WHY I LIKE KRAZY KAT

Whatever you do be sure to click to enlarge before you attempt to read this. Herriman's work doesn't read very well when it's reproduced small and that's the only way most people have read it..that is, if they've read it at all.

I confess that I've only recently begun to like Herriman. Like almost everybody else I used to think of it as primitive, plotless and pointless. Moderns aren't the only ones to feel this way, even in it's own day editors only carried it because the big boss, Randolph Hearst, liked it. It had a fan following which included Hemingway, Picasso, T.S. Eliot, Menckon, Stein, and Edmond Wilson but the public was divided about it. Me, nowadays I love it, in fact it's one of the best strips ever in my opinion. Take a look at the Sunday page above, printed originally in 1926.

The drawing of the mesa in panel one is exquisite. Blogger doesn't reproduce fine, cross-hatched lines very well but if you could see the larger print version it would blow you away. It's moody in a way that only graphics can achieve. The mesa lettering reminds me of the title letters Eisner used in The Spirit. Come to think of it, the content of the words throughout the page are funny and full of the love of language. They're also beautiful, even the ones in word balloons: ignorant, horse-hairy kind of letters, the scratchy kind that fleas would make if they could write.

The stork tries to deliver a baby in the town but the closely-packed, glowing, night-time town is empty. Look at the size of the buildings relative to the characters! I love that! I also like the fact that the buildings are larger when they need to be. Why be consistent? How do you like the bird walking down the street with the buildings diminishing behind him in railroad perspective? That street almost animates! In the end the sun, which is bottom shaded like a ball, comes up below the mesa throwing sizzling, frenetic clouds before it. All this in a page displaying a wonderfull and innovative balance of shapes, of blacks and whites, and strangely appealing steel wool-type lines. Wow! What a treat!

Buy this book or you'll regret it later: "Krazy & Ignatz" by George Herriman (covers 1925-1926).

IS JOHN GOING TO DISCONTINUE HIS BLOG?

John recently wondered out lout loud if he should continue his blog, http://www.johnkstuff.blogspot.com/ John's a natural teacher and he puts up a lot of training tools on his blog. The problem is that most of the people he helps to train won't make themselves available to Spumco but will take what they've learned to schlocky Saturday Morning studios where they can make more money. According to John this puts him in the position of training artists for the benefit of the big studios. Those studios don't pay him anything for it so what's the point of keeping up the blog? That's his argument, anway. Boy, I hope he rethinks this.

So far as I can tell John is the best practicing line artist in the world. No current popular or fine artist can beat him. Even the densest critic would have to admit that he and Robert Crumb dominated all of art in the last 40 years. Losing someone of that stature on the net would be a serious loss.

It's hard to think of an argument that might make him change his mind. I can only report what my own feelings are when I think about it. Whatever small things I've done to help out other artists - nothing that compares to what John's done- came about because I felt the need to express my gratitude to the people who helped me when I needed it. I remember Ben Washam (one of Chick Jones' best animators) who held free animation classes in his basement once a week. When asked why he did it he said, "I've had so much fun in this industry...I just felt the need to give something back." I know what he meant. This industry not only gave me a way to make a living but it gave me an identity, a sense of mission and a shared community. It connected me to something grand and magesterial and mind-blowing, something full of history and tradition. I'm not just Eddie, I'm Eddie the cartoonist. I'm not a cork on the waves, I belong to something worthwhile. In a modest way this blog is an expression of my gratitude for that.

John certainly doesn't owe us anything. He's spent a lifetime doing favors for the rest of us, including people he's never met. If he decides to discontinue his blog we've no ground to complain. We should just be grateful for what we've gotten already. Besides, that'll leave John with more time to do cartoons the rest of us can slaver over. Even so....

PORTRAITS OF FAMOUS CARTOONISTS

I don't have time to write a decent post so here's a cheater...but it's a good cheater! Here's pictures of Don Martin (above), Basil wolverton (below), and Rod scribner (below, lowest).

