Monkey Biz

So, this is what New Yorkers do on cold wintery nights. 

I feel warmer already.

Quintana — New York Nights — February, 1937

Jack Frost

Cold? Yes, it's downright f-f-f-frosty.

Ub Iwerks — Jack Frost — 1934

Fendi

It's c-c-c-cold where we are. Hope yer stayin' warm where u r.

Karl Lagerfeld — for Fendi

Romantic Enchantment

I have a sincere fondness for images of romantic enchantment, and many artists of today are just as wonderful as masters of the old days, though utilizing some new artistic media, such as digital tools, as evidenced with this lovely image by Laura Diehl.

©2011  Laura Diehl — Golden Fish

K-Reek

These two images tumbled out together from a partial spill of my image morgue — a splendid example of my little world laughing at itself.

 Curt Swan —Superman — 1970s

Robert Crumb — self-portrait — 1989

Mighty Interesting

I don't know anything about the story that this illustration by Walt Scott was for, but it looks mighty interesting, mighty interesting indeed. Very nice wash technique, says I.

Walt Scott — magazine illustration — 1940s

I do believe that Walt Scott is the same fellow who turned out some comic books back in the late 40s/early 50s about 'Little Folk' or 'Little People' or some such title, akin to the Teeny-Weenies and Walt Kelly's Brownies.

Christmas Gifts

Georges Lepape — Vogue — December 7, 1929

French Frails

Here's a jaunty little number from the age of flappers. Looks like a couple of French frails flitting about in their flivver. 

l'officiel de la Couture et de la Mode de Paris — November 1927

Way Up North

It's a little less than 3 weeks till Christmas, but this image shows what I like to think is going on right now, way up north — at least according to the vision of Carl Barks (the GOOD duck artist, as we Dell Comic aficionados like to say). Yes, Virginia, Barks painted more than just Scrooge and the boys.

I like that he has animal helpers, 'stead of them nasty little elves — the woodpeckers are a hoot and a half—'specially the test pilot.

©1979 Carl Barks — Santa's Work Shop 

Thimk!

Sometimes I think I could solve some of the world's problems if I could just have a few days with no distractions whatsoever. Sometimes on my nature walks I think, that's it! That's it! I've solved one of the vexations of (wo)mankind! But then I have no follow-through to  transmorgraphie my thoughts into actions. My mind gets weary and soon I'm distracted by some shining gewgaw with pretty colors. 

The little cartoon sketch below is something I doodled years ago, while I was working on a prehistoric culture exhibit, that reflects my reflections. Most of the time my brain is zombie food.

Really, just a few days with NO distractions, I know I could . . . I could . . . now what was I talking about?

Buchanan

Four Words

 Colorful.

Stunning.

 Fan-tab-la-glorious.

Moebius.

1980

Special Number

An Art Nouveau cover from 105 years ago:

Vogue — December 5, 1907

The Arrival of Saint Nicholas

St. Nicholas is, of course, a grand saint. And Santa Claus really seems to be a separate entity working in association with the saint. Nicholas, I think, is the pope of the holiday and Santa maybe the head cardinal? And then all the millions of Santas spread around the world that are scaring all the little kids in the malls and on street corners are the faithful bishops and knights and pawns?

I dunno. 

Anyway, here is a lovely depiction, by Hergé, of a grand arrival of Saint Nicholas, certainly emulating His Holiness, the Pope. And it looks like Homer Simpson's granddad must have been one of triplets back in the day.

Hergé —The Arrival of Saint Nicholas — 1936

De Rigueur

This is a friendly notice that any correspondence and requests to Santa should have been e-mailed by now, or no later than the next day or so — due to high volume and low band width. The North Pole Post Office has been shut down for several years now, and emails, brief and to the point, are de rigueur. I've heard that one of the recent viruses has infected the North Pole website, so even that may be shut down for the season. If your requests aren't filled this year, that may be the reason.

My little snail mail to Santa, shown below, was mailed when I was but eight years old and evidently somehow made its way back to my mother's care, where I found it just yesterday as I was going through more of her papers. Pretty good printing for an eight year old, I'm proud to say. Likewise I'm beaming proud that my requests WERE fulfilled, including the item for my brother, which sits on a shelf display to this day, many many many years later. The Cape Canaveral set — played to death oh so long ago. And I guess I've always liked coloring and recoloring — just ask my clients.

Hey, I Love This Guy!

By popular request (one of you) (yay), the Robert Crumb introduction to the previous post's komic of Harvey Kurtzman, one of the (great) cartoon geniuses (and there have been so many of 'em) of the 20th century (of course Crumb himself is one of them there), and . . . good lord, I've used so many parentheses in this sentence I forget where I was going with it . . .

Thanks, Sim, for the request. Crumb's intro is worth the time to read, and especially about Mr. Bad Taste  himself, HMH.

Robert Crumb — intro to Kurtzman Komix — 1976

Pygmalion Complex

I think there may be a bit of a Pygmalion complex in most artists, and as the creator of Annie Fanny, well —yeah!

© Harvey Kurtzman estate — Kurtzman Komix — 1976

Finally, a label (below) that fits perfectly! (snort, chuckle)

Girl in a Glass

Leo Putz — Girl in a Glass — 1902

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