Underground Comix Part 2

19 Oct 2023 · Incomplet Design History

00:29:21

If it seems like the underground comix scene was a raucous and raunchy boys club, that’s fairly accurate. However, there were plenty of women artists who reacted against the sexist depictions of women in comix, of which there was plenty. Their complaints about how women were being portrayed was seen to be just more censorship heaped on the male comix artists. Rather than just be quiet and go away, women like Trina Robbins, Willy Mendes, Linda Barry, Mary Fleener, and many others started drawing, bringing their own voices into the underground comix scene. Their experience in comix wasn’t all smooth sailing either. The women creating comix also insisted on absolute artistic freedom and the space to explore difficult topics, but it came at a price just like it did for the male comix artists. Undercover police, raids, and lawsuits while not necessarily the norm, seemed to be always looming. While some comix titles managed to run longer than others, the heyday of comix was all but over by the mid 1970s. However, the influence of underground comix is evident in the comics and graphic novels being published today that are willing to have serious discussions about equally serious topics.

TIMELINE

1880s – Comics began publication in American newspapers
1895 – The Yellow Kid by Richard Outcault first published
1914 – Krazy Kat by Geroge Herriman first published
1920s – Tijuana Bibles began to be published
1930s – Comic book began in America
1931 – Alice Schenker (born Alice Olsen) born in Racine, WI
1933 – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman
1936-1939 – The comic magazine format became popular
1936 – Victor Moscoso born in Spain
1937 – Frank Stack born in Houston, TX
1938 – Gary Arlington born in San Jose, CA
1938 – Trina Robbins born in Brooklyn, NY
1939 – “She Saw The World’s Fair” published by Wesley Morse
1939 – Harvey Pekar born in Cleveland, OH
1939 – Richard “Grass” Green born in Fort Wayne, IN
1940-1950s – Comic burnings became common in America
1940 – Gilbert Shelton born in Houston, TX
1940 – Manuel “Spain” Reodriguez born in Buffalo, NY
1941 – Vaughn Bodé born in Utica, NY
1941 – S. Clay Wilson (Steven Clay Wilson) born in Lincoln, Nebraska
1941 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson born in Texas
1942 – Rand Holmes born in Nova Scotia
1942 – Dan O’Neil born
1943 – Joel Beck born in Ross, CA
1943 – Robert Williaams born in Los Angeles, CA
1944 – George Herriman dies
1944 – Howard Cruse is born in Birmingham, AL
1943 – Robert Crumb born in Philadelphia, PA
1944 – Rick Griffin born in California
1944 – Bill Griffith born
1944 – Kim Deitch born in Los Angeles, CA
1944 – Max Gaines establishes Educational Comics
1944 – Mervyn “Skip” Williamson born in San Antonio, TX
1945 – Lee Mars born
1947 – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sued in NY Supreme Court to regain their rights to Superman; they lose the case and their jobs at DC Comics
1947 – Jay Lynch born in Orange, NJ
1947 – Max Gaines dies in a boat crash; son William Gaines takes over EC Comics
1948 – Art Spiegelman born in Stockholm, Sweden
1948 – Barbara “Willy” Mendes born
1948 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb born in Long Beach, NY
1949 – Marry Wings born Mary Geller in Chicago, IL
1950s – Student Press Movement starts
1950 – Educational Comics becomes Entertaining Comics under William Gaines
1950 – Gary Panter born in Durant, OK
1951 – Mary Fleener born
1952-1956 – Harvey Kurtzman is the editor of MAD Magazine
1953 – Roberta Gregory born in Los Angeles, CA
1954 – “Seduction of the Innocent” by psychiatrist Frederick Werthan published
1954 – Comics Code Authority established
1954 – Victor Moscoso starts at Cooper Union Art School in Manhattan
1955 – William Gaines starts humor magazine, MAD Magazine
1955 – Charles Burns born
1956 – After being cited by the CCA, EC comics diverts resources to new title MAD Magazine
1956 – Ralph Bakshi starts animating at Terrytoons
1956 – Alice and Don Schenker marry
1956 – Lynda Barry born in Richland Center, WI
1957 – Harvey Kurtzmaan’s Trump magazine published
1957 – Peter Baagge born in New York
1957-1960 – Spain Rodriguez studies at Silvermine Guild School of Art in New Canaan, CT
1958 – Moe Moskowitz moves to Bay Are and opens bookstore
1958 – Robert Crumb and his brother Charles publish satire magazine “Foo”
1958-1962 – Frank Stack and Gilbert Shelton edit University of Texas at Austin’s newspaper, The Texas Ranger
1959 – Victor Moscoso moves to San Francisco, CA
1960s – Underground comix movement started
1960 – MAD Magazine had circulation of 1.4 million
1960 – Rick Griffin met filmmaker John Severson at screening of Surf Fever movie
1960 – Harvey Kurtzman starts Help! Magazine
1960 – Phoebe Gloeckner born in Philadelphia, PA
1960 – Alison Bechdel born in Beech Creek, PA
1961 – Skip Williamson sells first comic to Help! Magazine
1961 – Daniel Clowes born in Chicaago, IL
1963 – In mainstream comics, Dell, DC and Marvel were the major publishers
1963 – Rick Griffin starts working at Surfer Magazine as a cartoonist, debuting “Murphy”
1963 – Rick Griffin is seriously injured as a passenger in a drunk driving accident
1963 – Spain Rodriguez starts work at the Western Electric Company Plant
1963 – Jay Lynch moves to Chicago to become a cartoonist
1956 – America gets involved in the Vietnam War
1963 – March On Washington
1963 – President John F. Kennedy assassinated
1963 – Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” is published
1964 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson publishes “God Nose”
1964 – After being promoted to director of cartoons at Terrytown, Ralph Bakshi left to run animation at Paramount Pictures
1962 – Frank Stack publishes “The Adventures of Jesus”
1962 – Harvey Pekar and Robert Crumb meet in Cleveland, OH and become friends and collaborators
1965 – Birth of the Underground Press
1965 – Rick Griffin picks up “Murphy” comics in Surfer after a pause
1965 – Schenkers launch Print Mint inside of Moskowitz’s bookstore
1965 – Spain Rodriguez spends summer in NYC creating cartoons for The Militant paper and joined anarchist group Resurgence Youth Movement
1965 – Robert Williams starts working as Art Director for Ed “Big Daddy” Roth
1965 – Robert Crumb starts taking LSD
1965 – Julie Doucet born in Saint-Lambert Quebec, Canada
1965-1966 – Mario Savia’s Free Speech Movement impacts Berkely’s campus
1966 – After graduating from San Francisco Art Institute, Victor Moscoso joins faculty
1966 – Art Spiegelman is Topps Bubblegum’s star artist
1966 – Spain Rodriguez has his first cover in paper East Village Other
1966 – Trina Robbins moved back to NYC from LA and worked for East Village Other as advisor and illustrator
1966 – Rick Griffin joins Jook Savages and designs posters for their art shows in San Francisco
1966 – Kim Deitch moves to NYC and gets “Sunshine Girl” published in The East Village Other
1966 – Joel Beck publishes “Lenny of Laredo”, “Marching Marvin” and “The Profit”
1966 – Print Mint publishes their first comix, a reprint of Beck’s “Lenny of Laredo”
1966 – NOW, of the National Organization for Women, was formed
