EARTH DAY AND POGO

Inaugurated on this day 54 years ago, in 1970, Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection, Today it includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by Earthday.org including one billion people in more than 193 countries. The official theme for Earth Day 2024 is "Planet vs. Plastics."

 

For that first Earth Day, legendary American cartoonist Walt Kelly – creator of the beloved comic-strip about Pogo Possum that resident philosopher of Okefenokee Swamp – produced an Earth Day poster showing Pogo surveying the mess of garbage littering his swamp homeland and carried the slogan "We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us.”

 

 

 

Kelly was re-working a comment made by American Naval Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who – on September 10, 1813 – having trounced the British Navy at the Battle of Lake Erie, reported to Major General William Henry Harrison, “We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.”

 

Kelly’s variation on this famous battle report, had a different intent: to remind us that humankind has a way of being its own worst enemy – specifically that we have only ourselves to blame for the conditions that are polluting our environment and threatening the future of human life on earth.

 

A year after Kelly's poster appeared, he created a special comic strip for Earth Day 1971 featuring Pogo and his friend Porky Pine that restated his earlier warning against the self-destructive course which we were (and are still) blindly pursuing...

 

 

You can read more about Walt Kelly, Pogo & friends HERE

THE ELUSIVE ZORRO

 

TODAY! COMIC-BOOK COVER ART: 

ZORRO – [Part ONE]

 

 

Totally stunning red, black and white cover for Zorro: Man of the Dead #1 (J. Albuquerque Variant). If you'll forgive the sloppy critique:  

 

WOWEE!!

 

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

TODAY! COMIC-BOOK COVER ART: 

ZORRO – [Part TWO]

 

Surprising (if somewhat vacant) off-white cover for Zorro: Man of the Dead #1 (Cover 'I' Blank Sketch Limited Edition) Pre-Order: ONLY 2000 PRINTED

 

BUT, beware... The website at Forbidden Planet carries the following curious caveat:

 

"COVER SUBJECT TO CHANGE"

THE ART OF THE COMIC-BOOK (9)

It's been quite a while since I posted any comic cover-art, so here's a stunning new piece by Eisner Award-winner Christian Ward featuring Batman suspended upside down in a monstrous green tentacled grip against a lurid blood-red sky.

This dramatic creation is destined for the cover of Batman: City of Madness #2, to be published this December. 

 

LONG LIVE KING MICKEY

 

To mark the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III, the Disney Store in the UK have released a limited edition (only 2000 and only £14.00 a piece) 'Coronation Day' pin-badge featuring a monarchical Mickey Mouse costumed along the lines of his appearance in his 1990 film, The Prince and the Pauper. 

 

Unsurprisingly, this desirable little collectible sold out faster than the proverbial hot-cakes.

Interestingly, it's not the first time that Disney – at least in the UK – has taken the knee to the British Crown: 70 years ago this month, May 1953, Mickey Mouse Weekly celebrated the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with this cover illustration showing the progress of the Gold State Coach watched by a cheering, flag-waving crown including Mickey and the gang. 

 

And 16 years earlier, in May 1937, Mickey Mouse Weekly had a cover marking the Coronation of His Majesty King George VI with the Mouse and the Duck cheer-leading the celebrations with, again, a prominent presence of the Union flag – which (as is not always the case) is correctly displayed the right way up!

THE ART OF THE COMIC-BOOK (1)

As someone who is only a casual purchaser of comic books – new or vintage – but who, nevertheless, is a complete sucker for exceptional comic cover-art, I've decide to curate a personal collection of randomly stunning covers on this blog: beginning with Batman #135, cover 'H' by Jim Cheung (Special Foil Variant), May 2023.

A CAUSE FOR THANKSGIVING

On 6 March 1943, The Saturday Evening Post published a painting by the great American pop artist, Norman Rockwell.

The first of four 'Freedom' pictures by Rockwell, it was entitled 'Freedom from Want' and became the archetypal image representing Thanksgiving...

This is not the first time this iconic image has appeared on this blog and I am reproducing it again today to bring Thanksgiving Greetings to all my friends on the other side of the Atlantic.   

It was later used as a US propaganda poster with the slogan: OURS... to fight for FREEDOM FROM WANT.

It is said that Rockwell fussed over this painting for a long time, concerned that it would convey overabundance rather than the theme of freedom from want.

Rockwell was well known for using friends and family as models for his paintings and the Rockwell family cook, Mrs. Thaddeus Wheaton, was the model for the grandmother serving the turkey.  "I painted the turkey in Freedom From Want on Thanksgiving Day," wrote Rockwell, "Mrs Wheaton, our cook, cooked it, I painted it and we ate it."

I love Rockwell's wonderful composition – back-lit from the window with the light bouncing off the white tablecloth and best china – and, in particular, the way in which the senior couple are focused on the placing of the turkey and maintaining the order and ritual of the table.

