Terry Gilliam Animations Made Outside of Mpnty Python's Flying Circus

Via the Monty Python Museum:

CBS Sunday Morning: From the archives: Illustrator Edward Gorey

Via CBS Sunday Morning:

"The prolific author and illustrator of morbidly funny books Edward Gorey, who departed this life in 2000, was born 100 years ago, on February 22, 1925. His darkly comic drawings depicted odd creatures and unfortunate events, and were popularized in the opening titles of the PBS series 'Mystery.' In this 'Sunday Morning' profile that aired April 20, 1997, correspondent Martha Teichner visited Gorey at his Cape Cod home, where the eccentric artist’s obsessions were piled high. She also talked with Clifford Ross and Karen Wilkin, authors of 'The World of Edward Gorey.'"

 

Dik Browne’s Life That Way Party Line Comics Collected by IndyPlanet

Dik Browne didn't have to do Hagar the Horrible. He was a prolific advertising cartoonist for years before he made his comic strip debut. I am sure he was busy enough without adding a daily comic to his regimen. But good for him that we got Hagar! 

Here's a collection of all thirty advertising comic strips that Dik drew for the Chesapeake and Tacoma Telephone Company of Virginia. You can buy it from IndyPlanet:

"In the early 1950s, cartoonist Dik Browne, best known as the creator of Hagar the Horrible and as the original artist on Hi & Lois, drew Life’s That Way…, a series of six-panel comic strips to be used in ads for local telephone companies. These stories focused on teaching proper phone etiquette, particularly for users of party lines, when several households shared a single phone line."

 

Napoleon and Uncle Elby and Little Mary Big Little Book by Clifford McBride

 

The wonderful pen lines of Clifford McBride, who drew the Napoleon and Uncle Elby comic strip (1932 - 1961).

My grandmother and grandfather knew Clifford and Margot McBride. The two couples and would meet up at a Los Angeles restaurant back in the day (1940s I think) from time to time. My grandmother was highly amused that Clifford would routinely pause and gaze around to see if people recognized him. As if people knew what a cartoonist looks like!

Clifford McBride's assistant was Disney artist Roger Armstrong, who would continue the feature after McBride's death in 1951, with Margot McBride writing. It's more than likely we are looking at Armstrong's work for this Big Little Book.

Thanks to George Topham Hayes for these scans!

 

 

IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR SHOES OFF by Anne Cleveland PART TWO

Continuing a look at the book IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR SHOES OFF by Anne Cleveland. Part one is here. This book shows us what it was like for well-to-do Westerners living in Japan in the 1950s.






Above: one of my favorite gatefold illustrations. The reason I bought the book.



 

-- This has been an edited version of a blog entry that originally appeared way back in November 13, 2007.

IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR SHOES OFF by Anne Cleveland PART ONE

Ready? Let's go visit pre-anime, pre-Naruto Japan ...!


So, the year before Raymond Burr played "Steve Martin" in GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS, this book of playful cartoons, IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR SHOES OFF, written and illustrated by Anne Cleveland, was published in 1955 by the Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. of Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo Japan.

"Here's a clever book filed with cartoons and punchy captions which recount the hilarious adventures of an American family during their semi-permanent residence in Japan," said the Honolulu Star Bulletin in its review.


Hanako-San is always laughing at "The Wests." Mrs West sports a flippy hairdo ala Catharine O'Hara in WAITING FOR GUFFMAN.

 

Above is our cast of characters. Hubby looks like a grown up frat boy Tintin.

 

I saw this book in an antique store near the Manchester, NH environs. I liked Cleveland's clean brush style. And I had never heard of her or the book, despite my copy being a 20th printing (!!!) from 1970.

 

The above paragraph sums up the whole POV of the book. This is the Baby Boomer generation's Japan.

 

Some lovely layout, lettering and detail here. Easy to make fun of the content, but the form is solid.

Ooh! Lower right hand corner of page 11: is that some manga the bespectacled teen is engrossed in?





Hanako-San: always laughing at us silly Americans!

Little information on Ms. Cleveland today. The Comics Reporter has more bio information on her, a list of known books, here. And Mike Rhode mentions her in a response to Tom's essay.

There' s some more of this book to scan, and, if there's an interest, I will.

 

 

-- This has been an edited version of a blog entry of November 8, 2007.

Comic Culture "JewCE: The Jewish Comics Experience" Documentary Roundtable

Via Terence Dollard's Comic Culture series: Roy Schwartz, Danny Fingeroth, Tony Kim, and Dr. Miriam Mora discuss the new documentary JewCE: The Jewish Comics Experience.