BUNCHY by Joyce Lankester Brisley

I just saw that a children's book illustrator has been told NOT to draw a fire-breathing dragon so as not to incur liability lawsuits. Political correctness has gone cuckoo! If it was up to the PC watchdogs, Lewis Carroll, the Brothers Grimm, L. Frank Baum -- all of 'em -- would be cold, destitute and on the breadlines!

You wanna see politically incorrect? Well, here is BUNCHY, written and illustrated by Joyce Lankester Brisley.


The cloth cover of the book shows a scribbled character. This is not Bunchy. Bunchy is "a little girl whose name was Bunchy ... who lived with her grandmother in a cottage in the country."

"There was only one thing missing, which was that she had nobody to play with."

I don't know why her name is Bunchy. No publication date given (!), but I've seen it given as 1951. But the style that Ms. Lankester chooses seems older.



The book is comprised of 10 stories, all of which are about this nice little girl who makes up stories to amuse herself. She will make little dolls out of wooden clothes pegs, make up stories about the buttons in a button bag, and so on. In the above drawing, Bunchy has set up a little shop while grandmother looks on. The stories all get out of hand as soon as grandmother is out of view, with characters coming alive and Bunchy no longer in control. Bunchy's absent parents are never mentioned. Perhaps they just couldn't handle our protagonist and abandoned her to her aged relative.



Grandmother is frequently leaving the cottage, letting this underage child with the hyperactive imagination all alone. The girl has no toys, so she has to invent them.

For instance, in "Bunchy and the Scribble Family," her drawings come to life, and she gets swept up in their world. Mr. and Mrs. Scribble invite her to their house, and Bunchy has to run ahead to hurriedly draw their cottage. When they can't get in, she realizes she forgot to draw the doorknob. Their voices sound funny because she carelessly has drawn their mouths crooked.



Each story has a title drawing and an introduction to our format. In "Bunchy and the Pastry Dough," grandmother leaves for the market. She has left a bit of pastry dough for Bunchy to play with. That's it. No Nintendo, no cell, no Facebook; just a cold, stiff wedge of dough left over from pie-making.


Bunchy makes a dough girl, and

"the little pastry-girl pulled her legs from off the table and jumped down with a soft thud on to the kitchen floor!

"... The little pastry-girl began stretching her self as if she were doing exercises, but Bunchy soon saw that she was trying to get her arms and legs more to the same length, for Bunchy had really made them rather odd."

Bunchy realizes the pastry-girl has no eyes, so she places currants for eyes and, with a spoon, makes a line for the mouth.

Bunchy makes a pastry-cat and a pastry-house. And then they go in the pastry-house ... and the inside of the house has a kitchen, rooms, furniture, which surprises our title character since she didn't "make" any of the inside of the house.

They go to the kitchen, where

"the little pastry-girl picked up the pastry-cat and set it on top of the stove. Bunchy was afraid it would be too hot there, but it settled down quite contentedly ...."

And that nice little pastry-cat, who never did anyone, pastry or human, any harm, turns

"a golden brown colour. The next minute the pastry-girl had taken it from the stove, broken it in crisp pieces, and piled them on the plates on the table.

"Then she signed to Bunchy to draw up her chair and eat, and in some surprise Bunchy did so."

OMG!!!!!

But wait, there's more.

"When the meal was finished, the pastry-girl led the way up some funny rubbery soft stairs to the little bedroom above.

"Here was a white pastry-bed, with a thick pastry-coverlet; and the little pastry-girl at once pulled her buttons off (which were the only things she could remove) and got into bed, making room for Bunchy to get in beside her.

"But Bunchy didn't want to get in -- the bed-clothes looked so cold and sticky. Still the little pastry-girl kept beckoning and patting the lump of pastry which served for a pillow."

Call the religious right! Call the CIA (both of 'em: the Central Intelligence Agency and the Culinary Institute of America)! This book is twisted and outta control!


-- Originally blogged November 20, 2007.

P.D.Q. Bach: The New York Mills Philharmonic vs. Heiliger Dankgesang, Conductor

 

 

Composer, music educator and parodist Peter Schikele passed away last week at the age of 88. Me may be best known for playing music by the P.D.Q. Bach, in concert and recordings. One of the first comedy records I ever listened to was P.D.Q. Bach On the Air. I was maybe nine years old and I have no idea why on Earth I borrowed the LP from the Lawrence, Kansas Public Library, but I did. Maybe it was the cover with a guy eating a sandwich and talking into a microphone. A guy who had brought his lunch in to the radio station. Ha ha ha. 

