It took me a little while, but thanks to Melinda Beasi I finally caught up with a long review at Manga Curmudgeon by HU columnist Erica Friedman discussing A Drunken Dream. It’s in many ways a response (either intentionally or otherwise) to my series of posts on the book, and particularly to my discussion of critical reactions to the volume. It raises a bunch of interesting issues which I wanted to try to address.
By Halco, 2010, Blu
I read this weeks ago and wasn’t thrilled with it, but decided it would do. (Wait a minute, the discerning reader might well be asking; just how low is the bar re. manporn you’re willing to waste our time with, anyway? And the answer, gentle reader, is that you should never ask questions when you don’t want to know the answer.) I wasn’t sure it would do initially, mind you. I only came to this conclusion after hours of the sort of intensive research you’ve come to expect here at Gluey Tart. No, no, I wasn’t cyber-stalking anybody. I read four more manga, and they were all worse.
On HU
We started the week off with Eric Berlatsky’s guest post on space, time, comics, and modernity.
Caroline Small reviewed an exhibit of Vorticist art.
I reviewed Reinhard Kleist’s graphic autobiography of Johnny Cash.
I discussed Christianity, humor, and cartoonist Art Young.
Artist and editor Ryan Standfest replied to my essay about Art Young.
Vom Marlowe discussed art resources for drawing the human figure.
Richard Cook provided a gallery of Santa’s appearances on comics covers.
I provided an electronica mix for download.
And Alex Buchet continued his series on language and comics with word and phrases from Al Capp, Walt Kelly, and more.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At Splice Today I explain why lefties against the compromise tax bill are idiots.
I’m a liberal pinko commie. I get up on the left side of the bed, and while I brush my teeth I blame America first. The only person I think should be waterboarded is Marc Thiessen. When I hear stories of rabid Brits trashing the royal limo to protest tuition hikes, I wonder why our cajone-less electorate can’t summon the courage and basic decency to kneecap some hedge fund managers. I’m in favor of abortion rights, single-payer healthcare, and unremitting class warfare. The rich got where they are mostly by luck and subterfuge, and at least 50 percent of what they’ve got should be taken from them and put into saving Social Security or fixing Medicaid or, hell, just taken from them on general principles because income inequality corrupts the political process and also because fuck them.
Also at Splice Today, I talk about Chuck Berry’s 1987 autobiography.
It’s maybe fitting, then, that Berry’s last great artistic effort wasn’t a hit but a personal testament. His 1987 autobiography was, according to the man himself, “raw in form, rare in feat, but real in fact. No ghost but no guilt or gimmicks, just me,” and you can hear the truth in the rock of the phrase and the roll of the alliteration. Berry says he’s only read six hardbacks in his life, and that the dozens of paperbacks he’s paged through were “only for the stimulation.”
Other Links
This isn’t something I find myself thinking very often, but I agree with Megan McCardle.
Tim Hodler does the AV Club a huge favor and is mostly pilloried for it. (You need to scroll through comics to see the full extent of the fracas.)
Another prolific contributor to the language was Al Capp, creator of the strip Li’l Abner.
“My Mom and Dad met when she picked him out at a Sadie Hawkins dance.”
Sadie Hawkins is one of Capp’s memorable characters; she first appeared in November 1937, and until the mid-50s, November was known as Sadie Hawkins month and became an unofficial collegiate holiday.
Hawkins was the ugly daughter of the most wealthy and powerful man in town and was avoided by all the town’s men.
Hawkins’ father lined up all eligible males and shot off his gun. When the gun was fired, they ran for their lives and their freedom from matrimony.
click image to enlarge
The gunshot signaled the unwed women to enter the race and try to catch a man. When an unlucky male was brought back, kicking and screaming, he had no choice but to marry the woman. Thus was born a Dogpatch annual tradition: Sadie Hawkins Day.
Capp also came up with the idea for a Sadie Hawkins dance — a dance where only the ladies picked their partners.
The craze spread throughout the ’40s and ’50s, and continues today.
I sort of promised not to do these anymore, but sometimes you just need to make a mix. This one’s of semi-artsy fartsy electronica, so there’s Squarepusher and mu-ziq and Two Lone Swordsmen and Decal and the Knife and Majeure and Aavikko and other things.
You can download it here.
Holidays and comics join forces to fight evil and sell merchandise…
1930s
Cover by Craig Flessel (1939)
1940s
Cover by unknown artist (1942)
As y’all know by now, I love to draw the human figure. This has been a life-long passion of mine.
One of my frustrations as a student of anatomy and human portraiture is that so many of the resources available have been single-dimensional in terms of beauty or form. After a couple of hours with the Atlas of Foreshortening, I start to think that everybody has a shaved head and washboard abs.
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