My Neighborhood, continued
A current TV ad recommends, “Put googly eyes on your stuff to keep you company.”
(The mask says, “Wear Your Mask.” Good advice in these times.)
Furries!
I don't plan on bringing the current health crisis into the storyline. But if I did, our heroes would probably look like this, waiting for their haircuts.
The Internet is Complete
So, I was doing some internet digging the other day. In the comic strip Alley Oop (about the caveman), one of the characters spoke in rhyme. When he got married and had kids, his kids did too. I needed a picture of the kids (don't ask why). No matter what search terms I used -- "Ally Oop cast" "Alley Oop Foozy kids" "Foozy's boys" -- I got nothing. I finally found what I needed in a book.
So here I am, putting that picture on the web. The gap is filled. You're welcome, Internet.
Alley Oop was by the multi-faceted cartoonist V.T. Hamlin, often with an assist by Dave Graue.
My Neighborhood
I write this during the Covid crisis. My muse and I are sheltering in a New York City apartment. Luckily, I can go for walks in a beautiful neighborhood.
Did I mention that this is New York City?
Mutant Mail-Box
Gerard from Massachusetts writes about Granzilla:
“This character has certain present-day relevancy! The scale is overwhelming. Like grandmas when they get mad: woe betide.”
I’ve got to say I like readers who read in!
The Good Moose Artist
Back in October 2018, I posted about a wall covered with cartoonists’ sketches at The Overlook bar in NYC. Another excellent cartoonist who drew on that mural was Al Kilgore.
While you may have heard of Carl Barks described as the “good duck artist,” I think of Al Kilgore as the “good moose artist.” He drew Rocky & Bullwinkle for comic books and a newspaper strip. His characters were simple and energetic. His gags came fast and bite-sized.
One of my Ten Favorite Comic Books of All Time is Rocky & His Fiendish Friends #1. Only 25 cents for eighty pages (with only one ad)! The issue includes a Rocky adventure by Kilgore, told in four chapters spread across the issue, with other features in-between, just like in the cartoon show. The jokes are varied and original, many of them breaking the fourth wall. I had to ask my father to explain some of them to me, when I first read it as a kid.
NOTE: Since posting this article, I have been advised that R&HFF #1 and these illustrations could have drawn by another artist in Kilgore’s style.
More information at: https://www.lambiek.net/artists/k/kilgore_al.htm and http://drewfriedman.blogspot.com/2011/05/al-kilgore-king-of-caricature.html
Secrets behind the Comics
I’ve taken the opportunity to make corrections to some past strips that really needed it.
One change I thought worth making was to our heroes’ arrival at the City. In one panel, they were on the bus, then in the next, they had arrived, with some tiny buildings in the background. The caption said “Big City,” but you couldn’t really see it.
So I added an establishing shot. Inspired by the view of Manhattan from a bus in New Jersey, I drew two things -- a bus on a bridge and a skyline (below).
Then I combined them in PhotoShop and gussied them up, as usual. You can see the result by going to this episode http://www.bureauofbeasties.com/comic/2017/4/16/welcome-my-friends-to-the-bus-ride-that-never-ends and scrolling down, lower than usual.
As 2019 closed out, I heard about a Call for mail art featuring Black Mermaids. This was my contribution:
I painted the ink drawing with water color (appropriate for a water creature). Scanned water color looks different from my strip, which I color digitally.
Mutant Mail-Box
Three nice notes:
Rachel from Upstate New York says: "I really loved it."
Jenny from Queens, NY says: "Great looking site including content of course."
Mike from Brooklyn, NY says: "I declare Bureau of Beasties officially charming! A little Bloom County, a scoche Krazy Kat, a pinch of Fat Freddy's Cat, and a whole lot of Boatner. It's groovy and very warmhearted. Approved."
A small announcement
I'm now posting new strips twice a month, on the 1st and 15th. We are also now...
Now It Can Be Told
Will the real Tom Terrific please stand up?
The fluffy news of the week was that Tom Brady wanted to trademark the name “Tom Terrific.” And my response was, of course, “You can’t do that – it’s already taken!”
Not by Tom Seaver, though. Tom Terrific was a cartoon character in the 50s, created by Gene Deitch. It was drawn in a modern (it still looks modern) style of simple, almost abstract, fluid lines that looked like they had just wiggled off the artist’s doodle pad. (According to Mr. Deitch, some of that effect was due to limited budget, but “mother of invention,” as they say.)
