Thanks to Sinous on the Comics Journal message board, the biggest omission to the Wertham Library has been found. He points us to two different locations on the web that you can read Dr. Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent… here and here.

Go here to view The Dr. Fredric Wertham Memorial Funnybook Collection: The Comics Featured in Seduction of the Innocent

HR Pufnstuf image courtesy of the Life Magazine image archive on Google.

This is not a review of the Where the Wild Things Are movie. I haven’t seen it. I’m not going to. So, if you are inclined to see it, you may very well want to ignore this rant.

I love Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are… but I have no interest in seeing it turned into any full-length movie, regardless of whatever quality said movie may or may not have. Two hours of rampaging fursuits could never be as charming to me as Sendak’s sparse 48-page masterpiece.

While the filmmakers sound considerably more well-intentioned than the evil shits who have made “adaptations” of Seuss in recent years (the adaptation is written by Dave Eggers, the instigator of the wonderful McSweeney’s), the concept of turning Wild Things into a full-length, live action movie just doesn’t work for me.

The trailer, which I regret morbid curiosity beckoned me to watch, made me kind of queasy to look at (the atrociously inappropriate music didn’t help). Maybe if it was animated and 15 minutes long, it would be more appealing. And unmarketable, of course.

There is always the argument (a good one) that however awful an adaptation, the book is still on the shelf… which is true enough. Certainly, some works are enhanced by different interpretations… Alice in Wonderland, for example, has been reinterpreted hundreds of times and is much richer for it.

Wild Things is too personal of a vision to be improved on by this sort of reinterpretation, in my view. It seems sad to me that some kids will grow up with memories of this movie instead of the brilliant book.

Fallcon, The Twin Cities biggest and best comic convention is this weekend! Come and join me in the “Cartoonist Conspiracy Lounge” to doodle and shoot the breeze.

FALLCON
October 10 & 11, 2009 – 10AM to 5PM Both Days
Minnesota State Fairgrounds
IN THE GRANDSTAND

Guest List

Hope to see you all there!

This week was Banned Books Week. I decided to celebrate by seeing how many of the comics featured in Fredric Wertham’s notorious book Seduction of the Innocent I could find floating out on the internet to share with the world in one convenient location.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO TO THE DOWNLOAD PAGE.

Wertham’s writings on comic books were very influential in the senatorial investigation into juvenile delinquency in 1953, and Seduction of the Innocent went on to become a best-seller, outraging parents across the nation.

GO HERE TO READ MORE, AND TO DOWNLOAD THE COMICS.

I don’t know if it is more astounding that someone would have ever put the above ad out there, or that a publisher would have accepted it.

Previous post on monkeys in the mail.

I just posted the below here on The Comics Journal Message Board.

T. Hodler on the Comics Comics blog argues that whoever did the first all-black panel in comics was a genius.

No, I don’t think he is kidding.

I have long found black paintings to be a perfect litmus test. If someone thinks an all-black painting is a work of genius, or even worth more than a second’s consideration, I can’t take anything they say seriously.

Maybe it is a problem with me.

I like some “fine art,” but the vast majority of post-Duchamp art seems like the Emperor’s New Clothes to me. Duchamp put a urinal in an art gallery… the major point being, in my view, “look what these schmucks think is great art!” His imitators have been doing the same schtick ever since, but they don’t get the joke. Mostly “fine art” appears to me to be designed as some kind of arcane currency for the exceedingly wealthy and gullible. A hoax that neither the perpetrators or the victims are aware of.

Comics, until recently, has avoided this kind of cluelessness for the most part, thanks to being considered by the fine art world to be beneath notice. With the exception of the pathetic swipes of Lichtenstein, comics were ignored by museums and galleries for the most part. This is no longer the case, obviously.

Comics have their flaws, sure, but they have generally been produced by artists with an interesting and personal view of the world… which is why comics have remained a popular and vital artform since their inception. The majority of “fine art,” as I see it, is a strange masturbatory exercise of interest primarily to a shinking “intellectual” elite. Since mainstream “fine art” is so insular and boring, it is only natural that they are now attempting to claim comics as part of their morass.

