You can learn a lot from reading old comic-books.
Category: Cartooning
Nuts without the Pea
The original National Lampoon magazine had some good writing and cartooning, up to the release of Animal House, when the emphasis switched to movies. Cartoonist Gahan Wilson, known for his macabre humor, had a regular feature in NatLamp called “Nuts.” The installment I remember best is perhaps the least macabre. I felt exactly this way after making a drawing board for myself when I was 11 years old.
< 7° of Separation
Click the picture below to see the entire cover to the January, 1965 issue of a humor magazine called HELP! The Beatles’ movie HELP! wasn’t released until August, 1965, leading one to speculate what possible influence Terry Gilliam’s bit of airbrushed artistic whimsy may have had on the title. Yes, that’s Terry Gilliam the animator, director and Monty Python troupe member who is listed as contributing editor.
HELP! was the brainchild of Harvey Kurtzman. In an earlier posting I have a link to a gallery with one of Kurtzman’s early comic-book stories. Kurtzman is still remembered today as the man who started MAD Magazine. One evening, Gilliam, who had replaced HELP! staffer Gloria Steinem, went to an off-Broadway show that featured a performer named John Cleese. They met and Cleese was talked into performing a photo comic strip for the magazine. Look for that in a future posting. After HELP! folded, Gilliam later caught up with Cleese in London, and then there was something completely different.
Trim Strips
These days it’s easy to change the height-to-width ratio of a comic strip to fit whatever space is available in a newspaper, which personally I find extremely annoying. In an earlier post about widescreen movies I said some comic strips were once cropped to fit.
Above is an example: Dick Tracy, from 1943. Click the picture to see the full strip. I’ve added a line to highlight how the bottom quarter of the panels is filler. Photostats were sent to newspapers in two versions — one full-height, and one trimmed.
When Peanuts was introduced in 1950, Charles Schulz was told to keep his panels square, so the strip could be sold as a flexible “space-saver.” Instead of trimming the panels, they could be arranged in several different ways; straight across, vertically, or two on two, as seen in the reprint books.
Searchers Far and W-I-D-E
Clicking here will open a previous posting in a new window. Start the video clip there and let it run a bit before starting the one on this page. You’re watching an example of how some widescreen movies are actually cropped regular format movies.
See how the composition of the uncropped version seems to have empty space at the top and bottom? Some old comic strips did something similar to this.
This posting is mostly an excuse for me to play with wide format video capturing. But it also provides an opportunity to show a bit more of The Searchers. I’ve spliced together four scenes that represent what I feel is the core of the movie. Ethan’s search for his … niece?
Keyed Up
Click the picture to read a superbly illustrated comic-book story. Six pages of line and design by Bernie Krigstein. Use the “full” option for better viewing.
