Yeah, Yeah, I've Been Busy

Anyone preparing to set up a blogging situation knows (or should know) that one of the basics of the art form is that one must blog frequently: the goal being one post per day. This doesn't mean one can babble about the breakfast menu of the day, and the aim is also that the content be worth reading.

Sigh.

I paid a gazillion dollars for a new phone so that I could blog more easily. The display didn't work and, after two months, I'm still trying to get it to function.

I became aggressive about posting samples of unusual comic strips at my other blogsite -- and almost immediately became enmeshed in a book project that, while cool, was so time-consuming that I had no time to scan strip selections.

And this website -- for which one of my goals was to post scans of early fanzines Don and I produced -- morphed, which complicated even that.

But it's May, the weather outside is gorgeous, and how better to celebrate that than to renew my pledge to blog! Excelsior!

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Easter Is Coming

It's been some time since I've posted, and I'm aiming to do better. I'm now so entangled with online activities that it sometimes seems difficult to get anything else done. And then I duck out of handling this or that or the other aspect of my online life. In any case, as noted, aiming to do better. For example, I spent a chunk of this morning scanning a Walt Kelly story that appeared in Easter with Mother Goose (Dell Four-Color #103, copyright 1946 Oskar Lebeck, copyright not renewed) in order to post the complete story on the CBGXtra site. It wasn't till I looked at the copyright information that I realized that I must have bought my copy (which I used for scanning) when I was 3 and a half years old. I'd had no idea that my comic-book collecting began that young. All things considered (such as the year-after-year reading), it's in surprisingly good shape -- which is to say it's in "Poor" condition. Here's another page -- a stand-alone -- from that issue. (Easter comics are unusual in the field of comic-book publishing, but Kelly's contributions were outstanding.)

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Non-Cartoon Animation in Coraline

As seems to be the case with the rest of adult humanity (though I wouldn't extend a viewing to little kids), I had a wonderful time with the film version of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. I was initially hostile to references to the film that identified only the director and screenwriter (Henry Selick wearing two hats), I must admit. But Selick did morph the original, even as he morphed the characters, settings, and everything else in the project. Among the aspects that impressed me was that, as I watched the (2D version of the) film, I failed to recall that it was stop-motion animation, not CGI. I've heard some people say that they liked the slight "imperfections" that reminded them it was stop-motion; I never noticed them. And the fact that I had actually seen and photographed some of the figures (such as the one on the right) at last year's Comic-Con International: San Diego never occurred to me as I watched the film.

I think the nearest 3D showing is in Madison; I'm hoping it'll still be there by the time weather permits an excursion.

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Identifying Cartoonists

I was delighted to be able to purchase a cartoon that fits so nicely with the pop culture I love. But.

This cartoon, bought through a Heritage auction, is one I'm sure I've seen in the past -- almost certainly in a collection of magazine cartoons. Not only did it appeal to my affection for magazine cartoons in general, of course; it also touched that nerve of love for Old Time Radio shows -- and, for that matter, for Old Time Radio shows of the Mysterious Stranger type. You can see at once the challenge, though: Who the heck drew it? Frank, yes. But which Franks were active magazine cartoonists in the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s? I consulted George Hagenauer, who put the probable age of the cartoon at earlier, rather than later. He initially guessed at Frank Beaven but then decided the art was better than most of what he's seen of Beaven's work. His guess at original publisher was Collier's, Liberty, or Saturday Evening Post.

Identifying cartoonists whose signature is not apparent has been an ongoing challenge in the field of original art, of course. Its most challenging current aspect is that of assigning credits on old comic-book stories. But that's not the only time it has me scratching my head.

Any guesses regarding credit for this cartoon?

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Regarding Rob Siegel, The Wrestler, and Entertainment Weekly

I just received Entertainment Weekly for January 23, 2009 -- and was delighted to read the following, in its Golden Globe coverage:

"Besties 4-Ever, Part 2: Mickey Rourke and His Dogs The best-actor-in-a-drama winner neglected to mention Wrestler screenwriter Robert Siegel -- but he did thank all his four-legged friends, dead and alive."

I've known Rob since his magnificent Onion-editing days in Madison, Wis., and I know The Wrestler has been a years-long project for him. Anyone who has followed the entertainment biz for a while knows that many of those responsible for massive successes are often ignored. Cheers to EW for not ignoring the creator fundamentally responsible for The Wrestler. Thanks, reporters Dave Karger and Lynette Rice!

(And we can all look forward to Rob's next project. Yay!)

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