by this tragedy.

I'll also go on to show the images that I had planned for today, because they are expressions of humanity at its finest, the anniversary of the first manned lunar landing.

Robert McCall — First Manned Lunar Landing

Paul Calle — Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong, pre-astronaut as an X-15 test pilot

Excess

Burne Hogarth seemed to be a show-off in the latter part of his career, applying an excess of detail in his art. But then, why not?

Burne Hogarth — Tarzan print — 1974

Full-of-Time Tales

H.J. Ford is one of my favorites for illustrating timeless tales, or maybe full-of-time tales, such as those of Troy and Greece. This is a book fairly available on-line and elsewhere, but these are my scans before I lovingly set this volume free into the world via trade credit.

H.J. Ford — Tales of Troy & Greece — 1910 edition