"This day's experience, set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside." –Alice Munroe, "What is Remembered"
Rod Ruth is by no means a well-known figure in the history of comic strips, but I, for one, find his work terrifically appealing. Ruth’s character designs are distinctive, and the expressions always appropriate to the action: look, for instance, at the way Ann’s expression changes from panel to panel in the first strip as she struggles to stand up for the man she loves in the face of her parents’ stern expressions of disapproval, and then retreats into sullen silence as her mother pointedly puts her father in his place. Ruth’s staging of the action is also first rate: in the first strip, notice how he changes from a three shot in the first panel, with the father on the left, facing right, to a closer two shot of mother and daughter, back out to a three-shot, with the father close on the right, facing left — which, taken together with the first two panels, I read as a sign that the father has been pacing back and forth while the women have been talking — and then ends with a lovely low reverse angle that not only maintains spacial continuity between the three but also places the now visibly weary Ann, both compositionally and symbolically, right in the line of fire between her domineering mother and her stuffed-shirt father; and I especially like the bits of business the artist gives to Ann in the second strip — panel one, she files her nails; panel two, she pumps a bit of moisturizer into her palm; and panel three, she absently rubs the moisturizer into her hands as she wistfully contemplates lost love. Finally, Ruth’s handling of clothing, furniture, props, etc., is always economical and convincing: notice, for instance, the way he uses little dabs and checkmarks of ink to give dimension to the quilting on Ann’s jacket in the second strip, or the way he suggests the folds on the nurse’s overcoat with a few deft strokes of the brush.
To see all three of the “Toodles” strips I’ve posted so far, click here.
From page 13 of Comic Book Profiles #2 (Spring 1998), here’s Bernie Wrightson’s answer to the question “How did Captain Sternn come about?”: “I realized when I was working on Running Out of Time for Kitchen Sink that Captain Sternn came out of my teenage years, from the movie, The Great Escape. It was always one of my favorite movies. When I was a kid, all my friends identified with the Steve McQueen character, but I was fascinated with the James Garner character, who played a con man. He was a really smooth liar, just this side of being oily. I realized that Captain Sternn looks like James Garner from the Great Escape. So I guess that’s where it came from.”
BONUS CONTENT (added 07 August 2010, for Chris A., who has had some interesting things to say about it in the comments section of this post):
Here’s Wrightson’s first “Captain Sternn” story, as it appeared in Heavy Metal, vol. 3, no. 3 (June 1980):
From the pages of Strange Stories of Suspense #12 (December 1956), here’s a four-page story with a banal script that is partially redeemed by the vivacious Frazetta-influenced art of Angelo Torres:
The lowest point in the story has to be when Lee says to Dora, “Besides, you’re much too lovely a girl to be so brilliant and absorbed in your work!” That’s casual sexism offered up as a compliment, Holmes. Apparently, whether they’re from the past, the present, or the future, men will be men will be men, all mentally mired in the 1950s.
But wait! Did Lee just say future human civilization has “scanners, to look back into time and send men like me, trouble-shooters of the future, back to the past to take care of things like this”? Hm… now that’s interesting… I wonder who was the first to use the term scanners in SF in connection with time travel and surveillance… and I also wonder if Philip K. Dick ever read this story… LOL!
This story from Epic Illustrated #27 (December 1984) not only is “dedicated to the memory of Roy G. Krenkel” but also includes a lovely tribute to Jeffrey Jones, whose girl sculpture — see also below — according to comic-book creator, film-maker, and friend of Al Williams, Kevin VanHook, typically sat behind Williams at his drawing board around the time the story was created. Also, in the comments section of this post, regular participant on this site, Chris A, astutely points out that Williamson based the character of Kirth on Stewart Granger (1913 – 1993), a British actor with whose work I myself am almost entirely unfamiliar. Williamson has made Kirth’s nose somwhat shorter and more rounded than Granger’s, but Granger is definitely Williamson’s model here. Enjoy!
