Now that Al Jaffee’s all the rage again, with the New York Times salute and all, I thought it’d be a good idea to illustrate his influence on many art forms with this video for the song Girl by Beck. Keep on the lookout for these fold-ins !
In 1923, cartoonist B. Knight, working under the monicker of Tack, compiled a few tips for aspiring cartoonists in a small booklet called Tack’s Cartoon Tips. Thanks to David Blog (and that’s his real name), we can all learn from him through a special Flickr set.
In late 1987, John Lustig bought the rights to an obscure Charlton romance comic called First Kiss, a not-really-first-rate 40-issue series published from 1957 to 1965. It was a gamble, and as Lustig himself says, it turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy : Charlton was not known for actually honoring its creators, and so, although there are some quite big names present in the title’s roster, quantity was more important than quality. Which, according to Lustig, brought along a “nightmarish quality” to the stories.
Anyway, rather than have this sit in his attic to gather dust, Lustig decided to get creative, and started using artwork from First Kiss to develop his own comic, appropriately called Last Kiss by substituting the original dialogue with new text that’s even less fitting, more unsettling and generally immensely more hilarious.
It’s Get Your War On, but with vintage artwork. See it here.
