You may just spend a few hours clicking around Steven Stwalley’s Crumbling Paper site, an archive of old comics strips by Herriman, Gruelle, Opper, Gluyas Williams and many, many more. Above, a panel from The Love of Lulu and Leander by F.M. Howarth from August 19, 1906. (Note, we lightened the scan just a tad– the “crumbling” in the title is sadly apt. Much of this stuff is disappearing from our fingertips.

We are a sucker for a curmudgeonly old timer (or at least someone who writes like a COT) taking to a local editorial page on a comics related topic, and today’s piece by Cathy Gillentine in The Galveston County Daily News fills the bill just right. Gillentine is annoyed by the shrinking comics page in the paper:

To me, it looks kind of strange. I carefully check out each page figuring the page with the puzzle and Heloise contains the least popular comics, the full black and white page has the next favorite bunch and the colored comics are supposedly everybody’s favorites.

The problem with this is, I don’t agree with the choices and I don’t know who decided the positions. My two favorites, “One Big Happy” and “Sally Forth,” are both on the black and white, middle choice page.

Incidentally, when they made the announcement, they said everything missing off the pages would be in the online comics collection. I got online and counted 225 comics, more than anybody ever had.

Our takeaway? This is an outrage and something must be done!

PS: we’re guessing the “Sally Forth” Gillentine enjoys is not the one by Wally Wood but rather the one created by Greg Howard (above.)

We larfed.

The SF Chronicle reports that cartoonist Martha Arguello - better known as Marty Links — died on Sunday at age 90. As Links, Arguello was the creator of Bobby Sox, which ran for 35 years, although it later changed its name to Emmy Lou. The panel inspired a short-lived TV show, but more than that was a looking glass for society, capturing the moods and fashions of teen-aged girls through the 40s and 50s. Arguello raised three children while working on the strip and turned to making greeting cards and ceramics when she retired.

Like some other successful women cartoonists of the day, used a male name, Don Markstein writes:

By the way, if you happen to be confused by the the given name of the cartoonist, you’re not alone. So, apparently, was The National Cartoonists’ Society, of which she was one of the first female members. Correspondence from the Society was addressed to “Mr. Marty Links” even after she’d given birth to her first child. She offered to send them her bust size.

Arguello is survived by two daughters. There will be a reception in her honor at the Cartoon Art Museum 655 Mission St., San Francisco, from 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday. The family suggests donations in her name to Canine Companions for Independence, 2965 Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95402.

UNDERTOWN, the OEL/OGM manga by Jim Pascoe and Jake Mylar will be the lastest syndicated strip for Tokyopop, as this press release reveals. The book has also been picked up by Scholastic for their book club.

If the first name that comes to mind when you think of Sunday comic strips is Peanuts, you haven’t been tuned into the manga revolution that has been drawing kids back to the funny pages.

Jim Pascoe announced today that his original English-language manga UNDERTOWN will be the new property running in TOKYOPOP’s syndicated slot starting this Sunday, January 6, 2008. Since 2005, TOKYOPOP has provided a rotating selection of manga to Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes comics and columns globally to newspapers.

Over 50 papers plan to carry Undertown, including the Los Angeles Time, Denver Post, Vancouver Sun and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

(more…)

A very important link that has been floating around over the last 10 days or so. Jeannie Schulz finally speaks out on the David Michaelis bio of her husband, Charles, and explains what he got wrong:

I was married to Charles Schulz for 26 years, and in all that time together, plus in 45 years worth of interviews that I have read, and additional autobiographical material Sparky wrote for the 25th anniversary book, and subsequent books, I never heard Sparky express any doubt of the love both his parents had for him and he, in turn, spoke often of his love for his “little kids”, and his stories were full of games with them and normal parental memories. Unfortunately, David Michaelis took bits of information, and without double-checking it, printed opinion as fact and judgment.

A subsequent post has more:

There is an issue that Michaelis brings up a number of times in the Schulz biography which has completely baffled me in that he seems to take an accusatory tone that Sparky didn’t get therapy for his “problems”. I am not sure how it is attributed, but the statement is that Sparky didn’t go to therapy because he was afraid it would alter his creativity (or words to that effect). Sparky did, in fact, go to two different therapists at two different times. But that is not the point I want to make.

