-- Leo's gemini proxy
-- Connecting to gemini.arkholt.com:1965...
-- Connected
-- Sending request
-- Meta line: 20 text/gemini;lang=en-US
Read my thoughts
author: @arkholt@gemini.arkholt.com
Updated the notes section of my Gemini capsule. Instead of the notes from each publication being all in one file, I've separated them by issue and topic. I don't know why I thought that it would make sense to have all of them together like that. It's much easier to read this way (even though it takes a bit longer to put them up).
At long last, I've completed my latest essay on the connection between Skippy peanut butter and the Skippy comic strip by Percy Crosby. You can read it under Essays, in the Comic Strip History section of any of my smolweb sites (Gemini, Gopher, Spartan, or Nex). And of course on my blog on the big web, but that's the boring way.
I have mirrors of my Gemini capsule and Gopher hole on Spartan and Nex now. I'm not entirely sure why I did it, but I just like messing around with these small web protocols. Spartan seems exactly like Gemini, just without the TLS, but Nex actually seems like it's trying to do something different. Like actually be the "Gopher but not as Gophery" that Gemini was originally touted as being.
I haven't done any comic strip movie reviews in a while, so I'm trying to start getting back into those. I did the second Jungle Jim movie, which is bad, but kind of funny bad. Though mostly boring bad.
"On second thought, let's not go to Usenet. It is a silly place."
So I originally made the tinylog to collect notes from my research, but I just went ahead and made a separate section of the capsule for that. Guess I'll have to use this for soemthing else now.
New essay up in the Art section on the Helvetica documentary from years ago. Subtitle should have been "Design jerks and the problems with modern design."
Neal Adams still had a very low opinion of newspaper comics in 1982 (from The Comics Journal 72, May 1982): "Remember that when Herriman did Krazy Kat, the complexion of the world was very different. There wasn't that much entertainment, so when you were doing a syndicated strip, the newspaper asked you to be entertaining. In other words, that's how you could sell newspapers: by being entertaining. If it were true now-if all the televi- sions, radios, and movies were destroyed, or our economy got in such a slump that all we could do was buy the newspaper-then it would be the job of the newspaper to be entertaining. Since we have all those other things, it's ridiculous for the syndicated strip to be entertaining because it's outclassed everywhere it turns. There's no way to be entertaining except to make laugh. You can make a laugh, but even then there are come dians on television every night telling jokes. It's just all over the place. So, if that is taken away -and it is taken away-if the ability to entertain is taken away by other media competing, then what is there left to do? Krazy Kat would never be done now. It's just not as entertaining as Saturday morning television for kids or the television shows or movies are for adults. That's why it would never be done. We're in a different time."
Honestly there's so much wrong with this that I don't even know where to begin. Mostly what I'll say is it's interesting to note that people no longer being interested in newspaper comics isn't what's killing them; people no longer getting their news from newspapers is.
Milt Caniff in 1982: "You don't set out (to be a national institution), you set out to stay on the payroll. When you get into syndication, you are there to sell tomorrow's newspaper -- not today's because the reader already has today's -- but tomorrow's, to sell tomorrow's newspaper, endlessly." (from The Comics Journal 72 May 1982)
Jim Raymond drew Blondie starting in 1950, though he assisted Chic Young starting in 1935. Jim Raymond was the brother of Alex Raymond, artist on Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim. Blondie and Dagwood's son, originally named Baby Dumpling, was eventually named Alexander after Alex Raymond. (from The Comics Journal 72 May 1982)
Al Capp on his politics, from The Comics Journal 54, March 1980:
"I really don't think my politics changed. You see, I've always been for those who are being shamed, disgraced, ignored by other people. That group has changed. Now it's the poor bastard who's rich - well, I don't mean rich, and of course always had Bullmoose - but the poor son-of-a-bitch who worked, who was being denounced by the liberals. For Chrissake, these people are keeping the country afloat. They were denounced, and it got me damn mad."
I agree that his politics didn't change, but it seems his political leanings were always just towards whatever benifited him. He felt *he* was being shamed and disgraced by others when he was poor, so he was against the rich. When he got rich, he felt *he* was being shamed by the liberals, so he was against the liberals. He never really cared about issues. He cared about himself.
Al Capp on Peanuts, from The Comics Journal 54, March 1980:
"Peanuts is a great strip, but no one has ever said, publicly, that they don't like Peanuts. But then no one has ever said they don't like motherhood or the Bill of Rights. I'm sure there are such people in the country, but they keep it quiet; it would take guts to say those things publicly- especially about Peanuts. In America you must like Peanuts, even if you really don't."
