Sparky

Snoopy on his doghouse is a classic icon.

A nice portrait from his early years, shown on his memorial service program.

From the memorial service program. I think he had a trademark way of posing with his hand like that. I can't believe it's been 9 years since he passed away.

Such Class

So this is the letter that inspired me to write to the NCS, and as you can tell from the letter dates, I wasted no time.

I don't kid myself into thinking I was anything more than a pesky fanboy, but boy all these guys had such class to respond so nicely to dorks like me. Schulz, at this time, was at the very height of his popularity. Now I'm guessing that these cartoonists and illustrators maybe didn't even dictate the response, probably having an assistant word and type it and they just signed it, stuff like that. But it was a very heady time for me having mail and packages show up every few days from my idols. 

National Cartoonist Society

I ate, lived and breathed cartooning in my teens. I didn't just clip and collect, I wanted to BE a cartoonist. I drew and drew, created strips and samples, paid for and participated in the Famous Artists Cartoon Correspondence School. It's a wonder I didn't become a cartoonist. I DID learn to cartoon, but other interests, from theater to journalism and finally the Draft Board itself dragged me to other pursuits. Oh, I cartooned hear and there, for the Army and different advertising gigs. But I never did a strip and I heave a heavy sigh when I say that. But I love the strips, well, that is, the old strips. Comic strips today leave me cold.

I wrote to Charles 'Sparky' Shulz, among other cartoonists, and he suggested I write away for the National Cartoonists Society Album. So I dutifully wrote to them and received a little packet of information (I also slyly asked about how to join the Society).  I sent for the album, but never received it and I neglected to ask about it or for a refund.

In the packet was a photocopy of a 1959 cover of one of their publications, drawn by a guy named Wood.  Yeah, yeah, Wally Wood. It's got all these caricatures of cartoonists in a banquet room with a bar. I recognize some of the faces in there, including Rube Goldberg back next to the Rube award he designed. And it's funny how Wood made some of the cartoonists meld with their characters, like Hank Ketchum with Dennis the Menace, Ernie Bushmiller with Sluggo, Bill Mauldin with Willie (or is it Joe?), Dave Breger with his character. Charlie Schulz is just plain Charlie Brown. And the caricature of Walt Kelly blended with Pogo is perfection! I thought that was Woody himself back there talking with Al Capp, but if you look 4 figures to his left that REALLY is Wood. Maybe he's in there twice? Didn't Woody win an NCS award?

I love the roll call of all these cartoonists on the letterhead. I only just now see that Gil Kane was once the official Historian.

And hey, Mort, I want to talk to you about that Album that I paid for and never got...

My Favorite Splash Page

A splash page is the gateway into a comic book story, bidding welcome and beckoning us to enter. There are many very cool splash pages in comic book history, but for me, this one by Matt Baker edges them all out. I definitely want to enter this story.

Happy Sunday! Happy All Week! in 2,001,966 B.C.

This is only my second week of Kelly Sunday and already I'm missing a consecutive Sunday strip from 45 years ago. But there's lots of Walt Kelly to fill in. Kelly aficionados will know most of the stuff I Kelly post, but it's all fun to look at anytime for any reason, I say.

This cool Kelly self-portrait is from MacLean's Magazine of April 15, 1950

Every Kelly fanatic probably owns these two books, but I adore them and want them with me when I'm cremated (there are so many books I want with me then, that they'll have to put me and all the books in a boat, set it afire, and drift it out to sea).

Love that background detail!

Kelly's art, from the early 50s especially, is so cute and warm and cuddly and his satire was so sharp and gritty. Somehow he combines those qualities in this take on Senator Joseph McCarthy. Boy I love his spot drawings, perfect weighted lines and spotted blacks.

And this is a preview of what to expect from the Mars sequence, later down the line. There's an awful lot of scanning to do for that and I need to wrap up a lot of deadlines before I can get to it. But oh, I'm looking forward to it, it's so great to be able to zoom in on his great detail.

Who's Who

Once upon a time I came across Who's Who in America, in my school library. Noting with interest that addresses of famous people were published rather nonchalantly, I became pretty excited when I saw that some of my artistic heros were in there as well. 

I started writing to people I admired.

And they started writing back.

With some I continued a mild correspondence, meaning nothing to them, I'm sure, but everything to me.

The letter above from Norman Rockwell refers to an episode I had where one of my paintings was accepted into a show, when I was in high school, but my art teacher cracked me over the head with extremely harsh criticism and mockingly compared it to a Rockwell painting.

One guy who never wrote back was Picasso. He was probably busy or something.

Ebb and Flow of Opinion

Rockwell certainly went through the ebb and flow of critical opinion over the years. The "people" , of course, always admired him, much of the time for his 'realism' and storytelling, the very qualities that damned him with the professional critics. But times changed, the critics admired him and the people took him for granted. And then it changed again, and again. Such is life, in the art world and beyond.

I, too, ebbed and flowed in my opinion and admiration of his art. I feel his best work was before he used photos as reference and then many years later, when his work became a bit more impressionistic, or at least brushier. I disliked most of his story-telling paintings, but liked his paintings that illustrated text stories. But always he had his moments. I hadn't seen these two self-portraits until recently, but I really like them. And I'm suckered in by anything that refers to adventure, and then his watercolor of a Paris bridge makes me hunger for anything else he did in that style or medium. 

