Category: Miscellaneous

Robert E Howard & Peter Kuper (Dodd, Mead & Co 1984)
 ISBN: 0-396-08370-6

This quirky little tour-de-force reprints Howard’s ‘The Beast from the Abyss’; an essay on the value and nature of cats, originally published in The Howard Collector in 1971, but with each page created as a design and illustration exercise by seminal creator and cutting edge comics pioneer Peter Kuper.

The combination of Howard’s terse, dark prose style with the iconoclastic and left-field sensibilities of Kuper presented here in the form of 49 stark and hysterical lino-cut (think wood-cuts but without the splinters) prints make this a frankly startling addition to the plethora of cat’n’cartoon books out there. I just wish this one still was. Still, it would be a fairly inexpensive book to reprint…

An absolute hoot from two artists not usually noted for a broad sense of humour.

Text © 1971 Glenn Lord. Illustrations © 1984 Peter Kuper.

By Will Eisner, with Keith Diaczun & Barry Caldwell (Scholastic Book Services)
ISBN: 1-5638-9789-X / 89-70123-8

Here’s an odd little item that will probably never be reprinted, although it’s definitely worth a look if you should ever stumble across a copy.

In the 1970s Will Eisner was working as a cartoonist and commercial designer, but took time out to oversee this collection of children’s gags and jokes that cashed in on the twin movie crazes of Jaws (the shark not the Bond villain played by Richard Kiel) and the science fiction boom generated by the first Star Wars film.

Executed in tone and wash, and if I’m completely honest, seeming more the work of assistants Keith Diaczun and Barry Caldwell than the great man himself, there are still enough rib-ticklers, gems and crackers on view warm up the deepest depths, be they space, the oceans or the tired jaded, human heart.

© 1978, 2004 Will Eisner. All Rights Reserved.

By Hy Bender (Titan Books)
ISBN: 1-84023-150-5

No Sandman fan’s life can be considered complete without this knowledgeable tome of interviews and commentary on the 10 graphic novel compilations that comprise the basic canon of Neil Gaiman’s groundbreaking re-imagining of the classic DC superhero.

This book features an issue-by-issue exploration of the text, a series overview, influences and backstory, explorations of symbolism and interviews with many of Gaiman’s artistic collaborators plus comments and appreciations from such celebrity fans as Peter Straub, Samuel R. Delaney, Tori Amos, Alan Moore, and Harlan Ellison. Liberally illustrated throughout, and including many pre-production sketches and proposal drawings, there is also a beautiful colour section of rare art and artefacts.

If you are the kind of reader who needs more than the book itself, this erudite and expansive book should be a delight and a revelation.

© 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Johnny Hart (CheckerBPG)
ISBN: 978-1-905239-63-4

In 1958, for some inexplicable reason, caveman jokes were everywhere in magazines. And yet General Electric draughtsman and wannabe cartoonist Johnny Hart couldn’t sell a single one. He also wanted to create a syndicated newspaper strip but couldn’t think of an idea. And then one of his co-workers said one not do one about Cavemen?

B.C. is an every day kind of guy but he has some odd and interesting friends. All of them are based on actual people, life-long friends of Hart’s, and their reminiscences are a charming and poignant insight into the life of one of the most revered and successful cartoonists of modern times.

With a decade by decade selection of the best of the strips, supplemented by a list of its many awards, and packed with photographs and observations, this is a delightful commemoration of a great and very funny strip.

Johnny Hart died during the finishing stages of this book’s creation, and this is undoubtedly the best way to celebrate his achievements. His legacy of brain-tickling, surreal lunacy will never date, and creative anachronism has never been better used to raise a smile or an eyebrow in this lush collection of timely and timeless fun.

B.C. © 2007 Creators Syndicate Inc. B.C.© 1958-2006 John L. Hart Family Limited Patrnership.

Wondering, “WHAT SHALL I GET HIM FOR CHRISTMAS?”

By Steve Whitaker (Sterling Publishing 2006)
ISBN: 1-40273-125-6

This splendid volume is aimed more squarely at the progressing cartoonist, rather than at the utter neophyte, and provides an A to Z glossary of such useful categories as Animals, Backgrounds, Clothing, Corrections, Stippling, and the more esoteric and philosophical areas of Observation, Satire and Commentary and Presentation.

