"This day's experience, set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside." –Alice Munro, "What is Remembered"
Pogo – Vol. 1 of the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips by Walt Kelly is now in stock in the Fantagraphcs warehouse. Below are the four POGO Sundays included in the PDF preview available via a link on this page in the Fantagraphics catalogue, which makes this post a preview of the preview of the book:
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From Vampire Tales #3 (February 1974; reprinted from Adventures into Terror #13 [December 1952]), here’s “Don’t Try to Outsmart the Devil,” with script by Stan Lee and pencils by a much-admired artist who, by his own admission, never actually lived up to his considerable potential, Carmine Infantino, while, depending on what source you trust, the inks were either by Infantino himself or by Gil Kane; this is followed by a cool picture of Stan Lee typing at an improvised stand-up desk on the terrace outside his house in the early 1950s:
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Carmine Infantino writes:
The enigma of my art is that it never fully matured. In the 1960s, as I was maturing as an artist, I stopped drawing in favor of attaining the executive positions. A good friend of mine once asked, “Why don’t you ever talk about your artwork? Why don’t you have any around your apartment?” The answer is simple: my artwork is an unfinished symphony, a painting never completed, a baby never raised.
I don’t know what direction I would have gone into had I continued to draw through my executive tenure. There were all sorts of works coming out of me at the time. I could see the growth that applying myself very differently was bringing. Right up to my becoming Editorial Director, the art was constantly growing and changing.
It was almost like someone else was controlling the work. It was gaining sophistication, but the evolution was never completed. To this day, I know not what it was to have become. Or it might not have grown any further. Considering I was working in the commercial medium of comics, it could have stopped quite naturally at that point.
[Source: Carmine Infantino, The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino: An Autobiography, second printing (Lebanon, N.J.: Vanguard Productions, 2001), pp. 172-174.]
From a 1995 reprint of Shock SuspenStories #13, here’s “Squeeze Play,” with viciously vivacious art by the fabulous Frank Frazetta:
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From a 1995 reprint of Shock SuspenStories #14, here’s “You, Murderer,” with art by “Dr. Caligari Krigstein”:
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Tomorrow’s the big day, kids!
From a 1996 reprint of Shock SuspenStories #18, here’s “In the Bag,” with art by the great Bernie Krigstein:
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BONUS LINK:
Cloud 109 > Bernard Krigstein – The Last of the EC Visionaries —includes all six pages of “In the Bag” in glorious black and white.
To mark the season, here’s an old favourite of mine from Creepy #125 (February 1981): it’s “Jacque Cocteau’s Circus of the Bizarre,” with script by Roger McKenzie and amazing art by the odd couple of Carmine Infantino and Alex Toth:
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Eat your heart out, Gilbert Hernandez – LOL!
A reader by the name of Tim recently posted to say that he would love to see more of Hilda Terry’s “Teena” here at RCN. Well, Tim, today is your lucky day! Because just this morning I scanned ten more “Teena” Sunday strips for your (and my, and everyone else’s) reading pleasure. And here they are (with more to come at a later date, if reader response is good — 😉 ):
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Now I’m no expert in publishing, but I have long thought that the good folks at Drawn & Quarterly ought to make a concerted effort to acquire the rights to reprint “Teena,” from start to finish, in a series of archive collections. Because it seems to me that Hilda Terry would fit in perfectly on D&Q’s current author list alongside John Stanley, Kate Beaton, Tove Jansson, Doug Wright, and Lynda Barry. And I’m almost certain that cartoonist and comics historian Trina Robbins would jump at the chance to assist with (or edit!) such a project. So hop to it Chris Oliveros! Make it happen!
SEE ALSO:
Ragged Claws Network > Look Here, Read: Four “Teena” Sunday strips by Hilda Terry
Ragged Claws Network > Look Here, Read: Four more “Teena” Sunday strips by Hilda Terry
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Scheduled for release in February 2012 (according to Amazon), Michael Wm. Kaluta: Sketchbook Series Volume 1 is described by the publisher, IDW, as “the first in a series that will provide a glimpse into the inner workings of this great artist, from the very earliest creative spark to more finished concepts and nearly completed works. Each image has been scanned from Kaluta’s personal sketchbooks and archives, and is accompanied by commentary from the artist.”
To whet your appetite for Kaluta’s new book, here’s the fifth (?) instalment in writer Len Wein and artist Mike Kaluta’s adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1934 novel, Pirates of Venus. Wein and Kaluta’s adaptation was part of an ongoing series of “Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Carson of Venus” stories that had a short but memorable run as back-up feature in the series, Korak, Son of Tarzan. If you’re familiar with Frazetta’s cover paintings for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Carson of Venus” novels, you will notice on the third page of the story that Kaluta gives an artistic tip of the hat to Frazetta’s painting for the 1963 Ace edition of Lost on Venus; for those who aren’t familiar with Frazetta’s painting, I’ve included an image of it below for the sake of comparison:
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It was obvious right from the start that Kaluta and Burroughs were a match made in heaven! And if work like that doesn’t make you want to see Kaluta’s sketchbook, and read what he has to say about his process, then nothing will…
From Heavy Metal, volume III, number 6, “Special Lovecraft Issue” (October 1979), here’s “The Language of Cats,” with beautiful black-and-white art by French illustrator, painter, and cartoonist, Nicole Claveloux:
A terrific “Peanuts” reprint from today’s Leader-Post:
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Life’s like that…
Ragged Claws Network 