Continuing my little tribute to Al Williamson here at RCN, here is a story from the farewell issue (#34 [February 1986]) of Epic Illustrated, with story by Archie Goodwin and art by Al Williamson. The story includes both an homage to Frederic Leighton’s Perseus and Andromeda (1891) and a swipe from an, at the time “Out of Phase” was published, 35-year-old publicity photo of Sophia Loren (see comments for additional details — thanks, Chris A!), both of which I’ve included, dear reader, just because I think you might enjoy seeing them:
BONUS LINKS:
Golden Age Comic Book Stories: Al Williamson: March 21, 1931 ~ June 12, 2010, posted by Mr. Door Tree — includes the story “Food for Thought” from Incredible Science Fiction #32 (Nov.-Dec. 1955), with suitably incredible art by Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel
In January 2011, Fantagraphics Books plans to release a hardcover edition, in English, of Stigmata, a 192-page, critically acclaimed collaboration between the great Italian illustrator and comics creator, Lorenzo Mattotti, and writer Claudio Piersanti, first published in 1998. As far as I am aware, only two comics by Mattotti, alone or in collaboration, are currently in print in English: 1) Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, with Jerry Kramsky (NBM, 2008), a harrowing adaptation of the famous novella, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by R. L. Stevenson, and 2) Mattotti’s recently re-printed contribution to Fantagraphics’ “Ignatz Series” of deluxe comics, Chimera #1 (2009). So let’s hope that this new reprint, unlike previous efforts, will open the floodgates for more of Mattotti’s amazing work to be brought into print in English — or back into print, as the case may be!
In the past month or so, my wife and I have become the proud owners of two pieces of original art from the second year of the amazing 45-year run, 1957 to 2002, of the comic strip, Miss Peach, by Mell Lazarus. Although I feel that Lazarus did his best work in his Sunday strips, where he was able more fully to indulge his tremendous gift for comic dialogue, I was thrilled to be able to purchase two fine dailies, dated 09-09-58 and 09-24-58, in two separate auctions, for a mere US$55.50 each, shipping from the USA to Canada included. Here are the strips, which, btw, are not only huge — the paper is 18.5 inches wide by 6.06 inches high — but also in excellent condition, especially considering that they’re more than 50 years old:
ABOVE: Mell Lazarus, Miss Peach daily, 09-09-58, 18.5 x 6.06 inches. Lester’s power of positive thinking lands him a real bump on the head.
ABOVE: Mell Lazarus, Miss Peach daily, 09-24-58, 18.5 x 6.06 inches. Ira displays his talent as a band leader at the “Kelly School Junior Hop.”
Now, I am fully aware that many academically trained artists hate Mell Lazarus’s style of cartooning in Miss Peach, dismissing it as “childish” or worse, but as for me, well, I’ve always had a soft spot for the big-headed, big-nosed, sharp-tongued kids of the Kelly School. Modelled to a large extent on Charles Schulz’s beloved Peanuts, Lazarus’s Miss Peach combined economical but expressive and amusing drawings with witty and incisive social observation and punch lines that could make you laugh and squirm at the same time. The effectiveness of Lazarus’s visual shorthand is especially evident in his characters’ facial expressions, which in my experience always deliver more relevant and touching emotion than Lazarus’s (and Schulz’s) critics would have you believe possible.
In the first decade and a half of his career, Lazarus, who was never short on ambition, steadily worked his way up in the newspaper comics world, going from fledgling freelancer/comic-strip artist — his first, moderately successful strips were “Wee Women” and “Li’l One” — to an assistant position with Al Capp and Elliot A. Caplin’s Toby Press, to art director/comics editor at Toby Press, to nationally syndicated cartoonist. Following the success of Miss Peach, Lazarus, restless as ever, went on to create a short-lived humour-adventure strip, Pauline McPeril, with artist Jack Rickard, in 1966 — it was cancelled after three years — and then bounced back with a second comic-strip hit with Momma, in 1970. And for the next 30 years, Lazarus wrote and drew two syndicated strips, Miss Peach and Momma, until health issues caused him to reduce his work load by dropping Miss Peach in 2002. Momma, however, is still going strong!
But Mell Lazarus hasn’t only had success with readers; he’s also received the respect and approbation of his peers, winning the Best in Humour Strip Award from the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) in 1973 and 1979, the Reuben from the NCS for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 1982 for his work on Miss Peach, and the Silver T-Square from the NCS “for outstanding dedication or service to the NCS or the profession” in 2000. And as if that wasn’t enough, Lazarus’s fellow cartoonists also elected him President of the National Cartoonists Society for two terms, 1989 to 1991 and 1991 to 1993.
