Little Lulu Billboard in Times Square (with Tubby!)

I was wondering why Tubby, the second-greatest American comic book character of all time after Little Lulu, didn't have his own Wikipedia page, when I stumbled over the following amazing fact on Lulu's page. I have many examples of Kleenex advertising featuring Lulu, but somehow was unaware of this: "Little Lulu was widely merchandised, and was the first mascot for Kleenex tissues; from 1952 to 1965 the character appeared in an elaborate animated billboard in Times Square in New York City."

Seth Profile in Toque Magazine

From "Seth's Art of Preservation" in Toque #3, Winter 2018. Text and photos by Chris Tiessen.

toquemagazine.com

Doug Wright is Punk Rock!

Thanks to SweetiePie Press, on sale at the upcoming Toronto Comic Art Festival.

Unsung Geniuses: Florence Thomas of ViewMaster

by BK Munn

Most fans of the tiny fantasy worlds glimpsed through the lens of a View-Master viewer are probably unaware of the name Florence Thomas. Thomas was the Portland, Oregon sculptor employed by the makers of the 3-D viewer to create miniature dioramas of fairy tales and pop culture scenes which she then photographed for reproduction into the iconic circular white reels that have delighted children and adult collectors for decades.

Thomas produced her first reels for View-Master in 1946 --a series of Fairy Tales and Mother Goose rhymes that are still in circulation. According to one source, Thomas "developed special methods of close-up stereo photography and modeling which is now in common use by major motion picture studios" (John Waldsmith, Stereo Views, 1991). She created scenes of such detail and attractiveness that you feel you could step inside and look around a corner at a complete world. Besides the Fairy Tales, these worlds included versions of the Frankenstein and Dracula stories, scenes from the comic strip Peanuts, and 3-D versions of animated cartoons like The Flintstones. Amazingly, all of the puppet-like figures were sculpted from clay and the scenes were shot using a single-lens camera (not a stereo camera) that was moved on a track to get the stereo shot. Sometimes the models were moved slightly between shots to enhance the 3-D effect. During her heyday, Thomas appeared on television and radio to satisfy the curiosity of the children who consumed View-Masters by the millions in the 1950s and 60s. Today, she is largely forgotten except for a few collectors. You can see her at work (in 3-D, of course!) on this collector's reel. A tv appearance is available on this dvd.

Thomas trained a successor, Joe Liptak, seen below shooting a scene from the Disney Robin Hood set. The work of these two geniuses, lovingly crafted three-dimensional stories, live on in the creations of artists like Vladimir, recently profiled in The Believer magazine.

Mystery Hoard: Walter Trier

Walter Trier (1890-1951)

Trier was born in Prague but moved to Munich in 1909. He contributed to the German humour and cartoon magazines of the day (especially Kladderadatsch and the left-wing Simplicissimus ) and was equally at home as a caustic satirist and cartoonist and an illustrator of children's stories. His opposition to the Nazi regime led him to flee Germany, finally settling in England (where he produced anti-German propaganda) before emigrating to Canada in the late-40s.

Trier contributed to publications in the UK (Lilliput), Canada and the USA (including many New Yorker covers). A huge talent.

Trier has several pieces (a large archive actually, including many of his sculptures and children's toys) in the permanent collection of the AGO.

You can see some of it here.

I found this old peanut butter jar, capped with a Trier illustration, at an antique shop around the corner from our store. It cost $3.

Evel Knievel: Ghost Rider

Evel Knievel, 1938-2007

Evel Knievel, the daredevil motorcycle stuntman and marketing genius, died yesterday. Born Robert Craig Knievel in Butte, Montana, Knievel became a prominent cultural figure in the 1970s as a result of skilled showmanship and several spectacular stunts, several of which brought him grievous bodily harm along with millions of dollars.

Like many men my age, as a young boy I was a fan of Knievel and eagerly awaited his many tv appearances. Contributing to this interest was the line of Knievel toys I coveted and which were relentlessly marketed to me through a variety of media. It may seem strange that a Canadian youngster would be interested in this red-white-and-blue costumed, all-American motorcycle-man, but as a young comic book fan in the 1970s, Knievel's presence and influence were unavoidable.