The fact is that just because we admire a person and their work doesn't mean we have to admire or like everything that person has ever done. As I get older, that's how it is with many of my artist heroes. I  (metaphorically) hold on to what I really like and give the rest back to the world. Then I build (metaphorically) my own little museum, somewhat like I'm doing with this blog.

My Favorite Mystery In Space Cover

And why wouldn't it be? It's a dynamic composition, bold and bright, and makes you want to know, 'what's going on here?', as you pluck it off the comics spinner, as I did way back in 1964. Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson helped usher in the best of the silver age (of course along with Joe Kubert, Curt Swan and others) and this comic, along with Justice League of America and some of the Batman comics were the brightest beacons for me. 

I eventually divested 99% of my silver-agers, but I couldn't let go of this one.

Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson—Mystery in Space #90, March 1964

Overlooked Legend

Some years back, while attending a comic-con, I watched as Joe Kubert wowed the audience, including me, with his talk and demonstrations. But also attending the con was John Severin, legendary EC/Cracked/Marvel artist. He was totally overlooked by the frenzied mob, who were busy mobbing Kubert. I sidled over and talked with Severin, who was good-naturedly bemused by the spectacle. Through the crowd Kubert waved to him. Severin knew he wasn't a star for these kids, who didn't recognize him. But I told him it was a thrill for me to be talking with him, and he seemed appreciative, and we chatted for quite a while, with him asking a lot about my artwork, even comparing notes! Wow.

A few years later I acquired these two little Severin drawings from a friend of mine who published some of Severin's work. I always enjoy seeing originals to see how the dot screens are cut and the whiteout is used, things like that, all disappearing, of course, by final print.

original King Kull drawing

printed

original Frodo Baggins drawing

printed

My Favorite Cover of the Comix I Own

Oh, there are some close runners-up, but this one just clobbers me over the head. I think it should be next to the word 'lurid' in the dictionary.

Plus it points out the dangers of illegal aliens...

Texture and Illusion

Theatrical set design is a beautiful blend of disciplines, from architecture to composition to rendering styles, having to understand the hard and the soft of texture and illusion. And of course also knowing the limitations of fabrication and materials.

These are just 4 of countless beautiful designs, these for the Metropolitan Opera.

My Favorite Romance Magazine Cover

Let's start out my new favorite things category with My Favorite Romance Magazine Cover. From 1936, it's unsigned, but I'm venturing a guess, or maybe a hope, that it is an Andrew Loomis painting or pastel. Parts of it don't quite seem his style, but I know he worked in a variety of ways and mediums. Another guess might be an early Earl Bergey, but, well, I just don't know who dunnit. But it just doesn't matter . . . it's one of my favorite things.

The eyes have it.

And Loomis sure had a way with eyes.

A Few of My Favorite Things

When you love all images, it's pretty pointless to pull a few  aside and say I 'love you more than the others', but a person can't help but to have some favorites. I'm going to make that an ongoing category, if for nothing else to give me an excuse to randomly showcase cool things one at a time. Obviously it's all subjective, cause you all have your favorites and they're different than mine. And my favorites may change on a whim— as I get older, I get wiser and stupider. And I have so many favorites I'll probably break them into tinier and tinier categories (eg) my favorite strip ever published on a Tuesday, or maybe a rainy Tuesday, or maybe a rainy Tuesday in the month of May, or... well, yeah.

Below is my favorite Zippy strip, paradoxically, not for the image but for the words. I like Griffith's work over the years, but it's almost never for the images. Try singing these words out loud—it's fun and pure Zippy. And it sets the stage for my new category.

Zippy—January 10, 1990

Kelly Sunday

Forty-five years ago, the dates of the calendar fell on the same days of the week as they do this year, inspiring me to try posting a Pogo Sunday strip weekly, on its proper date. I'm missing a few from that year, especially in the next few weeks, but maybe I'll fill those in with something else by Kelly. Maybe I'll make Sundays a Kelly day, like it seemed when I was a kid. I'm still planning on running the Mars sequence sometime this summer.

St Malo

These watercolors of St Malo, France, by Sir William Russell Flint are posted in honor of Frank Ordaz over at Ordaz Drawz.

  Sir William Russell Flint—Under the Ramparts, St Malo, High Tide

Sir William Russell Flint—A Blue Day, St Malo

Sir William Russell Flint—The Lap of the Tide, St Malo, France—1938

Look at those waves, they look effortless, but they are perfectly delineated.

Maria Morevna

Another few pages of Boris Zvorykin illustrations from the book 

The Firebird and other stories.

Iconic Image

There are times when it's not a swipe, and it's not an homage. It's just plain reference. Historical personalities have only so many pix of them before they shuffle off this mortal coil. And then that's all there is to work from. Some pix better than others, such as this iconic image from the great Philippe Halsman.

Roy Anderson illustration

And this was a choice that I whole-heartedly concurred with.

Bookplate

Figure Study

A nice figure study by Troy Kinney:

Odalisque

I love the artistic sensibilities of the 20s and 30s, and this odalisque shines. My understanding is that the artist's name is Joseph Douglas, but the signature is Douglas Joseph, dated 1921. Anybody have any light on that?

Plans for the Lighthouse

I love lighthouses. I love architectural plans. Put the two together—perfect match.

Mural Studies

Beautiful Detail

Whew, I'm really socked in with deadlines. Here's a quick one: Franklin Booth, wizard of penwork, created this ad for an organ company for a national magazine in the 20's that ran it fairly small, but when magnified, contained such beautiful detail.

Franklin Booth

detail of above