1966 – Underground Press Syndicate established by East Village Other editor Walter Bowart
1966 – Weekly & monthly underground papers regularly publish Underground Comix
1967 – Robert Crumb leaves Cleveland, OH, his job at Americana Greetings, and wife Dana to move to San Francisco, CA
1967 – Gilbert Shelton’s “Wonder Wart Hog” published by Pete Millar
1967 – Victor Moscoso and RIck Griffin begin to collaborate on posters and Zap Comics covers
1967 – Rick Griffin commissioned for “Pow-Wow, a Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In” held in Golden Gate Park’s polo grounds
1967 – Art Spiegelman comes up with the idea for Wacky Packs working for Topps Bubblegum
1967 – “Summer of Love” takes place in San Francisco for 9 months
1967 – Bijou Funnies, initially The Chicago Mirror, founded by Skip WIlliamson and Jay Lynch in Chigaco, IL
1967 – Art Spiegelman moves to San Francisco, CA
1967 – “Cavalier” Magazine serializes Robert Crumb’s “Fritz the Cat”
1967 – First drawings of Gilbert Shelton’s The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers appear on a flier for short student film “The Texas Hippies March on the Capitol”
1967-1973 – Jay Lynch’s “‘Nard ‘n’ Pat” comic publication years
1968 – Rand Holmes moves to Vancouver, Canada and works for Georgia Straight a weekly underground tabloid and starts “The Adventures of Harold Hedd”
1968 – S. Clay Wilson moves to San Francisco and becomes friends with Robert Crumb, starts to contribute to Zap Comics
1968 – First issue of Zap Comix by Robert Crumb released
1968 – “Keep on Truckin’” one page comix published in Zap Comix by Robert Crumb
1968 – Robert Crumb sends for his wife Dana to join him in San Francisco
1968 – Robert Crumb first sees S. Clay Wilson’s comix work
1968 – Gary Arlington opens his comic book store in the Mission District in San Francisco, CA
1968 – Spain Rodriguez’s cover for Feb 2nd issue of East Village Other creates legal issues over depiction of a sexual act
1968 – Robert Crumb publishes “Zap”
1968 – Skip Williamson’s “Snappy Sammy Smoot (1968-1996) makes its debut in Bijou Funnies
1968 – Robert William’s controversial painting “Appetite for Destruction” is used as album art for the Guns ‘N’ Roses album of the same name
1968 – “Yellow Dog” comix anthology started by Joel Beck and John Thompson
1968-1973 – Skip Williamson’s Sammy Smoot character is played by Carl Reiner on the comedy TV show “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In”
1968-1975 – Considered the boom years of Underground Comix
1968 – Apex Novelties ran by Don Donaahue starts publishing comix
1968 – US Government outlaws LSD
1968 – Robert Crumb starts “Snatch Comix” published by Apex Novelties
1969 – Neil Armstrong lands on the moon
1969-1970 – “Odd Bodkins” by Dan O’Neil is published in the San Francisco Oracle
1969 – Whitney Museum Exhibition “Human Concern/Personal Torment: The Grotesque in American Art” showed some of Robert Crumb’s work
1969 – Roger Brand at the first comic convention panel for Underground Comix artists, declined to invite Trina Robbins
1969 – Rip Off Press founded by Gilbert Shelton, Jack “Jaxon” Jackson, Dave Moriarty and Fred Todd
1969 – Kim Deitch and Trinaa Robbins start dating
1969 – Bill Griffith and Jay Kinney meet and start idea for “Young Lust”
1969 – Vaughn Bode briefly edits “Gothic Blimp Works”; Kim Deitch begins to edit “Gothic Blimp Works”
1969 – Print Mint is raided by police over “Zap Comix” fourth issue (featured “Joe Blow” incest comic by Robert Crumb)
1969 – Schenkers arrested over violation of California Penal Code Section 311.2 (illegal distribution of pornography) due to publishing “Zap Comics” fourth issue
1969 – S. Clay Wilson contributes to “Jiz Comics” under pseudonym Howard Crankwood
1970s – Graphic Novel format began
1970s –Jack “Jaxon” Jackson creates historical narrative comix like “Comanche Moon”, “Los Tejanos”
1970 – Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s shop closes and Robert Williams ends his tenure as Art Director
1970 – Chris Kirkpatrick, owner of New Yorker Book Store that sold Zap Comix, convicted
1970 – Bill Griffith moves to San Francisco, CA
1970 – Trina Robbins and Kim Deitch’s daughter Casey born
1970 – “It Ain’t Me Babe” the first women’s liberation newspaper, was published in Berkley
1970 – Kitchen Sink Press ran by Denis Kitchen founded
1970 – “Skull” published by Rip Off Press
1970 – Many Underground Comix artists met and created The Cartoon Workers Union
1970 – Robert William released collected “Coochy Cooty Men’s Comics” published by Print Mint
1970 – Last Gasp Eco Funnies ran by Ron Turner founded
1970 – “Young Lust” by Bill Griffith and Jaay Kinney published by Company & Sons
1970 – Robert Crumb meets with Ralph Bakshi and Steve Kraantz about making a movie out of his popular character Fritz the Cat
1970 – “Abortion Eve” comic produced by Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevely
1970 – Spain Rodriguez releases “Zodiac Mindwarp” (East Village Other) and “Subert” (Rip Off Press)
1970 – Kim Deitch and Trina Robbins end their relationship
1971 – Gilbert Shelton’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers first released
1971 – Roberta Gregory attend CSU Long Beach and contributes “Feminist Funnies” to their newspaper
1971 – S. Clay Wilson contributes to “Bent” (Print Mint)
1971 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb grates with degree in fine art from University of Arizona
1971 – “Ms Magazine” founded by Gloria Steinem and art directed by Bea Feitler
1971 – Bill Griffith’s “Zippy the Pinhead” debuts in Real Pulp Comics #1 by Print Mint
1971 – Dan O’Neil and the Air Pirates (Bobby London, Shary Flenniken, Gary Hallgren, and Ted Richards) create “Air Pirate Funnies” published by Last Gasp
1971 – Lee Marr’s “Pudge” & “Girl Blimp” published
1971 – Roberta Gregory sells her first comic to “Wimmen’s Comix”
1971 – Disney filed suit in Northern District of California against the comic artists from the “Air Pirate Funnies”
1971 – Rip Off Press moves from Mowry’s Opera House to 17th Street
1971 – After moving back to NYC, Art Spiegelman once again returns to San Francisco, CA
1972 – “The Adventures of Harold Hedd” released in first collected volume, the second volume out the following year
1972 – “Tits ‘n’ Clits” All women comix anthology by Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevely published first issue (Nanny Goat Productions)
1972 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb has comix debut in “Wimmen’s Comix” #1 with “Goldie a Neurotic Woman”
1972 – Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb meet at a San Francisco party
1972 – “Fritz the Cat” movie directed by Ralph Bakshi released
1972 – 2 all women’s comix anthologies started “Wimmen’s Comix” (Trina Robbins, Last Gasp) and “Tit’s & Clits” (Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevelyl, Nanny Goat Productions)
1972 – Disney granted it’s injunction against Dan O’Neil and the other comic artists from “Air Pirate Funnies”; found guilty of copyright infringement and trade disparagement
1972 – “Bizzare Sex” started published by Denis Kitchen of Kitchen Sink Press
1972 – Print Mint hits 1 million issues of “Zap Comix” sold