To start with, Ideal Toys advertised Knievel toys on the back covers of Marvel comics for a period of what seemed like years. Knievel was a natural fit for the Marvel audience and for the Marvel decade that spawned a horde of long-haired monster, barbarian, kung-fu, and rock star comics. The "bad boy"-sounding name and often-gory results of his stunts, combined with the fearlessness and costume of a superhero, made him appear a comic book character come to life, and I could imagine him traveling across America, like Howard the Duck or Bill Bixby on the Incredible Hulk tv show, helping people with their problems and jumping over tanks of sharks.

As Scott Shaw! explains here, Knievel was also the star of his own comic book, a giveaway produced for Ideal Toys and included with the purchase of the toys. The comic tells the story of how Knievel uses several of his trade-marked vehicles to foil a mysterious villain's plot against a racetrack, Scooby-Doo style. The Canadian connection here is that the book was likely illustrated by Hamilton-born Superman artist Win Mortimer.

Coincidentally, yesterday I purchased a partial Mystery Hoard of 1970s comic books, several of which feature Evel Knievel ads. The one at the top of this article was found on the back cover of Son of Satan #8, a Marvel comic from 1976 that also features full-page ads for Hostess Cupcakes, The Six Million Dollar Man's "Mission Control Center", and Ricochet Racers. The ad prominently features Evel's son, Robbie Knievel, who grew up to be a major daredevil as well.

Here's another ad, from the back cover of Tomb of Dracula #41 (1975), pitching Knievel as an adventure hero in the mold of the G.I.Joe and Big Jim dolls:



(I can't help but wonder if my discovery of this Hoard, mostly made up of the sort of more outre and blasphemous titles that alternately shocked, frightened, fascinated, and imperiled my mortal soul during my Catholic boyhood, was in some manner a portent or harbinger of Knievel's death! All of these comics, from Jack Kirby's New Gods to Steve Gerber's Omega the Unknown, are obsessed with themes of death, the afterlife, capes, and pointy collars. And I discovered them only hours before I heard of Knievel's death on the radio in my car.)



Perhaps the most lasting legacy of Evel Knievel, besides an industry of daredevils, racers, and monster truck rallies, can be found in the comics that he was featured in and inspired. He was the obvious inspiration for the Johnny Blaze character, a circus motorcycle rider who is transformed into the flaming-skulled, demonic Ghost Rider, later described as "Evel Knievel meets Faust". As well, he seems to have been the inspiration for the earlier Hell-Rider, featured in a series published by Skywald in 1971.



While Knievel never "landed" a full comic book series, his rival and thunder-stealer The Human Fly did successfully make the jump to four colours in 1977 and drove on for 19 issues until the Marvel decade came to an end in 1979. Based on real-life stuntman Rick Rojatt's escapades, the comic actuallly co-starred Ghost Rider in one issue. Just like Win Mortimer, the mysterious Rojatt is rumoured to be Canadian as well, and is the subject of an upcoming documentary by Tony Babinski. (By contrast, the very un-Canadian Team America was a lacklustre 1980s version of the 70s stuntman comics mini-genre.) Just like his toys and the man himself, these comics were gaudy, gory classics that promised more than they delivered.

R.I.P. Evel Kneivel, stuntriding superhero. The legend rides on in the lost comics of the 1970s.

The Wright Awards: Celebrating the Best Smelling Comic Books in Canada!

The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian cartooning are just 4 days away --this Friday at 6:30 pm in Toronto!

Are you tired of comics that stink? The Wright Awards features only the best smelling comics in Canada! And all this week Mystery Hoard features classic comics by Doug Wright to celebrate --just click on the strip at left to see an ad for Cow Brand Baking Soda from a 1959 Weekend Magazine!

I might even be there, and I have to drive 100 km to do it!

The nominees for Best Smelling Book:

Shenzen: A Travelogue From China, Guy Delisle (Drawn and Quarterly)

This Will All End in Tears, Joe Ollman (Insomniac Press)

Scott Pilgrim and The Infinite Sadness, Bryan Lee O'Malley (ONI Press)

Gilded Lilies, Jillian Tamaki (Conundrum Press)

Nog-a-dod, Marc Bell ed. (Conundrum Press)

The 2007 Wright Awards take place in Toronto on Friday, August 17 at Innis College Town Hall (2 Sussex, @ St. George), 6:30pm-8:30pm. $5.00. Tickets available at the door.

