Sonnet

Rough winds shatter a pane of plexiglass,
Angel Cretin cries monster agony;
Tor Johnson zombie roams the dream streets,
Bad music plays from under the graveyard;
William Burroughs is the old junkie priest;
Salamie Ship crashes by the dime store,
Who goes tapping at the old chamber door?
Not I, says the man in the dried painting;
Now Laundromat Joe eats the walnut meat,
No glot clom fliday, Nov schmoz ka pop, toot sweet.

My Favorite Song

I hate music by guys who are just in it for the money. There's no passion, no talent. These old blues are just the opposite of that. When I first heard this song, I nearly fell into depression, knowing music would never be this good again.

Stan Freberg and books I should read.

Freberg is a genius. He hated Rock 'n' Roll, which could throw some people off from his work. This is really great, hilarious stuff, I think. Satire in the Phil Silvers, Harvey Kurtzman, etc., vein.

Also, I need to stop watching mind-rotting TV and read more. These look like interesting tomes I'll have to look into:

Dead End Yells, Wedding Bells, Cockle Shells, and Dizzy Spells, by Leo Gorcey (1967). The book is extremely rare (only 1000 copies), and what very little I've seen is insanely interesting. It's the actor's autobiography. If i ever track this down at a reasonable price, It's mine. Update: I just found out that an identical reprint is available direct from the publisher for just 40 bucks! Yahoo! I can't buy it right now though. I have no spending moneys.

Rock Dreams, by Guy Peellaert and Nik Cohn (1976). Imagined rock musicians' stories. Beautiful drawings.

Typhon vol. 1, by Danny Hellman and various (2009). I've been meaning to read this for a while and need to buy it. The editor is now a follower of this blog, by the way, and I've been a big fan of his work for some time.

Prison Pit, by Johnny Ryan (2009). I realy enjoy Ryan's work (from the time I started looking at it in Nick magazine years ago, to Angry Youth, to now), and this experimentation with serious stuff looks amazing.

Junky, by William Burroughs (1953). I can't believe I call myself a Burroughs fan without having read this.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith (2009). How could I not want to read a book with this title?

The Doury post will come, but I can't make any promises.

New links

Yup. I updated the links to have more... stuff. Like the dark, insanely interesting Empire S.N.A.F.U. Restoration Project (seriously weird stuff there. It has nothing to do with the Private Snafu cartoons). And Kaz's Underworld, and Crumb Pruducts, and like that. Check 'em out!

Black Hula

An animation by Marv Newland, whose work I'm just getting into. The same man behind "Bambi Meets Godzilla".



COMING SOON:

Pascal Doury

An imitation of a Spumkin post, "Alphabet Meme"

I thought it was neat, so here.

A – Age: 15 and 5 months.


B – Bed Size: King.


C – Chore you hate: Weed-eating the yard in 98 degree weather.


D – Dog’s name: I have 5 jack russels named Lucy, Dotty, Samson, Andy and Millie.


E – Essential start your day item: Put in contacts.


F – Favorite colour: Anything but bright orange. It's the color of torture and makes my eyes bleed.


G – Gold or Silver: Gold. I am cheap.


H – Height: I forget the exact measurements. My head bumps into the ceiling fan a lot, though.


I – Instruments you play(ed): Trumpet, guitar.


J – Job title: Future ceiling licker.


K – Kid(s): You never know.

L – Living arrangements: A room in a 4 bedroom house, with bad living conditions because all available space is filled with books.


M – Mom’s name: Ma.


N – Nicknames: Grits.


O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Dehidration as result of a virus. Lost about 9 pounds and puked over 10 times a day. Fuckin' miserable stuff.


P – Pet Peeve: Constant clearing of throat.


Q – Quote from a movie: "Future events such as these WILL effect YOU in the future!"


R – Right or left handed: Right.


S – Sports: I hate all sports and always will.


T – Time you wake up: It varies. Sometimes 5:30, sometimes 10.


U- Underwear: Boxers.


V – Vegetable you dislike: The thought of tomatoes makes me want to puke.


W – Ways you want to die: Gotta go with Spumkin on this one!


X – X-rays you’ve had: Sprained back (thought it was broken).


Y – Yummy food you make: Maddox sandwich.


Z – Zoo favorite: The fat guy looking at the hippos is always funny.

By Far, The Most Stupid Thing I Have Ever Seen on Youtube

I know this blog really isn't the place for this, but I felt so inclined. I could feel my brain cells dying as I watched... this. I advise not to watch it at work, school, or even home, unless the utmost discretion is used. Here, for all to see... is "Poopy Dinosaur".


There was even a sequel:

... And a third...


I might as well post this too, on the topic of stupid videos. This one actually amused me though.



I am reluctant to click "publish post", for it might damage the blog's integrity... oh well...

Smoke Wagon

I just thought I'd post a few of my favorites from Gary Panter's web comic strip, "Smoke Wagon". I love the strip (though it wasn't love at first sight; I found it a year ago, though it was just interesting, and only recently became a big fan) and it isn't updated nearly enough. The drawing style might be called "crude" by some (those poor, ignorant souls), but it captures the "feel" of his work. If you're familiar with Panter's stuff, you'd realize he's capable of tighter drawings, but I don't think that would fit this strip. It could be called an "acquired taste", but either way, it's great.






The above had some sort of effect on me. It might be my favorite. "timeless to the nth degree", I guess you'd call it.





More here.

Well...

It's very, very hard to come up with this list. I'm gonna wait on it for a while and do posts on other stuff while working on the list.

Spumkin: I don't think John K. will be included, but there'll be a "very worthy mentions" section, with him in it. Also, I saw Maus in your library list. I've never read it, but I am a big Spiegelman fan.

Coming soon: my picks for the "100 Greatest Cartoonists"

Yup, everybody is making "top 100" lists these days, so I decided that I'll do one too, 1 cartoonist per post. Old ones, new ones, foreign ones, local ones, forgotten ones, famous ones, they'll all be put to my judgement... startin' with my next post!

Moebius

Here's a video of the greatest cartoonist in all of France, Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, drawing his famous western character, Blueberry:

I would watch a full-length movie of just this man drawing. I love everything about the style, the lettering...
I will do a post on his work soon.
I did a caricature of him here.

Here's a taste of his finished work:


I was introduced to the work by a book of Havey Kurtzman interviews. He was one of Kurtzman's favorite cartoonists.

The Great American Asshole Test

Yep! More Rick Altergott:




Plus this, from the back cover of Spumco Comic Book. I'm pretty sure he drew this one (he also colored stories in the books):

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!
I just discovered that Rick has another comic up on the Vice site! (Don't read the comments though. Vice's readership is apparently full of ignorant haters. Sleazy, anonymous haters at that. At a glance, the material on the site is a sure-fire way to attract them. Sigh).