Back to the old drawing board

Cartoons by the NEW YORKER's Peter Arno. I showed more Arno cartoons here.

From THE 1942 NEW YORKER ALBUM. Copyright © 1941 Random House.
Copyright © 1939-1941 The New Yorker.












As much as I love the NEW YORKER cartoon history, I was disappointed by the DVD-ROM, containing over 70,000 cartoons, included with the volume THE COMPLETE CARTOONS OF THE NEW YORKER.

I have not seen the CD-ROM version of this set, but can't imagine it could be much different. The cartoons on the DVD-ROM are organized chronologically by year. I would have much preferred to have an index of artists and been able to call up all of the Arno, or R. Taylor, Syd Hoff, or Charles Addams, for instance, but that's not a feature. So in order to find this Arno cartoon, the famous "Back to the drawing board," I had to go through the year 1941 until I found it.

Besides that disadvantage, the cartoons are presented in a PDF format, and can be enlarged or reduced, but are scanned at such a low resolution that many of the fine details are lost. The only cartoons for which the low rez seems to be an advantage are the line drawings. On the other hand, the book itself is a bargain at $19.99: 670 pages, with many of the best of the NEW YORKER represented. Personally, I'll keep the book and put the DVD-ROM in my files for any future reference I might need, if I'm up to the laborious process of going through each year to find what I need.

It's what's up front that counts!

More lively lovelies from THE GREAT AMERICAN PIN-UP CALENDAR.

Copyright © 2004 TASCHEN

More VIP DEAD GAME SPORTSMEN

More of VIP's classic cartoons. From THE DEAD GAME SPORTSMEN. The first set of cartoons can be found here.

Copyright © 1954 Virgil Franklin Partch

"...ain't nothin' in the world like a big-eyed girl..."

MEN'S ADVENTURE MAGAZINES, a bargain book from Taschen put out as one of their 25th anniversary selections, is an outstanding collection of covers from American men's magazines of 30 to 50+ years ago. As I went through it I couldn't help but notice one face repeated. Artist Clarence Doore used a very distinctive female model with wide, terrified eyes. On most of the covers she's in some sort of peril, either from animal or person, but on some she's actually the aggressor. On some covers she's blonde, or brunette, or even African! She also appears as twins or triplets.

I know nothing of Doore, but he was a good illustrator, and did a number of outstanding covers. That poor girl really went through a lot for him.

MEN'S ADVENTURE MAGAZINES, Copyright © 2008 TASCHEN GmbH

Phobia Phun

Afraid of dark, enclosed places? Dead bodies, rodents? How about bugs?

Someone has been entering your subconscious, recording your fears. Check out these phobic tales from the American underground comix of the early '70s.

DEATH RATTLE #3, 1973, published by Kitchen Sink. "Graveyard Rats" Copyright © 1973 Mike Roberts.

INSECT FEAR, undated, but c. 1970, published by Print Mint. "Feeding Time" Copyright © Spain Rodriguez.

Bad girls are so good...

Six of twelve great sleaze paperback covers done up as heavy, deluxe magnetic postcards. You can order this book, BAD GIRLS IN THE BIG CITY, from the publisher for $12.95, from Running Press, by following the link.

Copyright © 2001 Running Press Book Publishers
Images © 1995-1999 Jeffrey Luthor/PC Design

Most Dangerous Game

Because of its theme and suspense, Richard Connell's story, "The Most Dangerous Game," is one of the most famous English language stories. Even if you don't know the original you know the many knock-offs that came from the idea of the hunter being hunted. It was made as a motion picture in 1932, starring Fay Wray and Joel McCrea, and filmed on the same set as KING KONG.

This printing of the 1924 story is from THE GOLDEN BOOK, October 1930.

Crypt of Shadows

Whoever edited this first issue of CRYPT OF SHADOWS, did a good job of collecting artists of different styles. Gil Kane did the eye-catching cover. Mort Lawrence opens with his tale of a witch, then we find the great Basil Wolverton. Jay Scott Pike was usually more at home with the love comics, but Russ Heath could draw about anything, and this is a funny strip using the Charles Atlas ads for inspiration.

CRYPT OF SHADOWS #1, January 1974, Copyright © 1974 Marvel Comics.

VIP's Dead Game Sportsmen

Virgil Partch was a great cartoonist with funny, bizarre ideas and wacky visual puns. He produced several successful books of his cartoons. These cartoons are from THE DEAD GAME SPORTSMEN, published by Duell, Sloan and Pearce, First Edition, 1954.

Partch, born in 1916, died in a car accident in 1984.

Copyright © 1954 Virgil Franklin Partch

Pulp Doc

These are covers from the first two or three years of the popular DOC SAVAGE pulp magazine of the 1930s, taken from Heritage Auctions. The original Doc Savage novels were revived in the 1960s, and the paperback image was embodied by artist James Bama, using model-actor Steve Holland.

But the original Doc of the pulps was a more lithe visualization, not quite in line with author Lester Dent's descriptions of Doc, which more closely matched those of Bama's illustrations. Still, these Baumhofer illustrations make some great covers, and probably helped sell a lot of magazines in the depths of the Great Depression.

By George, three stories!

I consider George Metzger to be not only a great underground cartoonist, but a great cartoonist, no matter the genre.

Three stories: "Flying Saucer Man" from BRAIN FANTASY #1, 1972, published by Last Gasp. "Comic Book Addict" from FOG CITY COMICS #1, 1977; "Light As a Dream" from FOG CITY COMICS #2, 1978, published by Stampart. Color illustration above is the back cover to BRAIN FANTASY #1.

Copyright © 1972, 1977, 1978 by George Metzger.

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Driben my baby back home...

A couple of days ago Chuck Wells asked me to show my personal favorites the next time I posted some pin-ups from THE GREAT AMERICAN PIN-UP CALENDAR by Taschen. While I love all the cuties I show, my personal favorites are the voluptuous, sexy, high-heel lovelies from Peter Driben. Driben, who did many magazine covers and pin-up illustrations over the years, was one of the best of the pin-up artists, and his girls are sexy and adorable.

Here are some covers and even some scans of original art I've managed to gather from the Internet.

You can find the pin-ups that Chuck is referring to by typing in Taschen in the "search this blog" box at the top of this blog. At least a couple of the Driben illustrations found here are found in that calendar collection as well. You can find an outstanding sample of Driben's covers on Flickr here.

In the Scarlet Star

As far as I'm able to tell from what research is available to me, "In the Scarlet Star" by Jack Williamson, has been reprinted only once, in the 1951 anthology, EVERY BOY'S BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION, edited by Donald A. Wollheim. My scans of the story have been taken from its first appearance in AMAZING STORIES, March 1933.

The letter column for this issue was full of letters from readers complaining about the "new" AMAZING, which had taken on an art deco look for its covers. The stories were still very much in the old school of science fiction, and some of the readers were concerned because they weren't scientific enough. There is more of Edgar Rice Burroughs than science in this story, as a man goes through the Fourth Dimension, back to the Stone Age. But at the first of the story enough scientific gimmickry is included to squeeze in some "science" in the science fiction. It's an entertaining story; not one of Williamson's best, but firmly set in the pulp sf tradition of 75 years ago.