When I was nine years old, I was already drawing and known "as the kid that cartoons" at school and I loved comics and even pooled my money together and had dear old Dad write a check to the people at Mad Magazine for a subscription. (A subscription to the magazine was cheaper than the 40 cent cover price back in the day and I was keen to (a) save some money by ponying up in advance and (b) never missing an issue. It was hard, but I amassed the money and gave it to my Dad. I can still remember asking Dad to write the check and then posting the subscription coupon and check in the mail. It was so hard saving that money. But I did it. I loved Mad Magazine, and I was able to, a couple of decades later, tell Mad editor Nick Meglin this story at an NCS convention with my Dad standing next to me. Nick extended his hand to my father and gave a grand faux apology for "warping" me. But I digress.) 

So, thanks to Mad, I knew what a parody was and thanks to Dad, I knew what a Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was. (Thanks, Dad!) I also knew what a sports play-by-play announcer sounded like. With those elements in place in my nine year old brain, I "got" the Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Sportscast featuring the New York Mills Philharmonic vs. Heiliger Dankgesang, conductor sketch. Here it is from the record, as I heard it back in the day. I was also fortunate to see Peter Schikele live at Carnegie Hall some years ago, making the whole place laugh. 

Girl Scouts of America Activity Booklet: "It's Fun To Design" by Kathleen B. Kelly

"It's Fun To Design" by Kathleen B. Kelly is a 6" x 9" staple-bound booklet that was printed by the Girl Scouts of America in 1944. There are some fun tricks in here about design, but there's also some serious foundation that Kelly lays out regarding placement and color. This is a well used booklet, so I'm hopeful that it was impactful. There is nothing about this booklet on the web, except for a listing on Amazon for a used copy. Kathleen B. Kelly does a terrific job of introducing design sensibilities, and her writing ("Did you ever say to yourself, 'I can't draw???'") acknowledges the fear a lot of kids have when trying something new. Her voice is is compelling and fun, even some eighty years later. I wish there was more information about this book and Ms. Kelly, but I can't find any.

Steve Brodner's Substack: The Greater Quiet

Steve Brodner is a great guy and an award winning political cartoonist. Here are a few images from his Substack, called The Greater Quiet, of last week, during the the Iowa caucuses.

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Gag Cartoon Hodgepodge 1946- 1969

Dick Buchanan has rummaged through his tremendous collection of magazine cartoons in his Greenwich Village apartment and shares a hodgepodge of vintage comic art, unseen these many years. Thank you so much, Dick -- and take it away ....

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GAG CARTOON HODGEPODGE
(1946 – 1969)


The burgeoning Cartoon Clip File, located just around the corner from the Old Joke Cemetery somewhere in New York’s Greenwich Village, is chock full of gag cartoons from mid-20th century magazines. And, yes, the comforting aroma of old magazines and comic books permeate the entire office. This helps to create an eclectic environment which is ideal for rummaging through the gag cartoons which are everywhere. Rummaging day arrived at last and here now is the result of our latest forage, a hodgepodge of certified vintage gag cartoons . . . Take a look!

1. DICK CAVALLI. Cavalli was one cartoonist who didn’t cartoon his way through WWII. He saw combat in France, Luxembourg. and Germany. True July, 1952.

2. JOHN BAILEY. John Bailey was cartoon editor for the Post in the late 1940’s and early ‘50’s. The Saturday Evening Post September 13, 1952.

3. DICK STROME. Some was born in New Mexico and graduated from The Chicago American Academy of Art. The Saturday Evening Post July 1, 1950.

4. BOB WEBER, Sr. Weber was a cartoonist for more than half a century. In 1965 he created the comic strip Moose, which became Moose Miller and, finally, Molly & Moose. This Week Magazine January 19, 1969.

5. JOHNNY HART. Hart was one of only four cartoonists to have two comic strips appearing in over 1000 papers each. American Legion Magazine January, 1959.

 

6. TOM HENDERSON. The Saturday Evening Post June 22, 1946.

7. CHARLES SCHULZ. Before he created Peanuts, Schulz enjoyed a brief but successful stint as a gag cartoonist. The Saturday Evening Post July 8, 1950.

8. CLAUDE. Claude Smith signed his drawings with his first name. This Week Magazine April 13, 1952.

9. STAN & JAN BERENSTAIN. American Legion Magazine September, 1949.

 

10. AL KAUFMAN. After serving in WWII, Kaufman managed a grocery store until becoming a full-time cartoonist in 1946. Kaufman sold this to True Magazine July, 1952.

 11. TOM HUDSON. The Saturday Evening Post June 3, 1950.

12. JACK TIPPIT. Look Magazine March 28, 1961.

13. LEO SALKIN. Salkin, a former animator, was also a gag writer for ventriloquist Paul Winchell’s Jerry Mahoney Show. Liberty Magazine August 3, 1946.

 

14. VIRGIL PARTCH. True Magazine February, 1950.

15. JACK MARKOW. Markow was a columnist for The Writer’s Digest and authored four cartooning “How To” books. The Saturday Evening Post July 1, 1950.

- From a blog entry of November 30, 2020.