STWALLSKULL

INTERESTING LINKS: Pocket Cartoon Course at Scary Terry’s World & Good Time to Donate to The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library: June 17th, 2009

STWALLSKULL — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:13:55 +0000

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

On his Scary Terry’s World blog, cartoonist Terry Beatty has posted a wonderful little instructional booklet from 1943 called Pocket Cartoon Course. If you can identify the artist who drew it, he would like to know. Go check it out!

Terry has apparently been digging through his collections and plans on sharing more cool old stuff… like this great Nell Brinkley cartoon, for example.

ALSO OF NOTE:

Allan Holtz at the Stripper’s Guide blog notes that now is a very good time to give to The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library, which, by all accounts, has the most fantastic collection of comic art in the world:

The Ohio State University’s Cartoon Research Library has been given a $1 million gift by Jeanne Schulz (widow of Charles) for the renovation of a desperately needed larger facility for their ever-expanding holdings. This is great news. Even better, though is that Jeanne has pledged up to another $2.5 million dollars in matching funds for other donations to the library. In other words, for every dollar you give, Jeanne will match it with a buck of her own. Everything you can afford to give will go twice as far!

Here is a video on the subject, with a glimpse at their incredible holdings:

What are you waiting for?

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! Danno’s Manly Tales of Cowardice : May 27th, 2009

STWALLSKULL — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:06:27 +0000

TODAY’S FEATURED LINK:

My good friend Danno (aka Staplegenius aka Dank) has recently started a blog at staplegenius.com that he is posting his hilarious comics to on a daily basis. Danno is one of the fastest and funniest cartoonists I know, so hopefully he will keep up the pace! He is currently serializing his comics series Manly Tales of Cowardice, featuring Fleming Hazmat… go check it out!

INTERESTING LINKS: Mars Attacks! May 27th, 2009

STWALLSKULL — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:49:46 +0000

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

The Golden Age Comic Book Stories blog has posted some nice scans of the complete series of the notorious and gleefully gruesome Mars Attacks! cards painted by Norm Saunders and Bob Powell (the inspiration for the Tim Burton movie of the same name), as well as the roughs for the cards drawn by Wally Wood and Bob Powell.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! The Fox and the Crow at The Crosseyed Cyclops! May 8th, 2009

STWALLSKULL — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:09:57 +0000

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

The Crosseyed Cyclops has a big stack of issues of DC’s series The Fox and the Crow available here. The series was based on characters created by Frank Tashlin for Columbia’s Screen Gems cartoon series (you can see some of the cartoons here).

Fox and Crow started their comic book career in the pages of DC’s Real Screen Funnies, but were popular enough to eventually graduate to their own series, which ran until 1968.

In spite of their popularity they are mostly forgotten today… which is a shame, because their comics (and cartoons) are usually wonderfully executed and frequently hilarious. I don’t know much about the creative teams on these books, but Don Markstein’s Toonopedia credits them primarily to artist Jim Davis (obviously not the Jim Davis of Garfield fame) and writers Hubie Karp and Cecil Beard.

EXTRA! EXTRA! STWALLSKULL JOINS OPRAH ON TWITTER! : May 5th, 2009

STWALLSKULL — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:17:55 +0000

STWALLSKULL JOINS OPRAH ON TWITTER!

I tried Twitter a while ago, and didn’t really know what to do with it… I talked about Loring Park wildlife:

# Saw Iron Man last night. It was surprisingly good, considering Iron Man is one of the least interesting major characters in Marvel Comics.9:05 AM May 21st, 2008 from web

# In Loring Park today saw a crane trying to fish while getting harrassed by pack of typically agressive Red-Winged Blackbirds.1:04 PM May 21st, 2008 from web

# Red-Winged Blackbirds are the nazi skinheads of the bird kingdom, right down to the armbands.1:04 PM May 21st, 2008 from web

# Also seen in Loring Park today… mama duck with 11 ducklings! Congratulations to Mrs. Duck.1:05 PM May 21st, 2008 from web

# I don’t understand the appeal of Twitter.3:18 PM Apr 16th from web

I thought Twitter was just for people who liked to spend their time repeatedly pushing teeny-tiny cellphone buttons until they made letters. So I ignored it.

