ANALYSING REN AND STIMPY

I thought I'd put up more rough sketches by John K for his Adult Party Cartoon, "Firedogs II." John usually gives his storyboard artists the first crack at a scene, then comes in with his own sketches if he's not getting what he needs. That's probably how these came about.

It looks like there's some drawings missing here, so I'll fill in the story. The Fire Chief needs to get his pants off fast, but the zipper's stuck, and the new rookies try to help. Stimpy gives it a timid tug then a disgusted Ren pushes him aside and tells him to let a "pro" take over.

For the push John experiments with a new way of drawing Stimpy.

Haw! John loves to draw inbetween poses (above) that the viewer actually gets to see.

The zipper beckons. Well, these are adult cartoons, after all.

Ren reaches behind his back and pulls out a pair of pliers. Boy, John really puts the focus on the pliers.

Here's (above) a new shot from the side. Some animation storyboarders are timid about doing cuts between similar scenes, but live action does it all the time, and it works just fine.  This new scene has the chief's stomach hugging the side of the screen and we're all set up for the cool profile poses. 

Ren antics back with the pliers. I love the way Ren's left arm comes out of his back and crooks around at the elbow. It's the kind of move you never see in Maya-type figures, which is one reason why I continue to think of 3D animation as inferior.  

Here's (above) something else that 3D can't do. In mid-scene, John unexpectedly switches to gorgeous, delicate lines and clear shapes. This is masterful drawing, but it's hard to get that kind of subtlety into the final clean-ups.  

The public needs to see more of John's roughs. If you've only seen what's on the screen then you'll have a hard time understanding why artists who've worked for him always regard it as a life-changing experience. 

Ouch! Ren makes a grab (above) and ends up pinching the...er, wrong part of the Chief.

The Fire Chief screams with pain...but hold on, something really unusual is about to happen.

Nine out of ten storyboarders would cut to the Chief for his reaction, but John correctly stays on Ren and Stimpy.  Do you see why? Cutting to the chief would contain no surprise. Seeing him shout would just be confirming what we already know. It's infinitely more interesting to stay on the main characters and get their reaction to it!

Well, that's all I have to say about that scene. I just checked John's Kickstarter site and he's at the $90,000 mark with a week to go. That means he has to rustle up $20,000 more bucks in a short time. Oh, man! The suspense is killing me! Is he going to make it?

I can't emphasize enough the importance of having original John artwork. If he's foolishly willing to part with it as a gift on Kickstarter, then...well, a word to the wise is sufficient.

The site:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1056985656/john-ks-cans-without-labels

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Yikes! It's late afternoon on Friday, and John HAS met his quota!!!!!! Many, many thanks to all the fans who made this possible! Your kindness and good taste makes me proud to be a part of this industry!

HOW WOMEN STAND / WOMEN STANDING

If you remember, a few months ago Theory Corner devoted a post to the fact that a lot of women lean forward without realizing it. Well, months have passed and I'm here to report that this is what I'm still seeing on the streets. I see it everywhere.

They stand askew a lot too, at least in photos. We're so used to it that we don't notice it,  If I hadn't called your attention to it, you probably wouldn't have noticed that the woman above is listing like The Leaning Tower of Pizza...er, did I spell that right? One more inch to the side and she'll fall over.

I'm not talking about bad posture (above). I'm talking about women who are not generally regarded as having posture problems.

This woman (above) was probably asked to stand up straight, and she probably believed she was...but she wasn't. She's leaning forward.

Maybe you thought high heels were what thrust women forward, or maybe a big chest. Nope, none of the above. Look at this woman (above). She's small chested, is wearing flat shoes, and is still leaning. I guess women were just born that way.

Maybe that's why they're always leaning on things.

I always assume that magazines are run by people who know more than I do. They say that flirty women always lean against walls, and who am I to disagree?

 I'll try to remember that when I draw cartoon women.

Rich women (above) sometimes prefer pottery or trees to walls.

Well, if it makes them happy.....

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BTW: Congrats to NASA for landing the Curiosity rover safely on Mars. I'm all for Mars exploration, but I haven't supported previous rover missions because they didn't seem likely to collect enough information to justify the cost. 

Maybe this falls into that category too, but I couldn't help but be impressed by the precision of the landing, and the hardware on this vehicle. It's got a laser that can read stratas on exposed cliff sides in high-def, and the cliffs probably probably date back billions of years.  

We learned a lot about the origin of the Earth from the manned missions to the Moon. Maybe we'll learn as much from this mission.    

UNKNOWN WOLVERTON

Well, maybe "unknown" is the wrong word, but these pictures are certainly little known. It's a tribute to Basil that sketches this funny seem second rate when compared to his other work. See what you think.

Is this (above) by Basil or his son Monty?

This one's (above) definitely by Basil. I like how the eyes are on top of the head.

The black and white version of this sketch (above) is fairly well known, but not this colored version. The color helps it, I think.

Mike Fontanelli sent me this caricature (above) of Basil Wolverton, drawn by Drew Friedman. It's certainly well done, but it's not the way I like to picture Basil. I see him as a sort of mischievous joke teller like Rodney Dangerfield.

Here's another Friedman caricature, this time of Mad artist Will Elder. Don't ask me why, but I buy into this 100%. Probably Friedman knew Elder.

Here's the link to Drew's site:

http://drewfriedman.blogspot.com/2012/07/legends-of-comics-portraits.html

JOAN CRAWFORD'S ACTING STYLE

Haw! I can't wait to see if the blog can handle a picture this big! I pity the people who are looking at this on a mobile phone. 