Sparky told me early on in our marriage when in fact he WAS going to a therapist to combat his “travel anxiety” (I think it helped in that it gave him an understanding that lots of people feel this way and it gave him a framework so that he could devise strategies to make it better.) That it was his first wife, Joyce, who suggested that he was afraid to go to therapy because it would stifle his creativity. He always pooh-poohed her statement but it but it obviously sounded logical to some people and stuck in their minds. It seems that as Sparky is not here to explain, that anyone writing about it would ask more questions and seek additional perspective.

Here’s the official PR on IDW’s upcoming Noel Sickles Scorchy Smith reprint. We couldn’t gank any Sickles SMITH art online, so here’s a COMPLETELY UNRELATED Sickles illo. Thanks to Scott Dunbier for sending us a link to actual SCORCHY SMITH art! (We did white-correct the scan though.)

Scorchy Smith, the daily strip that exploded in popularity in the 1930s and catapulted author and illustrator Noel Sickles to comics fame, has been a Holy Grail among fans, landing on countless top-ten lists. But a complete collection hasn’t existed in 70 years.

Next summer, IDW Publishing will release the first complete collection of Sickles’ work on Scorchy with a hardcover edition entitled Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles. This deluxe edition showcases every panel drawn by the author and illustrator, who is regarded as the individual responsible for putting the John Terry-created strip on the map.

Scorchy Smith, which ran in newspapers from 1930-1961, was drawn by many artists. It featured a pilot-for-hire who traveled the nation doing everything from battling spies to busting up bands of cattle rustlers. Because adventure found Scorchy at just about every turn, Sickles once described the strip as “pure entertainment, pure action, from one damn thing to another.”

(more…)

comiXology is on of those new comics websites you are seeing everywhere. The site focuses on recent comics releases, biling itself as “the ultimate indigital comics bok pull list management.” Whatever. Where they have distinguished themselves (at least in our view) is by signing up Shaenon K. Garrity and Kristy Valenti to write two excellent columns. Thus far they have been the kind of wide ranging yet accessible overviews that one hardly ever sees online — so far it’s a little Comics(x) 101. Garrity’s first “All the Comics in the World” column she weaves together Tristam Shandy, Peter Bagge, Civil War, Stumptown and All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. In the second she discusses Pogo and the psychology of the comic strip:

Comic strips, even more than comics in general, strike me as the perfect medium for the dedicated loser. Drawing a daily strip means plugging constantly away at a neverending story, thousands upon thousands of pages long, which may, if you’re very, very lucky, succeed in making a few people chuckle briefly around a mouthful of bagel. The effort-to-payoff ratio is absurdly skewed. Most of the strip cartoonists I’ve met seem to have a fatalistic attitude about it. They’re more even-tempered than comic-book artists, who always seem shocked not to be hailed as the new Great American Graphic Novelist. Comic strippers know they’re never going to be hailed as the Great American anything. The best they can hope for is a licensed coffee mug.

Valenti has been presenting in-depth looks at some important young cartoonists, starting with the incomparable Jason Shiga in two parts. (above a panel from his Bookhunters.)Her latest covers Esther Pearl Watson. We’re not huge Watson fans, but this profile put her work into a perspective which made us appreciate it a bit more:

While teaching, exhibiting in fine-art galleries and drawing illustrations for clients such as Rolling Stone, Watson edited two books with Todd: The Pain Tree, a collection of poetry by teenagers that she and Todd illustrated, and more recently, Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine? a well-received how-to for young adults on how to create, print and distribute a zine. It included advice from heavyweights such as Eric Nakamura from Giant Robot and minicomics master Dan Zettwoch. “My husband and I really like creating works for this age group,” explained Watson. “Most of our work is based off our growing-up years. I would have loved to have found these books in the library when I was 13.” When queried about working professionally with her husband, Watson replied, “He knows my work very well, my motivations behind pieces, what sucks. Sometimes he can be too blunt or we are around each other too much (24 hours a day).”

Other recent features on the site include podcasts with G. Willow Wilson (Cairo) and Richard Starkings and others. Where most comics websites (including this one, probably) present too much information, Comixology’s features have a quality-over-quantity feel which we quite enjoy. Bookmark.