I also enjoy the way in which the family circle is so intimate and tightly knit that the rest of the diners are only partially glimpsed. it is genius on Rockwell's part that they are are all learning forward in animated conversation with one another – with the one exception of the guy in the bottom right hand corner who is looking directly at the artist and, therefore, the viewer, and so makes us a guest at the table.

It also gives me an excuse to also blog again a delightful pastiche of Rockwell's original painting by a gifted Disney artist and illustrator, Charles Boyer, whom I had the pleasure of meeting some years ago...


Boyer's Disney-version of Rockwell is, of course, kitsch - but it is, surely, down-home-honest-to-goodness kitsch! And - on a day like today - I don't really need any excuse for juxtaposing the work of two of America's greatest popular artists.

Disney wasn't the first or last to parody the Rockwell painting and among those who have dragged out the turkey are the Muppets, the Simpsons, the superheroes and the cast of characters in Modern Family. Here are a few Thanksgiving meals to enjoy...

  

 

For anyone who'd like to know a little more about the festival of Thanksgiving observed by Britain's former colonists, you can read more about its origins on former post.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Bottom photography by Louis Stein

FINE AND DANDY

For 75 years (come 4 December) British kids have grown up following the comic capers in...

It is the longest running British comic (and the third longest in the world) and is currently the subject of a new exhibition at London's Cartoon Museum.

Sadly, The Dandy's birthday this year will mark the end of its print publication and the beginning of (hopefully) its continued existence on-line...

When it first appeared, the comic was nothing short of a breakthrough: it was issued in tabloid format and, instead of captions under the pictures, the characters for the first time spoke in 'speech balloons'.

Ah, those characters!

From the beginning this knockabout company of oddballs and misfits were what kept readers coming back and back – with two in particular cover-stars who would remain firm favourites across several generations of young readers: Desperate Dan, a cowboy titan with a huge stubbly jaw and an insatiable appetite – a light snack for Dan would be a (whole) cow pie...

...and Korky the Cat, a human-sized feline...

Among other memorable characters across the years have included Tin Lizzie, Turtle Boy, Freddie the Fearless Fly, Corporal Clot, Bully Beef and Chips, Percy Payne, Cuddles and Dimples, Smasher, Banana Man and Beryl the Peril, one or two of whom are being spied on here by another regular – Keyhole Kate...

The Dandy has consistently served as mirror reflecting three-quarters of century of occasionally turbulent times and changing social mores: from Desperate Dan's WWII exploits taking on the German Luftwaffe...

...to Korky's problems, in the 'sixties, with Beatles-inspired mice...

Along the way, the comic has had to adapt its humour to the restraints of political correctness (dropping unacceptable xenophobic, racist and sexist attitudes and abandoning the spankings, slipperings and canings that its youthful miscreants once regularly endured) as well as, more recently, opening its pages to Manga-inspired characters and occasional celebrity guests, such as a cartoon incarnation of TV star, Harry Hill...

The Cartoon Museum's exhibition remains on show until 24 December (the perfect pre-Christmas treat for kids of all ages) at 35 Little Russell Street, London WC1A 2HH

Opening Times:
Monday-Saturday 10:30-17:30 (including Bank Holidays); Sunday 12:00-17:30 (NB: The Museum will be closed 22 October and 25 December 2012-6 January 2013 inclusive

Admission:
£5.50 Adults; £4.00 Concessions; £3.00 Students; Free to Under 18s, Art Fund Members and Friends of the Cartoon Museum.
Telephone 0207 580 8155

And you can sign-up to be among the first to receive details of the on-line edition of The Dandy!

CRACKING FUN

The other week I was giving a talk to a bunch of American students visiting Britain on a course devoted to Children's Literature. My subject was talking animals in literature (from the serpent in the Garden of Eden to manifestations of Parseltongue in the Harry Potter books) and coincidentally – while I was in the midst of my researches – David and I were looking out items from our collection for a new exhibition at The Cartoon Museum entitled...

Animal Crackers is a celebration of an amazing ark-load of creatures who, across many generations, have been put to work by cartoonists, illustrators and film-makers in the interests of humour and satire.

There are cartoons featuring animals as national types or political groups across several centuries from John Tenniel and David Low (whose Coalition Ass is, surely, ripe for revival!) to today's satirists, Steve Bell and Martin Rowson.

But best of all are those animals simply horsing around or monkeying about for the sheer fun of it or, as in these two cartoons, re-defining the term 'bird brain'...

 

There are people behaving like animals and animals dressed up like people, as in this example, 'Hare Dressing', by one of Dickens' illustrators, John Leech...

Among the more than 140 exhibits by 60 artists you'll find, cheek by jowl, Korky the Kat...

...and Simon's Cat...

There are perennial favourites like Fred Basset, Rupert Bear, Flook and one of Thelwell's endearingly obstreperous ponies...

There are also a number of rabbits in evidence from this literary imagining (from our collection) by Michael fflokes...

...to the black humour of Andy Riley's Bunny Suicides...