The heroes were a talking dog and shape-changing boy (not to be confused with Adventure Time, years later, whose heroes were a boy and a talking, shape-changing dog). Tom provided all of the optimism and motivation to the heroics. Manfred (full name: Mighty Manfred, the Wonder Dog) generally wanted to sleep and avoid trouble (my kind of guy). But Tom never lost faith in Manfred’s inner nobility.
Unfortunately, the Washington Post (June 3 article) believes that the trademark registration by Terrytoons animation studio has expired. So maybe the name really is up for grabs. But I’ll know who was the Real Tom Terrific is.
Doodling at work
Maybe there’s an idea here, somewhere…
What I saw the other day
A smiling woman holding an excited dog while a man tore a “lost dog” flyer down from a lamp post.
Mermaids in the News
For me, the oddest thing about the current popularity of superhero movies is that obscure characters I have loved for years are suddenly household names. Mera, played by Amber Heard in the Aquaman movie, is the latest case-in-point.
Mera was the first mermaid I encountered in comics. In the Aquaman comic, she is a supporting character and love interest, much like in the movie.
She was a scarlet haired water nymph in a form-fitting green suit. In her first appearance, she was drawn at the bottom of the cover. In her second, the enterprising editor put her high up, next to the masthead, where she wouldn’t be hidden by the comics below on the rack. That was the first time I bought Aquaman, so maybe that’s why. But I was ten, so who knows?
I was confused by that suit. She was covered in scales and apparently had webbed feet so I figured those scales were part of her – that she was a two-legged (or two-tailed) melusine like the Starbucks logo. Yes, the scales ended abruptly in a collar at her neck, but I discounted that as artistic license. The first time I saw her in a different outfit, proving that she had boring, human-type feet, I was disappointed.
She was one of the earliest super-powered women (especially if you don’t count spinoff characters like Supergirl); in fact, she was more powerful than the hero (which was never mentioned in the stories). Despite that, Mera has not had a title of her own before now. That’s another benefit of the movie. Her first graphic novel, “Mera: Queen of Atlantis,” went on sale in December. The story is a subplot of a larger Aquaman storyline, and she has to share space with another character (male) but they do spell her name right. And there’s something called “Mera: Tidebreaker” coming out in April that looks promising.
Support your local mermaid!
"Spiking Rents Are Factor in Rise in Homelessness"
That was a headline in the New York Times…
Dining experience
Overheard at a major restaurant chain:
CUSTOMER: There's a hair in my food.
WAITER: That's a micro-herb.
Art Tour
On the east side of Midtown Manhattan is a bar/restaurant called The Overlook (225 E. 44, to be exact). If you go to the back and peer at the walls, faded drawings appear. Two walls are covered by cartoonists’ sketches, many in color. The murals are a treasure of big names, like Sergio Aragones, Gil Kane, and Dik Browne. (It’s said that a James Thurber drawing was included once.)
The first time I went, it was fun to poke around and see who I recognized. Everyone has their favorites. One of mine is a drawing of “Rip Kirby” by John Prentice.
Rip was a dapper detective created by Alex Raymond, of “Flash Gordon” fame. Raymond’s interest in fashion and drapery was obvious, even in his science fiction work, but it was put to better use in Rip’s 20th century world.
As well as tailored suits and cool hats, Rip wore glasses. As a bespectacled boy, I looked for heroes I could identify with in comics and movies and on TV. When I found Rip Kirby, Raymond was no longer drawing it, however -- John Prentice had taken it on. Not that I knew or cared -- I thought it was great.
Prentice was a talented and worthy successor. Prentice delineated handsome and beautiful people with a crisp black line. Rip was grim and his butler Desmond was funny. (What hero’s butler isn’t funny?) Prentice drew fine detail and rich shadows (even Rip’s frames cast shadows).
I’m happy that many of his strips have been reprinted in collections of crisp reprints by IDW Publishing. I don’t know how much longer the mural at The Overlook Bar will last…
My Steve Ditko story
One of the great comics artists died recently. Steve Ditko was the first to visualize Spider-Man, Dr. Octopus, J. Jonah Jameson, Dr. Strange, the Dread Dormammu, The Creeper, The Question, Mr. A, Squirrel Girl, and many other unforgettable characters. Sometimes he wrote his own stories. Other times he worked with writers like Stan Lee and Will Murray.
I was also one of those lucky writers, although only for ten pages. The story was “The Making of a Monster” in Blue Ribbon Comics issue 12. My excitable editor, John Carbonaro, said, “Guess who I got to draw your story!”
You can see by this panel, how much my dialogue contributed to the story.