Finally, in addition to cartooning, Mell Lazarus has found time to write television scripts, plays, two novels — The Boss is Crazy, Too and The Neighborhood Watch — and, well, you get the picture. He’s always been a busy guy. But not too busy to answer his own front door:
Just noticed that CBR news has a preview of the forthcoming collaboration between Mike Mignola and Richard Corben, entitled Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil. Mignola and Corben have worked together on several different Hellboy stories in the past few years — every one of which is worth adding to your bookshelf — so I think one can safely say that, at last, Corben has found a new regular collaborator (à la Jan Strnad) who is genuinely excited to work with him and fully capable of delivering compelling scripts that play to Corben’s strengths as an artist!
“Richard and I were talking about shorter stories,” Mignola explained to CBR. “Richard apparently likes drawing Hellboy, and my opinion is, as long as he wants to draw Hellboy, I will keep throwing stories to him.
“One of the things I said to him was, ‘Would you mind if I came up with a couple of shorter stories for you to do?’ Both of these were stories that had been knocking about in my head for a long time, and so Double Feature Of Evil was just us coming up with a name for a one-shot that would have two stories.”
“With Double Feature of Evil,” adds Hellboy editor Scott Allie, “there was some internal factor in Mike making him think about these stories more often, but the external factor is that Richard did such an excellent job on Crooked Man that we wanted to give him some more straight horror stories. A lot of Hellboy stories aren’t really horror stories. They’re monster stories or action adventure stories. Double Feature is a pair of horror stories that Richard can pull off just about better than anybody.”
Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil is scheduled for publication later this year.
Here’s one that’s rather funny — mainly due to the timing! In Eerie #126 (November 1981), on page 19, in the bottom right-hand corner, you’ll find an advertisement for the 1982 Frazetta Calendar. And, IN THE VERY SAME ISSUE, you’ll find a 12-page story called “Korsar,” with art by Esteban Maroto, which runs from page 35 to page 46. Now, take a look at page 9, panel 3 of the Maroto-illustrated story (Eerie page 43), paying special attention to the composition, the landscape, and the group of figures led by the fellow carrying the woman on his shoulder, on the left-hand side of the panel.
For your convenience, I’ve included both pages below, along with a slightly larger, colour version of the cover of the 1982 Frazetta Calendar:
The first page here is by Esteban Maroto. It is from a story called “Idi and Me,” written by Bill DuBay, that first appeared in issue #4 of the Warren magazine, 1984, way back in 1978. And though the script is junk, it’s an attractive page. Only problem is, all of the female figures are very clearly swiped from Jeffrey Jones’s celebrated comic strip, Idyl, which ran in National Lampoon from 1972 to 1975. See below for the ocular proof:
For those who haven’t read 1984 #4, which would be almost everyone, the woman in the DuBay-penned “Idi and Me” is the brutal dictator, Idi Amin, whose chromosomes have been jumbled, just for laughs, by the American “Department of Dirty Tricks” (DDT), thereby turning “the former gorilla-faced leader of Uganda into this heavenly image of white Anglo-Saxon femininity,” Idi, who nonetheless retains a male psychology and sex drive and is thus seeking an operation to change back into a man. (And the final line/moral of the story? “I guess no matter what form you’re in… the world just isn’t ready for Idi Amin!”) All of which seems very odd, given Jeffrey Catherine Jones’s own difficult journey; however, the story did appear way back in 1978, as I noted above, which is about 20 years, more or less, before Jones decided to take definite steps become a woman. So what’s going on here? Seems most likely to me that it’s just a coincidence — though if it isn’t, if DuBay is taking a shot at Jones’s sexuality based on industry rumours, private confidences, or whatever, it’s an incredibly crude commentary! I mean, why would DuBay have done it, and why on earth would Maroto have participated? It doesn’t make sense to me, though, of course, even if the sex-change theme is a coincidence, it doesn’t mean that the story of Idi wasn’t intended, in part, as a parody of Jones’s Idyl. That would certainly explain the blatant swipes, except that Maroto has swiped from Jones (and others) before. So maybe the simple answer is that Jones’s work on Idyl was so skillful, so sensitive, so gorgeous, and — perhaps it seemed to Maroto — so obscure, that it was ripe for the swiping… or not… because the fact is, I’m not sure what to think…
Here’s a piece of original art, a daily dated 7-23-57, by Rod Ruth, from the comic strip The Toodle Family, a.k.a. The Toodles. The strip was written by Stanley and Betsy Baer and was drawn by Ruth from 1941 to 1958. It was then drawn by Pete Winter from 1958 to 1965. Apparently, besides The Toodles, Ruth was an illustrator for Amazing Stories and other Ziff-Davis pulps. Truth be told, I had never heard of either The Toodles or Rod Ruth before I noticed a series of ebay auctions for Ruth’s artwork, but I was happy to pay US$44.00 total (shipping included) US$38.00 total (shipping included; the next day, the seller gave me a partial refund on the shipping charge, presumably to bring it more into line with the actual cost) to add this lively and charming work from 53 years ago (!) to our collection.