As with the black painting, the black panel apparently also serves as a litmus test.

Sure, a black panel is a different story than a black painting… it is in the context of a larger comic strip it can be quite effective in storytelling, right?

It is telling, I think, that Mr. Hodler declares that the first black panel was an act of genius, without any consideration to the context a black panel might be in. He does not know where the first black panel appeared… but wherever it did, it was genius! Sure, a black panel can be an effective part of a comic, but Mr. Hodler doesn’t care about the context… he just cares that the ink is India.

Which is pretty funny, really. It’s right out of Art School Confidential.

The Comics Comics blog reads to me more like unintentional self-satire every day. The Dark Vision of… Carl Barks? 80% of alternative comics are unreadable? And now black panels are genius! These guys are on a roll!

Comicopolis, a gallery show featuring the work of a number of Minneapolis cartoonists (including me) opens this Friday… hope you can make it!

Please join us Friday, August 28th for food, drinks and music!

Comicopolis:
Low life, high art

Opening reception:
Friday, August 28th from 6-9pm

Location:
FrameUps Minneapolis
4325 Nicollet Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55409
(612) 870-1292

Featuring comic art by:
Kirk Anderson
Ken Avidor
Shannon Brady
Kevin Cannon
Will Dinski
Roger Lootine
Brittney Sabo
Andy Singer
David Steinlicht
Steven Stwalley

Wanna help promote the event? Have a chicklet!

COMICOPOLIS Facebook Page

We got another review for BIG FUNNY today, from Susannah Schouweiler at minnpost.com.

As I look through “The Big Funny,” it strikes me that this collective elegy for the newspaper comic strip intends more than mere nostalgia for a fading form; its artists are sounding an impassioned call to action, too, aimed at both readers and artists who love the medium. “Let us not mourn the death of the newspaper comics,” the editors write, “rather, let us have a wake to celebrate what they once were, and to perhaps build something new.”

Note that if you are in the Twin Cities, the show is up until the 29th… and if you are not in the Twin Cities, you can order a copy online here.

ALTERED ESTHETICS
1224 Quincy St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413

SHOW RUNS AUGUST 7-29, 2009

GALLERY HOURS:
TUESDAY & THURSDAY 1pm-7pm, SATURDAY 1pm-5pm

I’ve recently realized (and you have probably noticed if you follow this blog) that I can no longer keep up with the kind of thoroughly obsessive-compulsive linkblogging that I managed to provide for about a year-and-a-half… which was a pretty insane thing to even attempt to provide in retrospect… it almost drove me mad! There is simply too much wonder and novelty out there to even attempt share it all with you anymore. It was a good run! Hope you will stay with me, nevertheless.

So, anyhow, my HEY! KIDS! COMICS! and Interesting Links posts will no longer provide enormous lists of things for you to check out… they will simply be links to occasional random things that I feel like blathering on about.

For those of you who check out my blog for the express purpose of checking out the huge lists of links that I am no longer providing… here is an opml file of the sites I currently subscribe to for comic scans. If you use this to subscribe to them all, you will get much the same thing as what I used to provide here in those posts. In addition, here are some individual links to RSS feeds (rather than the sites) for the blogs I have been regularly linking to. If you are not currently following blogs with a newsreader, you should really consider looking into it… I highly recommend Google Reader for this purpose.

SUBSCRIPTION FEEDS OF STWALLSKULL’S TOP SIXTEEN BLOGS FOR COMIC SCANS:

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog
Barnacle Press
Comicrazys
Cool-Mo-Dee
Fortress Of Fortitude
Golden Age Comic Book Stories
Hairy Green Eyeball (recently moved here)
I Love Comix
Mark Kausler’s CatBlog
Nedor-A-Day
Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine
Stripper’s Guide
The Crosseyed Cyclops
THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
Those Fabuleous Fifties
Yesterday’s Papers

SUBSCRIPTION FEEDS OF STWALLSKULL’S BIG LIST OF COMIC SCAN BLOGS (also available in OPML download):

