Here's my memory of what men wore in the mid-80s(above): Dr. Martin's high top shoes, spandex bicycle racing pants, fanny pack, and a buccaneer shirt with puffy sleeves and collar wide enough for a second head, if needed. An Elvis Costello, close-on-the-sides haircut, of course. I left the shirt label out which was something guys did later on in the 90s but it looks so good with this outfit that I threw it in anyway. I knew the 80s were funny when I was living through them. I'm furious with myself and other artists for not chronicling that period with pictures. I didn't because I thought a million other artists must have had it covered. It turns out they didn't. Amazingly the funny part of the eighties passed without drawings to record it. Equally amazing, the period we're living in now is passing unrecorded. All the bling, nose rings, baggy pants and bald heads are going to pass into oblivion, unrecorded by artists.
I know what you're thinking : plenty of underground comics and animated TV shows are recording our time, but are they? The kind of drawings I have in mind are done by artists who can see our time as campy and ridiculous, the way people in the future will undoubtedly see it. What we need are artists from the year 2040, fresh out of the time machine. For me Crumb and Wood fit that description. Both of these artists knew they were living in funny times and they took full advantage of it.I didn't have time to find illustrations by these artists that would fit what I was trying to say. The Crumb drawing doesn't make the point at all but I'll leave it in. I did stumble on a drawing by Wood (below) that sort of fits. Guys, do you want to see it?
26 comments:
"Guys, do you want to see it?"
Of course!
That is one amazing drawing with that tag sticking out like a scroll! I'm glad I was only a lil' pooplet when all that ugly eighties stuff was going on.
It's hard to see things as ridiculous as they are when you're in the thick of it. When all the cool kids are dressing goofy there is the strong urge to do it yourself rather than step back and go, "Hey guys, thats pretty retarded." The poeple that figure that out tend to be either wicked smart or simply bonkers.
I want to make a cartoon about fourteen year old british teenagers, and feature every exaggerrated stereotype of our time there is.
I also want the main character create a fun-fair ride out of aborted foetus's.
this is a good point and something i try to be aware of all the time, but i fall back on my instincts instead of incoporating new silly fashion into my artwork. I always wanted to do a book of myspace hipster/scene kids that listen to lots of indie rock, with piercings tatoos, feathered bangs, cheezy vintage clothes, studded belts, vintage sporty shoes etc. etc. Now is as good a time as ever to use that because it can add a lot to a design,a nd pretty much all the work is done for you. these people are walking cartoons, hiphoppers and hipsters alike. On hand you have clothes that are super baggy and larger than life that make normal skinny guys look like menacing fatsos, and on the other hand you have tight, form fitting clothes that accentuate and draw attention to the post-adolescents weird disproportinate bodies. hahaahah
Elizabeth Taylor in her 22-inch-wasted prime by Wood...what's so funny about it? Looks just plain sexy and cute to me! But I'll look at it just the same, thanks!.
(note of little interest: Wally Wood's was the very first-ever artist self-published sketchbook I ever bought--before I was old enough to drive--at Collector's bookshop in Hollywood.)
Cartoonists from 2040 couldn't fathom walking around in 2006 without their mandatory G.O.P. swastika armbands and government-issue rubber butt plug g.p.s. trackers. Democracy will be really widespread by that time, even in our beloved evangelical Christian homeland.
Jenny: You didn't think that Wood piece was funny? I not only think it's funny but I think it's fine art.
Since I'm on the subject of fine art I changed my mind about Panter's "Elvis Zombie." It is fine art in my opinion. Whoever has the original better be sure it's kept in good condition.
Cable: I don't know...the arist has skill but the subject is so depressing.
David: That's a great subject for a book and it'll still be interesting years from now! Do it and I hope you make a lot of money from it!
BTW, If Marlo OKs it do you mind if I reprint the picture of you and her that's on her site now? I won't do it unless you OK it.
"...Since I'm on the subject of fine art I changed my mind about Panter's "Elvis Zombie." It is fine art in my opinion. Whoever has the original better be sure it's kept in good condition..."
Whoa! Gary Panter is fine art, now?
When we were at the MOCA show in December, we couldn’t get the Hell out of the Panter/Speigelman room fast enough. I thought that room was meant to cleanse the pallet with a little swill, in-between healthy draughts of pure genius.
How dare the museum exhibitors place Panter on the same pedestal as Kurtzman, McCay, Herriman, Feininger, Eisner, and Kirby? (And don’t forget - he was included at the expense of other artists who weren’t represented AT ALL. Panter over Milt Gross, Billy DeBeck, Hank Ketchum and Walt Kelly?)
If I had an original Panter, I'd use it to wrap my Beetle Bailey comics in.
Who are you, stranger - and what have you don’t with the REAL Eddie Fitzgerald?
That Wood pic reminds me of the only thing I can remember about 80's fashion: Wood. All the women in those tight black stretch leggings, revealing every contour and ass dimple... not a bad time for fashion, in my opinion. It was good to get outside.
Of course, not everything that happens in a decade happens at the same time or to the same people... I'm not sure fanny packs and Doc Martens were ever part of the same statement, at least on my block.
And also, coming on the heels of the disco polyester double-knit leisure suit and platform shoe 70's, the 80's were a relief.
