Bertha’s father is not one to let just any boy marry his lovely, buxom daughter, and he is certainly not willing to entertain the idea of giving her to some lazy, ne’er-do-well artist. No, he must prove that he is worthy; that he is a man. Witness, then, the trials of Bertha’s would-be husband and read on in wonder a story of moustaches, drum solos, and motorcycles.
They should have just let Romero’s glorious moustache shine through, untouched. Running around made up like a clown is one kind of crazy, but running around made up like a clown with a moustache is a whole, different level of batshit insane.
Any commenter who posts “Why so serious?” gets fed to the weasels. You’ve been warned.
You’ll excuse me for a moment if this post seems a bit gushy. In my last year of attendance at the School of Visual Arts I was lucky enough to have a class taught by Gary Panter — perhaps best known for designing the sets for PeeWee’s Playhouse — and it remains one of the stand-out classes of my entire tenure in art school. The course was a typical, vague art school course, the purpose of which was ostensibly to help one compile a portfolio but which was really just three hours of conversation and drawing and Gary was probably the perfect person to teach such a class.
Each class would start out with 45 minutes or so of Gary just meandering his way through a lecture of sorts about his career and art in general and the rest of the time he would sit up front and let us do our thing. You could bring your work up to discuss with him or sometimes he would just roam around the room, stopping to talk to the students.
This all sounds pretty standard, on the face of it, but Gary had one, particular trait that made the class work as well as it did: unequivocal enthusiasm. Gary just loved art. He loved making it and he loved to see other people make it and it always seemed to me, that as long as someone was being an artist, Gary Panter would be a happy man, which in many ways was what kids who were going to be thrust into a cutthroat art world needed; someone to remind them that they should always enjoy themselves.
Vice has a five part interview with Panter meandering in his hippie tinged drawl about his career on VBS.TV. Part one is above; hit the jump for part two and a link to the last three.
This is the logo for the Diabol Industrial Chemical Company of Paris, France. The logo, in use by 1931, may seem familiar to you. This may be because it bears a striking resemblance to certain masked vigilante. Rich Johnston, in his column for Comic Book Resources, lays out this daisy-chain of relationships:
Bob Kane worked at Max Fleischer Studios from 1934. Max’s brother, Dave Fleischer, was a director at the studio and had previously worked at the French film studio, Pathe.
Obviously, no mention of this logo has been mentioned in the official history of Batman’s creation. In his 1989 autobiography Kane presented the following recollection of how the character was designed, with the help of Bill Finger:
One day I called Bill and said, ‘I have a new character called the Bat-Man and I’ve made some crude, elementary sketches I’d like you to look at’. He came over and I showed him the drawings. At the time, I only had a small domino mask, like the one Robin later wore, on Batman’s face. Bill said, ‘Why not make him look more like a bat and put a hood on him, and take the eyeballs out and just put slits for eyes to make him look more mysterious?’ At this point, the Bat-Man wore a red union suit; the wings, trunks, and mask were black. I thought that red and black would be a good combination. Bill said that the costume was too bright: ‘Color it dark gray to make it look more ominous’. The cape looked like two stiff bat wings attached to his arms. As Bill and I talked, we realized that these wings would get cumbersome when Bat-Man was in action, and changed them into a cape, scalloped to look like bat wings when he was fighting or swinging down on a rope. Also, he didn’t have any gloves on, and we added them so that he wouldn’t leave fingerprints.
So there you have it. Does this game of Six Degrees of Bob Kane ring true, or is this a crazed conspiracy theory? Did the Dark Knight actually start out as a corporate shill? We may never know. However, it is interesting to note that Batsy’s first appearance in Detective Comics #27 is entitled “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate”.
I think some credits are in order to James Turner, Creator of Beaver and Steve where that image is from.
Comment by Ben — June 24, 2008 @ 3:29 am
I had heard of Beaver and Steve but never read it, until clicking Ben’s link; and I’m glad I did as it is pure, insane brilliance. Make sure to click the image to see the full comic. Oh Weevil Kneevil, you are sorely missed.
