A Conflict of Pages

Harvey Kurtzman was a man who loved the daily strips, but couldn't resist making fun of the inherent ridiculous elements in many of them. But rather than snarkily just mention it and moving on, he took the joke much further.

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George McManus's BRINGING UP FATHER (example above)was primarily about Irish Immigrant Jiggs who loved to drink, gamble, and eat. His wife on the other hand wanted to climb up the social ladder, and when Jiggs attempted too weasel out of situations--parties, events-- to do so she would beat the crap out of him(she was twice his size).

Herein lies Kurtman's humor, in Mad magazine #17 he make a parody story where he would have the great Will Elder draw odd numbered pages in starkly close mimicry of McManus's art style. [Looks pretty similar to the one above doesn't it? Elder was exceedingly good at duplicating many styles.]

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Now for the sucker punch; every even page would be drawn by Bernie Krigstein, who had a more heavy joyfully depressing style. Quite a contrast, no?

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I think this not only proves the great talent of all involved, but a perfect example of how representation of subject matter can creat totally different tone. Also puts succinctly the duality of many holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas included.

The EC gang salutes you

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A Thank you from the EC gang, drawn by John Severin

Smiley Acid

Flyer for the arcade game.
Artist unknown

Obliterator Art

Technically a computer program, still a video game.
Artist Unknown.

John Carpenter's The Thing-Raw Poster

Truly Amazing.
Artist Unknown.

Bakshi/Animato Interview

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Today, an older Bakshi is being interviewed all over the place,voicing his opinions reflectively on his films. But a person and their personality change quite a bit over the years. So it's refreshing to see this Bakshi interview from 1988, back when he felt he had a second creative life, due in no small part to Mighty Mouse and Roger Rabbit.

Also, I'm glad to see Bakshi praise the writing skills of Jim Reardon, who work on Mighty Mouse my favorite episodes of the Simpsons(Mr. Plow, King Sized Homer, etc) and co-wrote Wall-E(which I have no shame in proclaiming Pixar's best film, and unequivocally the best 3-d animated film yet)., along will fellow MM alumni Andrew Stanton, who directed said film. Bakshi, the Roger Corman of animation.

Thanks to John P.'s blog and his post Back to the Bakshi, which has many more scans well worth checking out, including some on Roger Rabbit andGremlins.

A Tale of Two Posters

Oh, that dastadly funny Tobe hooper, always with the jokes.

The American Godzilla that never was

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Perpetually in production between 1983 to 1985, this Americanized film (called Godzilla: King of the Monsters) came close to, but didn't due to budget concerns.

Of course it's impossible to judge a movie that was never made, but are there any indications? Would it be worst than the 1998 remake(Personally, I'm pretty sure that hit the bottom of barrel).

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Well, as usual for an 1980's production, the art side credentials are impeccable. First and foremost, the great William Stout (who did concept art work on Conan the Barbarian[film], Return of the Living Dead, Pan's Labyrinth, Invaders from Mars[1986 remake]) was assigned for the conceptional designs and storyboards. Famous special effects wizard Rick Baker [Star Wars, Videodrome, An American Werewolf in Paris) did work on an expressive animatronic head. And finally stop-motion expert David Allen(who already did convincing reptile movement for Q:the winged serpent, as well as Robot Jox, and the Stuff) was brought in for animation.

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The script was a big maybe: Fred Decker(co-writer of both Monster Squad and Robocop 3) designed an idea strikingly similar to Gorgon, where Godzilla is a monster looking for its child, this time the location being San Francisco. It would ravage the golden gate bridge, before meeting for a showdown on Alcatraz Island.

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But the real buzzkill was Steve Miner who, in my opinion, is a a poor director; responsible for trash the likes of Friday the 13th II-III,Halloween H20, Lake Placid, and the absolutely terrible Day of the Dead remake[2008]. All of which are poorly directed and lack any real punch. However, he did direct the decent House[which involved Dekker and Stout] around the same time as this proposed movie, so at least he knew how to leave good art direction alone.

But that still leaves the question of cinematographer(something very important to the believability of the film) and the fact it was to be in 3-d(which made Allen unsure if the motion would translate well to the 3rd dimension). Maybe it was for the best that it never got made. The word will never know.

All art above by William Stout

Note: I forgot that Miner did the quite good Warlock, but that is more attributed to the writing of David Twohy, who wrote and directed Pitch Black, amongst other good genre fare.

A big thank you to Be still my Blog of war !

Edit: Now, a Godzilla film that keeps all the art staff, but tosses Miner and replaces him with say. . . John Carpenter and have Dean Cundey as dp, that would be a Godzilla film worth watching!

Twinkle Twinkle (by Carlin and LaRocque)

And now for a comic often considered to be a camp classic, or at least impossibly bad yet good. Sorry about size of scans, they are second hand from a friend and these were the biggest I got. Click to enlarge.

A million questions(not to pointlesly question the story but point out certin facets of insanity): Where the hell is Maey Jane putting all that food? How is Galactus aim so poor> And why is the sat puff marshmallow man guarding a giant twinkie?

Ah, what the hell, it is a excuse to cut loose.

Initially I was reluctant to even post this, I'd rather spot great comics by the heavyweights(Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Gene Colan, Steve Gerber) but then again this is just too weird not post. It does seem to highlight a time when Marvel was ok with parodying itself, ala the much more successful Not Brand Ecch!.