Now that Oprah’s using it, though, that’s all changed. I’m all over it.

You can follow me 140 characters at a time on Twitter here. You can follow Oprah here, so get on that already.

Mostly, you will just get the same stuff you get here. Only 140 characters at a time. I’m going to keep it up until someone develops an application that posts 4 characters at a time, which is all we really need, anyhow.

Thanks much to Amy for encouraging me rethink this!

(An aside… I grabbed the above creative commons licensed photo off of Flickr to use, and after grabbing it realized it was taken by Alan Light, founding editor of the Comics Buyers guide. You can see fun old comic convention photos by Mr. Light here and here, and some photos he posted of cartoonists here. I’m sure there are a lot of other interesting things to be found in his flickr sets.)

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Walt Kelly’s Brownies : May 5th, 2009

STWALLSKULL — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:22:40 +0000

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

Another great issue of Four Color from Cool-Mo-Dee… Walt Kelly’s Brownies. I posted a link to another issue of Brownies that Cool-Mo-Dee posted the other day as well. Walt Kelly is easily one of my top ten favorite cartoonists of all time… he is endlessly inventive, uproariously funny, and his drawings are always gorgeous. His skill at character development and dialogue is unsurpassed in comics.

In spite of his popularity, very little of his non-Pogo work has been reprinted. I’m optimistic this might change soon for some reason… partially because there are two thick books of children’s comics coming out soon that will inevitably dazzle people’s eyes right out of their sockets.

One is edited is edited by Craig Yoe and is called Golden Treasury of Krazy Kool Klassic Kids’ Komics and one is edited by Art Spiegeman and Francoise Mouly called The TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics.

The books are going to feature a LOT of wonderful neglected childrens’ comics by a LOT of great cartoonists… in addition to Walt Kelly: Carl Barks, John Stanley, Sheldon Mayer, Basil Wolverton, George Carlson, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, Dr. Seuss, Syd Hoff, Jules Feiffer, Dan DeCarlo, and presumably a lot more. Since Kelly is one of the best, and has an enormous body of work for children that has never been reprinted, I hope it inspires a complete reprinting of this work over the coming years.

Note that in addition to having an eagerly-awaited complete Pogo reprinting in the works, Fantagraphics books has also been reprinting Kelly’s wonderful Our Gang comics (3 volumes released so far and a fourth on the way). This is currently the only Kelly work other than Pogo in print. Let’s hope that changes soon.

Click the Brownies cover above to go download the comic book. Kelly also had some of the most consistently beautifully colored covers on his comic books.

INTERESTING LINKS: Scalia’s Privacy Invaded: May 5th, 2009

STWALLSKULL — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:40:45 +0000

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

Boing Boing had a post today about some brilliant students who, in reaction to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia questioning the need for more privacy protections, have provided Scalia with a 15-page dossier documenting his personal information.

His class turned in a 15-page dossier that included not only Scalia’s home address, home phone number and home value, but his food and movie preferences, his wife’s personal e-mail address and photos of his grandchildren, reports Above the Law.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone performed the same service for all the Supreme Court justices, congresspeople and senators? I imagine it would change a lot of minds about the necessity of legal privacy protection (at least for those in political office).

Pictured above, some guy on the left with Scalia on the right, in one of the numerous photos you can find of the ugly bastard on flickr… this one picked for it’s creative commons license which allows me the right to post it here. They are watching you, Mr. Scalia.

EXTRA! EXTRA! BIG FUNNY DEADLINE EXTENDED! SAVE TOP TEN! FAITHMOLE IN CITY PAGES! SUPER FANTASTICA COMICS REVIEWED AT AIN’T IT COOL NEWS! I MISSED FREE COMIC BOOK DAY GODDAMMIT! May 4th, 2009

STWALLSKULL — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:15:27 +0000

BIG FUNNY DEADLINE EXTENDED!

If you missed the BIG FUNNY deadline, we have an extension going until Friday. We have a lot of incredible submissions… it is going to be pretty damn amazing, I think. So, if you want to submit, you still can… but you better hurry! Read more here.

SAVE TOP TEN!

