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6.Images:
1. no, you're not seeing Will Elder's drawings and reading Harvey Kurtzman's words in Mad magazine... it's Jean Giraud (aka sacred cow Moebius) in Hara-Kiri # 35, January 1964 (the first Moebius signature appeared in issue # 28, May 1963);
2. the daily life circus in "Le petit cirque" (Hara-Kiri # 39, May, 1964);
3. first strip of page 27 as it was published in Le Matin de Paris (image caught, here: http://miiraslimake.over-blog.com/archive-11-27-2007.html);
4. the same strip is now a faked two pager in the Flammarion book (the panels of the verso page lost their continuity - in the newspaper they were a split panel - and the repetition is awkward; a tree was added to tidy things up, perhaps?);
5. Jules and Fred at their most poetic ("Fish appear above the water glittering briefly... / ...like recollections when they climb to our memory."): see what I mean?;
6. "Yes, crow, God didn't do badly when He created nature... / ...but He miscreated men." (My translations.)
PS In his blog La Cárcel de Papel Álvaro Pons says that a lot of my ideas are radical: http://www.lacarceldepapel.com/2008/11/03/luneros-nuff-said/. I'm not quite sure if I understand what he means (and I accept my radicality if he meant that I'm far away from the comics milieu's spectrum's center), but I've been accused of something similar before: João Miguel Tavares said that my statements are too definitive: http://www.bedeteca.com/index.php?pageID=recortes&recortesID=725. Matthias Wivel said the same thing: http://www.metabunker.dk/?p=1590#more-1590.
Two points: (1) I said that what I called "the cow herd" (the artists behind the comics milieu's children's comics canon) are great draughtsmen (no women in there, I suppose) and great storytellers; this doesn't seem too definitive and too radical to me; (2) if they're the sacred cows who worships them?, who doesn't accept a single criticism in these gods' direction? Aliena vitia in oculis habemus, a tergo nostra sunt, and all that?...
4 comments:
I didn't say 'radical', I said 'categorical.' And I wouldn't want your criticism any other way :)
I think criticising the herd is all good, even if I find myself in disagreement.
One thing I think would be great, however, is if you wrote some criticism on some of these 'holy cows', explaining why you find them overrated and unnecessary. I think that could potentially be a really interesting contribution to the discourse on these artists.
Best,
Matthias
It was Álvaro Pons who said "radical." Your challenge is interesting indeed, but I'm too busy posting about the stuff that I do care about. Maybe some other time, sorry.
I said 'radical' exactly in the way you describe: "far away from the comics milieu's spectrum's center". And it's not negative at all. I don't agree with certain of your opinions, but I think that The crib Sheet is a blog of mandatory reading. :)
Thank you Álvaro. Sorry if I'm being a bit defensive.
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