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Posts tagged with "Comic Books and Art"

A Mind-Blowing Collection of Old Comic Book Ads

Thursday, 28. June 2007, 05:27:53




















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The Sexy and Patriotic Cartoon World of Bill Ward

Monday, 18. June 2007, 15:15:10




Anyone who ever glanced at an old girlie magazine from the 60’s or 70’s (and 50’s too but I never saw any of those) had to have seen the cartoons of Bill Ward at one time or another. There is a new collection out of his work from Seattle’s Fantagraphic Books. I found some samples of his earlier work with Torchy and then a later character called Pussycat. The inks on the Pussycat comic book panels is by Bill Everette and his pens and brush washes enhanch Ward’s pencils beautifully. Ward had a classic near pin-up style of illustrating glamour girls that degenerated, in my opinion, into a crude, hurried style of blatant pornography by the 70’s. In later works the women’s boobs were so exaggerated as to be beyond belief. The men were always weak and powerless towards the physical charms of Ward’s women. He did a lot of work in bondage and S&M as well but none of the samples I found were suitable for the Café. They were simply hardcore. I did not care for where his work went later simply because I liked his early work so much and the change was pronounced and probably done for nothing other than money. His later stuff is not in anyway bad as far as porno cartoons go, what do you expect, but his early work, like Torchy, showed real talent.






Also included here at the bottom are some of his great war propaganda cartoons. I know we are supposed to be ashamed of this stuff as Americans but something about confusing Imperial-psycho-Japanese soldiers with monkeys or seeing a couple Nazis about to get their swastikas splattered just makes me snicker.

THE WAR CARTOONS OF BILL WARD. SHOOT THE ONE'S WITHOUT TAILS, HAHA, THAT IS GREAT!

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Macho White Men vs Water Monkeys, Nazi Mandrils, Killer Minks and Canivorous Flying Squirrels

Friday, 15. June 2007, 14:52:10

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No doubt some of the most entertaining of the men’s “true adventure” covers to be created were the men against ruthless animal covers. As if Bushido warriors, Nazis, assorted dark skinned savages and commies weren’t enough, our hairy chested he-men had to also grapple with out of control varmints from every corner of the world. Now a couple of these covers may almost seem plausible in a far fetched way. For example the cover for MALE where the guy is tearing blood sucking leeches from his flesh in the swamps of Ceylon. The other MALE cover with two tough guys hacking up piranha is not really inconceivable. But it soon takes a turn for the near ludicrous (and therefore more thoroughly enjoyable) when the same magazine portrays some lost at sea heroes fending off a horde of savage meat eating water monkeys from their rubber raft. I am not a zoologist but I have never heard of such a thing happening. It would be a more interesting world however if it did.



Even more stunning a revelation is that the masters of evil the Nazis had trained mandril apes from remote areas of Africa to eat pretty young half naked white girls alive. No fear however since always lurking nearby and out of sight is a stud with a gun. In this case a Tommy gun. Blast ‘em Joe! Not to be out done by their Nazi rivals in evil some stinking red commies tie yet another half naked white girl down with stakes and have a bunch of minks (a cute name for weasels) prepare to rip her flesh to shreds. These Nazi and commie guys were so evil and insidious you almost have to love them.




When it is all said and done nothing compares to the horror our hero on the cover of True Men must contend with. It is a fate we all fear when lost in the wilds of Burma or Borneo but one we tremble to voice. What you ask? Devoured by a Bengal Tiger or gored by a jealous water buffalo? I wish it were that civilized a death he faces. No. I am talking about the most feared and vicious animal in all of the wild kingdom. You may have guessed by now riveted reader what savage beast I am referring to in hushed terms: yes, I am talking about flying squirrels. Meat eating, insane flying squirrels. Imagine the world we would be living in now had Spielberg selected this bloodthirsty beast as the heartless killer of his first film rather than that wimpy great white shark. My God.

