Some Bill Mauldin finds.

Bill Mauldin(1921-2003) was a cartoonist during and after World War II, most famous for his creations "Willie and Joe", which first appeared in the 45th
I'm not qualified to speak of Mauldin's life history as others have done , but I have found a vintage magazine, showcasing his work.

Mauldin insisted on drawing his wartime cartoons in the field.  Unlike many domestically produced cartoons or propaganda pieces, there is very little depiction of the enemy, silly, threatening or otherwise such as in the Disney film "Education for Death".  Nor is there a lot of "wacky" humor, a-la the "Private Snafu" shorts, or "New Yorker" style drollery.

     In fact, the life of a soldier comes off as depressing and mundane.

 Rumor has it that Mauldin's gags ticked off more than a few officers, but the army saw fit to publish them, anyway.

   War, the soldier's plight and lifestyle have been examined and depicted for as long as human history, but more often than not, from the outside, with an editorial perspective. 
  Perhaps the reason that Mauldin's wartime work has endured is the simple honesty. 

  In the afterward to the magazine, Mauldin wrote of his fellow soldiers:
     "They've aged 15 to 20 years, have beards, their eyes have bags underneath, and they wear a dopey expression because they need a lot of sleep . Some of them are getting bowlegged and flatfooted from hiking too much. The poor guys have changed so much that I hardly recognize them". 

  I guess that's why he drew the pictures, because sometimes, there are no words.

Some complaing and SPOILERS

 This'll have like spoilers and stuff, so consider ye warned.


So I saw Wreck It Ralph recently, and admired the film very much. Except I felt it lacked a distinct.

King Candy bears a striking aural resemblance to old time Film and Radio Comedian Ed Wynn, and more specifically to another cartoon that Wynn voiced, the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.

 

Big deal, you might say. Feature animation characters often rip off other film roles. Either directly, or through homage.  

  For Example,  both 'Tangled' and the Original Broadway production Of "Into the Woods" feature very similar interpretations of Rapunzel's witch-mother, right down to magic age-changing and a love of capes.

And voice actor is a celebrity in their own right, the character often winds up looking like 'em, so Why doesn't King Candy look more like Alan Tudyk?  

Of course, swiping cartoon character designs is a venerated tradition, as many an internet meme will point out. 

 

But if the Ed Wynn Mad Hatter  was the perfect choice for a character in a movie that takes place in a video game universe, I'd like to know why. 

 This is subjective, but I feel villains need to be interesting, even entertaining in their own right.

Alfred Hitchcock directed tons of thrillers throughout his lifetime, but honestly, which is the most well remembered? 

After two and a half decades of boilerplate spies and saboteurs, the most well-remembered character in the Hitchcock canon is the villain of Psycho "Mother Bates".

A distinct, entertaining, even  colorful villain can mean the difference between a ponderous, talky, boring movie and an intriguing adventure.

 

Even in low-key "family fare", the bad guys have to at least be memorable,

 

But who was the bad guy in Wreck It Ralph? 

The guy from the board game? 

The Mad Hatter? Wait, which one?

 It's a shame, because on the whole, Wreck-It-Ralph is a fantastic movie, crafted with wit and sensitivity, but I find it's dragged down by an antagonist who appears little more than a thin celebrity impersonation.

mouse out of context

 

As my read through old Mickey Mouse newspaper comics continues, I find myself imbued with a new moral purpose: I will not show out of context images with the notion of corrupting or deconstructing an American institution(besides, "Air Pirates Funnies" did, and they got sued to Hellenbach)

   So if anybody out there has any comments about Minnie and spanking, say them within your own company, for I am obviously too noble to do so.

  

See, here's a beloved children's character reading a book about guns. Which is ridiculous, because Mickey never uses guns. 

 

  Here it may appear that Mickey is torturing a  sickly horse for his own twisted amusement, but the larger context reveals that this is the famous "Tanglefoot' storyline, in which Mickey buys a sickly horse, enters him in a race and nearly destroys all his assets betting on his own race.

 

...I have no explanation for this whatsoever.

Craft and Draughtmanship in Mickey Mouse

 the  Fantagraphics' reprints of the "Mickey Mouse" comic strips by Floyd Gottfredson,  are beautifully drawn: wonderfully constructed pieces of innocent whimsy that...

 

...  Okay, so it's Post-Depression audiences that we're talking about:  rough. After all, these strips were of the same generation of Dick Tracy. But unlike Chester Gould's violent cop, you'd never Mickey Mouse firing a gu--

 

 Um, never mind. Maybe I'm just picking out an isolated occurrence of

  

And here Clarabel Cow's gonna bust some ass. But hey, she has a rolling pin, so Comedy, Right?

