mine!


Look what my supervisor gave me! I saw it laying on her desk and said "Hey, can I see that?" and she said "Sure, you can have it if you want it!" SWEET!

I love the drawing, the design, the color pallet. I especially love that the kids are engaged in potentially dangerous activity without fussy adult supervision ruining their fun!

More interesting things -
1. Ethnic diversity in 1965!
2. You'd think the color pallet was the result of saving money and not using cyan ink, but there's a Zippy and Tippy comic on the back cover that uses all 4 inks, so the designer clearly intentionally chose this pleasant pallet.
3. Even though the kid in the orange shirt is magically passing through the middle of the limb, and tons of other things are "wrong" here, it's a great cover!

7 comments:

eeTeeD said...

what does the big red xp symbol on the right of the cover stand for?

if the adventures of zippy and tippy is typical of the type of gag cartoons you get in heaven, i guess i'm lucky i'm going to hell.

i found an incredible cartoon i want to share, but i'm going to wait until its creator opens up his new site.

dogboy443 said...

Oh that Zippy and Tippy...they kill me!
They'll be in the next CG animated adventure of animals going into space!

James Robert Smith said...

That is VERY unusual having the diversity in a 1965 publication.

The kid is not magically phasing through the tree. He's obviously between branches.

A crazed comic artist I used to know once showed me a very weird Catholic publication he owned. Filled with comics circa 1950s or so. As an atheist, I found it quite disturbing.

Mark Martin said...

He's passing through the limb, you non-believing heathen atheist!

eeT, that PX thing is a catholic symbol. I *think* it stands for pax christi, "The Peace of Christ" but I'm not 100% positive about that.

dogboy443 said...

I think he is fazing through that tree limb! He must be a...mutant!

James Robert Smith said...

"I *think* it stands for pax christi, "The Peace of Christ" but I'm not 100% positive about that."

Someone ask Steve Bissette. He was a Catholic.

Jed Alexander said...

I’m going to say what I have to say once, and I’m not going to argue with anyone or further engage on this subject. I don’t want to waste time and energy on some big debate about something that should be self-evident.

On the subject of Eeteed’s comicbook:

In the indicia of Eeteed’s comicbook it says, “A NOTE TO READERS: The stories inside this book take place early in the 20th century, a time when accents and attitudes were very different from today”. This reminds me a lot of something Ricky Gervais’ character from the British version of the Office said once: “That was before they knew racism was bad”.

On the first page of Eeteed’s comicbook is a stand alone strip featuring a pig and a crow. The pig speaks in a folksy German dialect (as do the rest of the characters in the comic) and the crow speaks like Jim Crow. As in the classic racial stereotype Jim Crow. I quote:

Me oh mah, Rex! Dat Sho’ am one fine ear O’ corn!”

“Ah sho’ hopes you’ mammy dun teached you ‘bout sharin’!”

There is no irony or context other than the note in the indicia to indicate why Eeteed thinks this is Ok. It’s one thing to do a period piece, it’s another to rehash bigoted imagery in the manner of “attitudes of the time” without the intention to enlighten.

Now Mark, you had to realize that this was not going to be met with the most welcome reception, but Eeteed wants feedback, and feedback he will get.

From the little I know about Eeteed from this blog, I imagine it was an innocent and naïve act on his part, but this is a kind of innocence and naivete that you can’t afford to have anymore. This comic might be intended as a throwback to the early part of the century but it was written today when there is no longer a remote excuse for the innocent portrayal of a racial stereotype like Jim Crow—Eeteed should know better. He knew enough to put the note in the indicia. He should know enough that this is a malicious and inexcusable stereotype. It’s one thing when you see it in Dumbo or Song of the South when you might be able to say that it reflected attitudes at the time (attitudes that, despite innocent intentions, are malignant in nature and in general), but it has no place in contemporary media without a context that demonstrates intention that suggests you’re aware of and sensitive to the issue. Or at the very least, a context that suggests irony or some kind of post-modern exercise, or anything really to suggest you’re not doing it out of maliciousness or ignorance.

The remaining five pages contain a cute folksy story with mostly blond characters speaking in a comical German dialect. Like Eeteed’s last effort, it’s a little too precious, but otherwise nicely crafted. Even the color isn’t that bad, at least the color choices, but the technique has something to be desired---it looks like everything has been rendered with the same spotty airbrushed texture with little to indicate light source. My suggestion to Eeteed is to stick to flat color.

The whole package, whatever the intention, looks like something you might hand out to children at a Klan rally.

And that’s all I have to say on the subject.