REST IN PEACE: DENIS DUTTON

Nothing special to post today. I'm bummed out because I just discovered that Denis Dutton, the founder of "Arts and Letters Daily," died. That was one of my favorite sites on the net. Free, too...The Chronicle of Higher Education picked up the tab.

Denis was one of the Los Angeles Duttons, a super achieving family that ran an indispensable chain of used book stores in L.A. I wish I knew more about them. 

The Arts and Letters Daily site: http://www.aldaily.com/

WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY %$#&@ EYES?

Well, I sure am looking older lately!

I was shocked the other day when I saw how ancient I looked in the steak post. In particular, I was amazed to see that I had dead eyes in a couple of pictures (above). You know what dead eyes are...they're blank, lifeless eyes that indicate the person behind them has no significant mental life at all. You see them on older people. Geez!

Actually it's not the age indication that has me worrying. I'm paniced because the the dead eyes make me look stupid and half asleep! Is that what lies ahead for me?

Even Rembrandt (above) developed dead eyes. The gods can be cruel.

What's the difference between young, vibrant eyes (above), and the dead eyes that older people get? Well. young people have smooth, colorful skin, and less pronounced brows. They have wide-open eyes, and brighter pigment in the corneas and irises.

They also have more highlights. I guess that means their eyes are more moist.

Add highlights to Rembrandt's eyes (above) and they come alive. They look kind of evil here, but we'll overlook that. Hmmmm. Now this is interesting!

If highlights are all it takes to get more youthful eyes then we can all rejoice, because those are easy to acquire. All you need is untreated contact lenses. Maybe even ordinary glasses will do the trick.

I'm not worried about bags under the eyes or wrinkles. John Huston had plenty of both and still succeeded in looking good. What matters is vibrancy. It's all about your eyes hinting that you have some kind of mental life.

Hmmmmm. I see that Huston had squinty eyes. That seems to work as well as highlights. Alright, that gives me my agenda! Expect to see me squinting and wearing glasses more often!

PABLO PICASSO: CARTOONIST

What do you think of Picasso? A lot of animation cartoonists don't like him because he was the inspiration for U.P.A., which indirectly wrecked traditional full animation.  He certainly planted the idea in the public's mind that anything representational, even cartooning, was obsolete and old-fashioned.

I like him because he was a cartoonist at heart, even though he tried to refashion cartooning into a purely graphic art.

He colored his pictures (above) the way newspaper comic artists colored theirs.....well, somewhat. It was more of a caricature of the way newspaper cartoons were colored.

I wonder if the picture above influenced the way Dedini used color?

Without Picasso we wouldn't have had Virgil Parch, Cliff Sterrett, and Steinberg. We wouldn't even have had Searle.

Thanks to Amid Amidi and The Modesto Kid for the Steinberg-type picture above.

This (above) is a better example of what I meant when I said Picasso was influenced by newspaper comic color. He even added the dot pattern that newspapers used.

Picasso had a great sense of humor.  The figure above is magnificently ignorant (I mean that as a compliment).  It's really goofy and funny.

Sometimes I can't believe that he managed to get critics to accept stuff as overtly cartoony as this (above).

Really, is it so hard to see the influence of cartooning on his work (above)?  The man was a cartoonist. He was one of us, though you could argue that he undermined cartoon art by abstracting it and removing it from acting and storytelling.

Picasso's mission seemed to be to liberate cartoon technique from cartoons. He seemed to think we cartoonists had a bag of tricks that was too valuable to be entrusted to us only. 

The man obviously read newspaper comics. It could be that he was influenced by Herriman and Sterrett, Opper and Fenninger, maybe even funny animal comics, and simply didn't admit it.  He may have had closets full of comic pages that were thrown out after his death by custodians who didn't think they were important. 

BTW, I'm aware that some readers are saying, "Wait a minute! Herriman was influenced by Picasso, not the other way around!" To that I say don't be so hasty.  My guess is that Herriman and Picasso influenced each other. 

So what do ya think?

VINTAGE CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM THE "STRIPPER'S GUIDE" BLOG

I'm having difficulty using the computer because it's in my kid's old room and my kid is staying with us for the holiday.  He's pacing up and down in the living room right now, waiting for me to finish typing.  Aaaargh! I can't think when I have to write this fast!

Anyway, here's some vintage comic strip Christmas pages from a hundred years ago. Many thanks to Allan Holtz of Stripper's Guide (link in the sidebar) for the swipes. Click to enlarge.

About the strip above, I like the way this artist lays out the page. It's an ignorant style but there's something funny about it.  Sort of Hugh Lofting (Dr. Dolittle) meets Opper.

Above, The Katzenjammer Kids. I didn't used to like this strip but it's growing on me.

I like the simple, linear layout showing stupid characters sitting at a dinner table (detail above).

Very nice (above)! If I were an editor I'd run a strip like this regardless of whether the character had appeal. Reading this makes me want to draw.