Jay Kennedy was the much-admired editor at King Features syndicate who died tragically earlier this year. Now King Features Syndicate has announced a worthy way to remember him:

King Features Syndicate has committed $100,000 to establish an endowed scholarship fund in honor of Jay Kennedy, who served as King Features Syndicate Editor in Chief from 1997 until his untimely death earlier this year.

The Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship Fund, which will be administered by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF), will enhance two of the nonprofit organization’s major goals - to advance the ideals and standards of professional cartooning in its many forms and to stimulate and encourage interest in and acceptance of the art of cartooning by aspiring cartoonists, students and the general public. King Features and the NCSF and will spearhead additional fundraising for the Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship Fund.

T.R. “Rocky” Shepard III, president of King Features Syndicate, said, “We hope this scholarship will continue Jay’s legacy of creativity and generosity. He had a profound impact on our industry, certainly in strengthening King’s roster of talented comics creators and in articulating his vision for the future of the art form. But more importantly, Jay spent countless hours providing advice, support and encouragement to aspiring cartoonists.”

(more…)

§ Marvel profits picked up in third quarter due to increased toy sales.

§ Chris Mautner interviews Monte Schulz, on his father, Chalres:

The fact that the family is out of the book is a huge omission. It’s a huge omission because our absence and all the things we did with him distorts the view of our family life and allows David to say that my Dad wasn’t a good father. It gives the impression he had no interaction with us, when in reality, for example, Mom essentially did things with my younger sisters and Dad did things with me and my brother. Particularly with me. I was fully involved with him my entire life, from being a little kid. He taught me how to play baseball, we went bowling together, we went to baseball games — he took me to the ‘62 world series — played hockey and tennis, and he played in a golf tournament with my brother when my brother was younger. When I was an adult in my late 20s we played in a father-son tennis tournament together. For three years I coached his senior hockey team. He even watched me play the last year of his life. I’m 49 and he’s there up in the stands watching his 49-year-old son play.

§ Adrian Tomine and Derek Kirk Kim profiled by Jeff Yang

§ Pics from the Beowulf world premiere with Brangelina!

§ Blog@ has the Heroes variant covers by Jim Lee, Tim Sale, etc .

We sort of missed out on the drama over who would own Topps, the venerable gum and trading card company, but in case you missed it, Michael Eisner’s company came out on top, and according to this article in USA today, he’s got big plans for the company mascot Eisner has his new Mickey: It’s Bazooka Joe.
Eisner, you’ll recall, ran first Paramount and then Disney to mostly successful years. But you can take the guy out of the brand-oriented studio, but can’t take the brands out of the boy:

He wants Topps to create a movie, TV, Internet and publishing franchise around Bazooka Joe, the eye-patch-wearing kid introduced in 1953 on the waxy comics that wrap Topps’ Bazooka bubble gum.

“Bazooka Joe could be the next big hero,” Eisner, 65, says. “I’m not saying it’s going to be Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which he oversaw as CEO of Paramount Pictures. “But that would be the goal. Bazooka Joe is my new Mickey Mouse.”

While considering this much-loved character who appears solely in pun-filled comic strips packaged with squares of barely chewable gum, Eisner reveals even grander plans for the Topps name.

“There’s no reason why there can’t be Topps movies, Topps Internet, Topps television, Topps miniseries and Topps publications,” he says. “It’s all about sports and sports stories.”

Hm…wethinks Eisner may be the next guy to start a comic book company, even though Topps already did that.
A quote further in the article just about clinches it:

Still, aside from Harry Potter, “Most of the characters of the big-event movies made in the last couple of years (including Spider-Man, X-Men, and Superman) were created in comic books 30, 40, or 50 years ago,” Eisner notes.

“I’m hoping that Bazooka Joe has that same little piece of your brain, or somebody’s brain. And if it doesn’t, it’ll just be a good movie and we’ll create a new emotion around it.”

Michael, if you’re reading this, consider it our job application: there is only one story to be told about Bazooka Joe, and it’s the tragic story of how a young boy came to wear an eyepatch! We don’t want to give away the plot here, but we have one word: “Plastics.” Call us.