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EC Comic's Ghastley Graham Ingels

Friday, 15. June 2007, 14:34:16




After the death of his father Graham Ingels began drawing comics for money when he was 16 years old. He started off drawing romance and western comics for EC during the 50s but it was obvious his talent lied in the horror field. He worked with titles edited and written by other EC greats Al Feldstein and Johnny Craig. As is shown by the samples posted here he had a nature ability to depict horror and his meticulous style was perfect for drawing old rotted houses and twisted figured with decomposing flesh. His style influenced the genre for a long time to come and Bernie Wrightson’s style is obviously drawn from Ingels, who often signed his work “Ghaslty”, after the nickname he picked up around EC. One trademark of Ingels was a line of saliva in an open frightened or screaming mouth, and this is found often in Wrightson’s drawings. He was a self taught artist and later left the comics field and became an art instructor. He never talked mush about his years as a great horror comic book artist and eventually refused to acknowledge that period in his life really until a few years before his death in 1991, possibly because of the fan revival in the EC titles and his incredibly spooky work on them.

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Bernie Wrightson's Superb Horror Art

Sunday, 27. May 2007, 06:19:23

THE BRILLIANT PEN AND INK WORK OF BERNIE WRIGHTSON

It is fitting that Bernie (also spelled Berni on signed works) Wrightson was born in the same city as Edgar Allan Poe since Wrightson would become somewhat of a horror master himself in the field of comic book art and would one day illustrate a series of Poe stories. Wrightson is a self taught artist whose style is similar to Graham Ingles (I am preparing a post on Ingels so stayed tuned) and even the early pen work of Frank Frazetta. He became some what of a comic book super star after his superb work on Swamp Thing in 1971. He worked for both Marvel and DC successfully and for Warren Magazines as well.

He always worked with comic book style sequential story telling he also moved outside the field. He was part of the Studio, a loft shared with Barry Windsor Smith, Jeff Jones and Michael Kaluta. Included in my selections here are a couple pieces from his Frankenstein series (including the single comic book page he did). He sent seven years on the 50 drawings (while doing other works as well as he is a prolific illustrator) and the work is superb. I have no clue how he gets that effect. He must me using a combination of brushes and pens in a meticulous manner and the look is like a print from the 19th century.
He did a lot of work with writer and friend Bruce Jones and else where are some samples from their story Jenifer, which was made into a gory short film by Dario Argento.

A great comic book artist who tried hard to do a body of work outside the field as well. Like most artist who have tried this they seem to get little respect from the “real” art community or graphic community in general, and even part of their comic book fan base spend time scratching their heads and waiting for something in a panel with word balloons to reappear. He has done both and continues to do both still. Below are some samples of his sequential art (some new term for comic book art, with one from the immortal Swampthing series from DC.

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Jim Steranko's Captain America

Saturday, 26. May 2007, 19:16:52

JIM STERANKO'S CAPTAIN AMERICA




Here are some excellent samples of some of Jim Sternako’s Captain America work. While in some of the design of course there are the obvious Kirby influences that were all but inescapable in the super hero work of the time there is also some design departures as well that are classic Sternako signatures. The top page with Lady Hydra giving a rousing speech to the Hydra gang shows an all over page design that at the time was not very common, with the open spaces and camera work style close ups of facial parts divided by a couple scenes, one with a guy in bondage. Pretty cool, huh? It is hardly anything special at all in today’s comics to see this borderless type design, but prior to a few guys like Steranko the page design was usually completely made of square or rectangular panels containing only drawings and word balloons.

Even more patently Sterankoesque is the Salvador Dali looking dream sequence with Bucky Redborn running through some psychedelic 60’s looking “wavy things” towards an unsupported door in the middle of a dream world. There are no panels at all on this page. This was breakthrough work and later imitators went hog-wild on the freaky visual aspect with little regard to the story itself. But like all great and enduring comic book artists Steranko was a top-notch storyteller and the "gimmicks" were there to enhance the story and not stand alone as snazzy, mindblowing graphics.