1973 – Rand Holmes travels to San Francisco, CA to get the second volume of “The Adventures of Harold Hedd” published by Last Gasp
1973 – Bill Griffith’s “A Sour Look at the Comix Scene, or Out of the Inkwell and Into the Toilet” runs in The San Francisco Phoenix
1973 – Undercover cop buys first issue of “Tits ‘n’ Clits” at San Francisco Bookstore Fahrenheit 451; owners charged with selling pornography and Farmer and Cheverly are forced to hide from law enforcement for 2 years
1973 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb moves onto Robert Crumb’s farm property as his girlfriend
1973 – “Come Out Comix” by Mary Wings self-published
1973 – Year of the Crash of Comix
1973 – Rick Griffin is a born again Christian
1973 – Gilbert Shelton’s The Fabulous Furry Freak Brother’s comics had sold 400,000 copies; eventually selling 45 million copies to date in 16 different languages
1972 – Haavery Pekar’s first story “Brilliant American Maniacs Series No. 1 Crazy Ed” published in “People’s Comics” with art by Robert Crumb
1972 – Justin Green publishes “Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary”
1972 – Art Spiegelman publishes first 3 pages of Maus
1973 –Supreme Court’s Miller v. California decision rules that vendors can be jailed and retroactively fined for selling obscene materials, cannot plead ignorance to contents
1974 – Jay Lynch has a one week tenure as editor at Hustler Magazine
1974 – Lynda Barry attends Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA
1974 – Art Spiegelman self publishes “Ace Hole” and “Midget Detective”
1974 – Marvel releases “Comix Book”
1974 – S. Clay Wilson contributes to “Pork” (Co-Op Press)
1974 – “The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat” directed by Ralph Bakshi released
1975 – The Schenkers working partnership with Bob and Peggy Rita dissolves and Print Mint slows down production and distribution
1975 – “Felch Comics” by Keith Green
1975 – Vietnam War ends, American troops withdraw from Saigon
1975 – Victor Moscoso starts attending Yale
1975 – Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman create “Arcade” comix anthology
1975 – Vaughn Bodé dies at age 33
1976 – Harvey Pekar self publishes “How I Quit Collecting Records and Put Out a Comic Book with the Money I Saved” with art by Robert Crumb
1976 – “Wet Satin” erotic satirical all-women’s comics anthology published by Kitchen Sink Press
1976 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb moves off of the Crumb farm commune
1976 – Mary Wing’s “Dyke Shorts” is self-published
1976 – Roberta Gregory creates “Dynamite Damsels” (Self-published)
1976 – Copyright Act becomes law
1976 – Lee Marrs “The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp” featured the first openly bisexual character in comics
1967 – Larry Fuller creates “Gay Heartthrobs”
1976 – Harvey Pekar’s “American Splendor #1” published
1976 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Diane Noomin start “Twisted Sisters”
1976-1077 – Punk scene emerges
1971 – Howard Cruse’s “Barefootz” first published
1977 – Kitchen Sink Press reprints Joel Becks comics under title “Joel Beck’s Comics & Stories”
1977 – Gary Panter moves to Los Angeles, CA
1977 – S. Clay Wilson releases comix with his most popular character “The Checkered Demon” (Last Gasp)
1977 – Gilbert Shelton’s character Fat Freddy’s cat from “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” gets its own spin off comic
1977 – Robert Crumb divorces Dana
1978 – Gilbert Shelton moves to San Francisco, CA from Austin, TX
1978 – First graphic novel “A Contract With God” by Will Eisner is published by Baronet Press
1978 – Dan O’Neils appeal in the case of Dismney and the Air Pirates does not rule in O’Neil’s favor
1978 – Gilbert Shelton makes “Shakedown Street” album cover for The Grateful Dead
1978 – Paul Mavrides starts to collaborate on “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers”
1979 – Gilbert Shelton and wife/agent Lora move to Europe
1979 – The Supreme Court declines to take Dan O’Neil’s appeal case against Disney
1979 – Robert William publishes “The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams”
1979 – Mary Wings creates drug awareness book “Are Your Highs Getting You Down?” with a California Arts Council Grant
1979 – Denis Kitchen approaches Howaard Cruse about making “Gay Comix”
1979 – Rip Off Press ends
1979 – Art Spiegelman starts to teach at the School of Visual Arts in NY
1980 – First issue of “Gay Comix” (Kitchen SInk Press) released, edited by Howard Cruse
1980 – “Raw” comics anthology created by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly
1980-1991 – Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman serialized
1981 – “Wimmen’s Comix” takes a 6 year hiatus
1981 – Daniel Clowes and his friends create “Psycho Comics”
1981 – Robert Crumb starts comix magazine “Weirdo” published by Last Gasp
1981 – Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb’s daughter Sophie is born; they move to Southern France
1982 – Last issue of “Bizzare Sex” released
1982 – Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez create “Love and Rockets” published by Fantagraphics
1983 – “Dykes to Watch Out For” by Alison Bechdel first published
1984 – Mary Fleener self publishes her first comic “Hoodoo”
1984 – Robert Crumb passes editorship of “Weirdo” to Peter Bagge
1985 – Print Mint, since renamed Reprint Mint, is sold by the Schenkers
1985 – Mary Wings “She Came Too Late” lesbian detective novel published
1985 – Topps Bubbglegum starts Garbage Pail Kids cards
1986 – Doubleday publishes the first of it’s two collected volumes of Harvye Pekar’s “American Splendor” with the next coming out the following year
1986 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson publishes “Illustrated History of Ranching in Texas”
1986 – Peter Bagge resigns as editor at “Weirdo”; Aline Kominsky-Crumb takes over
1987 – Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb marry
1988 – “Dirty Plotte” by Julie Doucet was first self-published
1988 – Roberta Gregory self publishes “Winging It” and “Sheila and the Unicorn”
1989 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackon publishes “Rip Off Pres: The Golden Era #21”
1989 – Daniel Clowes first issue of “Eightball”
1989 – Roberta Gregory moves to Seattle and begins to work at Fantagraphics Books
1990 – Art Spiegelman receives a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on Maus’ second volume
1990 – Peter Bagge first publishes “Hate” (Fantagraaphics)
1991 – American Splendor’s once a year regular release stops with issue fifteen
1991 – Rick Griffin dies after motorcycle accident
1991 – Roberta Gregory’s “Naughty Bits” issue one self published
1991 – “Dirty Plotte” published by Drawn & Quarterly
1991 – Julie Doucet moves to NYC for one year and makes “My New York Diary”
1992 – Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman wins a Pulitzer Prize
1992 – “Wimmen’s Comix” publishes it’s last issue
1993 – Don Schenkers dies
1994 – Robert Williams first published “Juxtapoz Arts & Culture” Magazine
1995 – “Stuck Rubber Baby” by Howard Cruse published
1995 – “Black Hole” by Charles Burns first published by Fantagraphics
1995 – “Crumb” documentary about Robert Crumb by Terry Zwigoff is released
