I'm loving these hilarious cartoon collages by artist J.R. Williams. I first became acquainted with his artwork when he created this excellent illustration of Screaming Lord Sutch for an article I wrote in Cool and Strange Music magazine.
Kevin "Kez" Wilson of the Monsterverse weblog created this nifty gallery of faux Doc Savage paperback covers showing the Man of Bronze interacting with famous monsters of the silver screen. I got a chuckle out of this one, inspired by Bela Lugosi's White Zombie.
[Link: Doc Savage Fantasy Cover Gallery][via Groovy Age of Horror]
Thanks to Groovy Age of Horror (NSFW) for hepping me to these new Doc Savage reprints, that feature not only the fabulous Bantam paperback-cover artwork of James Bama pictured above, but also the original cover art and interior illustrations from Street & Smith's Doc Savage Magazine, published in the 1930s and '40s. I'll definitely be picking up a copy of Fortress of Solitude, my favorite Doc adventure.
I had 20-30 of the Bantam paperbacks when I was a kid, and I used to read them during lunch at school until my evil bitch of a 5th-grade teacher, Miss George, took them away from me and wouldn't give them back. My mother was furious with her, and asked her how she, as a teacher, could justify doing something to discourage a child from reading. I've always been grateful for how she stuck up for me against such a petty classroom tyrant.
Bite me, Miss George.
[Link: New Doc Savage Reprints]
[Link: Doc Savage Magazine Cover Gallery]
Iowahawk's satire is right on the money with this comic-book ad parody aimed at the Yale Art School student who artificially inseminated herself multiple times, then induced miscarriages in order to "encourage discussion" of abortion.
As a former art student, I can't tell you how tedious (and typically batshit insane) the attention-junkies behind these sorts of political "art" statements can be, as well as the professors who encourage them. All I wanted to do was learn how to paint, draw, and illustrate. Instead, I got 3 years of forced indoctrination. UItimately, I had to transfer to a tech college and get an electronics degree in order to clear my brain.
[Link: Close Cover Before Striking]
Sadly, artist Dave Stevens passed away yesterday after a long battle with leukemia.
So long, Dave, and many thanks for introducing me to Ms. Bettie Page, via your greatest creation, The Rocketeer.
UPDATE: more eloquent, better-illustrated tributes here and here.
Karel Zeman was a brilliant Czech animator who produced magical films, filled with surrealist whimsy. I stayed up late many a night in my youth in order to watch the fruits of his fertile imagination flicker across the screen of our old RCA television set.
His special effects were astonishing for their time, employing simple, in-camera optical effects, flawless stop-action animation, and live-action to produce stunningly beautiful imagery that looked as if it came straight out of an engraving by Gustave Doré. His work has inspired Terry Gilliam of Monty Python, and Wes Anderson, among many others. Anderson paid homage to Zeman in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and Gilliam even went so far as to remake Zeman's film, The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (AKA Baron Prášil), with decidedly mixed results.
Zeman's Munchausen is an unqualified masterpiece of fantastic cinema that is, inexplicably, unavailable in the US on DVD, and extremely difficult to find everywhere else. Fortunately, several clips are available on YouTube, so do yourself a favor and spend some time watching them. You'll be glad you did.
[Link: The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (review)]
[Link: Baron Prášil Clips 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
[Link: The Special Effects of Karel Zeman Part I and Part II]
[Link: Karel Zeman Short Subjects]
UPDATE: one of my sharp-eyed readers located the artist's signature at the bottom lefthand side of the illustration. After looking at it under high magnification, I've determined that it's "G. Durand", a 19th-century engraver who did indeed work for Harper's.
[Link: Vintage Oceania gallery]
Acclaimed British-Indian author, Indra Sinha, talks to Flipside Magazine co-founder, L.A. punk in-crowder, and outsider artist, X-8, about his life, music, and artistic aesthetic. X-8 was one of my best friends through most of high-school, and it always amazes me how little I really knew about him back then. His vision isn't for everyone, but you've gotta admire him for the way that he tackles his demons head-on [Link].