Lastly worth an extra look is the second page from the top. Here the story is all contained in panels, but there are no word balloons or narrative boxes. The scene is told as pure visual narrative. The colors in these first three pages are so bright and vivid, almost florescent in ways. I believe the inker on the first three pages is the talented Joe Sinnott and Steranko inked the bottom hallucination page himself. Sinnott turned the mundane pencil work of John Buscema into some of the finest Fantastic Four comics ever produced. The inker (the unsung hero or unhung villian of comic book design) is often the person who can turn a mediorce penciller into a great artist or ruin the layout of a skilled penciller. Sternako eventually would do most of his own inking though Sinnott did not hurt his pencils at all here.

Steranko was a master designer, storyteller and artist. His legacy lasts to this day despite an absence of contemporary work in the field he helped to pioneer during his brief career in it. Before working in comics the dashing looking Steranko was a stage magician and escape artist and has written some books on that subject as well. His web site is:

http://www.steranko.com


Also for your enjoyment is this fantastic site that contains every cover Sternako did for Marvel Comics. The thumbnails open up into large scans of high quality. This site is a real find!

http://www.steranko.comics.org/comics/marvel/steranko.htm


Finally, if you're interested in a really long and exhaustive outline of the career of Madame Hydra (and who the hell wouldn't be) then click on the link below and see that some people have way too much free time on their hands.

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix4/madame_hydra_viper.htm

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Dario Argento's Contribution to the Masters of Horror Series: JENIFER

Saturday, 26. May 2007, 17:17:13

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Jenifer
2005/Director: Dario Argento/Screenplay: Steven Weber, Story by Bruce Jones
Cast: Steven Weber, Carrie Anne Fleming, Brenda James, Harris Allan, Beau Starr, Laurie Brunetti, Kevin Crofton, Julia Arkos, Jasmine Chan

Some people simply worship Dario Argento. For years and years I just figured I was missing something or that I was not enough of a true film fanatic to see the brilliance in his work that his rabid sycophants did. Now I remember my reactions to films like Tenebre ( by the way, the second picture from the left in my banner is a scene from Tenebre I touched up in Photoshop) and Phenomenon and even his “magnum opus” Suspiria and do not feel I was so out of touch by feeling confused and bewildered. They were not really great movies at all in my opinion. Maybe not terrible movies, but Tenebre was so… so… terrible that I do not see what the big deal has always been about that movie. Okay there was a great axe murder scene with a spurting stump, but the rest of the film was so weird and Italian.


A pensive Dario Argento comtemplates taking a night course in how to direct a sensible narrative.


Often supporters will admit his narrative technique lacks…well… narrative technique and that his story lines are illogical and incohesive and that his true skill lies in his camera work and atmospheric settings. I have even read some people compare his work to Mario Bava's. There is no comparison and his technical skill and set designs are average at best even in his better work. The last thing I saw before Jenifer was something called Do You Like Hitchcock, and I figured it would have all these slick Hitchcockian references and gags but it had nothing of the sort really, not on any sophisticated level anyway. It was a goofy movie with a typical Argetno ending that was more like the ending to an EC comic book than a good horror/suspense movie. Well, now that I have expressed my general feeling about this “horror genius” let me give you my opinion of a short piece he did for the cable TV series called Masters of Horror (view my insightful comment on Takashi Miike’s ode to to incest and abortion Imprint elsewhere in the Café).


Poor Steven Weber comes home from working all day as actor and scriptwriter for horror megalomaniac Dario Argento and has to settle for cold cuts for dinner again.