1996 – Mary Fleener’s “Life of the Party” released
1998 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson creates “Lost Cause”
1999 – Joel Beck dies
2001-2003 – Roberta Gregory’s popular character Bitchy Bitch from “Naughty Bits” starred in the animated cartoon “Life’s a Bitch” on Comedy Network (Canada) and Oxygen Network (US)
2001 – Daniel Clowes “Eightball” story “Ghost World” is made into a movie of the same name
2002 – Rand Holmes dies
2002 – Phoebe Gloeckner’s “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” published by Frog Books
2003 – “American Splendor” the award winning movie about Harvey Pekar’s life starring Paul Giamatti is released
2005 – “Black Hole” by Charles Burns released as graphic novel by Fantagraphics
2006 –Jack “Jaxon” Jackson dies
2006 – “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” by Alison Bechdel published
2010 – Harvey Pekar dies
2015 – “Fun Home” the Broadway Musical wins a Tony for best musical
2015 – “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” by Phoebe Glockner made into a movie with the same name
2017 – Skip Williamson and Jay Lynch die within a week and a half of each other
2019 – Howard Cruse dies
2020 – Alice Schnker dies
2021 – Streaming channel Tubi releases 8 episode show “The Freak Brothers” based on Gilbert Shelton’s “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers”
2021 – Spain Rodriguez dies
2021 – S. Clay Wilson dies
2022 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb dies

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Olsza, M. (2020). Feminist (and/as) alternative media practices in women's underground comix in the 1970s 1. Polish Journal for American Studies, 14, 21-37,139. Retrieved from https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/feminist-as-alternative-media-practices-womens/docview/2473439187/se-2

Pagano, K. (2012, August 18). Mary Fleener lives art on the edge. North Coast Current. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.northcoastcurrent.com/north-coast-beat/2012/08/mary-fleener-lives-art-on-the-edge/

Panter, G. (2007). Biography . Gary Panter. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from http://www.garypanter.com/site/index.php/about/biography/

Pencil, S. (2020). Rated Savx: The Savage Pencil Skratchbook. Strange Attractor Press.

Pilcher, T., & Kannenberg Jr., G. (2008). Erotic comics : a graphic history from Tijuana bibles to underground comix. The Ilex Press Limited.

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Episodes

Prehistoric Cave Paintings
31 Oct· Incomplet Design History
REFERENCES
White, R. (2003). Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind. Harry N. Abrams Inc.
Clottes, J. (2008). Cave Art. Phaidon Press Limited. 9780714845920
Neumayer, E. (1983). Prehistoric Indian Rock Paintings. Oxford University Press. 9780195613872
Ruspoli, M. (1987). The Cave of Lascaux: The Final Photographs. Harry N. Abrams Inc. 0810912678
Myron, R. (1964). Prehistoric Art. Pitman Publishing Corporation. 0273438611
Stokstad, M., & Cothren M. W. (2011). Art History: Ancient Art (4th ed.). Pearson Education. 0205744222
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Art Nouveau
24 Oct· Incomplet Design History
Art Nouveau was a stylistic movement in the late nineteenth century characterized by highly ornate and decorated designs. Inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, Celtic manuscripts, The Arts and Crafts Movement, and the development of the lithograph, Art Nouveau, or New Art, was applied to everything from architecture to biscuit tins.
Though widely applied, posters that make up a great part of Art Nouveau history.The development of lithography meant posters could be large illustrations filled with bright colors and elaborate designs, even though they were advertisements for anything from events to consumer products. While Paris, France was Art Nouveau’s epicenter, it spread to England and eventually the United States. Along the way, several illustrators made a name for themselves and were pivotal to Art Nouveau’s popularity. Some of their posters were, and still are, collected as fine art.
REFERENCES
Cramsie, P. (2010). The Story of Graphic Design: From the Invention of Writing to the Birth of Digital Design. Abrams. 9780810972926
Eskilson, S.F. (2012). Graphic Design: A New History (2nd ed.). Laurence King Publishing. 9780300172607
Müller, J. (2017). The History of Graphic Design: Vol. 1 1890-1959. Taschen. 9783836563079
Selz, P., & Constantine, M. (1960). Art Nouveau: Art and Design at the Turn of the Century. The Museum of Modern Art. 0405015739
Duncan, A. (1994). Art Nouveau: World of Art. Thames & Hudson Inc. 0500202737
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Capcom Art and Fighting Games
17 Oct· Incomplet Design History
Capcom, a Japan-based maker of successful game properties, made a tremendous impact on the business of video games world wide, and helped usher in the current boom in Japanese-based visual media like manga and anime as much as fellow cultural exports like Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Speed Racer, and the Dragon Ball series.

The art team behind the bulk of Capcom’s fighting game imagery began in the late 80s and lasted until the early 2000s. The team’s story includes an eccentric artist remembered almost as much for his habits as his skills and leadership, a draftsperson capable of taking stereotypes and rendering them with profound emotion, an up and coming artist possessed of an incredible work ethic and mammoth ability to produce images, and numerous other talented artisans all brought together to form the Capcom Design Team.
REFERENCES
Hendershot, S.. (2017). Undisputed street fighter: The art and innovation behind the game-changing series. Dynamite Entertainment
Dyer, S. (2022). The king of fighters: The ultimate history. Bitmap Books Ltd.
Lapetino, T. (2016). Art of Atari. Dynamite Entertainment
Leone, Matt (2020, July 7). Street fighter 1: An oral history. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2020/7/7/21270906/street-fighter-1-oral-history-takashi-nishiyama
Hayashi, M. K., & Moylan, M. (2009). SF20: The Art of Street Fighter. Udon Entertainment Corp.
Moore, G., & Hodgson, A. (2021). Street fighter memorial archive: Beyond the world. Udon Entertainment Corp.
Leone, Matt (2014, February 3). Street fighter 2: An oral history. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/a/street-fighter-2-oral-history/
Hayashi, M.K. (2019). Darkstalkers: Official Complete Works. Udon Entertainment Corp.
Leone, Matt (2021, April 14). X-Men: Children of the Atom: An oral history. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/2021/4/14/22336505/x-men-children-of-the-atom-an-oral-history
Ferriere, G. & Zubkavich, J. (2005). Street Fighter: Eternal Challenge. Udon Entertainment Corp.
Famitsu Book Editorial Department (2001). Capcom Design Works. Enterbrain, Inc.
Various (2020). UDON’s Art of Capcom . Udon Entertainment Corp.
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Geometric Islamic Art
10 Oct· Incomplet Design History
TIMELINE
* A broad timeline spanning centuries is used to account for imprecise dates in the Ottoman Empire from multiple sources.