I also recently won an ebay auction for a “Miss Peach” daily by Mell Lazarus, and let me tell you, that thing is HUGE! I love it, and I intend post a picture soon.
Available for pre-order now from Amazon and other online booksellers:
Krazy & Ignatz: The Sketchbook Strips 1910-1913
by George Herriman
Product Description
A stunning discovery of original Herriman cartooning art. As comic strip scholars well know, George Herriman’s Krazy Kat strip made its debut as a pint-sized supplementary strip running below the Family Upstairs strip before emancipating itself to its own, long-running strip.
What scholars are not aware of, however, is that as part of his work process, Herriman used to draw a complete, essentially finished version of each installment of the “Family Upstairs” Krazy Kat in a sketchbook before carefully redrawing it as part of the daily Family Upstairs. Which means that there exist “original” versions of hundred upon hundreds of Krazy Kat strips that have literally never been published anywhere… until now.
The owner of this priceless artifact would like to share the contents of it with the rest of the world, and has chosen Fantagraphics for this project.
This perfect facsimile edition (so exact that an unscrupulous con man could conceivably try to resell a copy to a gullible Herriman fan as the real thing) will also include a supplementary booklet containing an essay on Herriman, and a large sampling of the final, published Krazy Kat strips, allowing readers to compare and contrast with the original sketchbook version.
Fantagraphics plans to eventually release a complete collection of the Family Upstairs/Krazy Kat strips as part of its “Komplete Herriman” series. 160 pages of full color.
Product Details
Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (October 6, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 1606993879 ISBN-13: 978-1606993873 Product Dimensions: 18 x 12 x 1 inches
The cover, which I hope is a placeholder, is not much to look at, but the project itself is amazing!
Here’s another selection from our stash of original comic art. It’s a complete short story from Jughead #321 (according to the information hand-written on the artwork), with art by Samm Schwartz. My apologies in advance for the quality of the images; they were shot with an older digital camera under conditions that I ought to have controlled more carefully than I did.
(Click the images to enlarge them, as usual. I don’t own the cover artwork, but I’ve included a JPEG of the original comic, with cover by Stan Goldberg, for fun — and contrast!)
I bought the story on ebay a long time ago. It was in a lot with a complete Betty and Veronica story by Stan Goldberg. As I recall, the cost of the two stories together was less than US$100, shipping included. Maybe I’ll post the Goldberg another time… though I must admit, I’m not really a Goldberg fan…
When I was a youngster, my favourite “Archie” artists — even before I knew their names — were Samm Schwartz and Harry Lucey. In a corner of the comics world dominated by lacklustre DeCarlo clones, Schwartz and Lucey each took the seemingly inflexible “Archie” house style and made it his own. Schwartz’s work was cool, crisp, refined; Lucey’s, affable, energetic, theatrical. Jughead was never so self-assured, so unflappable, as when Schwartz brought him to life; Archie and the gang, never so determined, or so frazzled, as when Lucey fed them through the wringer. With Dan DeCarlo already in the Eisner Hall of Fame, and Bob Montana, the co-creator of Archie who drew the Riverdale gang for more than 30 years, named to the Hall of Fame for 2010, can Samm Schwartz and Harry Lucey be far behind? In my humble opinion, whether it happens sooner or later, it’s inevitable.
A Loan and Blue — from 1963, with unusually hyper-kinetic art by Samm Schwartz; in later years, Schwartz’s Jughead never got out of control like this! It’s like watching Bugs Bunny melt down.
Just happened to see that someone posted scans of Jones’ “Harry” in glorious black and white! It originally ran in VAMPIRELLA #32 in 1974 with garish colors by Rich Corben (whose work I quite like, but this was a bad pairing), and was reprinted in a later VAMPIRELLA in black and white (which these scans came from). Enjoy!
