NPR delves into Charles Addams today, interviewing author Linda H. Davis on her new bio of the delightfully dark cartoonist. Addams’ people obviously had an image of being sinister and macabre, but mostly they’re just misunderstood. Take the witchie on his Halloween 1986 New Yorker cover, considerate enough to share a sample of bubbling brew with her black kitty. I’m looking forward to reading Ms. Davis’ book. This review from the New York Observer was written by Addams’ fellow New Yorker cartoonist Edward Sorel (via Emdashes).
Also on NPR — Neal Gabler appeared on yesterday’s edition of Fresh Air with Terry Gross to talk about his new biography of Walt Disney. Now, normally I think Terry Gross is a lousy interviewer; her bizarre obsessions with spirituality have seriously crippled her shows in the last couple of years. But she did well on this one, and amazingly the woman doesn’t bring up religion once during the conversation. I liked how Gabler mentioned the suprisingly un-Disneylike messages in 1960’s Pollyanna starring Haley Mills. I saw that one recently and it really is a caustic film, taking on religion and small town hypocracy. Another bio to look out for.
Speaking of which, a veteran illustrator provides some great advice in 17 lessons in 17 years of freelancing (via Drawn!). I’ve been doing this for coming on three years now — and I still feel more like a slumming househusband than a proper freelancer. The part where I get stuck is in the self-promotional aspect of this biz. The combination of not being a natural salesperson and being easily discouraged leads to much frustration; a boxful of unsent promo postcards is testament to that. I would also add a point about the importance of having a “kill fee” for first-time clients (especially individuals). It saves a lot of headaches in the long run. Meanwhile, I’m still waiting to have a really good year where a client doesn’t flake out on me.
Having a good website also helps a lot — check this one for Canadian illustrator/letterer Ray Fenwick. I wish I had as distinctive a style. Neat stuff.
There’s something fresh and different, yet oddly familiar, about the drawing of grazing cows adorning Safeway’s new milk carton packaging. As soon as I saw them, I told Christopher that somebody at Safeway obviously likes Charles Harper! Compare Harper’s illustration from the 1958 Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two Cookbook at right with the milk carton illo below.
More art by the fabulous Harper can be browsed at the flickr Charles Harper illustrations fanclub.
A charming book arrived at the chez scrubbles doorstep a couple of weeks ago — Blackstock’s Collections: The Drawings of an Autistic Savant published by Princeton Architectural Press. The book collects the artwork of one Gregory L. Blackstock, a sixty year old Seattleite who began making his obsessively detailed drawings of multiple items two decades ago. From what I could gather, the autistic Blackstock intently studies library books, then goes home and creates intricate drawings entirely from memory of the animals, buildings, vehicles or household objects he saw. Each drawing focuses on one subject (e.g. dozens of different saws, WWII U.S. bombers, or swallowtail butterflies), serving as visual evidence that several objects seen collectively have a strange power that one object by itself lacks. Some of his layouts are arranged in a lovely gridlike fashion or have an innate orderliness, drawn with a crude, thick hand (actually, his linework and blocky lettering most closely resembles the work of political cartoonist Mark Alan Stamaty). Blackstock’s Collections makes me gratified that the artist has gained recognition in the outsider art world and isn’t toiling in obscurity.