14th Century (1300s): The beginning of the Ottoman Empire. This period marks the initial blending of Islamic art with Byzantine and Persian styles, forming the basis for the unique Ottoman artistic and traditional geometric elements appearing as a symbol of Islamic art.15th Century (1400s): Further development of the Ottoman style, with increased prominence in mosques and palaces in Istanbul.16th Century (1500s): The peak of Ottoman art. 1520-1566: Reign of Suleiman 1548: The Şehzade Mosque completed with the best geometric Suleymaniye Mosque (completed in 1557).1570s-1598: The Qur'an's decoration is the primary artistic expression in the Ottoman Empire. 1600: 1600: This period sees advancements in ceramics known as Iznik tiles, textiles, calligraphy, and manuscript illumination.19th Century (1800s): The decline of the Ottoman Empire. Western influences begin to appear in Islamic art, introducing new styles and techniques.Early 20th Century (1900s-1922): The end of the Ottoman Empire
The Topic
A general view of the perspective on Islamic art that was shaped throughout the Ottoman Empire's peak, particularly during Sultan Suleiman's reign. Istanbul, Turkey, became known for its exceptional display of geometric symbolism in Islamic art. I want to explore the important mosques that displayed some of the most extraordinary works of art still known to the Islamic community.
REFERENCES
Kuban, D. (1987). The Style of Sinan’s Domed Structures. Muqarnas, 4, 72–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/1523097
Neci̇poğlu, G. (2007). Creation of a National Genius: Si̇nan and the Historiography of “Classical” Ottoman Architecture. Muqarnas, 24, 141–183. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25482458
Ersoy, A. (2007). Architecture and the Search for Ottoman Origins in the Tanzimat Period. Muqarnas, 24, 117–139. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25482457
Makdisi, U. (2002). Ottoman Orientalism. The American Historical Review, 107(3), 768–796. https://doi.org/10.1086/532495
Lewis, B. (1980). The Ottoman Empire and Its Aftermath. Journal of Contemporary History, 15(1), 27–36. http://www.jstor.org/stable/260456
AVCIOĞLU, N., & FLOOD, F. B. (2010). INTRODUCTION: Globalizing Cultures: Art and Mobility in the Eighteenth Century. Ars Orientalis, 39, 7–38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23075922
Blessing, P. (2018). Presenting Islamic Art: Reflections on Old and New Museum Displays. Review of Middle East Studies, 52(1), 147–152. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26478488
Islamic Art. (1978). The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 36(2), 3–48. https://doi.org/10.2307/3258866
Mehmed Ağa (Sedefkar Mehmet Aga, Ottoman architect, ca.1540-1622), & Ahmed I (Turkish patron, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, 1590-1617). (1609-1616). Sultan Ahmed Camii. https://jstor.org/stable/community.23089080
Mehmed Ağa (Sedefkar Mehmet Aga, Ottoman architect, ca.1540-1622), & Ahmed I (Turkish patron, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, 1590-1617). (1609-1616). Sultan Ahmed Camii. https://jstor.org/stable/community.23089076
The Ottoman Empire. (1968). The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 26(5), 204–224. https://doi.org/10.2307/3258980
HOWARD, D. A. (1988). OTTOMAN HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE LITERATURE OF “DECLINE” OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. Journal of Asian History, 22(1), 52–77. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41932017
Denny, W. B. (1983). Dating Ottoman Turkish Works in the Saz Style. Muqarnas, 1, 103–121. https://doi.org/10.2307/1523074
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Illustration & Toys
3 Oct· Incomplet Design History
REFERENCES
Witwer, M. & Newman, K., Peterson, J., Witwer, S. (2018). Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, A Visual History. Ten Speed Press.
Seeley, S. & Seeley, T. (2015). The Art of He-Man and The Masters of The Universe. Dark Horse Books.
Forster, B. & Sorenson, J. (2019). Transformers Legacy: The Art of Transformers Packaging. IDW Publishing.
Farago, A. (2014). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History. Insight editions.
Heller, S. & Mungia, R. (2021). SF20: Toys: 100 years of all-american toy ads. Taschen.
Voger, M. (2015). Monster mash: The creepy, kooky monster craze in America 1957-1972. TwoMorrows Publishing.
Fawcett, C. (2021). Rad plastic. Tkaf productions
Reed, W. (2001). The Illustrator in America 1860-2000. The Society of Illustrators Inc.
Hudson, G.. (2019).Illustration on British and North American Printed Ephemera, 1900-1910. In S.Doyle, J. Grove, & W. Sherman (Eds.), History of Illustration (1st ed., pp. 198–214). Fairchild books.
Kane, B.M. (2019). Overview of Comics and Graphic Narrative, 1830-2012. In S.Doyle, J. Grove, & W. Sherman (Eds.), History of Illustration (1st ed., pp. 198–214). Fairchild books.
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Treasure Planet
26 Sep· Incomplet Design History
Bio/ Background (intro)
Directors: Ron Clements and John Musker Intro (below)
Topic 1 Introduction
To my surprise, a number of people have never seen or heard of the movie “Treasure Planet.” In this classic retelling of “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson, the narrative was turned into an intergalactic adventure complete with cyborgs, space travel, and, of course, treasure. Disney’s “Treasure Planet” was one of two experimental movies in the year 2002. “Treasure Planet,” however, is notorious for its box office failure. The other experimental film, from a different in-house studio was “Lilo and Stitch,” which got way more attention and was well received by audiences. Now, this podcast is not a compare and contrast of the two experimental films of 2002, but I can’t help but take into consideration the alleged reasons why “Lilo and Stitch” swam but “Treasure Planet” sank. Both movies included obvious CGI, a wide variety of alien species, action-packed space travel, and family problems. I say this because a noticeable amount of articles claim the reason “Treasure Planet” bombed at the box office was because of the “high tech” CGI scenes. Amazingly after being scorned six feet into the grave of Disney’s backyard, 20 years later it gets dug up like a prized fossil.
Treasure Planet is based on the legendary novel “Treasure Island,” written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Instead of taking place in the Caribbean, it is set in outer space. The story begins with Jim Hawkins receiving a treasure map from a wounded alien by the name of Billy Bones in his mother’s inn. Rebellious Hawkins and passionate Dr. Delbert Doppler join a crew to find this elusive treasure hidden by the notorious pirate, Captain Nathaniel Flint. The crew of this ship seems to be of questionable authenticity as Hawkins meets the cook, Mr. Silver. Silver’s cyborg body with a robot arm reminds Hawkins of Billy Bones' warning about a cyborg. Eventually, the crew reveal themselves as pirates and launch a mutiny with Silver as their leader. The film carries multiple layers of character arcs journeys as the characters set out for Treasure Planet. This retelling of “Treasure Island” was, of course, given a sprinkle of “Disney magic” complete with striking animation, and memorable characters with flamboyant personalities.
Topic 2 Who Made the Film?
The striking film was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. These guys directed “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” and “Hercules.” According to the reflections on the Walt Disney Family Museum Website, Ron Clements was born and raised in Indiana. He was inspired to learn animation at the age of 9 after seeing “Pinocchio.” He worked his way from the scraping bottom of Disney to the director’s chair. John Musker was also an animator, storyboard artist, writer, director, and producer for 40 years for Disney Animation Studios. He studied under icons like Elmer Plummer and Bill Moore at CalArts in the 1970s. “He also studied alongside classmates who would become distinguished directors such as Brad Bird, Chris Buck, Tim Burton, John Lasseter, and Henry Selick.” His partnered credits with Clements are as follows, “The Great Mouse Detective” (1986), “The Little Mermaid” (1989), “Aladdin” (1992), “Hercules” (1997), “Treasure Planet” (2002), “The Princess and the Frog” (2009), and lastly, “Moana” (2016).
