Fake Out

From that most glorious period of recorded music, 1967-’68.

In stereo…

… and in mono.

The same recording, different mixes, both superbly realized, each one with its own unique sound. The ending seems to owe something to ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. “I buried Paul…Simon.” 😉

Artist-Man, Artist-Man, Does Whatever An Artist Can

I have an account with Heritage Auctions but, so far, haven’t acquired anything through them. Much, if not most, of the high-end original art for comic books, comic strips, and cartoons is handled by Heritage. The high-resolution scans provided by HA are valuable resources in studying the work of many noted artists.

There are only a few days remaining to bid on page #9 from Amazing Spider-Man #7. Right now it’s going for $54,000, including the “buyer’s premium.” This early example of Steve Ditko’s work on the series clearly shows where he inked with a pen, and where he instead used a brush.

Click now to enlarge!

Two Wild and Crazy Guys

Today I remembered something I was going to write about nearly a year ago. I was reminded of it when going through last year’s collection of daily cartoons received as e-mail from Harry Bliss, a cartoonist based in Vermont. Besides being a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Harry has a syndicated panel that appears daily, except Sunday. Which is sort of the opposite of strips like ‘Doonesbury’, with every day except Sunday being reprints. For the past year Bliss has had some help with gag writing from a guy named Steve Martin. Yes, that Steve Martin.

This one proves, as if there were any doubt, that Martin is familiar with Swamp Thing.

This one is charming. I like charming comic strips.

Speaking of ‘Doonesbury’, I am also late talking about something else. The Boston Globe raised its home delivery rates again, so as of this month I am getting the Globe only on weekends, along with my digital subscription. The long, slow death of paper papers continues. But, wouldn’t ya know it, the one time ‘Doonesbury’ had to be printed perfectly in the Sunday comics, it looked like this on 2/2.

There, that’s better.

By the way, ‘Doonesbury’ has been syndicated for as long as ‘Peanuts’ had been at the time of Charles M. Schulz’s death.