Welcome to the story is a very interesting experiment. First of all, it’s a work in progress, with a meandering story that changes course every day. The cool part about it is that it engages the reader in the story by asking him to submit pictures of himself. These pictures are then used as reference material for characters in the story.
Flog!’s Jacob Covey links to the Ephemerist, and calls us “a good pop blog” ! Thanks, Jacob !
Incidentally, Eric Reynolds traces the sources of the Polaroid ads mentioned earlier, to Daniel Clowes’ David Boring.
Well, Art Lortie has done it again… In his never ending quest to preserve comic ephemera for the future, he has collected all episodes of the Volto from Mars comic at the Volto Archives.
Volto was the hero of a series of advertisments for General Mills’ Grape-Nut Flakes that ran in several National Periodicals comics (and others) in the 1940’s. As Art writes :
He possessed powers far beyond those of mortal men. By raising his left arm and yelling “Volto”, he could repel all objects; hoist the right and yell “Volto” and he attracts. Do it too much, and he must recharge with hearty doses of cereal.
In the 20 adventures I found, he repels menacing animals and dastardly spies, wearing standard super-hero tights and the requisite finned headgear of science fiction heroes, Luckily at some point the artists realized that his lightning bolt belt buckle would turn Volto — or any unlucky pitchman at a supermarket — into a enuch. So they moved the design onto his stomach.
Thanks, Art !
I’ve been a fan of Joost Swarte’s artwork for quite a while, and when I met him earlier this year, I was happily pleased to find out he’s as much the gentleman as his artwork suggest.
It’s not been easy to track down his work recently, not where I live anyway, but luckily people are on the lookout for me.
So here’s a picture Swarte made for this week’s issue of the New Yorker. Enjoy !
