D.F. Rogers and I were at the Boston Comic Con today, where the all-time great artist Joe “Sgt. Rock” Kubert was a guest. Holy moley, does Joe look great! There’s just no way he’s coming up on his 85th birthday. Like another legendary Joe, Sinnott, Kubert’s artistic skills remain in full force, and have not diminished one iota.
Here is Denro with Joe…
…and this is me.
Roy Lichtenstein couldn’t draw. I’ve seen Lichtenstein paintings in person, in New York, and the sheer scale of them is impressive; but I’m sorry, the man was a total fake. He swiped art done by others, some of them comic book greats, others not so great. In the video at this link (sorry, can’t embed), look for the examples of his early work, and it’s obvious that Lichtenstein was no draftsman, and had to resort to tracing. The latest outrage that has set me off is this news item.
Lichtenstein Drawing Acquired for $10 Expected to Achieve over $1,000,000 at Christie’s
A million dollars for a 6″x6″ drawing that any Silver Age comic book fan can see was traced from a John Romita Sr. panel in a DC romance story! Romita should sue for a cut of the proceeds. Heck, even I can draw better than Lichtenstein. This is a panel I did for a failed comic strip submission many years ago, with a character inspired by John Lennon’s I Am the Walrus.
© DOuG pRATt
It’s no longer acceptable to justify what Roy Lichtenstein did by saying he helped elevate comic books to an accepted art form, and thereby brought them recognition they wouldn’t have otherwise had. Nonsense. David Barsalou reveals the truth in his Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein project.
You can count on good, ol’ Robert Crumb to always find something to complain about. Here he takes exception to having his art seen framed on walls, instead of printed in a book.
There was an exhibition of Crumb art in Boston a couple of years ago. I wrote about it here.
Last night we did something we very rarely do on a weeknight, by firing up the video projector to watch a movie. Has it already been ten years since the excellent film adaptation of the Ghost World comic book? It was Scarlett Johansson’s breakthrough role, but I don’t understand why it seemed to put the brakes on Thora Birch’s career, because she’s outstanding as Enid.
Ghost World has one of the more memorable movie openers, by featuring this outrageous dance number from a 1965 Bollywood flick called Gumnaam.
If only I’d read the warning label for my Superman costume, I’d have known it wouldn’t make me invulnerable or give me the ability to fly, and I could have avoided a few bullet holes and broken bones.
Comics fans will immediately recognize what Google has for its logo today.
If you don’t know who the logo tributes, click the image and you’ll find out. (We’ll ignore the movie that Frank Miller directed a couple of years ago.)