Don Martin looks great...so 50's! Basil looks like a class clown grown up and Scribner looks like John Daily, Daily being the actor who starred in "It: the Terror from Beyond Space."

A 100% EFFECTIVE WAY OF FINDING LOST THINGS

Occassionally I or a friend discover what I consider a universal law and now that I have a blog I'm anxious to share these discoveries. To kick it off I'm going to share one of the very greatest of all universal laws, one that was told to me by Vincent waller. Here it is....

"YOU CAN NEVER FIND A REALLY IMPORTANT LOST ITEM UNTILL YOU PUBLICLY ACCUSE AN INNOCENT PERSON OF STEALING IT!"

I don't think it's necessary to support this with argument. Anyone who's tried it knows that this is true. It's especially effective if the accused person is a good friend who's done nothing but good for you.

LOONEY TOONS FOUR IS OUT!

Looney Tunes four is out and I think I have a couple of commentaries on it. I commented on two interesting cartoons, Tashlin's "Stupid Cupid" and Jones' "Aristocat." I'm afraid I did a horrible job this time and I thought you might be interested to hear why.

Over the years I developed a superstition about public speaking which can be summarized as "Whatever you do, don't think about what you're going to say on the day you're going to speak." You can prepare all you want the previous day but on the day of the speech you have to completely put it out of your mind till the time comes to deliver it. Ignore this and on stage you'll end up babbling like a fool, unable to put two words together. Well, I ignored it and that's exactly what happened.

I've often wondered why the mind works this way. Jackie Gleason had the same superstition that I have. He didn't believe in rehearsal because he didn't want to waste his first and best performance in a situation where only the stage crew could see it. People say that that Red Skelton's TV show was brilliant in rehearsal but lackluster on the stage for the same reason. I should have paid more attention to these guys.

LEARNING HOW TO STAND IN LINE

Amazingly, you have to learn how to stand in line. It's not an innate behavior, you have pick it up by watching other people. I discovered this while in a line leading to a teller's window in my local bank. I was waiting there with about five people infront of me when a lady came in and stood beside me, not behind me. It made me feel uncomfortable but I tried to ignore her and read my magazine. After a couple of minutes a guy comes in and stands behind the lady instead of me. Another guy comes in and does the same thing. Now there's a whole line behind the lady. By the time I get to the teller's window the lady's line is the real line and I'm just a street urchin standing beside her. How do things like that happen?

Now take a look at the picture above. Notice that two people hang back leaving a large space between themselves and the people at the counter. That's OK, they're probably not ready to talk to the counter yet. Nothing wrong with that, that's fine, but I've been in fast food restaurants where the line starts this far back and the people in line get indignant if you walk up to the counter and try to order. What's with that?

My guess is that that men who don't know how to form a proper line are the same men who leave paper hand towels in urinals. You know who you are!

VINCENT WALLER HAS A BLOG!!!!

Vincent, of course, is THEEE Vincent Waller of Ren & Stimpy fame. Vincent directed, wrote, and drew on a lot of fan favorites in the Ren & Stimpy series. Vincent is also a legendary chick magnet and a wonderful story teller. Recently he directed Sponge Bob for Nicolodean. Friends have have been prodding Vincent to start a blog for what seems like ages and now he's finally done it... http://inchoherent-thought.blogspot.com/ The "rape eye" and "sex face" posts are already classics. I can't wait to see what else he puts up!

These are pictures Vincent sent me in an email. Boy, they lose a lot when they're reduced this small! Click to enlarge. I can't tell wether this mountain is in Japan or China. It seems to be a mountain-climbing trail for people who people who don't know how to climb mountains. You climb with the help of narrow wooden ledges and chain guide lines. No ropes keep you on the ledge. If you fall you're dead. I would LOVE to take this hike!


It looks like the people who survive the hike get to sip tea in civilized surroundings on the summit. Where do we sign up?