I've been swamped the last few days with calls and projects and more calls and deadlines and work on the Kirby book. I know there have been a lot of postings here but I'll give away a trade secret here and admit that many of them were pre-written and tossed up here to relieve the guilt I feel when I log in and see I haven't updated lately. But a couple of posts were fresh, and there should have been one more about the late Peter Ellenshaw, who passed away on Tuesday. A few years ago, I attended a great evening at the Academy where Mr. Ellenshaw discussed his work and clips were shown. It was stunning. I don't think I'd even begun to appreciate his artistry before that because I hadn't realized the extent of what he did.
Mr. Ellenshaw specialized in matte paintings...paintings that are incorporated into the visuals of a movie, adding details that do not exist in real life. He did it so well that often, you weren't aware that the beautiful image on your screen was primarily an Ellenshaw matte painting. Truly amazing.
So I should have written something earlier. But I couldn't have written anything better than this post, which appeared over at Jim Hill Media.
If in a room of comic strip historians, you proclaimed that Walt Kelly's Pogo was the best newspaper comic of all time, no one would call the sanitarium to come cart you away. Not everyone would agree, of course. Some would argue that Pogo was the second best or the third...but few would place it outside the Top Ten and no one would think you'd lost your taste or marbles. Mr. Kelly was a genius not only at drawing wonderful, mesmerizing critters but at putting them in fascinating situations and filling their word balloons with plain, old-fashioned brilliance. The "We have met the enemy..." line is his most quoted but he was that good, that sharp almost every week...for around 9,687 strips, daily and Sunday.
(Don't take those numbers as exact. For one thing, I did the math and mine is always a bit questionable. For another, I used the dates that the original Pogo strip ran and Kelly didn't do the last few years, owing to his having passed away.)
If you want a precise count, here's what you'll have to do. Fantagraphics Books, the folks who bring you those superb Peanuts reprints, are soon to bring you Pogo with the same loving care and format. Buy the books — there'll be twelve (or so) volumes in hardcover in the coming years — and when they get to the end, count up the strips. It'll be somewhere over 9,000 and they'll all be jes' wonderful with the presentation they deserve. Walt's daughter Carolyn is keeping an eye on everything and protecting the family jewels.
Here's the official announcement. Above is the not-final cover for the first one, expertly art-directed by Jeff "Bone" Smith. We are all quite happy about this.
It's a little more than two weeks until WonderCon convenes in San Francisco. Wondercon is run by the same folks who run the mammoth Comic-Con International in San Diego but WonderCon is a normal-sized convention. Which is not to say it won't seem crowded, especially on Saturday. But there's plenty to do, plenty to see, plenty to buy, etc., in an environment that won't overwhelm you the way San Diego does. I've been to a lot of these and always had a good time.
I'm a Special Guest Person (or whatever they call us) and unlike last year, when I found myself unexpectedly in a hospital bed when I should have been at Wondercon, I plan to actually be there. I'll be doing what I tend to do at these things...moderating panels. You can come and hear me interview great comic book artists like Nick Cardy and Gene Colan. You can come hear me chatting with Al Feldstein, the man who gave us Tales from the Crypt and other EC Comics, plus he was the editor of Mad Magazine for a few centuries. I'll be doing a panel with Sergio Aragonés, and then we have a panel with Sergio and Al discussing their days together at Mad. I'll also be...well, here. Let me just link you to my schedule. This page tells you about the events I'll be hosting.
And if for some inexplicable reason, you might be inclined to go to some of the programming I'm not hosting, this page lists the whole schedule. (Okay, I'll grudgingly admit: There are a few events on there not involving me that do look rather enjoyable.)
After he stopped making wonderful theatrical cartoons, director Tex Avery made funny animated commercials for a while. This is one of a long series he did for Raid, house and garden bug killer. Raid hunts bugs down like radar and kills them dead. And what's more, Raid won't oil-stain draperies or furniture. Not only that but outdoors, Raid won't harm plants. Isn't it wonderful?
The voice of the smaller bug is Mel Blanc, the voice of the larger bug is Paul Frees, and I'm guessing it took them a long time to record this spot. Maybe three minutes. I believe the announcer is William Schallert, who somehow managed to be on every TV show made in the sixties at one time or another. I don't know why they didn't just have Paul or Mel do all three parts but I guess they had a little cash to throw around on these. When I worked with Tex years later, he told me he made three times as much money doing a 30 second spot like this as he had for directing all seven minutes of Little Rural Riding Hood or Bad Luck Blackie or any of those great cartoons.
February 16, 2007
