Sunday, December 31, 2006

Digital Funnies: Comics Preservation by Jonathan Barli

http://www.digitalfunnies.com/

"...dedicated to preserving the history of this most neglected of art forms and reintroducing it to scholars and new readers alike. While several well-known titles such as Krazy Kat, Gasoline Alley, and Peanuts are being given their proper due in published form, there is still much of the rich history of comics and cartooning that will more than likely never see print again and worse, fade away with time."

Many thanks to http://fusenumber8.blogspot.com/ and http://editoon.com/sandbox/.

Friday, December 29, 2006

The only cartoon ever nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize


This 1939 Hugh Harman cartoon shows a post-apocalyptic world populated by animals picking up the pieces after a war kills every human on earth.

The Kiddie Record King


The Kiddie Record King sells vintage records and record memorabilia. You can hear samples of many of records online (in all of their scratchy splendor). And there are 4 wonderful "galleries" of old phonographs, record sleeves and covers, artwork, and picture records. Great stuff, even if some of it is a little scary.

Many thanks to http://www.bibi.org/box/

Speaking of audio, have you heard about this Pandora.com? It’s “an automated music recommendation and Internet radio service created by The Music Genome Project.” You enter the music of your choice and it comes up with its own suggestions. (Forever?)

Kyoko Kishida,


who played the “Women in the Dunes,” and was the voice of Moomin, on the Japanese cartoon series, died on December 17th. www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/movies/28kishida

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

By Peter Reynolds



starvisions
at http://www.fablevision.com/

What a Hoofer



Oliver Hardy makes his share of appearances in children’s books. He’s the baker in BRUNDIBAR, and he's three bakers IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN.

He pops up again with Stan Laurel in ONCE UPON A BANANA. He’s a fitting character for a slapstick picture book, and I knew he was a graceful physical comedian. But I didn’t know that he was such an agile dancer.


(And did you know that Gene Deitch of Tom Terrific fame, animated and directed the 1987 cartoon adaptation of Sendak's, In the Night Kitchen?)

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Merrill Markoe’s WORDS OF INSPIRATION

Well it’s time to clear the decks, and recycle the stacks of newspapers and magazines that I never got around to reading in 2006.

Not long ago I admitted* that I didn’t get the appeal of those graphic panels called "The Funny Pages" in the NY Times magazine. I think they are neither pig nor pork. Maybe it’s the size of the print—tiny. Maybe it’s a matter of context, or that I expected them to be funny, and found them depressing, and that made me feel like a rube. (Okay, so I’m a little defensive.)

I’ll give them another shot when I get my new glasses. Soon. But The Funny Pages also include short autobiographical stories done in the regular magazine format. I just got around to reading one from December 3rd. If you’ve ever been anxious about public speaking, this is for you.

You can find more inspiration from Merrill at her site:
http://www.merrillmarkoe.com/writing/index.php and here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/merrill-markoe/puzzling-superironic-cor_b_37196.html



*Interested in making your own cultural confession? See: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/12/my_cultural_confessions.html

Amalia Hoffmann's

cutouts and pop-ups: http://www.amaliahoffman.com/3d.htm

Another Great flickr Slideshow from Ward Jenkins


THE FIRST NOEL illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wardomatic/sets/72157594437641659/show/

Sunday, December 24, 2006

BookSense.com

This post about the British children's author George Walker and his book Tales From an Airfield (http://www.talesfromanairfield.com/publish_page.html ) has inspired me to post information about booksense.com.

BookSense.com is a family of independent-bookseller websites. (And it's the e-commerce arm of the American Booksellers Association's Book Sense program.)
When you visit a BookSense.com virtual bookstore, you will experience the knowledge and passion of independent booksellers who share their love of books with their customers and their communities. You'll have access to information and news about local authors, store events, and myriad staff recommendations -- and you will also be presented with content that reflects the collective wisdom of booksellers from all 50 states and Puerto Rico.


Here are the BookSense children's book picks from summer 2006.

Maybe we can do some of our research at Amazon.com, and do our buying at the independent bookstores? What Booksense needs is a prominent "Find a Book " box like the one at
LocalBookshops.co.uk. http://localbookshops.tbpcontrol.co.uk/tbp.web/customeraccesscontrol/home.aspx?d=localbookshops&s=C&r=10000020

Illustrators with Umlauts

Olof Landström

and Ole Könnecke

Friday, December 22, 2006

Who is the Illustrator?

Here's an ad for walnuts from Better Homes and Gardens, circa 1957.

Ward Jenkins makes an "educated guess … that it's probably children's book illustrator JP Miller."

Here are some (more?) examples of Miller's work.

(Miller lived to be 91, Joseph Barbera lived to be 95, and Al Hirschfeld lived to be 99. Do animators and illustrators live longer than average? anybody?)

Minilogue/hitchhikers choice - short version (longer on DVD)






Thanks to zrecs.blogspot.com and fusenumber8.blogspot.com.

Z recommends some wonderful things! Fuse recommends some wonderful sites! (If I could spin a web, that's what it would say.)

Tokyo Fashion and NY Culture

Don’t know what to get the teen fashionista on your list? How about Fresh Fruits? "Fresh Fruits is a collection of Tokyo teenage street fashion portraits selected from Japan’s premier street fanzine of the same title. Published every month by Shoichi Aoki..."