We totally missed the announcement, but luckily Johanna caught it! In an historic example of détente, Fantagraphics, D&Q, Checker and IDW are teaming up! For Classic Comic Strips month, and an oversized promotional sampler:

This full-color 11″ x 17″ tabloid is a spectacular showcase of some of the finest comics art of the last century and a collector’s item in the making! Designed like an old-time classic newspaper comic strip supplement, Comic Strip Masterpieces will feature superb reproductions of some of the very finest Gasoline Alley, Dick Tracy, Krazy Kat, Little Nemo in Slumberland, Steve Canyon, Terry and the Pirates, Dennis the Menace, Flash Gordon, Yellow Kid, and Popeye strips, including many stunning full-color Sunday pages! There will also be a “sequel” of sorts to the hugely popular Unseen Peanuts (an annotated spread of Peanuts strips from the upcoming ninth volume of Complete Peanuts that have never been reprinted since their original newspaper release almost 40 years ago), as well as biographical notes on the cartoonists, a checklist of classic comic strip reprints, and more. Reading Comic Strip Masterpieces will be like traveling back in time to an era when comic strips were actually good!

Tom unearths the wonderful news that a Scorchy Smith collection is underway as announced by Dean Mullaney on a mailing list:

On the subject of future projects, since we’ve already sent the solicitation info to our book distributor, I can announce that in June 2008, I will release an oversized, 11″ x 11″ hardcover: SCORCHY SMITH AND THE ART OF NOEL SICKLES through IDW. It will contain the complete Sickles Scorchy for the first time ever, plus about 60 pages of Sickles’s magazine and other illustrations.

SCORCHY SMITH was a popular aviator comic strip of the day, and Sickles was a studio mate of Caniff’s whose “chiaroscuro” style was hugely influential on artists of the period.

With the Red Sox having handily dispatched the Rockies, there is nothing to keep you from watching tonight’s PBS’s American Masters focusing on Charles Schulz. All sorts of goodies in the link, including an excerpt from David Michaelis’s controversial new biography, a preview clip, and additional footage including interviews with Lynn Johnston and the little red headed girl, and more. There’s also a link to find out when the show airs in your area.

MUST watching, of course. Variety reviews the show:

It is not an entirely unflattering portrait, but one can see why the Schulz heirs would object, since Michaelis in particular (unlike the testimonials from Schulz’s widow or friends) injects a degree of pop psychology into the analysis — questioning rather unconvincingly, for example, whether the cartoonist’s fascination with the movie “Citizen Kane” amounted to a kind of pathological obsession. From that perspective, the most telling clips come from interviews with Schulz himself, whose simple demeanor reflects a man of considerable wit, who is nevertheless clearly ill at ease with the spotlight.

Schulz’z children, Monte, Amy and Jill and other associates have been making their feeelings over the Michaelis’s biography’s purported inaccuracies known over in a comment thread at Cartoon Brew. It’s definitely thought provoking reading.

I can’t pretend that I knew Charles Schulz at all, but I did interview him once over a decade ago, and the impression I got from a half hour conversation was that the guy never ever let go of anything sad that had happened to him. (The sadness in his voice when he talked about the death of his dog 50 years previously was heartbreaking.) If that was the takeaway from a short talk with a complete stranger, I would suspect that this profound melancholy was a regular part of his character, and it certainly was reflected in his work. I’m sure there were other aspects of his character (his kindness was also well known) but the melancholy was so pronounced that once I got over the shock of actually talking to Charles Schulz, I never forgot it. This view is not incompatible with the kind, caring father remembered by his kids…great artists are complex, and Schulz was both.

Before he drew CALVIN & HOBBES, the comic strip that made talking to your tiger all the rage, and before he become a reclusive painter, Bill Watterson drew a college comic strip for Kenyon College. Now these rareky-seen strips have been put on the internet for all to share:

While a student at Ohio’s Kenyon College, Bill drew cartoons for the school newspaper The Kenyon Collegian and for the yearbook. Thanks to the generosity of Nat D., a schoolmate of Bill, here are scans of Bill’s work from that era.

Not as funny as C&H but the early style is similar, and it’s interested to see how he tightened and simplified his linework. And boy he must be overjoyed tat this work is being seen again.