Welcome to Ectomo’s 33rd Mostly-Weekly Saturday Morning Cartoons Show. Today we present to you a smorgasbord of delectable animated dishes; a smattering of drama, horror, humor, and vintage erotica served up steaming hot for your enjoyment. So sit back, relax, and prepare to have you senses assaulted with ‘toonage!.
• Don Hertzfeldt. welcomes you to the show!
• Transformers: “”More Than Meets the Eye Parts 1-3″. Over an hour of thinly veiled toy commercials masquerading as a children’s cartoon. Learn how the Autobots and the Decepticons came to Earth and which plastic and die-cast metal action figure to beg for! Seriously though, while the cartoon doesn’t hold up particularly well and while it is just a glorified toy commercial, I still can’t shake my love for Transformers.
• Comedian Louis C.K. uses animation to explore some of his father issues.
• Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure: A piece of animation history; the first pornographic cartoon. Rumor is that it was made for a private party in honor of the great Windsor McKay and that such visionaries as Max Fleischer and the Mutt and Jeff studio were involved.
• The Real Ghostbusters: “The Boogieman Cometh”. One of my favorite episodes of this show, the design for the Boogieman is just brilliant, his oversized head, replete with glass-shard like teeth, and cloven hooves makes for a great image.
• Intermission, by Don Hertzfeldt.
• Welcome To Eltingville: “Bring me the Head of Boba Fett”. The first and only episode of this cartoon based on Evan Dorkin’s Eisner-Award-winning “Eltingville Comic-Book, Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role-Playing Club” published in the pages of Dork. Featuring four gentleman — Bill Dickey, Josh Levy, Pete DiNunzio, and Jerry Stokes — who are friends of a fashion, but geeks to the fullest. In this episode a battle erupts over the ownership of a Boba Fett figurine and hilarity thus ensues. Cameo by MC Chris, which I’m pretty sure was a prerequisite for [adult swim] cartoons for a while.
• Paranoia Agent: “The Holy Warrior”. Detectives Ikari and Maniwa interrogate Lil’ Slugger who confuses his realities and believes that the world around him is a medieval-style RPG while his quest is to defeat the evil Gouma who possesses other people to fight. Ikari and Maniwa follows Lil’ Slugger through his “journey” and see that it does coincide with all of the attacks — all except for Tsukiko Sagi. However, Lil’ Slugger points the detectives to where the old lady is who may posses the truth.
Wendy and Richard Pini, creators of long-running indy comic series Elfquest, are making the whole caboodle available free of charge at their website. New issues will be posted weekly until 30 years’ worth is online.
Comment from BoingBoing and Metafilter remind us why this is one of the best comics you’ve never heard of, but here’s a quick primer on why it rules.
• With Dave Sim’s Cerebus, it was among the first self-published comics to make it big, booting down the door for new talent the nation over. Its success as a graphic novel in mainstream bookstores helped infect the American mainstream with a European-esque appreciation for comics. Women actually read this. Women.
• Wendy Pini’s art is a melting pot of comics, manga and classical illustration. And she’s been at it since before most people had even heard of manga…
• The feral, omnisexual, hallucinogen-guzzling protagonists aren’t Tolkien-derived clichés, but a freakish medley of european lore, native american myth and hippy free love.
• No superheroes, magic wands or other arbitrary magics. It’s consistently plotted to tight rules of engagement and expertly crafted by the same wife-and-husband team thats been doing little else since 1977.
• It’s a neat blend of high fantasy and science fiction: the “elves” are aliens who wanted to impress us by appearing as angels, but got stuck in a genetic disguise by their slaves’ violent rebellion.
• All the fashions in it are either from the 1970s or the 1930s: everyone is either a pimp in furs and leather or something sculpted by Erté. They just don’t make ‘em like this any more.
• Winnowill is the best arch-villainess since Maleficent Cthulhu.
• It’s not over: the story’s final showdown, the creators write, has been written but not yet published.
