Whitney Museum and More Vulgar Modernizm!

The Whitney Museum of Art Comic Art show covered the gambit of cartooning from comic strips to comic books to todays topic, animation.

Vulgar modernism sounds like an insult. I'd say it's pure Americana. My favorite flavor!

Enjoy!

Talk to you soon.

"The Little King" and Otto Soglow

Born today in 1900, Otto Soglow would be 109 years old.

Otto Soglow's chief claim to fame was a quiet little comic strip called "The Little King". One of those rarities that shifted from magazine cartoon panel to daily newspaper strip.

It was never a giant in the field, but Soglow was one of those cartoonists who's simple style was easy on the eyes but who's work was never simplistic. It seemed even more simple for the fact that the main character was a pantomime character. His work was highly regarded by his peers. He was a true master of minimalism.

Like I said, never a power hitter on the page, but the strip lasted from 1934 to 1975 when Otto passed away.


Soglow also did a vast amount of advertising work for print. His quick easily read work was perfect for getting the product across without undue clutter.

He drew ads for a lot of products now defunct, but here's a few you'll recognize that are still sold today:

Pepsi...

Royal gelatin and puddings...a perfect brand name for incorporating his Little King...

Emerson...

Mmmmmmmm Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer...

His work even made the transition to animation as theatrical shorts. They were produced by a kind of low budget studio out of New York (rather than the usual Hollywood) called the Van Beuren Studio. They were a chief rival of the Fleischer Brothers because of their geographic proximity. One of the Van Beuren films is posted below as a "Christmas Bonus" of this post.

Ironically enough, after the Fleischer's success with Popeye, it was they that "King Features" first offered the Little King film rights too. Never one to shy away from an excuse for a Betty Boop cartoon, here's that very pilot film.

"Betty Boop and the Little King":



Otto Soglow's brand of cartooning is a lost art I fear. A quiet, well crafted type that is harder to understand than it seems on the surface.

Thanks Otto, for the simple beauty.

CHRISTMAS BONUS:

Here's a nice film rarity. Van Beuren Studio's "Christmas Night" from 1933 featuring "The Little King":

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Lazy Last Vacation Day

Today is the last day of my vacation/sabbatical. In apology to all you who had to have a regular Monday return to work, part of the reason I did this is so my last day off would BE a Monday...feels more like I'm playing hookie than if it were a Sunday.

Being especially lazy today, it's a good day for cartoon watchin', and this week I can focus on two greats in the cartoon world.

First Betty Boop. August 9th (yesterdays date) was Betty Boop's theatrical debut back in 1930. It was a Fleischer Bros. Talkartoon starring Bimbo, called "Dizzy Dishes". Bimbo had gone through many transformations over his career in the 20's and 30's and his design in this cartoon is pretty atypical, not at all what we're used to seeing him look or act like. He plays the waiter/chef/busboy of a night-club here and Betty makes her entrance as the night-club's featured musical attraction who is the apple of Bimbo's eye. You'll note the differences in Betty's appearance as well. In addition to having a little more meat on her (nothing wrong with that in Jeffy's book) she's also an anthropomorphic DOG. Check out her doggie nose and ears.

Enough yammering...enjoy the cartoon.

This is pretty loose animation as well, and very off from the Fleischer work that almost immediately followed and which I find endlessly appealing.

Another birthday that makes this an apropos way to spending my final free day is, next Sunday August 16th, marks the birth of Grim Natwick in 1890. Grim was the animator who designed Betty. He also was a lead animator at Disney for "Snow White" and one of the key people for bringing the heroine to such striking life. Grim passed away in October of 1990...a full 100 years old.

Cartoonists don't die young. There must be something to that. I should have paid attention to that before I got a real job.

Oh well...no real job today. :) Boop-Oop-A-Doop!

Out of the Inkwell...Onto Shockwave Flash Player

Max Fliescher was born today in 1883, he would have been 126 years old.

There's a lot I could tell you about the personal life of Max Fleischer, but since today is Sunday and a good day to sit and watch cartoons, I thought I'd let his work speak for itself. A kind of celebration through appreciation.

The Fleischer's began their work in the early 1920's, making silent cartoons. Most of these were about the adventures of a clown named "Ko-Ko" and his creator, Max. These were surreal stories that seemed to offer a new technical innovation with every cartoon. They invented the "Rotoscope" which allowed them to kind of "trace over" live action. Dave Fleischer would dress in a clown suit, then they would trace a cartoon figure over him. This made for a realistic movement and it's a device still used today occasionally, but the Fleischers themselves soon abandoned strict use of this, as it limited the real magic, the ability of an animator to add personality to the character..and truthfully, allow the character to be a cartoon.

They also experimented with the combination of live action and animation together, and every cartoon seemed to find a new way to innovate, poke fun at the innovation, and comment on the unique art form they were making.

Another first for the Fleischers? They were the first to put sound on film. "The Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson and even "Steamboat Willie" with Mickey Mouse were films shown with recorded accompaniment with a record playing along with the movie. The Fleischers actually printed the sound track right on the film, the way we do it right up to today.

Once sound was here to stay, they made full advantage of it with their "Famous Bouncing Ball" series. Folks in the theater would sing along with a popular song of the day while watching cartoons dramatizing the action.

The music in Fleischer Brothers cartoons was great too. Disney and Warner cartoons had top 40 pop tunes and show-type tunes, which were great...but the Fleischer's were based in New York rather than Hollywood and had access to Broadway performers and the music acts around Harlem. Check this great Betty Boop cartoon featuring the first screen appearance ever by the great Louis Armstrong.

They brought us Popeye and Betty Boop of course, but they also did the first film version of Superman. Coming just 3 years after Superman's first appearance, these cartoons are amazing. Here's the first.

They did more than I can fit into a single post. The first 2-reel cartoon, "Popeye Meets Sindbad the Sailor" a couple of feature length cartoons, "Gulliver's Travels" and "Mr. Bug Goes to Town".

The thing that really separated the Fleischers from other studios of the time is they were true cartoons. While Disney was striving for technical achievements in animation and smooth natural movement, Warner was just feeling it's way through and selling Warner's songs, Paul Terry, Walter Lantz and the rest were just churning out product...Max and Dave were making CARTOONS! Made for laughs, made for making you feel good.

Boop-Oop-A-Doop is all I can say.

Video Blog experiment

The video is dark until about the 2 minute point and there seems to be some high frequency audio interference caused by the TV to the camera. But hey, we're just learning here.




corrections to note: I made a flub and said "Merrie Melodies" went to color in 1944, I meant 1934. This was just as impromptu as my regular posts and it just proves one thing. On this blog NOTHING hits the editing room floor EXCEPT the editors feet.