Wiley Miller’s Non Sequitur strip for today salutes Mad Magazine Fold-in genius Al Jaffee. Jaffee’s back in town, it would seem.
(click to the website for a full view of the cartoon - Non Sequitur © 2008 Wiley)
Who says there’s no comics in mainstream media ? This short “humor piece” by Mike Sacks and Julian Sancton (from Esquire Magazine - check out Mike’s site for a full-sized version) has got what it takes : art in sequence, a good storyline and a damn poignant message.
(thanks to Scott Gilbert for the link)
In its Man campaign, Mazda promotes its new RX-8 model as an ideal vehicle for getting out of a sticky situation, such as a commitment. It’s what all blokes want, right ? For some reason, it reminded me of bad strips from the sixties.
(via Ads Of The World)
I’m always interested in forms of comics that are slightly different than the rest, and for that reason, non-fiction comics have always appealed to me. The best-known example of this kind of comics is, of course, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, but over the years other series have had long runs. Artur Lorie recently sent me some examples of more scientifically oriented, and less sensationalistic strips, and also provided some background.
The strip at the top is from Strange As It Seems by John Hix, from 1931. Art quotes the excellent Stripper’s Guide, one of the true Extraordinary Comics Blogs (we should have a league of those) about this :
Strange As It Seems ran from 1928 to 1970 [!!], with creator John Hix [I think] dying in 1944. He was succeeded by Dick Kirby [1944-46, 48-49], Doug Heyes [1946-48], George Jahns [1949-6?] and finally Ernest Hix, Jr. [196?-1970]. Of those I’m trying to find out something about Heyes — since this was also the name of a Warner Bros. producer who worked on Maverick, Sugarfoot, 77 Sunset Strip, etc
Hix also did Frank Merriwell’s Schooldays from 1928 to 1930 and the John Hix Scrapbook — sports tidbits that ran 1939ish to 1942 as a Sunday topper to SAIS.
Strange As It Seems also spinned of into a radio show in the 1930’s and 40’s, and a series of animated shorts, featuring stories based on the strips.
As part of a campaign to raise awareness about the fate of the Indian tiger, the World Wildlife Fund created a campaign that played with the expectations of the avarage newspaper reader. On the comics page, they placed a play on the “spot the differences” strips that are generally offered on these pages, only this time the difference is the tiger that’s missing.
A nice, simple campaign with plenty of comics content to deserve mentioning here.
(Find a larger scan at Ads of the World)
Depending on your frame of thought, Prince Albert may refer to royal history, a concert hall or metal appendages. But it the 1930’s it also was a type of tobacco, and it had a rather nice old bean called Judge Robbins promoting it. Click on for more examples, from the 1936, 1937 and 1939 volumes of Liberty Magazine.
I’m afraid I forgot where I got these, but in any case : tip of the hat !
This august, the Lexington, KY Tates Creek High School Class of 1978 will be holding their reunion festivities (it being thirty years ago that they graduated, probably). This would be another fait divers, if one of the alumni weren’t Frank Cummings, since 2004 the assistant artist on the Blondie strip, one of the longest-running, most popular features in comic strip history.
Cummings placed his school’s logo on the cap of a kid passing by in a panel, but not before getting permission from King Features Syndicate, publishers of Blondie. In an interview with the Kentucky Leader-Herald, he said, “They’re very strict about any kind of promotion, and I was kind of afraid they wouldn’t let it go. But I told them it was my high school logo, and they said OK.”
It doesn’t get any more ephemeral than this, folks. So all hail Chris Pyle for spotting this one.
It would seem that Jim Davis’ Garfield is a real cornucopia for literary experimentation. Much more than any other popular comic, be it Peanuts or Calvin And Hobbes, Davis’ universe clos and iconic characters seem to lend themselves to postmodern repurposing and extistentialist critique.
Earlier we had Forever Garfield and Nothing Garfield, and now Garfield Minus Garfield presents Jon’s little world without his cat’s overwhelming presence. It’s as if Samuel Beckett is doing the funnies. And it even made USA Today’s Pop Candy blog.
The Ephemerist will be at the Angoulème Festival from Wednesday January 28 until Saturday January 31. If you want to meet up, let me know.
