I wish I knew more about this strip. Was it popular? Did kids like it? Me and my grade school friends would have gone nuts over it if we'd known about it. I would have saved it in a scrapbook.
I'd be surprised if women liked it. It's slapstick humor about deliberately ugly people. That means it was probably meant for guys. I wonder why girls don't like stuff like this? Maybe it's because they're so focused on looking good. We men, on the other hand, know we're ugly. We know we're the butt of a cosmic joke, so we decide to make the best of it and laugh.
Wolverton drew in that "bigfoot" style that was as much influenced by black and white era gag animation as by print media. Wolverton gives it a big, thick line to make it more gritty.
Being a true cartoonist, Wolverton instinctively knows that feet are funny. They wouldn't be funny if they were covered with fur and had leathery bottoms. They make us laugh because they're so delicate and fru-fru, and yet we're forced to walk through the dirt with them.
Many thanks to John Glenn Taylor, who put up these pictures on his "Easily Mused" blog.
Cool stuff, Ed! They do have a 30's animation feel to them. His work looks like Crumbs a bit too.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I need to work on drawing funnier looking feet. Never realized if you drew them bent or curved that they can add to the comedic effect of the whole gag until looking at these. Do you have any tips on drawing good looking, convincing, but funny hands? I've been wondering about that for a while now.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Boingboing, these strips were collected in a book that Fantagraphics put out a couple years ago. They're online at Dinosaur Gardens.
ReplyDeletefantagraphics put together all of these is really cool book that also includes all the rough pencil versions that exist as well!
ReplyDeleteLove that warped Wolverton view of the world!
Fantagraphics recently did a great collection;
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1606993089/ref=mp_s_a_2?qid=1309457039&sr=8-2
Roberto: Hands? Act out the poses you want in front of a mirror and draw what you see.
ReplyDeleteDamiano: Yeah, Crumb is a bigfoot artist too. I love Crumb!
Modesto: Many, many thanks for the link!!!!!!
Jerk, OMC: I've seen that book and will get it for sure. In the meantime, these scans will help.
I didn't buy the book when it came out because the roughs didn't seem to me to add much, but now I regret that I was so rigid.
one drawback is that the book is just the B&W inks, while these scans are in color, which adds a whole new layer of beauty to the images.
ReplyDeleteoh, my mistake- - when i went back and looked at the book, I found it was indeed in color. however, these scans are somehow so much more appealing than the colors of the book that I misremembered them as b&w by comparison.
ReplyDelete