Art Spiegelman Defends His Use of AI: "I was lazy"

 

The above quote is from Publisher's Weekly: Art Spiegelman Revisits His Most Controversial Comic 25 Years Later.

Art Spiegelman is a famous cartoonist, but, honestly, "I was lazy" is not an excuse for using AI to generate an image for a fancy reissue of your book. Come on. Take a nap. Recharge. Come back to it and actually draw it, like everything else you have done of value, Mr. Spiegelman. Does he not understand that AI was built on theft and grifting of images by corporations? Or does he not care?

This is so sad to see.

Grand: The Autobiography of Gromit 📙 On set with Nick Park and Wallace & Gromit

 

If you loved A Grand Day Out or The Wrong Trousers, then this new book about the dog Gromit (of Wallace and Gromit, natch!) will be of great interest. Nick Park, creator of the duo, hosts this behind the scenes look at the forthcoming autobiography Grand: The Autobiography of Gromit, available in the US as of October 27th. 

"Grand is available in the US from the 27th Oct! Gromit finally breaks his silence, publishing his memoir as told to Nick Park, the four-time Oscar® winner and creator of Wallace & Gromit.

"In his first ever book, Gromit presents his never-before-told life story. Famously the world's most intelligent, well-read but also mute dog, the book is the first time the world will have heard directly from Gromit himself. Readers will learn what it's like to wear Techno Trousers, his true feelings about gnomes, and what the moon tastes like.

"Told with utmost candour, Grand promises a fresh perspective on the much-loved adventures of Wallace & Gromit, along with a brand-new escapade. Gromit’s been bottling everything up for a long time. And the time has come to spill the beans...

"🎞️ Watch more Wallace & Gromit videos: https://aard.mn/2U9elvn

"🧀 Subscribe to the Wallace & Gromit channel: https://aard.mn/WAG"

 

Part 6: 1935 HENRY Comic Strips by Carl Anderson

Some more Henry comic strips by Carl Anderson from its first couple of months. These are from the end of February 1935. 

Previous parts: 

Part 1 

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

It's often that black children are drawn as playmates of Henry's in these strips. They are not drawn in a politically correct manner, natch, but it should be noted that Henry may be the first integrated syndicated comic on the newspaper page. The kids are very much part of the same neighborhood with the whites. My thanks to James Conder for pointing out the Hogan's Alley article Henry: Not Black Like Me by William H. Foster which dives into this.

 

 

PRIVATE BUCK by Clyde Lewis

PRIVATE BUCK was a King Features panel created by Clyde Lewis. Mr. Lewis (1911 - 1976) drew a number of strips at NEA (including a strip about kids called HERKY and a gag panel feature called HOLD EVERYTHING), and then jumped to King Features in May 1940 with a panel titled SNICKEROOS. Amongst the many characters, like a hobo and a couple of old maids, was a little guy who one day joined the army. The panel was retitled after this fellow and PRIVATE BUCK was born. When WWII started, Lewis enlisted, and the feature was seen in Stars and Stripes. Clyde Lewis was in good cartoonist company, appearing in the paper with Dave Breger, Bill Mauldin and George Baker. 

After the war, Buck joined civilian life. The panel was renamed THE PRIVATE LIFE OF BUCK. It would continue until 1952. 

The gags are your basic innocent fellow misunderstanding the military world and getting into scrapes. Here are a few gags from the PRIVATE BUCK book, copyright 1942-43 by King Features.

More about Buck at the King Features "Ask the Archivist" blog. 

My thanks to Jeanette Stout for this book!

 

-- Edited from a December 21, 2017 blog entry.

The Ambar Scrapbook of Obesity Oddities Fact & Legend

 

Ambar was a diet drug pill used to "control food and mood all day long with a single morning dose." It was a combo of Phenobarbital and Methamphetamine. Yes, in the mid-twentieth century an upper/downer combo pill was thought to be a smart moneymaker. It was made by the A.H. Robins Company beginning in the mid-1950s. They were made for the next decade plus, and now are no longer made.

 

Here are three of their "Ambar Scrapbook of Obesity Oddities" mail advertisements. These are all inspired by the popular look of Ripley's Believe It or Not syndicated panel. They are letter-size, printed on heavy card stock. The artist is unnamed, but he or she or they were spot-on in imitating the look of the Ripley comics. 

I found these at a large estate sale in New Hampshire.

The Garden As of Mid-October

 

The garden (such as it is) as of mid-October. There was frost on the ground last night but we haven’t had that hard frost yet. The runner beans are spent, but the bushes themselves are still green and lush. It’s always sad when the garden ends, but I just got a couple dozen crocus and daffodil bulbs thanks to a contribution to our local library’s fundraiser. Digging some holes in the yard so there will be some beautiful blooms in the spring will keep things from being too sad. #gardening

 

DMZ America Podcast with Ted Rall and Scott Stantis: The Last Attempt to Monetize Cartooning

Via the DMZ America Podcast:

"Political cartoonists Ted Rall (from the Left) and Scott Stantis (Right) discuss news, politics, current events and culture without the screaming or the shouting...because they're best friends.

"Nick Anderson, a Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist, joins Ted Rall and Scott Stantis on DMZ America. He traces his path from the Louisville Courier Journal and Houston Chronicle to CounterPoint, a newsletter backed by Vivek Garapalli after 2017–18 newsroom layoffs. Paying cartoonists for original work failed once free growth gave way to a paid model; a related syndicate closed, and CounterPoint survived only by going left-leaning and paying syndication rates. They blast Baltimore Sun AI cartoons as wordy, boosterish editor prompts, and worry pros may use AI because reprint fees have collapsed. Polarization, Trump, tariffs, executive power, ICE, and the death penalty lead into why papers and sites drop cartoons despite traffic. The core problem is free social-media copying. Anderson sees partisan freelance work, galleries, Substack, and class actions as partial fixes, and is weighing cheaper countries over U.S. healthcare costs."

 Why the splash is of an AI image, I don't know why. Irony? I dunno.