Review of the day; novelist John Updike in the New Yorker:

“Peanuts” was launched, in 1950, in a squat, space-saving format and under an enigmatic title imposed, to Schulz’s lifelong indignation, by the syndicate heads. That same year, his nomination to the National Cartoonists Society was blocked by Otto Soglow, the membership-committee chairman, on the ground that no member—not even his nominator, Mort Walker, of “Beetle Bailey” fame—had ever met him. In 1954, while “Peanuts” was taking off with the public and setting new standards of minimalist subtlety and quiet daring, Schulz came east to the society’s awards dinner on the rumor that the coveted Reuben, already bestowed upon Walker and “Dennis the Menace” ’s Hank Ketcham, would go to him. Instead, the sports cartoonist Willard Mullin received it. Schulz left without a word of farewell to his tablemates and claimed, back in Minneapolis, that he had been treated like “someone’s poor relative.”

MEANWHILE, Vulture tracks down how the Wall Street Journal tracked down reclusive cartoonist Bill Watterson to review the book. Vulture suggests that this is Watterson’s first print appearance since CALVIN & HOBBES shut down. He’s uttered a few things, like this Q&A with readers, but in general the guy sets a new standard for keeping a low profile. On the other hand, every time we talk about Watterson with someone who actually worked with him, they get a far off, uncomfortable glaze in their eyes, so maybe there’s a reason for that.

The Wall Street Journal corrals Bill Watterson to review the new Charles Schulz biography:

It’s a strange and interesting story, and Mr. Michaelis, the author of a 1998 biography of artist N.C. Wyeth, paces the narrative well, offering many insights and surprising events from Schulz’s life. Undoubtedly the most fascinating part of the book is the juxtaposition of biographical information and reproduced “Peanuts” strips. Here we see how literally Schulz sometimes depicted actual situations and events. The strips used as illustrations in “Schulz and Peanuts” are reproduced at eye-straining reduction and are often removed from the context of their stories, but they vividly demonstrate how Schulz used his cartoons to work through private concerns. We discover, for example, that in the recurring scenes of Lucy annoying Schroeder at the piano, the crabby and bossy Lucy stands in for Joyce, and the obsessive and talented Schroeder is a surrogate for Schulz.

Reading these strips in light of the information Mr. Michaelis unearths, I was struck less by the fact that Schulz drew on his troubled first marriage for material than by the sympathy that he shows for his tormentor and by his ability to poke fun at himself.

loan sun company

Nokia is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of loan car easy s, with loan car easy device market share of approximately 40% in 2008.

E&P also reports on a special 60th anniversary edition of STEVE CANYON which will appear on September 24th.

The new version of “Steve Canyon” is written and drawn by retired Air Force Master Sgt. Russ Maheras for the Air Force Times, a civilian weekly newspaper that covers the military. Set in the present day, the color strip “follows Brig. Gen. Steve Canyon as he investigates Taliban activity in a remote valley in the mountains of Afghanistan.”

Maheras has been posting art from his Canyon as well as classic Milton Caniff art and discussing the project over at the Comics Journal message board from which we got this panel. Larger versions and more goodies in the link.

San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Phil Frank creator of FARLEY died this week at age 64. He had announced his retirement due to illness only a few days before.

Frank, a longtime resident of Sausalito, was 64 and had suffered from a brain tumor for months.

His alter ego was a newspaper reporter and sometime park ranger named Farley, the central character in his Farley comic strip that he once described as “really a horizontal column, documenting the life and times of the characters in the Bay Area.” It was the only local comic strip in the country.

Frank also combined with writer Joe Troise to produce Elderberries, a syndicated daily strip about life in a retirement home.

500 mp3 milessongs mp3 addmp3 12 stones5 mp3 1st editor 8 tag forummp3 3 doorsrock s 60 mp3 garagemp3 011 alias911 mp3 download Map

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive presents a treasure trove of old magazine articles on Caniff and Rockwell. Marvelous stuff, just marvelous.

Grant Woolard, a cartoonist for the University of Viginia’s Cavalier Daily has been forced to resign after a controversy erupted over one of his cartoons, entitled “Ethiopian Food Fight” which showed emaciated African men fighting with chairs and other objects.

The drawing prompted strong condemnation from the university’s black community. On Wednesday evening, nearly 200 people staged a sit-in outside the paper’s office in Newcomb Hall, demanding an apology and for Woolard to be fired.

The managing board met that first demand on Thursday with an apology published in the paper’s lead editorial. Woolard also apologized.

“This is settled now,” the dean of African-American Affairs, Maurice Apprey, said on Monday. “Also, we now have the opportunity for better dialogue between student groups and the Cavalier Daily.”