Jenifer is a short made for TV film and to be honest, I did not completely dislike it, in the same way I did not dislike another shorter work Argento did in a double-feature called Two Evil Eyes with George Romero , where he did a graphic and psychotic version of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat with Harvey Kietel in the lead role. Neither of the episodes were great pieces and hit and miss master Romero absolutely wasted one hour of my life with a Creepshow style “return from the dead and chase the girl ( played by the amply endowed Adrienne Barbeau ) around the house” story, but the shortness of the pieces made them endurable and somewhat enjoyable really. Honestly, I am not expecting Martin Scorcese or David Lean when I watch this stuff. Argento’s narration challenged approaches that undo his longer films were thankfully absent in these two shorter films (each about one hour long) and I found both of them decent little horror bits. Of course in Argento’s hands Jenifer has more than a few problems. Some of these can be excused if you realize the story is from a comic book story by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Bernie Wrightson ( I even found page samples below on the net). So we are not transposing Poe from paper to film here. Jones is a capable writer of suspense and horror comics that typically have a surprise twist at the end in the way older style horror comics did, such as the EC and Warren titles did, as well as the old Marvel and DC titles from the turn of the 70’s period.


Lovely Carrie Anne Fleming before Dario Aregento gave her a make over.


The general story is this: Police detective Frank Spivey (Steve Weber) rescues a girl from being murdered with a meat cleaver by an apparently homeless, deranged man. The man is shot and mutters the girl’s name with his last breath: Jenifer. As it turns out Jenifer is a mentally retarded and grotesquely deformed girl who happens to have a knock out body. For some reason Spivey allows the girl to live in his house where in no time she bites his wife in the face, rips the family cat to bits and is found sucking on its entrails in the bathroom, murders a carnival circus freak collector and chops him up and hides him the frig, then finally murders the innocent, little neighbor girl and does the same to her as the cat (I might add that no police ever appear to question anyone in the disappearance of the child… is this the same country that has the Amber alert?). During all this Spivey allows the slobbering freak to seduce him in bed and does not try to stop his wife and teenage son from leaving. To regain his balance and perspective on life he decides the best thing to do is to quit his career as a police detective and live in a run down , ratty cabin in the woods. Needing a career change he manages to beg a woman into giving him as job as a stock boy in a local grocery store. He lets Jenifer hang out at the cabin all day while he stacks pinto beans and toilet paper but she sneaks into town and sees him chatting with the woman and gets jealous and stalks her teenage son at an outdoor teenage party. Later Spivey finds her chomping on his guts in a tool shed. Needless to say he finally decides enough is enough (most guy’s would have decided that when he bit their wife’s face or ate the house cat and when they took a gander at her mutant face) and takes Jenifer out to kill her with an axe, but is shot by a hunter who rescues Jenifer and no not doubt the cycle starts all over.


Miss Fleming as Jenifer, a girl not concerned with the politics of vegetarianism.


The movie is a no brainer and to try and make anything more of out it is a lost cause. That a man like Spivey, no matter how unhappy, would throw away his family and career and cover up the murder of a child to protect a mentally retarded deformed girl who is “good” in bed is simply too unbelievable. Yes men can be slime, but most would not do this even to protect a Playboy playmate! The violence is excessive and is simply exploitive gore. Every murder involves intestines and body organs and the scene of the nude little girl being gnawed on is simply bad taste. It the type of trick a no talent film maker would employ, the proverbial hammer on the head, trying to appear controversial because they are incapable of doing anything else. I put a photo of Argento in front of a fire place in this post that typifies the guy in my opinion. He is really trying to be this master of cinematic horror and wants us to be intrigued by his dark mind and black heart but ultimately his work is lacking and directionless and falls back over and over again on outdated shock and gore gimmicks to hold it together. You cannot say the same of Argento’s role model Mario Bava, though Bava did dabble amply in violence and even gore, but at his peak he was a brilliant film maker. While I admit Argento can be engaging and entertaining on one level I simply do not consider him to be in the same league as Bava. A post on Mario Bava is in the works by the way. Argento did do much to usher in the revival of the "giallo" style films in the 70's and his use of color is sometimes interesting, but it is the continual lack of consistency that I find annoying with this guy's work as a whole.