This seems to still be true, at least from what I’ve seen. Now, I would never say I don’t like it, because I do, but it is kind of strange how it seems sacrilegious to do so. I even feel weird not liking it as much as I feel I should. It’s good and all, but there are many other comic strips that I like better, and that I think deserve far more praise than Peanuts gets.
Will Eisner on censorship, from The Comics Journal 47, July 1979:
YRONWODE: And do you think that scenes like that like could damage youngster's minds?
EISNER: No, I don't agree with Dr. Wertham. Well, actually, I believe that all literature "damages" the mind in that it influences the mind. I think you can't say that comics depicting violence and mayhem should not be shown to children because once you start doing that you're setting up a literary and intellectual diet for somebody. And who can set up a diet for society? I don't believe that censorship can be administered -- countries have tried it over and over again and it just doesn't function well. I'm against it, against any form of censorship other than the restrictions imposed by the creators' own taste, or sense of responsibility to moral values.
Will Eisner on comedy and tragedy, from The Comics Journal 47, July 1979:
YRONWODE:...You take it from extremes of really gut-wrenching despair on the one hand and then you turn around and just yuk it up.
EISNER: Aren't those two things really the very essence of life? Really between extreme tragedy and extreme humor what is there? I suppose I never think about it that way until I'm interviewed, I've never really sat down and analyzed it, but I think satire is a form of rage, an expression perhaps of anger. There is kindly humor and there is bitter humor. There's kindly tragedy and there's bitter tragedy. There is a relationship between the two in my mind -- I can't keep them separate. Every time I do a very tragic scene, I can see a humorous scene within the same frame and it can be converted. A man walking down the street and falling into a manhole can be a very tragic thing -or it could be very funny. So much depends on what else is involved. I see humor as an incongruity.
Will Eisner on how style evolves over an artist’s lifetime, from The Comics Journal 47, July 1979:
"YRONWODE: The style of inking you use in A Contract with God is quite different from what you did in The Spirit- you're not using the coarse brush that you used to use - there's lot of fine pen lines. In fact, and this is sort of off-the-wall, I don't know if you're into Winsor McCay at all...
EISNER: Of course I know his stuff very well.
YRONWODE: ...Well, he started off with a relatively simple inking style in Little Nemo in 1905, but when he got older and began to do those editorial cartoons during the last 10 years of his life, he got into an extremely fine crosshatching style he avoided solid blacks altogether at that point...
EISNER: Yeah, sure- we all seem to go that route. Michelangelo too - in his later years he began to have a looser approach to his carving. The unfinished statues that you find in Florence are an example of that. And Milton Caniff - look at the change in his work over the years. As one gets older, as one matures, the tight line, the finely constructed line, loses its value. Perhaps one gets more interested in the theme than in the technique.
People don't remain the same, they change over the years. The only features that never altered their structural line are features like Mickey Mouse. Even Al Capp changed - although he never loosened up to the point of sketchiness. When you have a strip that's very very personal to the artist, a strip which isn't drawn by formula, you'll find that the art will change. Usually it will tend to get looser. There's a lack of patience with having to retain that heavy line. In The Spirit that heavy, very controlled line was an effort to retain color, color which had to be applied after all by someone else. We had to give them what we used to call "trap areas." Now that's not necessary - the technology has advanced, color can be applied in other ways. Besides, I like that loose line - I think it looks nicer... more expressive."
Will Eisner on the lasting power of sequential art, from The Comics Journal 47, July 1979:
"I am still the same Will Eisner of 1942-43, trying to expand the horizons of my medium, my medium being a sequence of pictures on paper. I believe that sequential art is the oldest communicating art form, I think it has the validity of any other art form - and while it may not have the breadth and dimension of motion pictures and it may not have the ability to cover abstracts the way lines of words do, and it may not be able to do a lot of things - it has served humanity since early man because it has the ability to transmit a story."
...
"I've been struggling with the word "comic book" for 30 years now..
YRONWODE: It's a bad word..
EISNER: It's a terrible word - but every time I try to change it, I find that people force me back into it. I had finally settled on the term 'graphic novel,' thinking that would be an adequate euphemism, but the class I teach is called 'sequential art' - and of course that's what it is - a sequence of pictures arranged to tell a story."
Will Eisner on why The Spirit never wore socks, from The Comics Journal 46, May 1979:
YRONWODE: Who did the coloring?
