WALLY WOOD'S WOMEN

This is about Wally Wood.

I love the way Wood used to draw women in glamor poses (above), even when they were casually walking down the street.

Even his sci-fi was full of glamor poses. A wife tearfully saying goodbye to a husband leaving for Mars wasn't above striking a calendar pose. Amazingly the off-topic poses didn't diminish the seriousness of the story.

Wood obviously did this because he thought it was funny, but I'm guessing that it was also because his photo reference (above) came from ads and mens magazines. 50s glamor was very stylized. Even ice-cream could be sold with bombshell poses. The era wasn't interested in looking natural, and neither was Wood.

Unfettered by naturalism Wood was free to figure out his own way of walking women. I like that better than the literal stuff we do now.

I imagine that this (above) is the way women really walk in heels.  It's different than what Wood did, but that doesn't mean Wood was wrong. Cartooning and animation aren't about realism, they're about caricature....

...and nobody caricatured better than Wood. Imagine how this walk (above) would have looked in animation. Imagine how much fun it would have been to draw. It would even have been fun to draw the discombobulated men she passed.

Surprisingly animation never picked up on Wood's unique way of drawing sexy walks. Too bad, the subject (above) was far from exhausted.

Animation's in a rut, don't you think? I yearn for something new and different. 

I'm thinking only of walks here, but I don't mean something X-rated. I mean something "G" or "PG" that's funny, and which a family could watch together without the parents falling asleep. 

Geez, all this is making me want to draw.

CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES!!!!

I'm not due for another post til Monday morning, but this won't wait. I just want to raise a glass to all the students who graduated this Summer. Wow! You made it! All that work...all those memories...and now you're on the threshold of a new life. Here's to you! The best of luck!



Of course no tribute is more apt than the Medieval academic hymn, "Gaudeamus Igitur."



Here's another version!

JOHN K CARICATURES EDDIE

A few days ago John did this caricature of me (above) in my copy of the newly published Spumco Comic Book anthology. Wow! I look ten million years old...even the flies around my head look old...but it's me alright, no doubt about it. The part of the inscription that's missing reads (Ahem!)....."To that renowned cartoonist and scholar..."

Who knows? In a hundred years this caricature in this book might end up in The Louvre and I'll have the posthumous satisfaction of being displayed under the same roof as Rubens and DaVinci. 

A couple of days later another caricature (above)! This time I'm an arch villain encased in ice.

For comparison, here's (above) what I really look like, and that's the book containing the caricature.

I'm in this book...well, sort of. In the book a guy who looks just like me is the neighborhood butcher, Victor Lugnuts.

Victor has no buck teeth, so the resemblance isn't 100%, but it's still close. Gee, that's a really appealing drawing. I'm guessing John did the pencil roughs, Mike cleaned them up and Shane did the inks.

Above, a masterful shot of the back of Victor Lugnuts' head.  Art students take note: get hold of this book even if you have to sacrifice to do it.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (PARODY)

ON COUPLE KISSING PASSIONATELY:

(SFX): SMOOCH! SMOOCH!

(SFX): KISSY! KISSY! KISSY!

  (SFX): SMOOOCH! KISSY! KISSY! SMOOCH!!!!

(SFX): SMOOOOOOCH!!!!

COUPLE:  KISSY! SMOOOOOCH!!!!! KISSY!! SMOOOOOOOCH! SMOOOOOOCH!!!!!!!!!

SHE SITS UP, PUSHES HIM AWAY:

GLADYS: "No, wait a minute...we shouldn't be doing this. It's wrong."

PIERRE: "Wrong? How can it be wrong? Are you saying the love between a man and a woman is wrong? How can it be wrong?"

GLADYS (WHILE SPITTING OUT WATER): "I don't know...it just is!"

PIERRE: "Well, if it's wrong, how come it feels so right? I mean I feel pretty doggoned right about it, and if you feel that way, too....."

PIERRE: "Gladys, have you got a towel?"

GLADYS: "I forgot to bring a towel. I have a sandwich. Do you want a sandwich?"

PIERRE: " No, forget the sandwich. Look, all I'm saying is...that when a man..."

PIERRE (WHILE SPITTING OUT WATER): "When a man...."

PIERRE: "What's in the sandwich?"

GLADYS: "Peanut butter, I think."

PIERRE: "The crunchy kind?"

GLADYS: "Yeah, the crunchy kind."

PIERRE: "Good. Let's do it."


************

Photo and title copyright by original copyright holders.

RETURN TO DISNEYLAND

Here I am, back at Disneyland! Many thanks to my anonymous friend whose employee pass made this possible! 

Here's (above) my tram which connected the parking structure with the park. Yikes, half the people hid their faces in a panic when I snapped the picture. I felt terrible. Everyone was so jovial only a moment before. I'll have to be more discreet when I take pictures of crowds.

Once in the park we headed for the Cars ride, which was great. They set it up so you appear to be racing the car beside you. 

Above, the line for the Pinocchio ride. I love taking crowd shots close up but as I said, I'll have to be more discreet. 

Above, the Pinocchio attraction again. This wall painting is the first thing you see at the start of the ride.  How do you like the idea of the dual proscenium, one within the other? 

No trip to Disneyland is complete for me without a visit to The Golden Horseshoe. I love the architecture. It's small scale, but succeeds in being grand at the same time. 

Traffic in Disneyland is handled beautifully. The people in the lower left are in a sunken, elliptical line leading to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. On the bridge above them (our level) is the walking traffic from Adventureland. Above that is a staircase leading to a V.I.P. restaurant, and above that (in the distance) is a rope bridge that leads to Tarzan's Treehouse. 

I love the way traffic flows in and out, up and down and all around in this part of the park. The people watching opportunities are endless!

Above, another view of the treehouse bridge.

On the way up the treehouse (above) what you see mostly is a beautiful tangle of Burne Hogarth-type branches. Even in the tree you become aware of the human traffic going on in all directions around you. I marked the passageways with red arrows.

Going down (above) you're treated to great views of the park. 

Stunning! Views like this took my breath away!

Above, the treehouse bottom. Seeing this reminds me of how important it is for our era to plant lots of exotic, slow-growing "old-growth-type" trees so our successors will have something to look at besides pine. 

Here's (above) the caricature nook in Adventureland. I hate to say it, but the talent wasn't that impressive. 

Here's the silhouette shop. The caricatures were okay, but not very imaginative.

Here's an exhibit showing a real animator working at a traditional animation desk. I can't convey how strange it was to see the ordinary, everyday tools of my trade in a museum setting behind velvet ropes. I felt like a time traveler in a future era where my own time was regarded as quaint and old-fashioned.  

The live entertainment at the park (above) was unbelievable. The dancers were as good as ones you'd find on Broadway. The front row of the crowd was devoted to the handicapped so I couldn't get close enough to get a good picture.

When it was time to go home I had to stop at a souvenir shop to try on one of the new Oswald hats. Nice, huh? Expensive, though...16 bucks!