• 6,000 pages of full-color classic indy brilliance free of charge. Precedent set.
• Issue #17’s Elf Orgy. If nothing else, a great name for a punk band. (Brownlee has already demanded scans, but I don’t have a copy to hand — any fans out there who can do the honors?)
I don’t think it surprises anyone that the horror, the loneliness and ennui of the post-modern age is best summarized through the artful manipulation of the most cynically stupid and mass produced cartoon strip of the last thirty years. But who knew it could perfectly capture the spirit of Moustache Monday as well?
While it’s all well and good to make a barrel-chested Batman and clad him in leather or put shoulder pads on Superman and dub them “Steampunk” it is something else entirely to dress a man in a steam powered super suit. Sillof, creator of the aforementioned Justice League figures — among a bevy of other, wonderful figurines — has recently unveiled his re-envisioning of Tony Stark and both versions of his Iron Man armor, starting with the an original, boilerplate prototype and concluding with a clockwork masterpiece complete with smokestacks. Someone needs to employ this gentleman posthaste, so that I might purchase these in order to stage a massive, Steampunk DC vs. Marvel crossover/melee.
Guro artist Shintaro Kago’s illustration for the February cover of Vice Magazine which, I think, perfectly encompasses my feelings on Japanese culture in the sense that its over-saturated awesomeness is enough to cause my head to burst.
A study was recently released that compiled survey data from English children. The purpose of the study was to determine the most comforting, entertaining, and healthful decor for children’s hospitals, which in my experience has ranged from vomitous pastels to vaguely confusing jungle scenes.
A University of Sheffield study of more than 250 children, aged four to 16, found the images were widely disliked.
[…]
Researcher Dr Penny Curtis said: “As adults we make assumptions about what works for children.
“We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable.”
This study surprised me in the same way that studies showing a correlation between soft drink consumption and obesity confuse me: jesus freaking shit, NO DUH. Clowns are only enjoyed by adults, who are either perverse, facetious, or political enough to use their fearsome greasepainted rictuses (rictii?) for some purpose, such as sexual gratification or internet humor. I can safely say I have never loved a clown. Much less wept for one. Especially not a simpleminded, gape-faced horror of a clown.
Until now.
Something Awful goon Gaspy Conana, pixel artist, posted the preceding few panels in a thread titled “They are kicking Dropsy out of the circus. Please help him.” Using inspiration from the thread’s reader suggestions, oldschool LucasArts adventure games, and the gently probing finger of God Himself, he brought the story through dozens of episodes, several animations and songs, and thirtysomething pages of comments, cementing Dropsy firmly in the goon consciousness as friend and hero, and solidifying his own internet stardom. It was awe-inspiring to see hardbitten goons begging, literally begging, Conana to never draw Dropsy crying again. And the story wrapped up today.
This is a new kind of participatory media, my friends. Something lovely and funny and entertaining, something that combines nostalgia, art, and originality. I could not love Dropsy more.
Lovecraft written by Hans Rodionoff and Keith Giffen with art by Enrique Breccia, is a fictional take on H.P. Lovecraft life, combining it with his fiction. It supposes that Lovecraft’s father actually possessed a copy of the Necronomicon which gave him visions of very real, otherworldly horrors and allowed him to travel to an alternate Providence, known as Arkham, where he was known as Randolph Carter.
The graphic novel has received someharsh criticism for its portrayal of Lovecraft, specifically his sexuality which, in turn, leads to some mis-dated references to events in his life. The authors seem to take Lovecraft’s inferred, underlying misogyny and expand it into a fear of women and sex, turning his creations into psychosexual representations of feminine nether-regions.
This seems only as annoying as the reader makes it, in much the same way that the film Amadeus can be enjoyed as fiction or reviled as an affront to historical accuracy and Mozart’s legacy. Personally, I find it more interesting that the authors felt the need to change the name of Lovecraft’s cat from “Nigger Man” to “Necro Man” in an attempt to seemingly clean up his image. Needless to say that they do not quote his poem On the Creation of Niggers either.
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