It was funny, however to go see live music, and the first thing the kids do when they park and get out of the car is pass around a can of hairspray. The post-modern pompadour definitely reached an absurd peak. It was as if the whole point of the music was to get your hair done, and to commune with others who had fabulous hairdos, too.
Moving on to the present, hands down, the hiphop and gangsta culture is some funny shit. Say what you will about nose rings and tatoos, but gangstas are the first people in history to rebel against wearing pants where they are supposed to go. Why pull them over your ass when you can put them under your ass and leave your entire ass covered only by boxers?
This is an unparalelled high watermark for self expression.
I'm only waiting for the next inevetible step, when someone asks, why pull them up at all when I can just shuffle down the street with my pants around my ankles?
After that, surely someone will decide to wear pants as shirts, or shoes as hats...
I don't know if the wiggers are pushing it quite as far yet, but I like the idea that culture has expanded to the point where crazy ghetto black kids can manipulate crazy suburban white kids, without even trying.
Bill Griffith, while not the most skillful cartoonist, has not missed much in the way of cultural absurdity. I know he chronicled both leisure suits and articulated shoulders, in real time.
I think it's a great drawing, but I don't laugh out loud looking at it. Wood did a hell of a lot of very very funny cartoon stories and drawings; this is more....glamour-puss. How can you laugh at a 25 year old Liz Taylor? ; )
I think it's great art, too...I don't know what "fine art" means anymore.
That wet moon guy seems to be very fond of his subjects, rather than finding any humor in them... almost too fond. If he were any fonder, he'd be painting big-eyed orphan waifs on black velvet.
Mike: LOL! I'm only defending "Elvis Zombie." That's a really good painting! Go back into the archive and take another look at it!
Care: Pants below the butt definitely deserves to be chronicled. I only wish artists had immortalized the 70s black styles with James Brown-type hair-dos under nets, Afros parted down the middle with big combs sticking out, and athletic shorts that looked like underwear worn outside of long jogging pants. Artists, even funny artists, ignored all this for some reason. Maybe they were all into 70s fine art where you swish broken glass and debris all over the museum floor.
Thank God 70s hair styles are still championed by James Brown and Ronald MacDonald. These two men are truly the "Last of the Mohicans."
Jenny: Doggone it! I feel like trying to analyse the Wood painting in print but I don't think anyone besides you and me would be interested.
Hey Eddie, I talked told marlo about it and she said she doesn't mind, and neither do I so go ahead!
I only wish artists had immortalized the 70s black styles with James Brown-type hair-dos under nets, Afros parted down the middle with big combs sticking out, and athletic shorts that looked like underwear worn outside of long jogging pants. Artists, even funny artists, ignored all this for some reason.
Well, at least we have this.
Hey, a Wood drawing from "Anyone For Wrist Slashing?" by Stan Freberg! Eddie is a man with class!
I love drawing people as rediculous as they look and dress. Hahaha! That's why I had so many enemies in high school! If they want to get attention, they got tons of it from my pen and paper. Bwa-hahaha! I like what David said about all the indie-hipsters and hip-hopper morons too. Hahaha. It's hard to imagine how those people actually think they look GOOD. 20 years from now they will see pictures of what they used to look like and be charred to a crisp!
Let's start recording the goofiness before it's too late to further their future embarassment!
Coop has some cool 70's stuff..
http://www.coopstuff.com/Pages/Posters97/FrameSet.htm
I think that was a more early 90s almost grunge bohemian meets hop hop look. You forgot a black velvet floppy hat and a paisley vest.
David: Thanks!
Shawn: So THAT'S what that picture is from. You really know your Wood!
I only wish artists had immortalized the 70s black styles with James Brown-type hair-dos under nets, Afros parted down the middle with big combs sticking out, and athletic shorts that looked like underwear worn outside of long jogging pants
I think Ralph bakshi covered all of this in his film's dirty traffic and coonskin, and he did a great job of it. he even gave characters bellbottom shaped legs in wizards which was more sci-fi fantasy. Also i think jack davis did some pretty silly sports type cartoons/caricatures of 70's basketball players like Julius Erving, with the short shorts afros and headbands.
I think Ralph bakshi covered all of this in his film's dirty traffic and coonskin
You mean Heavy Traffic. And also, the film Coonskin is also named Street Fight. I haven't seen either of those but I have seen Fritz the Cat. Yes, I agree that Bakshi did capture the '70's with that film. I'll have to take Gemmill's word on the other two.
Bold text!
ahah sorry, dirty traffic! what was i thinking. freudian slip i suppose. bakshi's films did have a grimey dark quality to them though.
You certainly should see Heavy Traffic and "Street Fight" or whatever they called "Coonskin" on the VHS release. The latter featured some of the most authentic 1970's clothing and hairstyles ever put on film. People too young to remember the decade may think Ralph was exaggerating but what you see in "Coonskin" certain folks actually wore. Irv Spence and Amby Paliwoda did some great, full animation on that picture, to boot.
The 80's are boring.
Didn't the eighties get their due with all of those hip skateboarding cartoon sidekicks added to 'relate' to the kid of the day? Even the Simpsons made note of that.
And where did the fashion sense of Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy come from?
Of course, there may have been no parodic -intent-, in all these cases, nor did anyone particularly always view them from that philosophical distance.
Maybe not in illustration or comics, but check out toys.
"Homeys" and other designer vinyl toys are full of urban culture.
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