July 25 2009

Surrounded as we are with moving pictures (television, internet video, DVDs), it's almost impossible to imagine a time when the only place that you could see moving pictures was in a movie theater ('movie" ... get it?).

So it's with that bit of nostalgia that I picked up the following two pastels, which were part of a set of about 25. As you'll see if you look into it, my other motivation was for capturing a bit of an interesting project from the history of WWII.

These pastels are related to a cartoon project know as THE NEW SPIRIT.

THE NEW SPIRIT was the first Walt Disney World War Two film, released just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and produced at breakneck speed at the studio, and underwritten by the government.

A special set of magnificent large pastel storyboards were created for the film for presentation to government officials in pitching the story created at the studio, including these two.

A color spread in Life Magazine showed the public some of these pastel storyboards, also including these two.

The first one shows patriotic factory whistles blasting. It is full pastel color on black paper, measuring 10 x 12”. It has an affixed number, 19, and the paper is five-hole Disney punched. Affixed is a black paper title “WHISTLE BLASTS.”

The second one shows an artistic expression of American factory might, giant factory “workhorses” as it were. It is full pastel color on black paper, measuring 10 x 12”. It has an affixed number, 8, and the paper is five-hole Disney punched.

If you are interested, you can view the cartoon, which starred Donald Duck, on YouTube, and read a little bit about the background of the project on Wikipedia.

July 23 2009

From Ger: the moonscape was never used in the book.

From some pals in London: "Would you like to go see 'Waiting for Godot,' which is playing now?"

And starring Professor X and Magneto:


The answer was an emphatic yes. Tickets confirmed for Aug 4.

July 20, 2009 Small steps...

Eighty years ago was the Great Wall Street Crash.

Twenty years ago was the Tiananmen Square massacre.

One hundred years ago, the NAACP was founded on the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

Sixty years ago, Mao declared the formation of the People's Republic of China.

Forty years ago, I was 12-year-old Sputnik era kid who stayed up all night to see the lunar landing, and then those first steps on the moon. To all the doubters and conspiracy mongers who don't think this actually happened: what the hell is wrong with you? RIP to Walter Cronkite, who represented something about Something that someone like Michael Jackson could only hope to aspire to.

And in honor of the Apollo 11 mission, here's the original art on which Cerebus 111, p 10 is based.

And here is a standing mystery: where (if anywhere) was this page used? Or even a piece of it? Ger... if you recall, gimme a holler.

July 10 2009

No one (I say) no one is moving any money around on Cerebus art, it seems... at least not in public. Looking back, there's been a total of 10 pages sold on eBay this year, and none since early May.

Just in case you're paying attention to that sort of thing, that is.

On the fandom side of things, we're seeing some interesting things: "Cerebus Readers in Crisis" ... the revival of "Cerebus the Newsletter" ... and today's announcement from cerebusfangirl that an Italian translation of "Cerebus" is going to be available, starting with "Alta Società" ... and their web site even talks about la bella margareta: Il sito http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/ è una ricca fonte di contenuti su Cerebus e tutto ciò che riguarda il suo mondo, la cui consultazione è consigliata a chiunque voglia approfondire la conoscenza di questa importante serie.

I'ma wonder howza dialecta speakin offa Duke Leonardi will be translate in Italiano?

And in the works: French and Spanish.

Let's see. What else is new?

Rakov #2 is ready and on the way to me!



I spent the last week in DC, and that was the first time to be in town for the 4th of July.



If you've not been to it, I'll take this opportunity to give another big plug to the National Museum of the American Indian, which is part of the Smithsonian and located just to the east of the Air and Space Museum. It is by far one of the top museums in the world - and I like museums, in general.

July 1 2009

I have been ranting about this all day to anyone who would listen, so I might as well post it for posterity (and posterity is really the right word for this, because the idea that lots of humanity more closely resembles the hind end of a horse comes to mind).

OK, let's start at the beginning. You are a woman who is called to the police officer station because you need to make a statement in defense of a buddy of yours who is a murder suspect.

You go to the police officer station and, during the interview with the police officer, a small squirrel crawls out from your cleavage.

What do you say? What do you do?

Really. Now hang with me here.

Now you are the police officer who is interviewing a woman who needs to make a statement on behalf on a buddy of hers who is a murder suspect. As you are interviewing this woman, a small squirrel pops out from her cleavage.

What do you say? What do you do?

OK, one more. You are a CNN reporter who is has heard about the woman with the cleavage and its resident squirrel that made an unexpected appearance during an interview with a police officer who... who ... you got the picture.

In the universe where I used to live (a place where irrational things were called irrational), police officers who were interviewing women would perhaps just stop when a squirrel makes its presence known. I might even expect police officers in the place where I used to live to say WTF? (perhaps even a few times) and they might talk to this woman about the relative credibility that this interview might reflect about her and so have in defense of her buddy who is a murder suspect.

Instead, the police officer in this universe said NOTHING, and just continued the interview.

And in the universe where I used to live, people who need to make statements in defense of their buddy who is a murder suspect might even be able to think this through.

Instead, the woman in this universe said NOTHING, and just continued the interview.

And in the universe where I used to live, reporters would see this story and take a perspective, like, WTF is wrong with the world when a squirrel pops out of cleavage during an police interview related to a murder case and no one says anything.

Instead, the reporter in this universe, well, you can see it for yourself.

The Squirrel Video

Someone please tell me where I can get a ticket back to my universe. This one is just too weird.