Anyway. that's Joan Crawford in a close-up from "Humoresque." Tonight I watched a TCM documentary on Crawford at John's place, and I saw a lot of pictures I'd never seen before. Seeing them provoked what I thought was a deeper understanding of Crawford's  acting style. I'll tell you what that understanding consists of, but first take a look at the pictures (below) that provoked it.  

Crawford (or her photographer) tried out a number of personas in her portraits. Any one of them represents a possible career path she might have taken. Here (above) she tries out  an innocent girl-next-door look, layered over with ambition, neurosis and intelligence.

Here (above) she's purely innocent and idealistic. I don't doubt that she could have pulled it off on screen, but I'm glad she didn't go this route. Innocent is a great look for young actors, but she wouldn't have have been able to sustain it as she got older.

Ditto the weird, hard-core sci-fi look. She's great at it, but you can only play that for so long.

She experimented with weirdness a lot. 

I think she wanted to convince the studio to make the kind of stories that favored her kind of nuanced weirdness.  Maybe she was inspired by Garbo.

All those experiments with innocence and weirdness weren't wasted, though. As her later persona evolved, she just folded these qualities into it. As time went by she developed an immensely layered screen personality. 

How would you describe this close-up expression (above) from "Humoresque?" She looks weird, innocent, mature, young, dignified, idealistic, hurt, worldly, shocked, vulnerable, steely, philosophical, kind, and potentially cruel...all at the same time! Sheeesh!

For me Crawford's best period was middle age. She'd had a lot of random nuances before that, but that's when she finally figured out how to focus them. During that period she discovered dignity. She kept the fascinating youthful nuances and allowed them to co-exist with a caricature of the kind of dignity the best people seem to acquire in mid-life. Not only that, but she bundled these qualities together in a stylized, over-the-top theatrical style. 

So that's it. That, I humbly submit, is part of the secret of Joan's midperiod acting style.

MORE JOHN K DRAWINGS

The poses above are from "Sven Hoek," one of the highlights of the second season of "The Ren and Stimpy Show." Nice, huh? I love John K's work when it's all cleaned up as it is here, but this post is about his roughs, which the public never sees. Here's a few, below. See if you agree that they're infused with charm and skill and a love of cartooning. 

Here's (above) a scene from Adult Party Cartoons' "Firedogs II" where the Fire Chief asks Ren and Stimpy to light him up. I love the simple but effective way John composes his shots. The Chief's giant head and thick, meaty hand are hilarious.

CHIEF: (To Stimpy) "Hey Eddie, gimme a smoke." (Then to Ren) Light me, Tommy."

REN: "Sure thing!"

[The Fire Chief never gets names right].

I like the way The Chief (above) studies Ren as our hero lights the cigarette.

A beautiful pose on The chief (above) as he artfully sucks in the smoke...

...then blows it out again...right into Ren's face. How do you like that baguette-like smoke? Being a fan of the Chief, Ren feels honored to be smoked at, but his eyes water like crazy.

Haw! Boy, this one (above) is really rough. John could easily have finished it. Maybe he wanted to see what his board artist could do with it.

Ever the fireman, the Chief responsibly stomps out the flame. I like the charm and restraint in this pose.

I value my collection of John rough Xeroxes and, until now, you had to work for John to get them. I was amazed when I found out that he was giving them away as prizes on his Kickstarter site.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1056985656/john-ks-cans-without-labels

Geez, these aren't even Xeroxes. They're originals. Frankly I think John ought to keep them. The day will come when things like this'll be auctioned off at Southby's.

He's giving away originals of his phone doodles, too. One of these days I'll put up some of my collection. You've seen a few of them....that's where he did some of his funniest caricatures of me.

CAVES IN THE CLOUDS / HILARY BRACE

I almost called this post "Hilary Brace: Aviation Artist," but I don't think she thinks of herself that way. Brace claims that she's just drawing imaginary landscapes. Maybe, but what I'm seeing here (below) are cloud caves of the sort that my Dad said pilots used to see. 

My Dad said that he'd seen them, and I see no reason to disbelieve him. Flying as a passenger in commercial airlines I've seen bits and pieces of cloud caves, though they weren't as clear and romantic as Hillary makes them. Commercial jets travel too fast for cave exploration.

Nowadays it's against the law to fly through clouds if they can be avoided. All the traffic makes it too dangerous. My Dad didn't have to worry about that when he was young. There were no cloud laws then. He even flew in open-cockpit biplanes (which were old-fashioned even in his time). Imagine what he must have seen!

My Dad's long gone now. I wish I'd thought to ask him what the caves were like.

I'm guessing that they didn't last long...no more than ten minutes maybe.  After that they'd close up (above), trapping the poor pilot inside. Of course he could fly through the walls to escape.

I wonder what it would have been like to fly through the caves in a thunderstorm. It must have been cold and windy and wet. Maybe there were hailstones. Maybe flashes of lightning illuminated the walls.

Here's (below) a link to a great video of a sputtering lightning flash. Imagine being inside a darkish cloud cave when a bolt like this one appeared.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120723.html

Caves like this (above) remind me of Jules Verne's story, "Robur the Conqueror." I wonder if he imagined his character's giant airship hiding in caverns like this one.

Remember those old film clips that showed barnstormers standing on the wings of planes? I assume they were braced somehow. Imagine what it must have been like to be one of those guys flying through the corridors of a cave in the sky!