Sunday, March 9, 2014

The Comix Files: Chester Brown













One of the advantages of being a perpetual amateur cartoonist is that I get contacted by amazing artists early in their careers before they really get discovered. Such was the case with the incredibly talented Toronto-based Chester Brown during our correspondence from 1984-1986. At the time he was producing a photocopy digest called Yummy Fur.

I loved the way he usually included a bunny graphic with his signature. It was fun jamming with Chester on our mini Lump Soup Sciopluieas in 1985.

During this era I sent Chester a Morty Comix that was something like 100 or 200 pages long. He shot back his own version, which was just as long, and is now in the comix collection at Washington State University.

The Eagles Sing Bacharach


No, not those Eagles, but the original Eagles from the UK, 1958-1964!

Sing Me a Baby Song



This 1927 cover was illustrated by "J.R.," who is probably well known to students of this genre, but I am still learning. Very nice job and representative of the era.

Dionne Warwick and Olivia Newton-John Sing Bacharach


Saturday, March 8, 2014

One Night of Love


No art credits on this 1934 sheet music cover, but it does include a mention of Lyle Talbot, known to legions of Ed Wood fans for his role as General Roberts in Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Favorite Movie Quotes: Mad Dog and Glory

"Going to Frank is like taking heroin to cure an alcohol problem, y'know?"

The Comix Files: Rick "Ricko" Bradford




 Drawn by Dave Tosh















 Looks like a jam from a comix convention





Rick Bradford of Texas first contacted me in 1992 during the City Limits Gazette days. Although his comix art is wonderful and sparky, we all know Rick as the genius behind Poopsheet, at first a hardcopy resource but it evolved into one of THE most important online resources for creators and collectors of Newave, homemade, zine-like comix. Such energy. The guy must be a strange visitor from another planet with powers above and beyond that of mortal men.

Check out these links:

Poopsheet Foundation

Poopsheet Shop


So Tired


It's 1943 and all the good graphic artists must in uniform, explaining why this sheet music has such a boring cover.

InjectRecords Interprets Bacharach

The Comix Files: Chris Bors








Chris Bors was a cartoonist, publisher, and l'enfant terrible from Ithaca, NY when we corresponded mostly from 1985-1988. He briefly surfaced again in 1994. He had a gift for organizing projects involving many cartoonists, providing us with some some anthologies and group portraits of the era. He also (with my permission) republished/repackaged several of my comix.

Bezango WA, a Work in Progress


The film can be viewed at THIS LINK

Ron Austin and Louise Amandes have released a 25 minute "work in progress" version of their Bezango, WA documentary about cartoonists in the Pacific Northwest. My fellow native Boomers will enjoy seeing that Bob Cram is still in the game! Although this is presented as a draft, the preview can be considered a fine mini-documentary by itself.