The Strange Customs of Steve Ditko

Sometimes you just find yourself looking at pictures of homemade action figures on the internet.


From megomuseum:



By Ken Pick:



Created by a genius known only as Bottleimp

The Strand on Comics Style, circa 1909

John Adcock digs up another great old article about comics. "Style in Comic Art" was published in 1909 in the Strand Magazine. It showcases the work of McCay, Zim, and Lawson Wood. John has also dug up some great old Cruikshank illos and Harry Rountree, the original Sherlock Holmes illustrator.

Superman Coloring Book

Sorting through some old magazines, I came across the Superman Coloring Book, published by Whitman in 1966. It has a nice Curt Swan cover with a full-colour Superman posing in front of a page of black-and-white strips, but the real treasure is inside. Normally finding an old colouring book with the pages coloured-in is a disapointing experience. Collectors want their books mint, with no markings or damage. But for me, the thing that really makes this book worth owning is the inventive colouring that adds life to the mediocre hackwork of the interior drawings, produced by something called "Jason Studios" for Whitman. The coloured-in pages are just beautiful and make the story of the book almost a surreal reading experience. You may have read the classic Superman adventure, "Superman Red, Superman Blue" --now read "Superman Orange, Brown, Pink, and Green!"

After a really slow start to the story, featuring the gang hanging around the Daily Planet office on a slow news day, the plot really begins with Superman chasing some crooks who hit him with a Red K missile which causes him to shrink. That's when our mysterious colourist really gets interested:




Our only clue to the identity of this coloring genius --a scrawled "Joann" at the top of the page!

Eventually Supes figures out some sort of solution involving a Lead Mine (!) and things get back to normal.

Lois looks kind of disappointed that Superman is no longer tiny!



The End!

Jaime Hernandez Sketches

I like Jaime Hernandez drawings.

Some obscure Jaime art that I do not own. Many of it viewable at the comicartfans site. (Fans can also now read an interesting blog post by the genius art director who decided to hire Jaime to do the DVD cover for Divorce, Italian Style.)

Music from the Comic Strips

via Frames per Second magazine, a link to a Vancouver radio show about music inspired by classic cartoons and comic strips --available as an MP3 for the next few days.

more sheet music images

Readers Create Monsters!

The Canadian Comic Fan Project, Part 4

This time out, reader submissions to Space Family Robinson: Lost in Space published by Gold Key Comics. A fun reader participation gimmick, "Reader's Create Monsters" tied-in nicely with the comics' science fiction theme and gives a new meaning to "fan art". Two of the above submissions, the "Po-Go Champ Monster" and "The Thorn Bird", were created by Canadian readers. They appeared in issue # 25 of Space Family Robinson, published December 1967.


Where are they now?

Kenny Quercetti
North Burnaby
BC

Cathy Rawlings
Edmonton
Alberta

As well, the letters page of the same comic lists several letter writers whose letters were not published, including:

Wade Nott
Vancouver, BC

&

Matt Viceri
Montreal, Quebec

Felix the Cat

A friend of mine is selling some older Felix the Cat items ebay.

Cartoonist and animator Otto Messmer created Felix the Cat for Pat Sullivan's animation studio in 1919 and Felix first appeared in November 1919 in a short silent film called "Feline Follies". He was a big hit and some people say he inspired the creation of Mickey Mouse. A comic strip, drawn by Messmer, began in 1923 and ran for decades. he strip was meant to appeal to kids for the most part but it was beautifully drawn and had some great fantasy and slapstick touches. There was a great Sunday strip as well and other artists helped out over the years, augmenting Messmer's genius, including Joe Oriolo. Toys, books, and various household items inspired by the character began appearing shortly after the first animated cartoons --the start of a marketing bonanza that continues to this day. (I think that Jay Stephens was working on a Felix project recently.)

Some of the older Felix merchandise is quite weird --often off-model and frequently scary. I think many people confuse some Felix toys with the incredibly more scarce Krazy Kat toys. The two items up for auction are a jointed wooden figure and a stuffed toy Felix with an insane grimace. I've never seen the stuffed Felix before --he has a wire skeleton and you can stand him up in the classic Felix "walking" pose.

I'm Short Measure

Cartoon alcohol is wonderful! Instructions to a box containing the Mr. Bartender bar set.