EISNER: I would do the color guides. Jules Feiffer would do a lot of the coloring. That's why I was so amused when he said [in The Great Comic Book Heroes] that The Spirit never had any socks. (Laughter] We had problem -- we never knew what color the socks were. You see, if you made the socks red that would look too ridiculous, but red or yellow would be the only colors that did not clash with or disappear with the brown shoes or the blue pants. He couldn't have blue socks 'cause that would look like an extension of his pants and he couldn't have black ones cause that would look real weird, and he couln't have yellow socks 'cause it would look like an error and so we would invariably try to fudge it and of course the engraver would just color em flesh... (Laughter]... so he would never have socks! I didn't realize this until Feiffer pointed it out many years later when he said, "Do you realize that The Spirit never has any socks?" I said, "You're crazy!" and he showed me couple of panels - and by God, he's right! Also, by the way, Feiffer signed the artwork: that was his job: to sign "Will Eisner" on it. (Laughter)
You always think of people working in a particular creative medium only being influenced by others who work in that medium. Not so. Will Eisner stated his biggest influences were movies, short stories, and theater. From an interview with Cat Yronwode in The Comics Journal 46, May 1979:
YRONWODE: ...So your art has been variously described as cinematographic ard your writing as short stories. Were you much influenced by films and literature?
EISNER: That's absolutely true. Both films and short stories -- particularly the highly specialized short story writers like O. Henry and Bierce, de Maupassant -- there was a whole period in the 30s during which the short story was an artform unto itself. Today, people are still writing short stories, but it doesn't command the writing market as it did once before.
I had only two... well, actually three major influences: the motion pictures I saw -and I saw lots of 'em- short stories I read, which nurtured my own imagination, and my own life experience, which figured heavily in the things I did...
Well, movies were part of my life and so they had an influence. As far as ideas and so forth, movies were their medium and comics was my med1um. I saw comics as an art form, legitimate within itself and, just as movies borrow from comics and are influenced by comics, so I was influenced by movies. And the theatre, by the way. I had a strong interest in theatre and I often tell my students [at the School of Visual Arts] to see in terms of lighting and stage sets.
Neal Adams had a very low view of newspaper comics, especially adventure strips. From The Comics Journal #43, December 1978:
GROTH: You drew the Ben Casey newspaper strip for quite a while. What's the difference in approaching a daily strip and a 17-page comic book story?
ADAMS: For one thing you have to retell your story every three panels, which is really ridiculous. You also have to create enough interest in three panels to sustain an audience, which is very hard to do... The one thing that's most important about comic strips is that they're dead, and they should remain dead as much as possible.
GROTH: How do you mean?
ADAMS: Comic strips are a waste of time. Who needs a three panel story? A joke, maybe, a three panel joke, but not a story. Not when you can watch Star Wars, or watch television shows or read comic books. They're a big waste of time.
GROTH: You're saying the newspaper strip is totally...
ADAMS: ..Out of date... They died ten years ago, maybe longer ago than that.
Through reading The Comics Journal I discovered another Fantagraphics publication, "NEMO", a classic comic strip reprint magazine. I was able to find and download all the issues. In addition to the reprints it also has articles and interviews and such. Lots of good research material there.
"At the beginning of the [20th] century, comics were the poor man's literature. Immigrants learned English from the comic strips. One can see the social history of the United States in the first part of this century by following the comic strips between 1900 and 1930."
Will Eisner, from The Comics Journal #89, pg 99.
Found a script on Github that allows downloading of borrowed books from archive.org. Used it to download all the issues of Cartoonist PROfiles for reading later. For now, still working on going through all of The Comics Journal issues.
"Modern art is the revelation of disordered minds. It is created by the untalented, sold by the unscrupulous, and bought by the uninformed. Genuine art today is found only in auto ads, fashion drawings, and comic strips. And comic strips are the best art being produced in America today."
Al Capp, from an interview in The Comics Journal #54.
I don't agree with the first part, but I find it hard to argue with the last part.
Finished a new esssay on Steve Gerber that I added to my blog as well as my Gemini capsule and gopherhole. I wasn't really a fan of Howard the Duck before, and didn't know much about Gerber, but after doing all the research for this essay I'm even less of a fan. I find the story to be fascinating, though.
Bought the archive subscription to The Comics Journal and am currently going through all the old issues looking for newspaper comic tidbits. There's not only more than I expected, but there's way more about Steve Gerber and the Howard the Duck comic strip than I expected.
Slowly going through the E&P issues, but have already found some interesting stuff. Also discovered that the full archive of Cartoonist PROfiles is on archive.org as well. It's only available to "borrow," which is frustrating, but at least it's available. A lot of info there you can't find elsewhere.
Now that there's all the hubbub over on the bird site, I've been rediscovering RSS. I used to check out RSS feeds a lot before I started using Twitter regularly. Now it seems like a good time to revisit them.
So uh... I discovered that every issue of Editor & Publisher from 1901-2015 is on archive.org by kind donation of E&P's current owner. I also discovered the official archive.org CLI tool that lets you do bulk downloads.
For the record, it took 10 hours.
The beginning of the tinylog
-- Response ended
-- Page fetched on Sun May 12 16:16:07 2024