A certain level of attainment is necessary but all thirty-six chapters are clearly written, and lavishly illustrated, by an author who has worked in every area of cartooning and comic strip creation. Moreover, each chapter concludes with a pictorial “swipe-file” contributed by a huge and stellar cast of working illustrators such as Nick Abadzis, Carl Flint, Peter Maddox, Woodrow Phoenix, Ron Tiner, Dan Spiegle, Brian Bolland, Hunt Emerson, Sax, Roland Fiddy, and Julie Hollings among others to perfectly illustrate, in a commercial context, the end result of each discourse.

This book is not only an ideal tool for would-be creators whose interest has not waned after the first few weeks, but can provide useful fodder for the desperate pro faced with that awful and inevitable “blank-white-page” feeling.

© 2006 Steve Whittaker & Steve Edgell. All Rights Reserved.

By Craig Yoe (Last Gasp)
ISBN 13: 978-0-86719-653-5

Despite the somewhat prurient and sensationalistic – not to say salacious – title, this compilation of cartoons and illustrations, culled from the private files and bins of a number of our industry’s greatest stars (and also many from the drawing boards of those infamous scallywags of the animation industry) is a charming insight into the capabilities and accomplishments of a talented crowd of individualists.

To European eyes there is very little amiss here, but one needs to remember just how prudish and censorious (I personally prefer the terms “daft” and “ridiculous”) the American “family values” lobby is and always has been. Two brilliantly telling examples would be the covering of Flossie the Cow’s udders first by a skirt (1932) and eventually (1939) by a full dress (she also had to stop walking on all-fours because it was unladylike) and Mort Walker’s navel collection (apparently a syndicate editor had a problem with belly buttons and always returned Beetle Bailey strips that featured one. Walker would scalpel them off the artwork and collect them in a pot on his desk).

Collected and compiled by fan, historian, Renaissance man and cool bloke Craig Yoe (among his many accomplishments he counts being Creative Director of the Muppets – bet you want to Google him now, don’t you?) and with an introduction by a proper “Dirty” cartoonist Robert Crumb, this is a frothy book of rather chaste naked lady pictures (and often not even that) in colour and monochrome, from some of the best artists and cartoonists in modern history – although you might want to check the oddly incongruous contributions of Gustave Doré and Thomas Rowlandson before giving a copy to your eight-year old.

So if you’re unflappable, incorruptible or just not from Kansas or Georgia, you might want to sneak a peak at this stellar cast of incorrigibles which includes Jack Kirby, James Montgomery Flagg, George Herriman, Joe Shuster, Steve Ditko, Charles Schulz, Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, Chuck Jones, Dr, Seuss, Carl Barks, Bob Kane, Rube Goldberg, Bruce Timm, Alex Toth, Fred Moore, Dan DeCarlo, Dave Berg, Ernie Bushmiller, Sergio Aragones, Jack Davis, Billy DeBeck, Hal Foster, Harry G. Peter, Paul Murray, Neal Adams, Al Jaffee, Wally Wood, Nick Cardy, Hank Ketcham, Johnny Hart, Walt Kelly , Adam Hughes, Alex Schomburg, Al Williamson, Henry Boltinoff, Stan Drake, Dik Browne, Matt Baker, Otto Soglow, Al Capp, John Severin, Jim Steranko, Jack Cole, Bill Everett, Grim Natwick, Will Eisner and many others.

© 2007 Gussani-Yoe Studio, Inc.
All illustrations are © 2007 their respective artist and/or © holders.

Reflections of a Drawingboard Patriot

By Milton Caniff, edited by Shel Dorf (Eclipse Books)
ISBN 0-913-035-25-4

This little rarity is a delightful introduction into the old-fashioned world and magical artistry of possibly the greatest strip cartoonist of all time. Released in the mid 1980s when Caniff’s brand of patriotism was slowly giving way to a much more intolerant and cruel brand of paranoid nationalism, these excerpts from his vast body of work forcefully remind the reader of a purer, more idealistic and aspirational land of Freedom and Opportunity.

Fans will delight in the chance to see some of the creator’s early reportage and portraiture, his editorial cartooning and landmark strips such as the episode of Terry and the Pirates that was read into the Congressional Record. Also collected are his public service drawings, a Steve Canyon sequence (from 1982) entitled ‘What is Patriotism?’ and his strips dedicated to departed comrades.

Of most moving consequence are the collected Armed Forces Day strips and every Steve Canyon Christmas Day episode (an unbroken string of graphic ruminations on the lot and role of the military everyman) from 1947 to 1987.

Stirring, gripping, heartfelt, these evocations from a master of his craft are the best tribute from, to and by an honest plain-dealer. Simply Wonderful.

Artwork © 1987 Milton Caniff. © 2007 Ester Parsons Caniff Estate. Text features © their respective authors. All Rights Reserved.