Gladstein writes in “The Bizarre Story of How Treasure Planet Got Made” that the two directors pitched “Treasure Planet” the same time as “The Little Mermaid” in Disney’s Renaissance Era (1989-1999). The studio was extremely reluctant to green light “Treasure Planet” until the dynamic duo, Clements and Musker, shoveled out genius big time money makers like “The Little Mermaid” and “Aladdin.” Gladstein notes that the studio was so impressed with the consistency of success from these dudes that they finally said yes to “Treasure Planet.” As an observer, I’m reading that basically “The Little Mermaid” and other MAJORLY lucrative films were just incredible proofs of concept to convince the big guys of letting “Treasure Planet” fly.
According to Jocelyn Buhlman on The Official Disney Fan Club Website, this was Clements and Musker's first sci-fi film, despite their love for science fiction. Buhlman quotes Clements explaining, “John and I are both sci-fi fans. The idea of making our pirate and taking his eye patch and turning it into a cyborg eye and taking his peg leg and making it mechanical—not only was it a science fiction thing, but it was an animation thing.” Buhlman also mentions how the two directors utilized the 3D technology used in “Tarzan” to create a camera effect on the action scenes and moving parts, “Beyond the wonders of Deep Canvas, Clements and Musker achieved the dynamic directorial style they desired by creating a whole new technology—virtual sets. A scene in “Tarzan” that most viewers can recognize that used a mix of hand drawn and computer animation is when Tarzan “slides” down mossy trees to get around in the jungle like sliding on wood floors with socks. The hand drawn element was added to Tarzan’s body as he moved around and the passing trees and jungle was the computer animation portion.
Buhlman speaks on how Clements explains the logistics of making “Treasure Planet’s” backgrounds, “‘They were actually dimensional sets made to look like 2-D backgrounds, but in truth they were 3-D, and we could move the camera around.’” This was a huge deal for animation. Let’s take another well known “classic” Disney hand drawn film for an example: “The Little Mermaid.” As previously mentioned, this enormously successful animated film was also directed by Clements and Musker. In this film, everything was hand drawn. And I do mean everything. Before understanding how and why animators turned to computer animation, we have to dive into the meaning of hand drawn animation and how much a labor of love it was.
Hand drawn animation is formally known as cel animation. This process of animation and film making is labor intensive and requires massive numbers of animators to complete an ambitious film such as “The Little Mermaid.” Just like any other film, animation requires storyboarding, pitches, screenwriting, actors, directors, etc. The only difference is instead of using a camera to capture the movement of the story, artists have to draw it frame by frame. A frame is a single drawing. An animation is a collection of frames in a row that, ideally, “move” when viewed quickly. Ever heard of a flipbook? It’s the same concept: a stack of drawings just tiny changes from each other to make a seamless movement before the eye. According to Adobe, “Cel animation is one of the most traditional forms of animation and involves objects - usually characters - being hand-drawn on clear celluloid sheets and placed over painted backgrounds. These are known as animated cels or animation cels.”
These celluloid sheets are drawn and painted on for all of the characters that moved in a scene. That is why the backgrounds in cel animated films seem set in place, because they quite literally are. This style of animation was completely hands on and traditional with paint, pencils, and more. These artists would create a pencil test (an animation drawn roughly in pencil) to test how the character moves and interacts with the other characters. Disney was known for using live, moving models in the studio to help artists understand the realistic movement of the body. Animators would take a day to grab a paper pad, some pencils, and an easel to complete quick drawings of the model called gesture drawings. They would do this to understand how anatomy works and better their animation skills. If you’re interested in seeing records of these, Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” and “Alice and Wonderland” have great films of the animators figure drawing in action. In “The Little Mermaid,” they also used models to understand how the main character, Ariel’s, hair moved underwater. According to Untitled Art Gallery, “The effect of Ariel's hair underwater was based on footage of Sally Ride when she was in space; and scenes of Sherri Lynn Stoner in a swimming pool were used in animating Ariel's swimming.” After the pencil tests were completed, they polished the frames by using clean line work.
You might be wondering, “How did they color the drawn animations?” They had a whole team dedicated to painting, yes, painting each and every single frame. This was also why hand drawn animation’s characters appeared less rendered. Rendering takes time, and time was something these studios certainly were scarce of. Untitled Art Gallery also made an excellent point on the difficulties of backgrounds in cel animation: “A challenge in animating Ariel were the colors required to show her in various changing environments, both under the sea and on land. By the end of the film, the animators required a total of 32-color models; not including costume changes. The sea-green color of her fin was a hue specially mixed by the Disney paint lab, and the color was named "Ariel" after the character.” In hand drawn animation, every single scene you see that moves or has a number of moving parts is drawn and painted by hand, unlike computer animation. This was why the use of computer graphics was a huge leg up for animation. When Musker and Clements mentioned how monumental computer animation was to making “Treasure Planet’s” moving backgrounds, they meant it. Computer graphics in a hand drawn appearance saved months of work for these animators. Buhlman claims that Clements and Musker were successful and known for mixing 2D and 3D animation techniques.
The process of mixing 2D (hand drawn) and 3D (computer animated) techniques was very tricky to pull off. As I mentioned before, the characters from “Treasure Planet” were either hand drawn, hand drawn and computer mixed, or entirely computer (which was rare). Jim Hawkins was completely hand drawn, unlike Silver. Most of Silver’s body was hand drawn. The parts of him that were computer animated were his cyborg parts like his eye and arm. Both his eye and arm have mechanical shape-shifting movements that would be near impossible to animate by hand as smoothly. B. E. N., the robot, was entirely computer animated. The animators had to create Silver’s body by hand, and then match up computer animated cyborg parts to make his design cohesive. This took time and lots of money. Musker and Clement’s budget for this film was $140 million USD, so they must have known the beast of a project they were taking on.
Clements and Musker also created an extremely diverse set of characters for “Treasure Planet.” Every character in this film had multiple design studies and framework done, so considering there were over 50 characters to animate, they were ambitious. This animation was set on no single characters, but they did have stars in their cast. Martin Short was cast as Ben, the robot that worked for the late pirate Captain Nathaniel Flint. Martin Short was known for his roles in “The Three Amigos” and multiple other shows and films. Tony Jay was the compelling narrator. He voiced multiple iconic characters such as Frollo in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and The Magic Mirror in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”
Topic 3 Why Did the Film Bomb?