“I think the young man who wrote the cartoon was operating under the principle that there can be multiple meanings to a cartoon. But what he did not seem to understand is that what you intend is not necessarily how something will be received. That shows immaturity on his part and I think this is an important lesson for him,” Apprey said.

Woolard is still in fighting mode over his dismissal, and says that his editors approved the strip; three other cartoonsits have quit to protest his firing. It was not Woolard’s first brush with controversy, however. Last year he drew criticism for a cartoon showing Christ being crucified on Cartesian X and Y quadrants (above), which would be funny if anyone could understand it.

In all honesty, we don’t follow FOR BETTER OR WORSE, so we’ve been letting others tell the story of its move to a “hybrid” but this E&P story reveals that many of the changes in the strip have been due to the state of creator Lynn Johnston’s own real life marriage, which ended in April when her husband left her for another woman. Johnston is handling the break-up and answering questions about (what else) Elizabeth and Anthony!

The Universal creator has received some criticism from people such as cartoon bloggers for bringing Elizabeth and Anthony back together. Some said Johnston already did the school-sweethearts-reunite theme with Michael and Deanna, while others said Anthony — a nice guy and devoted father to the child from his disastrous first marriage — is supposedly not interesting enough for Elizabeth.

Johnston said she reunited Elizabeth with Anthony partly because of advice from late “Peanuts” cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. “‘Sparky’ accused me of having too many characters,” she recalled with a chuckle. “‘It’s so confusing,’ he said. He was right.” So bringing back Anthony rather than introducing a new permanent love interest for Elizabeth made sense in that respect.

§ Via the Fantagraphics blog possibly the most awesome Mark Trail squirrel montage ever. We’ve reproduced but a pittance of its majesty. Go to the link for the whole amazing thing. Mark Trail is one of those things that will forever keep the comics faithful gathering, even if they be forced to gather in secret.

§ Dick Hyacinth gives us what has long been foretold

At long last, the long-promised Liefeld career retrospective is here. Or at least the first part of it. Just to be clear, let me explain what I’m doing. I’m not a Liefeld fan. I liked him quite a bit when I was a teenager, but that was a long time ago. What I’m trying to do here, actually, is put myself back into that adolescent mindset in order to reconstruct what it was about Liefeld that attracted young boys in droves back about 15-20 years ago. I’m not here to mock Liefeld or persuade you re: the quality of his work. This is a descriptive project, not a prescriptive one.

§ We were sent some PR from AniBOOM which appears to be a pretty wide ranging web resource for animators; a little Googling and we dug up the following:

Aniboom, an Internet home for animators to create and share original clips, is launching its own channel on video site YouTube with the aim of hatching the next animated blockbuster that could rival “The Simpsons” or “South Park.” A small startup founded in Israel last year, Aniboom offers professional and amateur animators a place to showcase their clips and test their popularity with Web audiences.

§ Speaking of cartoons, Floyd Norman is to be named a Disney Legend

§ Jog looks at COMIC FOUNDRY:

Comic Foundry is a good-natured magazine, eager to attract a wide swathe of readers with its light, peppy coverage of a broad range of comics. I ought to clarify ‘coverage’ - Tim Leong, the editor in chief/art director/co-creator (with Amber Mitchell), describes the magazine’s journalistic focus as “lifestyle stories - how comics relate to your everyday life.” As you have probably heard, the magazine has no interest in engaging with comics as individual artistic works, or at least no more such interest than it takes to facilitate an interview’s progress or fill a “what to buy” sidebar. Mind you, this isn’t to say that the magazine is bereft of criticism, but all such critical thought, when it comes up, is directed toward cultural considerations.

This link from Mike Lynch has been getting a lot of deserved play: Ivan Brunetti’s account of how he almost took over drawing NANCY. The strips evince the sort of lethargic fatalism one might expect from Brunetti, and while it’s hard to imagine them bruising the knees of America with reflexive slapping, still…what might have been!

A less-seen tale from the vaults comes from Stephen DeStefano as he recalls a grunge remake of Popeye from the 90s.

Not a hoax or an imaginary concept, these are images from King Features’ “GRUNGE POPEYE” 1995 licensing push. At least I got to draw Bluto, instead of the insipid Brutus (see my post regarding this particular prejudice further into my blog.)

Considering that by 1995 grunge was as dead as Kurt Cobain, you can see why this is little remembered.