 

And Goofy empties about two boxes of ammo in a blind killing rage. This is pretty sobering when I think that these are the comic strips my Grandmother grew up reading.

  

Dear God! Walt Disney's signature is even on this one! These are the comic strips my Grandmother grew up reading? 

Out of context, this panel makes it seem like Mickey's ultimate triumph is through a combination of arms escalation and damnright sadism...well that's exactly what it is.

A visit from Gregory: An Education Experience.

"Christmas with Gregory" was intended to be conceived, and executed this past November, giving at least two weeks of December address-grabbing to make a decent mailing of the project. Certainly, the project was with the best of intents, with a use of landscape format, and the research and pre-production steps one needs to take with any comics project.

But, like many artists, I have a pesky dayjob that interferes with this proposition. Mainly a retail gig that lacks regular hours, where shifts are frequently switched, and you never know which mornings and evenings you are gonna work week to week. So deadlines on the self-set production schedule get pushed back... and pushed back... and pushed back even more.

So fast forward to December, the race is on to get his mini drawn, lettered, printed and SHIPPED before goddamned Christmas. And by December 19th, it's set. except...

The surface of a standard Office Photocopier is 17" wide while the full size of the original artwork (including that centerfold spread) is 18" wide. First Proofs are cropped artwork, no good, and no time to resize it since I'm at the zero hour AND have a holiday-season store shift starting in ten minutes.

CURSE YOU PHOTOCOPIERRRRRRR!

Game sum total: no printed mini comic this year.

Which brings about some lessons learned.

Lesson the First: Format is vital! ALWAYS know the final format of your project: aspect ratio, codec, ppi, frame rate, interlacing, color codes,paper sizes available, and of course, the size of your scanner bed before you even set pencil to paper to brainstorm!

If it's a painting to be framed, know what frame sizes are out there, first! Neglecting to even measure the scanning bed of the Xerox machine I was gonna use ahead of time shot me through the foot at the finish line.


Lesson the Second: If you aren't in an environment conductive to your goals: get out of there! A large part of what killed "Gregory" was the simple inability to predict what times would be available to work on it, due to working for an outfit with highly irregular hours.

It's not the store's fault for interferring with the schedule, it's mine for allowing it to.


Lesson the Third: Be a royal jerk about it!

We live in a culture that neither appreciates or understands the practical aspects of making art, regardless of discipline. Try out the following statements :
"I'm sorry, but I have church/a shift at McDonald's/ a picnic to go to" vs.
"I'm sorry, I have to draw"
Which of those two is somebody gonna debate?

Nobody else gets it. Not your semi-altzemic great aunt who thinks working a register at Michaels puts you "in the biz", not the government with it's comparative disregard for cultural enrichment and miniscule change jar excuse for a grants fund, and ESPECIALLY not any well meaning person or rationale that gently reminds you you "can always do that later."

Hell No.

In such an environment, to really stick to your guns and make it through requires significant force of personality: traits such as selfishness, rudeness, obsession, stubbornness, and even the occasional tantrum... at least where the work is concerned.

Cause otherwise, you're gonna cooperate yourself right the hell out of what's really important.

Color redux.

This is what happens when you just can't stop noodling around. You'll notice changes from last post. I've tried to approximate flesh tones within the given palettes, cut the variation within the restaurant location (there are definite changes in mood, but I've decided to give more focus to separating the scenes by location)

If you're into color theory and all that cool stuff, you'll notice these are all analogous schemes. No compliments, tetrads, or triads here. Since the scenes of the film are very direct and to the point, I felt the color design should reflect that. Also, since the final product won't time out to more than one minute, I figure dynamic opposition(visually) between the scenes should press a sense of scope the movie wouldn't otherwise have from the time slot.

So comic con San Diego came and went with thunderous noise and many blistered feet. But like always, It was a blast. A mighty blast, complete with....

COSPLAY

MOVIE PEOPLE IN GREAT BIG HALLS!

Rick Baker


Kevin Altieri, staring into your very soul.

AND COMICS PEOPLE IN VERY SMALL HALLS

The Hernandez Brothers, creators of Love and Rockets.

The Nicole Brothers, Ethan (art) and Malachai (story), creators of Axe Cop.

Extra Bonus: the panel was moderated by Kevin Murphy.

Extra-Extra Bonus: Malachai Nicole showed Baby Man how to do the Baby Man Dance!

Extra-Extra- Extra Bonus: somebody asked to take my picture, complimenting me on my "Hunter S. Thomson" Costume.

... The Hell?