From the nation's comics you'll meet a range of amusing animals from Pip, Squeak and Wilfred (a bizarre vintage menage featuring a dog, a penguin and a rabbit) and, from the Beano, The Three Bears...

And from animated films there's the Pink Panther, Gromit (and Wallace) and assorted Disney folk from Max Hare and Toby Tortoise from the 1934 Silly Symphony, The Tortoise and the Hare...

...to that king of the swingers, The Jungle Book's King Louie...

This wonderfully entertaining exhibition remains on show until 21 October.

The Cartoon Museum
35 Little Russell Street
London WC1A 2HH

Telephone 0207 580 8155

OPENING TIMES:
Tuesdays-Saturdays 10:30-17:30
Sunday 12:-17:30 Closed Mondays (including Bank Holidays)

ADMISSION:
£5.50 Adults; £4.00; Concessions; £3 Students Free to Under-18s
Art Fund Members and Friends of the Cartoon Museum
Children 12 or under must be accompanied by an adult

There are occasional special events arranged to coincide with exhibitions: check the Cartoon Museum website for up-to-date details and how to book.

***

Finally, these two characters...

...prompt me to let you know that the recent radio programme, The Songs of Milne that features the settings written by H Fraser-Simson for A A Milne's Christopher Robin verses and Hums of Pooh (in which I made an appearance) gets a repeat airing tomorrow (Saturday) on BBC Radio 4 at 13:30.


Image credits:
Penguin and Polar Bear © Royston Roberton
Ian Baker, Readers' Digest  200
'A Nasty Tern' from Ralph Steadman’s Extinct Boids with Ceri Levy (October 2012)
Korky the Cat, James Crighton, Dandy 1949 © D C Thomson & Co Ltd.
Simon's Cat © Simon Tofield
'You Can Talk to Your Horse' © Norman Thelwell
'For Services to Literature' © the estate of Michael ffolkes (Brian Davis)
Bunny Suicides © Andy Riley
The Three Bears (detail), Leo Baxendale, Beano1963 © D C Thomson & Co Ltd
Disney images © The Walt Disney Studio

GREEN AND GAY

So.... It isn't Batman (and/or Robin) after all who's been chosen to live the gay life; the DC superhero who's trading in his heterosexuality is....

GREEN LANTERN

Under all that green anger, it seems, he has a softer side...

Personally, I'd have thought Green Lantern (aka Alan Scott) had more than enough stuff to cope with already –– but then, again, haven't we all?!

Read the full story here 

COMIX COME OUT

I wonder whether Nick Clegg is a comic book fan?

Do you suppose – when he's not fagging for Head Prefect Cameron – that Cleggers is closeted away in the Tuck Room reading the latest X-Men adventures?

I ask because it occurs to me that he may just have been encouraged in his dedication to the cause of 'gay marriage' (currently causing so much Conservative apoplexy) by the revelation that one of Marvel Comics' superheroes is about to enter into a same-sex union.

Northstar (left) was the first openly gay comic book character. True identity, champion skier, Jean-Paul Beaubier, is a mutant who can move and fly at near light speeds and possesses superhuman stamina, endurance and reflexes.

Northstar's sexuality was somewhat nervously revealed in 1992, but a decade on he has proposed to his partner, Kyle, and the pair are to set be wed on 20 June in issue 51 of Astonishing X-Men.

Not to be out-done, rival comic book publishers, DC Comics have let slip that they are about to "reintroduce a DC character who was previously straight and will now will be 'one of our most prominent gay characters'.” Who will it be? Superman? Batman? Robin? Wonder Woman? Time will tell...

Meanwhile, maybe Cleggers ought to get some extra copies Astonishing X-Men No. 51 for the Prefect's Common Room.

Source: Bleedingcool.com.

COMIC CUTS & ANNUAL DELIGHTS

The Cartoon Museum has Late Night Openings tonight and tomorrow from 5:30-8:30 pm to tie-in with their current H M Bateman exhibition The Man Who Went Mad on Paper.

Bateman's prolific career spanned both the Edwardian era and the Roaring 'Twenties, a fact reflected in the themes for the two evenings.

Tonight (Friday) is an Edwardian Evening with talks on Bateman's extraordinary cartoons by curator, Anita O'Brien, Bernard Crossley on the world of the Edwardian postcard and historian Lesley Hall on Edwardian Women.

The theme for tomorrow (Saturday) is Going Modern, Being British: Britain in the 'Twenties and 'Thirties with, in addition to Anita O'Brien on Bateman, motoring journalist, Martin Gurdon celebrating the advent of the motor car so beloved by a host of cartoonists and Yours-Truly (i.e. Me!) blowing the dust of some of vintage comics and children's annuals that emerged in the '20s and '30s.

Here's a few of the treats I'll have in store for visitors...

The Cartoon Museum
35 Little Russell Street
London WC1A 2HH.
Telephone 0207 580 815