Here's (above) the final panels in a two week long series where Santa develops a military plan to bomb a town with toys. Oops...I have to surrender the room to my kid. 'Hope you guys had a good Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY (2010)!

What with Christmas coming, things are really busy at my house and I don't have time to put up something elaborate. I just want to wish everybody here the best of Christmases. I hope you and yours prosper and prevail in the coming year!

Here's a few songs to get you in the mood, if you're not already:




How about "Ave Maria" by Pavarotti?  I couldn't embed the video, but here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojeLyPo_Wz4&feature=related
















MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!

COOKING THE CHRISTMAS STEAK

Before we start, check out this unbelievably cool t-shirt that John K. gave me! Have you seen the store on his site lately? What a guy! He re-thought the whole way that internet stores are done, then he stacked the store with images that are so beautiful that you never want to leave it. Half the shirts are on sale, too!

John's site: http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/

But enough about that...we have serious work to do.

This post is about this l'il baby...the magisterial emperor of steak...THE RIB-EYE! Those little white streaks are what makes the cut so famous. They're little veins of fat that melt into the steak while it's cooking and give it that over-the-top flavor.

Rib-eyes are kind of expensive, so when they're on sale I get three and put the other two in the freezer. Of course it takes a day for frozen steaks to thaw in the refrigerator, and they only taste good if they're  cooked when when they're at room temperature, inside and out.

Prepare everything you'll need before you start cooking. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees and put your empty iron (not teflon) frying pan in so it gets nice and hot. Chop up the onions and mushrooms (don't cut the mushrooms too small), and make the dinner salad. Have the vinaigrette (1/2 balsamic vinegar and 1/2 extra virgin olive oil) handy for the salad, but don't put it on yet.

You won't need olive oil for cooking the steak. Peanut oil , saffron, or canola are better for that because they resist scorching. Prepare the raw steak by basting it with a little (not too much) bit of oil and "Bull's Eye Original Barbecue Sauce" on both sides.  These will seep into the cracks and aid the cooking. Put kosher salt and ground pepper all over it so that when you cook it a thin crust will form which will keep the juices in.

Now it's time to cook. When the oven's reached 500 degrees take the hot iron pan out and put it on top of the stove on medium heat. Put some heat resistant oil in the pan and drop in the precious steak. Let it  cook 30 seconds on each side. Turn it over with tongs. You don't want to pierce the meat with anything, not even a fork.

Now whisk the iron pan and steak into the hot oven. Let the steak cook 2 minutes on either side. Use tongs to turn it. Don't poke it. Trust that everything is okay.

Just trust.

Especially don't attempt to test it by cutting into it. Trust the wisdom of the thousands of cooks who  preceded you.

  Now you can remove the pan from the oven. Put it on top of the stove on medium heat,  remove the meat with tongs, and let it finish cooking on your dinner plate, maybe under a canopy of aluminum foil. Don't poke it or cut it!

Now's the time to cook the mushrooms and onions.  Put some olive oil and lots of butter into the empty steak pan. Mix them with the steak juice that's already there. Now pour in the mushrooms and onions (and green pepper, if you prefer). Add a little soy sauce and brown sugar. Be sure not to overcook the mushrooms. It should be done just about the time the steak finishes self-cooking on the dinner plate.

So that's it. Combine the steak and mushrooms on the plate and you're good to go. If you've followed directions, you should be facing an exquisitely juicy, medium-rare steak. And...Oh my Gosh, I forgot the dinner salad! Now's the time to vigorously shake or stir the pre-made vinaigrette, and pour it over the lettuce and tomato slices.

What to drink? A cabernet, definitely. Or how about that new Belgian beer that Trader Joe is selling? It's their own brand, and it's pretty good.

BTW: I watched several videos, read several articles, mooched steaks at John's house, and did a number of experiments on my own before settling on the advice in this video as the backbone of my steak regimen. Here's a link to what I consider the most helpful video. The guy who made it looks a lot like Bruce Timm. You don't suppose Bruce.....? Naaaaaaaw!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yX1Q3x9Cs4

CHOICE WOLVERTON

Mike sent me these Wolvertons, which almost made me fall out of the chair.  According to Mike the artist's name is Colin Batty.  Man, Batty's done a service to the whole cartoon world here! Nice job, Colin!

Batty's site: http://www.freakybuttrue.com/wolverton.htm

You have to wonder if characters like this could work in 3D animation.

The underlighting (above) makes this "Lena the Hyena" look menacing.

Aaaah...true art!

What program were these pictures done on? My first guess was ZBrush, but maybe they were done on "Sculptris," which is something I just found out about. It's a free program.

Here's some Wolverton-style stop motion animation courtesy of commenter Ben Leeser. It's a YouTube video called "Ugly Girl," posted by Necrofinger (!). This got over 11,000,000 hits! Thanks, Ben!