Just opened at the Museum für Kommunikation Berlin: the gallery show "Role Models: Feminism in Comics and Illustration," which runs through October 10th. There's original art by Alison Bechdel, Julie Doucet and many others.
Thanks to Paul Gravett, here are some photos of the exhibition:
Related:
My Interview with George Booth in Hogan's Alley #22
Video: George Booth on CBS Sunday Morning
And then there's the time he attended a cartoon class I was teaching: Cartoon Class: George Booth, Puberty & the "Exquisite Corpse"
Above: the breezy art of QUINCY creator Ted Shearer at its best. This is part two of a complete scan of the QUINCY R-14 comic book, copyright 1977 by King Features. Part one is here. This is all part of something called "Comic Library #2." This educational comic features for the first (and only?) time a funny book appearance by none other than HAGAR THE HORRIBLE's son Hamlet. We open with a five pager, "Quincy and the Homework Blues." Like some of the other stories, this appears to be pasted up from preexisting dailies, resulting in plain odd images, like large blank backgrounds, and, at its worst: Quincy's floating torso at the bottom of page 17.
And here's Hamlet, upsetting dad and mom (Hagar and Hilda) because he is interested in non-Viking pursuits such as sitting quietly and reading. While it's not drawn by creator Dik Browne, its adequately produced. I like some of the gags (the image of the bearded "other kids," panel 2, page 22, for instance) -- one or two of which I recognize from the strip (Helga sewing name tags). For an educational comic book to show a kid being encouraged to throw knives (p. 24) is, I'm sure, not politically correct today.
The above story ends with no character transcendence: Hamlet flees from Hagar, running away from parental authority. Hagar is as unaccepting as ever. Not one character has any enlightenment at all. This is not a satisfying conclusion, but I find this ending sadly true to life. The unidentified floating head on the page below may be that of Sherman H. Saiger, one of the developers of the Supplementary Reading Program.
And here are the answers to all of the puzzlers in this issue, printed upside down so you have to turn your monitor over.
Related: the QUINCY comic strip (part one, part two)
Related: the QUINCY comic book R-05 (part one, part two)
-- Edited from an April 28, 2011 blog entry.
Here's QUINCY R-14, copyright 1977 by King Features, an educational comic book featuring Ted Shearer's QUINCY syndicated newspaper comic strip in comic book form. There is also a supporting story about Hamlet, HAGAR THE HORRIBLE's son (which looks like it was not drawn by creator Dik Browne).
Like my previous posts on the QUINCY comic book series (part one, part two), this rare comic book was produced as part of something called the "Supplementary Reading Program developed and editor by Richard Guttenberg, Dr. Anne Mueser and Sherman H. Saiger."
Right off the bat, you know that this book is educational since you get 16 vocabulary words to look out for right there on the inside cover. Hoo boy. Education and comic books = oil and water.
In the first story, which uses what looks like some poor quality
photostats from the comic strip to layout a comic book story, Quincy and
his pals are on a trip to Washington DC. Quincy obsesses over food,
especially ribs and fried chicken. Little of DC is shown (nor learned
about by stomach-centered Quincy), except for the steps outside the
Supreme Court.
More education stuff. Answers will be up in the next QUINCY post.
Quincy's Uncle Cecil invites his nephew to go on a sales trip with him. As you can see, this is cobbled together from the strip. You get a set up, the joke; set up, joke, and so on.
There are some beautiful sequences. Pages 10 and 11, below, show how a great cartoonist works with words and images. Shearer's characters are always in action. Even if they're sitting down, the angles are always dynamic.
In the final 2 pages, you see the paste up nature of the book, with certain panels devoid of backgrounds. Or, in the case of the last panel below, a missing torso.
More tomorrow, including the Hamlet story, as well as page 32 upside down so you may check answers. Related: the QUINCY comic strip (part one, part two) Related: the QUINCY comic book R-05 (part one, part two)
-- Edited from a blog entry originally published on April 27, 2011.
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