Free and Unfettered

This tribute to George Herriman's style of cartooning communication is one of the finest pieces of 'actual' cartooning that I've ever had the pleasure to lay my eyeballs on.

Jim,  I gotta say, you do some really fine stuff, yet I'm dine to see more of THIS kinda stuff! THIS is a glorious page!

© 1994 Jim Engel — Bungalow Bill

Sweet Gentle Life

Ah, the sweet gentle life of a Marquise . . .

Alexander Benois — The Marquise Bathing — 1906

Chilling Embrace

We've enjoyed some Spring weather here and there. Here, today, we are in the chilling embrace of the Snow Queen once again. Brrr.

Mary Engelbreit has such lovely charm in her graphics.

 All images this post © copyright Mary Engelbreit

Taking the Tube

I don't know if this is a real poster, or one that somebody cobbled together digitally. But what better place for dark humor than underground? (I love taking the tube!)

Bwaa-haw-haw-hawwww

Satisfying

There is something so satisfying about this image for me, every time I see it. The style, the coloration, the composition, the cast shadows, the subtle drama, the bird cage (!). I normally don't like depictions of the time period shown here, but I just love looking at this one.

Thomas Maitland Cleland — 1934

Sensual Design

Back in the late '60s / early '70s, the Warren line of 'creepy' and 'eerie' magazines stood out on the newsstands as something different for 'mature' readers. A degree of violence and nudity had found their way into comics far beyond what the Comics Code Authority would ever have allowed. But being magazines (and the times), young people like me found comics interesting again (at least for a while), and early on thrilled to find Frazetta covers on many of them. 

The one interior artist that stood out, for me, with his graceful lines and dynamic compositions was Estaban Maroto, ultimately the only reason I would buy any particular issue, having found the stories themselves usually banal, trite, predictable and boring.

Maroto's art brought sensual design to otherwise lackluster horror.

Estaban Maroto

Remembrance of the City of God

I love it when one of these posts provokes some of you folks to take action, like commenting, but in this case — sharing a relevant scan.

This page shows the quote of Emerson's that inspired the story:

"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God!"

John Campbell, the editor at the time, of Astounding Science-Fiction responded to Asimov, "I should think they would go mad."

Thanks OtherEric!

Kolliker — Astounding Science-Fiction— interior pulp illustration

Nightfall

What magnificent feats of engineering humans are capable of for the quest of understanding our universe . . .

Mt Palomar — 1949

Whereas in Isaac Asimov's Nightfall, on the planet Lagash, residing in a solar system of 6 suns that cause perpetual daylight, such engineering ushered in a period of madness among society when an eclipse every 2 thousand some years allowed night's darkness to expose the universe beyond their atmosphere.

Hubert Rogers — Astounding Science-Fiction — September 1941

The story is oft reprinted as well as adapted to a novel with Robert Silverberg, and is worth seeking out if you haven't read it

Rest My Eyes

The little image below may not be exciting, but to me it is very pleasurable to rest my eyes upon. The subject matter, the ink work, the composition—it's mesmerizing to me in its own little way.

This is from a book that Roy Krenkel sold to me, demonstrating one of Krenkel's lovely inspirations for his own work.

F. Brest — decorative panel — 1885

Rapture

I do believe I've heard of the phenomenon of rapturing underwater if you deprive yourself of oxygen for too long.

Sandra Brown Rowbo — Atlantis Rapture — 1992

Showing Off

Here's that Burne Hogarth again, showing off his love of detail . . .

Burne Hogarth — Tarzan's Birth Cabin — 1972

See India

I would dearly LOve to see India . . .

Mighty Colorful

Mighty colorful for something calling itself black & white.

Don't know the artist, don't know the date, but I'm mighty confident that it's somewhere early 20th century.

Thank You Carmine Infantino

Public Personas That Influence Our Lives

Once again many of us are affected with sadness of the passing of public personas that influence our lives. Roger Ebert, film critic, will be sorely missed by many, but for me the passing today of Carmine Infantino, the great comic book artist and editor affects me more.

The losses of Carmine Infantino, today, and Joe Kubert in the recent past have shook me more than I would have believed, only matched by the passing of Walt Kelly many years ago. These men have created work that kept me motivated professionally and personally from my earliest childhood.

I am grateful that each of these men left us such a huge body of work to be enjoyed again and again.

A turning point for me, as a young boy, was the publication of Infantino's sketches in the Flash Annual #1 that demonstrated how he drew the stylish renderings of his iconic character. It opened my eyes to possibilities that I still wield all these years later.

I met Infantino but briefly, yet significantly for me. Above is a sketch that he based on a drawing he had done for a cover of the in-house DC fanzine from many years ago, that I recently sold at auction as part of our fund-raising for our daughter's education.

It's hard seeing an adventurous creative era coming to a close.

Progress?

Usually when we see an image of this sort, with a dwelling holding out, as real estate builds up around it, it is of a tiny ma and pa Victorian hovel. Harrison Cady, he of the cute animal illustrations, shows us a lush beauty of an estate that will soon be paved over by the industrial revolution continuing to roll into the twentieth century. 

This was progress?

Harrison Cady — Urbanization — early xxth century

Help Identify the Artist

I'm looking for some help from you wanderers of the internet, in identifying the artist of this beautiful image that I plucked from a tumblr site a couple of years ago.  It's either a digital rendering or mixed media, and I'd love to track down the creator.

Who? Who? Who?

UPDATE:

Sur-VEY SEZ: William Chen . . . seein' as it's in his portfolio on his website. Thank you all who responded and helped out! 

Isn't it a beautiful rendering?

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE:

Commenters pointing to Craig Mullins was a solid lead, as William Chen sites Mullins' work as his inspiration. Thanks again you guys.

The World

In the scheme of the Cosmos, our world is as ephemeral as a bubble.

Celebrate our world's existence . . .

Wallace — The World — April 1921

April 1

I'm not going to try an April Fools on you. You're all too smart to be fooled. Instead I'm posting a story that takes place on April 1. With an artist's name like Harry Peter and dialogue like "I'll show you—you sneaking dick!", well who needs April Fools?

I love the old Wonder Woman stories from the golden age, but I never liked Etta Candy as a character, except nowadays I appreciate her feistiness and loyalty to WW and the Holiday Girls. In fact, I've come to really like the Holiday Girls in various stories as they are always cheery and optimistic even in dire circumstance.

 from Wonder Woman #5—June/July 1943

art: Harry Peter / story: William Moulton Marston