Again With the Comics
Agence eureka
Alternative ComiX
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog
Barnacle Press
Bear Alley
Beautiful Balloons with Maggie Thompson
Behind the counter comics
Blimey! It’s another blog about comics!
Cartoon SNAP
Cartoons, Model Sheets & Stuff
Classic Cartoons
Cole’s Comics
Comic Book Resources Presents… Comics Should Be Good!
Comic Books Are Interesting Except When They Are Not Interesting
Comic Strip Library News
Comicrazys
Comics Down Under
Comics en extinción
Comics Scans: Where Comics Are Scanned
Cool-Mo-Dee
Covered
cul de sac
Cul de Sac – GoComics.com
Daily Scans
datajunkie
Dickie Dare by Milton Caniff
Diversions of the Groovy Kind
Dr Hermes Retro-Scans
Drex Files
Easily Mused
Electric Cabinet
Ethan Persoff
Filboid Studge
Fortress Of Fortitude
Freshman for Life
Geeklog Site: Oddball Comics
Golden Age Comic Book Stories
Golden Reading
Goofbutton
Hairy Green Eyeball (recently moved here)
headsOnBoards in Joyville
Henry Comics
I Love Comix
I Love Comix – Abbie Slats
I Love Comix – Blondie
I Love Comix – Buck Rogers
I Love Comix – Buz Sawyer
I Love Comix – Freckles and Friends
I Love Comix – Kerry Drake
I Love Comix – Mickey Finn
I Love Comix – Moon Mullins
I Love Comix – Mr Punch
I Love Comix – Nancy
I Love Comix – Private Breger Abroad
I Love Comix – Red Ryder
I Love Comix – The Newfangles (Mom ‘n Pop)
I Love Comix – Winnie Winkle
ILLUSTRATION ART
Latigo by Stan Lynde
Looky
lowbright
Magic Carpet Burn
Male Call by Milton Caniff
Mandrake The Magician
Mark Kausler’s CatBlog
Mattias Inks
Misce-Looney-ous
Nedor-A-Day
Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine
Peripecias de Chiquirritipis
Peter Gray’s Cartoons and Comics
Photos from featherbed
Pogo In Pandemonia
Popeye Animator ID
Punch in Canada
Ramapith: David Gerstein’s Prehistoric Pop Culture Blog
Rodney Bowcock’s Comics & Stories
Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities
Scans Daily
SCREW Magazine Cover Art
Sekvenskonst
Sequential Crush
Simon and Kirby – Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center
Spectorphile
Stanley Stories
Steve Canyon by Milton Caniff
Storyboards & Comps dot Com
Stripper’s Guide
Sweater Thieves
TAGTOONZ
ThadBlog
The Barnacle Blog
The Comic Book Catacombs
The Crib Sheet
The Crosseyed Cyclops
The Greatest Ape
The Harvey Kurtzman Collection
THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
The Magic Whistle
The Olden Age
The Pictorial Arts
Those Fabuleous Fifties
Thrilling Adventures!
Today’s Inspiration
TOMB IT MAY CONCERN – David Zuzelo Scribbles on Mangled Media!
Top Shelf 2.0 Webcomics
Töpfferiana
Uncle Ernie’s Creature Ink
Uncle John’s Crazy Town
Vintage Kids’ Books My Kid Loves
Vintage Story Books
Viñetas
What once was, once again Is!
Yesterday’s Papers
Yesterday’s Papers
Yesterday’s Papers Archive

Pictured above: A huge, fold-out page from the printed version of PHENOMENAL TANGENTS.

Danno’s online serialization of our collaborative Jack Kirby tribute project, PHENOMENAL TANGENTS continues. Danno has been doing a great job describing our process making the comic, and I have been adding my “co-director’s commentary” in the comments.

Page 2
Page 3
Page 4

Danno also talks about the insane and unique format of the printed book that he innovated in the page 3 post. While it is fun to red online, it is a million times better in print, thanks to the way Danno printed them.

Note that I also recommend checking out Danno’s fun collaboration with Bud Burgy, Continuity Guy… read it here.