My friend Zander Cannon at Big Time Attic has been authoring a wonderful run on Top Ten, a series he was a co-creator on with Alan Moore and Gene Ha. Unfortunately, it is looking possible that DC Comics is going to cancel the book after it’s first 4-issue arc… and Zander has a second 4-issue arc written.

To say that Alan Moore is a tough act to follow is putting it mildly… Zander has done a wonderful job taking the book in new directions and making it his own, while maintaining the integrity and voices of the characters. Gene Ha’s art is beautiful, as you would expect if you are familiar with his work. The Moore issues were excellent… and these issues are just as good. You don’t want to miss it… and if you already read it, you’ll want to contact DC to support it!

Email DC here to voice your support for the series: AskWS (at) dccomics (dot) com

On the Big Time Attic blog, Zander posted the following:

This week saw the release of Top 10 Season 2 #4, the supposed end of the 4-issue series. As people read it and wonder why all the plot lines are not resolved, here is a semi-official statement from Wildstorm through me:

The series was originally conceived as an 8-issue story with 2 standalone specials. The first special, focusing on the courtroom dramas in a superhero city, is coming out next month with art by Da Xiong. Wildstorm and DC are looking at the sales and response on these 5 comics and using that to determine how to continue the series.

We’re hoping that the responses to the special will be good so that we can continue this series, which seems to be relatively well received, critically. Here is a new review of #4, from Comic Book Resources:

Top 10 Season 2 #4 review

FAITHMOLE IN CITY PAGES

A drawing from a Cartoonist Conspiracy jam that my friend Ken Avidor and I worked on was in this week’s issue of the City Pages… you can see it above. It is a satire on Dan Lacey’s Faithmouse, and accompanies an article on Mr. Lacey. They mis-attributed it to just Ken in the print edition, so they are printing a letter to the editor I wrote about that in the next issue… I’ll link to that when it is up (probably in this post).

UPDATE: Here it is the edited version on the City Pages website.

Here’s what the letter I sent to them says:

Hi there,

I noticed in the Dan Lacey article in this week’s City Pages that the “Faithmole” illustration was incorrectly attributed to my good friend Ken Avidor, when it was actually part of a Cartoonist Conspiracy (cartoonistconspiracy.com) jam comic that Ken participated in. Ken had passed this information on the the author of the article, but apparently it was forgotten or misplaced, as often happens.

I believe Ken and I were the only ones who worked on the page, although I may be wrong… anyone is welcome to draw anywhere in the jam at our twice a month jam comics sessions (first Thursdays at Diamond’s Coffee in NE Minneapolis, third Thursdays at Cosmic Coffee in St. Paul). Jam comics, for those who don’t know, are collaborative comics drawn by passing pages around a table and having different cartoonists improvise what happens next on them.

I drew Faithmole, her dialogue, and some of the logo, and Ken did everything else, I think (including the gorgeous coloring, which you can see on the Conspiracy site). The piece is actually just the cover of a 21-page jam comic that can be seen here:

http://www.cartoonistconspiracy.com/minneapolis/images/2007jams/mnjam050307.pdf

Many of the participants signed the last page of that.

It is worth noting that The International Cartoonist Conspiracy is not a partisan organization… we would just as gladly skewer Tom Tomorrow* as we would Faithmouse. Faithmouse was one of the topics of the jam… I can’t remember the other topics. We usually pick about three to give the jam some loose cohesion… often by opening up City Pages to a random page and plopping a finger down on a random word (although Faithmouse was simply chosen as a topic because it was funny).

“Membership (in the Cartoonist Conspiracy) is open to all cartoonists regardless of gender, race, age, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, attractiveness, wit, or talent.”

While our local membership is largely liberal, we would gladly welcome Mr. Lacey to come draw with us if he was inclined (as we would any cartoonist). I can think of few things I would enjoy reading more than a Faithmouse Vs. Roadkill Bill jam comic drawn by Avidor and Lacey, come to think of it.

Best wishes,

Steven Stwalley
stwallskull.com

* As long as I’m writing, I’ll add my voice to the legion… when are you guys gonna bring Tom Tomorrow back? You should have MORE comics, not less! At the pathetically meagre sum most cartoonists get paid for a comic to be published, there can’t be a bigger bang for your buck out there. Comics are the last thing to cut in a budget… not only are they the first thing a lot of people want to read in any paper, but they are so cheap it doesn’t even make a dent!