Let’s talk about another movie that faltered just before “Treasure Planet” did, in 2001. “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” was a Disney film that was created by the people that designed the very successful “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale. Drew Taylor, a Collider article author, writes about how their visions of this movie were similar to Musker and Clements. Taylor mentions how they meant for the movie to be an adventurous and action packed change of pace from the Broadway musical style they’d previously directed. They also planned the movie to be a live action film. Some critics today claim it did in fact, age like that forgotten bottle in the back of a dusty cabinet, others say it aged like milk. Just like “Treasure Planet,” “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” is packed with a thrilling quest, diverse characters, and stunning visuals. Also like “Treasure Planet,” Wise and Trousdale used computer animation mixed with hand drawn animation. They used computer animation on pieces like the submarine and the leviathan monster. When pitching the idea to multiple Disney animators and designers like John Sanford, according to Taylor, “As production got underway, they added a key member of the team: John Sanford, who served as the artistic supervisor for story. He was finishing work on Mulan at Disney’s Orlando satellite studio. Uninspired by the projects that he knew were in the pipeline, he called Trousdale and asked what he was working on. When Trousdale explained the project, Sanford knew he had to be a part of it. ‘It was unlike anything I’d ever heard of,’ Sanford said.” According to The Janitorium, “People just weren’t ready for a serious Disney film. Somehow it didn’t have the charm or the feeling of a Disney film – therefore it failed. While modern superhero films can be pushing the boundaries of PG-13 and still appeal to young kids, Atlantis was considered too edgy. And while Indiana Jones is still a lauded classic, Atlantis is panned for being just as simple and formulaic. I just can’t understand it. Sure, maybe the film wasn’t properly marketed, but neither was Hunchback – and that film still has its vocal fans and is arguably even darker of a Disney film.” Just like “Treasure Planet,” “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” started in excitement and promise, took sweat and tears to make, released into the wild theaters, and crashed at the box office.
The building suspension and hard work made by Clements and Musker went right into the gravel, but why? According to Bobby Berstein on the Nerdmuch website, this cosmic ship should have soared, not sank, “Despite having a talented team of animators and voice actors, the film was a commercial and critical failure, grossing only $38 million domestically against a budget of $140 million.” Unfortunately, the movie sent Disney into debt. Bernstein claims that the reasons the film utterly failed was because of competing films in the theater like “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” as well as “Die Another Day,” a lack of marketing, an unclear target audience, drastic swings away from the “traditional” Disney style, a lack of emotional connection, and negative reviews. “While some reviewers praised the film’s visuals and action sequences, others criticized its pacing, lack of emotional depth, and departure from traditional Disney storytelling.”
In “Why Treasure Planet Became One of Disney’s Most Expensive Failures Ever,” Courtney Mason explains how the movie was so expensive to make. The blend of 2D and 3D animation techniques cost a pretty penny. Long John Silver’s character required both hand drawn animation and computer animation to bring his cyborg parts to life, as mentioned previously. Now, imagine the number of animators in a number of departments working on the hand drawn animation alone plus the cost of computer animators and advanced programs. This movie was a fusion between computer animation and hand drawn animation, and with fusions come problem solving and expenses. Most of the backgrounds and special effects were computer animated as well as characters like B.E.N. and parts of Silver. Everything else, including main and background characters, were hand drawn. The directors wanted to make this film majestic, adventurous, and grand like a Steven Spielburg movie. Mason notes that because of the advances in computer animation in Pixar films and the decline of hand drawn animation with its demand of countless workers and longer development cycles, “Treasure Planet” was outdated the day it was released.
The wholesome and epic story was ahead of its time according to Cameron Gorman on Collider, “Sarah Hawkins (Laurie Metcalf), a put-upon inn owner, is reading a bedtime story to her son Jim. This ordinary scene of domesticity — something that would feel at home in its source material — is suddenly elevated when we see Jim's book. It's more of a hologram show than a traditional novel, the images moving and turning in their own little spaces.” The mix between old fashioned and technology is extremely creative and unique compared to previous Disney animated films, but failed epically in the box office. Gorman also conducts another reason why this film didn’t reach an audience: the main character was too old. If that’s so, I’d say that is completely unfair considering Cinderella was supposedly 19 years old, four years older than Jim Hawkins. Maybe if Disney put a crown on Jim and made him a ‘space prince’ with a love interest, it would’ve received more attention considering the audience at the time was conditioned to consume love stories and happy endings from Disney’s buffet.
Topic 4 A Cinema Wrestling Match in Theaters
You might be wondering, “Okay, so what if ‘Treasure Planet’ isn’t a traditional Disney film? So what if these points are valid, how did the film fall so hard then? It couldn’t have been that bad, right?” Yes, the technology was quickly evolving in animation studios, and yes, this film was not your average sing-song Disney delight. However, animators like John Musker and Ron Clements had to face what every filmmaker dreads: the theater competitions. Each film is fighting fist to fist, tooth and nail to earn that ticket. All movies stare each other down in the face across from each other in the filthy, carpeted halls of the movie theaters. Each poster is trying to persuade the consumer, screaming at them, to win over their interest for the sake of a good rating, excellent box office numbers, and maybe even another ticket.
So Musker and Clement’s studio has shined up and polished off their beautiful creation and sent it off to the gritty audience. Mind you, “Treasure Planet” was released in 2002. Allow me to expand on the competition in 2002 theaters: “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” “Spider-Man,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” “Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones,” “Die Another Day,” “Men in Black II,” “Lilo and Stitch,” - must I go on? In the realm of movie lovers all over the world, these films I just mentioned were iconic when they came out. It seems as if almost anyone who dared to challenge these theater titans, were doomed to fail.
Topic 5 Why Does it Have an Audience Today?
Like a zombie crawling out of a grave, “Treasure Planet” received the audience it deserves 20 years after it was released. The craftsmanship of the hand drawn mixed with computer animation is now seen as legendary. “Silver's cyborg animation, too, remains impressive,” Courtney Mason writes, “ The mechanics of his arm are quite hypnotizing and fascinating to watch. Morph stands out as Disney's signature cute sidekick, and does a wonderful job of being funny and adorable. The script ebbs and flows, with humor being provided by the only entirely CG character in the film, B.E.N. Superior to all, though, is the relationship between Jim and Silver.”
The New York Times wrote in December, 2022 that the film was grossly underappreciated with its striking visuals and relatable character traumas. The New York Times also mentioned how video games, other films, and a negative impression of the rebellious teenage main character could have contributed to the cold shoulder from the public. They expressed how monumental and unique it was to have Jim’s character to be the way it was, “Outside of its irreplicable conception, “Treasure Planet” also tapped into adolescent woes that powerfully spoke to many teens because it treated the flood of emotions young people grapple with as legitimate. The hero here was rough around the edges. For their intergalactic coming-of-age tale, the directors turned Hawkins into a rebellious 15-year-old with a braided rat tail who surfs the skies on a solar-powered board. His father left when he was a child and his loving but worried mother can’t seem to get through to him. To find himself and mature, this brooding heartthrob must leave on an epic quest.” The New York Times acknowledged how much of a relatable role model Jim Hawkins was instead of the trouble-making boy parents and critics saw. “Treasure Planet” also had a very complex and well-crafted relationship between two important characters, Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver. Silver filled that fatherly role that Hawkins was in desperate need of since his father left him at a young age. Silver saw Hawkins as a son and someone to take under his wing, to see the universe with. It was a beautiful complex relationship because Jim Hawkins was the hero, and Long John Silver was soon to be revealed as the leader of the pirates who would hijack the ship. The New York Times recognized this, “Though not a musical, “Treasure Planet” features a touching montage to the tune of the singer’s John Rzeznik’s “I’m Still Here,” a song written for the film, that bridges Hawkins’s abandonment trauma and his burgeoning relationship with Silver, a figure filling that paternal void.” Laura Kelly from Inkverse said something similar about the two character’s relationship, “The central relationship is the father-son bond that develops between John Silver and Jim, who finds encouragement from the pirate that he never received from his distant father. Throughout the story, become more responsible and confident, while Silver gains the capacity to care about another person. That aching search for validation — the need for a flawed role model to tell you how proud they are of you — comes across with a deep emotional maturity in Musker and Clements’s passion project, written with Rob Edwards.” Kelly also mentions how Disney was not a stranger to parental abandonment in story-telling, but the character showing resentment towards the parent is rare. Musker and Clements’ masterpiece was just ahead of its time. Their animated film “Treasure Planet” has managed to find its audience after twenty years like a relic that was forgotten, buried in the ground, and dug up decades later to be discovered as treasure.
