To celebrate our nation, Joe McCulloch has dipped into his vacation and scooped out a glorious week in comics.
Elsewhere:
I read Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 4 this weekend, and it's the best one yet. Ed Piskor is a master cartoonist. No doubt about it. The amount of detail he packs into pages without every slowing down the narrative is pretty astounding. Plus, the whole thing has impeccable comic timing. I want to write some more on this, but had to just get that out there. If you haven't tried this series, jump on it now. Love.
And... Allow me for a moment to pay tribute to this Jon Severin page for Cracked, 1970. Severin was so good at humor because he was the ultimate straight man cartoonist. Everything looked pretty square about his work -- which of course it had been. Like Elder, Severin killed it in the details. As a kid, and still, I love this stuff because it's doesn't telegraph wacky. Of course I love them both, but a bit of difference is nice. It's like the difference between Jerry Lewis (below by Bob Oksner, 1968) and Dean Martin, I guess.
Ok, I have a two-part reason for showing the Lewis page below. Of course it happens to go with my two-second analogy above but, uh, look at those chalk board drawings! Jerry Lewis does a chalk talk in a comic book. Love it. I've been reminded multiple times, somewhat randomly, of Rudolf Steiner's chalkboard drawings, and this, in its "educational" setting, somehow brings that back in too. Yippee!
Still more:
In the interest of staying sane and reasonably upbeat, I'm going to mostly use this space to muse about comics rather than find links. Tim is better at links than I am anyway. But here's a link:
The great Matthew Thurber would like you to know that:
The wonderful science-fiction social satire feature film, BUGS, made by Toronto conceptual art luminaries, Life of a Craphead, is having several screenings next week in New York! Please attend if you can!
More info:
BUGS website. BUGS trailer. Parsons Screening July 6. Spectacle screenings July 7.
