MILTON CANIFF

There's a nice coffee table book devoted to Milton Caniff and I thought I'd write about it here. Caniff was the guy who did Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon for the papers in the 40s and 50s.

The cover above was colored by Marie Severin. If her bright and colorful style looks familiar that may be because you've seen it before...in Caniff's Steve Canyon.

Before Caniff lots of "serious" comics were muted, greyed down, in the style of the old pulps (above).

Yikes! Even Wally Wood (above) fell prey to the muted color enthusiasts.

Caniff popularized a light, airy, bright color approach (above), even with dramatic subjects. Maybe he did it to compensate for his liberal use of black. He was famous for that.

He sent the engraver a hand watercolored copy of every Sunday page. The color had to be just right.

The book covers his early newspaper work (above) before he did the strips that made him famous. Haw! Duke Ellington is identified as "colored" in the headline, showing that even artists are products of their times.

The book also includes a lot of preliminary sketches. I always like to see an artist's roughs.

Caniff did a lot of caricatures (above) for the newspapers.

For the comic strips he invented a boxy, geometric way of drawing women's heads. Maybe he was influenced by famous square-headed women like Garbo and Joan Crawford.

Caniff frequently had his picture taken with the models he drew. Not a bad idea.

BTW: Someone asked what I'll be dressed as for Halloween this year. Aaaargh! I'm so pressed for time that I'll probably do my Muskrat Lodge uniform again. How about you guys? What will you be wearing?

Also BTW: Holy Cow! I have one crossed eye in this picture! I crossed my eyes deliberately for the photo but how I achieved just one crossed eye is a mystery even to me.

Also, also BTW: I have my eyes on this Lincoln stovepipe hat. It probably won't fit though. Halloween hats never do.

THE NEXT POST....

CRIME, LOWLIFES, MURDERERS

What other animation site reports on the seedy urban underworld as often as Theory Corner? 

Here you'll find suspicious characters.

Gritty industry.

Jealous husbands.

Ex-friends.

Blighted lives.

Capture!

Coquettes.

Lowlifes.

Juvenile delinquents.

Thugs.

Secret societies.

Hot muggy nights on the fire escape.

Murder on the waterfront.

The first light of morning.

The milkman delivers.

Morning coffee in a rush.

The maid arrives for work.... 

....and discovers a body.

THE ART OF STORYBOARDING

Here's (above) a pairing of two Simpsons clips from two different episodes. I'm putting them up because they cut together so well. See what you think.

It starts with the interior of Homer's garage. He drives his car in and hits one of the shelf supports.

He gets out of the car unaware that a heavy power tool is sliding down toward him.

BONK! It hits him on the head!

After a beat (above) he continues walking, looking like a zombie.

Inside the house he walks matter of factly into the bedroom...

...gets into bed...

...and immediately falls asleep.

A moment later his alarm rings. He turns it off thinking it's morning.

He gets out of bed to go to work, and begins to walk O.S.

Now we're in the living room, on the second clip. Without warning a door opens and Homer comes in, causing skateboarding Bart to smash into the door.

Homer takes out an invitation to a barbecue, and hands it to his daughter. Squashed Bart is behind the door. 

I could go on, but there's no more space. Do you see why I like this transition? He's still effected by the hit on the head. When we see him leave the bedroom we expect to see him making breakfast in preparation for going to work. We think that's the gag, that he didn't get any sleep. Instead we see him in a happy but still ditsy state announcing to his daughter a cock-eyed invitation to a barbecue. It's so unexpected. 

I love board gags that lead the audience to expect one gag, then hits them with another.  

Neat, huh?

[BTW: Some of my offline friends disagreed with me and said they couldn't see anything of value in the post above. Haw! De gustibus non disputibus (There's no disputing taste)!] 

MORE HALLOWEEN 2013

Yes, MORE HALLOWEEN!

I've only been to two Halloween stores so far, and if what they have is typical I'd say we can expect fewer high end items this year, but a lot more inexpensive decorations. I do miss the pricey thick masks, though. 

  

Strangely, there's lots of tutus on the shelf this year...so many that I'll probably remember this as the year of the tutu. 

Geez, I miss comic books like this one, above. The best stories were genuinely imaginative.

This is a scene from an early Tom and Jerry cartoon. I keep forgetting that they were human characters before they were a cat and a mouse.

Man, I'd love to have a faux lab with glassware like this (above). It looks like every perfume bottle, Slurpie container, and flexible straw for miles around was pressed into service.

Yikes! 'Another evil Punch puppet!

I like this Reddi-Wip ad. It promises to "bring your desert creations to life" during the Halloween season.

Let us take a moment to give thanks to the nameless genius who thought of selling sexy outfits to girls at Halloween time.

THE BEST HALLOWEEN COSTUMES OF 2013

IT'S HALLOWEEN TIME!!!!!! I had to take down my previous post because it didn't seem to capture the spirit of the holiday. Let's try again...this time with true Halloween feeling!

Wow! What do you think of this hanging skull? I think it's first rate and if I can find one I'll happily add it to my permanent collection.

I feel it in my bones...the big selling kid costumes this year will have to do with Batman!

Before I saw this picture (above) it never occurred to me that home appliances need Halloween costumes too. When you think about it, of course they do!

Yikes!

Above, a three-headed dog, guarding the entrance to the Netherworld. This gets my nomination for best pet costume of 2013.

Nice, very nice...a mask depicting a simple-minded homicidal henchman (above) who kills at his boss's command.  He's paid for his work with candy and a pat on the head.

No doubt about it...the best Halloween masks (above) are the ones you make yourself!