PAGES FROM THE ORIGINAL JENIFER COMIC BOOK STORY BY BRUCE JONES AND BERNIE WRIGHTSON

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Classic Comic Book Ads

Sunday, 6. May 2007, 05:38:44











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A Selection of Fine Romance Comic Book Covers

Thursday, 3. May 2007, 16:09:07




PAUL:From now on you can only think of Roy Litchenstien when you look at those 50s romance covers. It is so part of our cultural conciousness now that it is easy to slip in to the jokey irony these covers provide.
But that 70s cover is a bit harder to take in 2007....probably a sign there is something waiting to be mined there. There is something downright dangerous about that cover, so different from the safety of the 50s.



BILL:Yea, I see what you mean. I set those bottom two covers last simply because I could tell they were done later (I'd like to say I can see it the drawing style only, but also the price of the comics is 20 cents, meaning the 70's). The next to last title is from Carlton, one of the better houses outside the big two, but I never did like them since I was into the more polished look of the Marvel and DC titles as a youngster. Too bad. The swinging cover you comment on is from DC, the houes that also did Superman and Batman. They and Marvel came into the romance titles a little late but they were popular for a time as they were marketed well (and DC and Marvel could market and it is why they have survived very successfully to this day) to coincide with the teenage girl pinup magazines of the day that featured Donny Osmond, Bobbie Sherman, David Cassidy, Leif Garrett and all those androgynous heart throbs of the mid-70's. When the whole Teen Beat Magazine thing waned Marvel and DC let all their romance titles disappear with little notice.





The truth is these titles have become some of the most valuable and collectable in the whole comic book culture. Maybe girls did not save comics as long as boys, boys never bought these titles and so on... so they have become extremely rare and the art has become somewhat iconic in a Jungian archtype fashion.

And you are really keen on your social observations that I tend to miss. I can never see the forest for the trees, but there is most definintly a loss of innocence in that cover that you do not see in the "Lichenstenish" covers of the 50"s and early 60's. Of course these types of stories just do not exist in the social psyche anymore. These things will soon become like the Dead Sea Scrolls and will be archaic glimpses into what our culture was like long ago before language and customs and desires have fully changed, evovled or mutated in what it is they are becoming. God, it is chilling!

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Men's Magazines Advertisements

Thursday, 3. May 2007, 13:32:00

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CLASSIC MEN'S STAG MAGAZINE ADVERSTISEMENTS


Wow. Was there actually a time when guys could use the term “girlie” in the USA and still have a smidge of respectability from the opposite sex? Seems like “your highness” is not suitable these days. Well, who cares about that. I am more interested in the days when you did not need talent or experience to draw girlie cartoons, “the kind we all like to see.” Who needs talent to draw beautiful girls, right guys?

What the hell is this? Some sort of hypnosis show or what? It must be some type of performance but I am fuzzy here. Looks like an ad to book the “#1 Scoundrel” and then we can observe women being “enslaved and degraded”. Perhaps we will find out the answer to the age old burning question of “can love and passion be induced under hypnosis?” Could any nightclub act ever be this great? I fear not.


Well these days women have to really be careful at parties of what some perverted predator may be slipping her drink in the form of various date rape drugs. I may sound light hearted here, but I advise all women to hire a drink taster before accepting drinks at frat bashes and office parties these days. But it wasn’t that long ago that the shoe was on the other foot and women were slipping sex drugs to us guys at parties. You doubt your humble compiler? I have the proof right here. Yes, once sex crazed women were slipping men the pre-historic equivalents of Viagra, concoctions known as "party tabs", in order to turn them into their mindless love slaves. Will there ever come a day when men and women both can sit a drink down at a party and relax, knowing some lust fiend has not targeted us as a toy for their evil passions. My God, I hope so. Until then I open my own soda pop!

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