SUPER FANTASTICA COMICS REVIEWED AT AIN’T IT COOL NEWS

The new issue of the Super Fantastica Comics 2009 anthology has a Tech Toad strip I did, and the first part of a comic I’m doing with my friend Danno called Phenomenal Tangents (the chapter is called “If This Be My Skycycle”). Danno also drew the cool cover pictured above. I haven’t got my copy yet, but it was reviewed the other day at Ain’t it Cool News. Here is an excerpt:

The theme of this one is “Science Fair.” And it’s another fun trip. Contributors include Jesse Gillespie, Daniel J. Olsen (who also edited the book), Ryan N., Mike Sgier, Jon Sloan, Jennifer R. Pedro, Brad Foster, David Sandberg, Alex Arbit, Josh Blair, Ben Z., VAnessa Littlecrow Wojtanowics, and Lupi Miguinti; with stand-outs like Lewis Tuck’s whimsy-laden “Science Fair Scare,” a memorable short from Jenny Bunny Bunns Young (about bunnies, of course), Steven Stwalley and Danno Klonowski’s sci-fi epic “If This Be My Skycycle,” the simple genius of David Steinlicht’s “The Science Experiment,” the infectious madness of Adam Hansen’s “Leaves Falling In the South” excerpts, and Ryan Dow’s science fair slugfest “Kid Science.”

Go read the full review here.

Go read more about Super Fantastica Comics here, and order yourself a copy here! I have work in the Winter 2008 and Summer/Fall 2008 issues as well, if you’re interested.

I MISSED FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

Dammit! I’m too late to let you all know about Free Comic Book Day… it was Saturday. I missed it too (other than emailing for a free copy of the wonderful mag Hogan’s Alley at the last possible hour, which was offering them for the day). I think I’m gonna cry. It’s like missing Christmas. Let’s go next year, yes?

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Dumbo’s Sky Voyage at Cool-Mo-Dee : May 4th, 2009

STWALLSKULL — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:54:45 +0000

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

Dumbo’s Sky Voyage is not the best comic on the list below… heck, it isn’t even close to being the best issue of Dell’s Four Color series on the list below (I mean, Carl Barks classic tales Lost in the Andes and Voodoo Hoodoo are down there! It doesn’t get any better than that! Why am I talking about Dumbo?).

I speak to you about it solely because I read my copy of it to my daughter the other week.

Even bad issues of Four Color (and this is a pretty bad one) are pretty entertaining. Dumbo is one of my favorite Disney cartoons, but this doesn’t preserve much of its charm. Dumbo talks in this comic (he’s silent in the movie), and his entertaining sidekick Timothy the Mouse is nowhere to be seen. Strangely, although Timothy and all other characters from Dumbo are completely absent, Doc from the Seven Dwarfs shows up (tangent: why is it dwarfs instead of dwarves when these imps are mentioned, anyhow?)… all Disney characters apparently living in the same shared Disneyverse. Needless to say, continuity was never a concern in the old Disney comics (at least not until Don Rosa’s excellent take on the Disney ducks). I think there was at least one other random Disney character that showed up somewhere in it… damned if I can remember at this point, and it takes too long to download and find out. My memory is lousy anyhow, and this is not a memorable comic. Kind of fun, though, and I’m a sucker for about any issue of Four Color. So, I liked it. But I can’t really recommend it! Maybe you just like old Dell comics like I do… you can download it by clicking the image above.

Don’t miss those Carl Barks comics, though! Square eggs!!!

Donald Duck in Lost in the Andes
Donald Duck in Voodoo Hoodoo

INTERESTING LINKS: Chris Ware/Andrew Bird Quimby the Mouse Video: May 4th, 2009

STWALLSKULL — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:18:52 +0000

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

My good friends at Big Time Attic called my attention to this wonderful little animation of Chris Ware’s Quimby the Mouse set to music by Andrew Bird, apparently done for This American Life.

Quimby The Mouse from This American Life on Vimeo.