And did you know that you could get into many events and museums around NYC for only five dollars, if (and it’s a big if) you can cajole your teenager into joining you? See http://www.highfivetix.org/Aspx/AboutHigh5/Default.aspx for details.

High 5 Tickets to the Arts is a non-profit organization dedicated to making the arts affordable for teens. Through High 5, teens ages 13 to 18 can buy $5 tickets to the best of New York City dance, music, theater and visual arts events all year round.

Don’t Let the Pigeon Operate the Catapult

This is why we love Mo.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Big Fat Little Lit


I received a copy of Big Fat Little Lit in the mail. (Thank you, Raw Books and Graphics!) My first impression was that I should rest up before reading it. I felt overwhelmed by so much to look at.

Big Fat Little Lit is a collection of stories and games selected from the Little Lit series. (See www.little-lit.com/ and watch The Hungry Horse in action.) I’d been aware of the Little Lit books, but I’d never read them. I thought they might be just for the comic book aficionado. I'm happy to say I was wrong.

The Kaz Strange Cartoon Lessons are genius. (See Lesson #44 on how to draw perspective--“I don’t care what you say--That’s a HUGE Baby!”)

Many of the writers and illustrators have worked for an adult audience and have a sinister side that’s more than hinted at on some pages. But most of the work is more along the lines of old Mad magazines and exquisitely illustrated fairy tales-- playfully subversive, beautifully strange, and fascinating.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Saul Steinberg: Illuminations

A major traveling retrospective of Saul Steinberg's work is at the Morgan Library through March 4, 2007.

Concurrent with this retrospective is A City on Paper: Saul Steinberg's New York, at the Museum of the City of New York. "A one-man school of architectural caricature, Steinberg reinvented the city—its skyline, its people, its monuments, and myths." Collection of Tom Bloom

jpeg via www.nytimes.com

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Gyo Fujikawa


Who is Gyo Fujikawa? You can find out at the ALA website, and see her work at flickr.com and loganberrybooks.com. A few more examples of her work at can be seen at ervilhas.weblog.com.

Thank you brookeshelf.blogspot.com and Random York for recommending her work, and Loganberry Books for the jpeg.

(Loganberry Books has a section on their site called Stump the Bookseller! "Submit your memory here, and see if anyone else remembers your book memory, or better yet, knows the title and author!" http://loganberrybooks.com/stump.html.)

Mo Doodles and Blogs

Mo Willems Doodles: flying...

Better Reading Through Design



Thank you bookshelves_of_doom.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

The Illustration Cupboard


The Illustration Cupboard is a "leading specialist in the exhibition and sale of original contemporary book illustration from around the world."




Booktrusted Illustrators

http://www.booktrusted.co.uk/illustrators/ (A gallery of work by contemporary children's book illustrators.)

From the Booktrust website:

Booktrust is an independent national charity that encourages people of all ages and cultures to discover and enjoy reading.
This web site provides free resources and recommendations for teachers, librarians and parents about books for young people of all ages.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Alain Gree and Steve Mack

Thank you soramimibunco and modmom.blogspot.com for posting pictures of books and games illustrated by Alain Gree (and his brother, Gerard too?).

If you like the work of Mary Blair (and there seems to be millions of us who do), you might like Alain Gree.

Steve Mack tells Jeremiah McNichols that he is influenced by both Blair and Gree. Check out Mack's fabulous blog here.

More examples of Alain Gree's work are posted at Prints Charming.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Illustration Friday--Mask (lost and found)

I played with this mask all year.
Then the dog ran off with it. It was gone for months...

until the snow melted!

Do you remember Tom Terrific? Do you like Jazz? Or the Blues? Or perhaps, you are planning a trip to Prague.



Then www.genedeitch.com is the website for you! See the illustration work of Gene Deitch. Look at his beautiful Ikea-furnished apartment in Czechoslovakia (that you can rent). Listen to John Lee Hooker, and more! (A lot more!)

Tom Terrific was a cartoon created by Gene Deitch for the Captain Kangaroo show, and aired in the 1950s and 60s.

Other animated features ran on the Captain Kangaroo show, including this promotion for reading and libraries. (A must-see for all of you librarians out there.)

Thank you, www.tvparty.com

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Sunday, December 03, 2006

The worm’s-eye view


After I read a book, I sometimes read the reviews to confirm my own ideas. In the December 4th New Yorker Elizabeth Kolbert writes about Probuditi!, the newest picture book by Chris Van Allsburg.

…as is the case with other Van Allsburg books—“Jumanji,” “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick,” even “The Polar Express”—there’s something sinister and adult about the whole uncanny apparatus. In Van Allsburg’s masterly sepia-toned drawings, the action always seems to be observed from the wrong angle.

Van Allsburg is influenced by Twilight Zone episodes and comic books. (From the interviews I've been reading lately, it seems that about half of all American illustrators are influenced by comic books.) And comic books are influenced by cinema. The "the wrong angles" in Probuditi! remind me of ominous Citizen Kane stills. Orson Welles shot from such a low angle that his film sets had to have ceilings.

(Thank you Kyleigh Turner)