References
Gorman, Cameron. (2023, February 5). Why ‘Treasure Planet’ Was Such a Spectacular Sci-Fi Flop. Collider. https://collider.com/treasure-planet-failed/#:~:text=An%20Older%20Protagonist%20and%20Poor,Led%20to%20Treasure%20Planet's%20Failure&text=Despite%20its%20hard%20journey%20to,one%20of%20Disney's%20worst%20failures. Mason, Courtney. (2022, July 23). Why Treasure Planet Became One of Disney’s Most Expensive Failures Ever. Screenrant. https://screenrant.com/treasure-planet-2002-disney-box-office-bomb-cost-reason/Bernstein, Bobby. (2023, March 9). Why Disney’s ‘Treasure Planet’ Failed Miserably. Nerd much?. https://www.nerdmuch.com/movies/treasure-planet-failed/Kelly, Laura. (2022, November 27). Treasure Planet Was a Box Office Failure, but 20 Years Later, it Found its Audience. Inverse. https://www.inverse.com/culture/treasure-planet-20-year-anniversaryAguilar, Carlos. (2022, December 28). ‘Treasure Planet’ at 20: Disney’s Failed Space Odyssey Deserved to Soar. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/28/movies/treasure-planet-disney.htmlGladstein, Scott. (2017, March 21). The Bizarre Story of How Treasure Planet Got Made. Medium. https://medium.com/@scottgladstein/the-bizzare-story-of-how-treasure-planet-got-made-bfa184acdd18Buhlman, Jocelyn. (2017, November 27). D23 Celebrates 15 Years of ‘Treasure Planet’ with DirectorsRon Clements and John Musker. D23: The Official Disney Fan Club. https://d23.com/d23-celebrates-15-years-treasure-planet-directors-ron-clements-john-musker/(2022). Nine Old Mentors: Ron Clements and John Musker’s Reflections. The Walt Disney Family Museum. https://www.waltdisney.org/education/talks/nine-old-mentors-ron-clements-and-john-muskers-reflections(2019). The Little Mermaid, 1989. Untitled Art Gallery. https://www.untitledartgallery.com/the-little-mermaid#:~:text=%22The%20Little%20Mermaid%2C%22%201989%20was%20the%20final%20Disney%20film,villain%20a%20much%20bigger%20role. (2024). Animation: Hand Drawn. Into Film. https://www.intofilm.org/films/filmlist/91(2024). Cel (Or Traditional) Animation Explained: Definition, Types, and Methods. Adobe. https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/animation/discover/cel-animation.htmlHall, Cameron Roy. (2023, January 21). Treasure Planet’s Animation Was Even More 3D Than it Seems. Slash Film. https://www.slashfilm.com/1168766/treasure-planets-animation-was-even-more-3d-than-it-seems/https://collider.com/disney-atlantis-the-lost-empire-history-explained/https://thejanitorium.home.blog/portfolio/dissecting-the-hate-against-atlantis-the-lost-empire/#:~:text=People%20just%20weren't%20ready,Atlantis%20was%20considered%20too%20edgy.
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Lynd Ward
19 Sep· Incomplet Design History
Lynd Ward hits all my favorite aspects of the mercurial world of art and design. Here is the son of a leader of the Methodist Church whose work unabashedly depicts the underside of the Depression Era city and the undead creatures of gothic horror (often in the buff). His work embodies the height of graphic narrative and the depth of pulp chunkiness. The elite halls of the gallery and chummy confines of the childrens’ library nook. Comfortable with brush or knife, his work carries an expressionistic zeal to it that would go on to influence comic books, illustration and printmaking well into the 21st. Century. Mighty impressive for a man whose work primarily consisted of no more than 2 to 3 colors per image.
TIMELINE
Born 1905, second child to Harry Frederick Ward and Harriet May Kendall Ward, in Chicago Illinois- contract Tuberculosis, prompting move to Lonely Lake, Ontario. Stays sickly as a kid1915. Begins interest in art by reading and copying Dore’s Bible. This is encouraged by mother with trips to art museums in Boston where the family has moved.1922. Attends Teachers College at Columbia University. Meets wife, May McNeer there. 1926. Graduates from Columbia and studied for a year in Leipzig at the Staatliche Akademie für Graphische Kunste und Buchgewerbe. Heavily influenced by working wood engraver Theodore Mueller1927. Discovers the work of Frans Masereel- another major influence, and heads back to US to start working freelance in publishing1928. Begins receiving commissions, working in a variety of formats1929. Publishes Gods’ Man with Cape & Smith Publishing- comes out week of Wall Street Crash but sells more than 20 thousand copies.1930. Publishes Mad Man’s Drum, loses first child after premature birth. Spends Winter in Paris and learns how to play the accordion.1931. Essentially a superstar illustrator at this point, his wife quips that he works from 9 AM to midnight, Seven days a week (good god), apparently he kept this pace into his 60s. Co-founds the Equinox Press.1932. Wild Pilgrimage published by Smith and Haas. (Insane output of work over a 4 year period)1935. Helps found American Artists’ Congress1936: Produces Song Without Words1937. Named supervisor of the Graphic Arts Division of the New york Chapter of the Federal Arts Project. Vertigo is published. The Haunted Omnibus Published1938. Helps Hans Alexander Mueller and his wife flee Germany, and aids in him getting work, including writing Woodcuts & Wood Engravings: How I Make Them, a process that leads to the dissolving of Equinox. His most ambitious illustration project, over 500 drawings for an edition of Les Miserable is published. (Again, an insane amount of work for 10 years). 1939. Became first Chairman of the Union of American Artists1940. Abandons “woodcut novel” form. Contributes illustration to Psychology study/text Adolescent Fantasy…1943. Illustrates Esther Forbes’s Johnny Tremain, which wins the 1944 Newberry Award and starts long working relationship with Hoghton Mifflin and children’s editor Mary Silva Cosgrave.1945-152. Continues to win awards and rack up work for Houghton Mifflin and places like The Atlantic Monthly1952. Writes and illustrates The Biggest Bear, which would win the Caldecott the following year. 1962- Accepts mural commission from the United Methodist Church- takes 7 years.1965. Nic of the Woods published1966. Gods’ Man and Wild Pilgrimage republished, leading to renewed interest in work as part of the 1960s counterculture scene.1973. The Silver Pony published1974 Storyteller Without Words Published by Abrams1985 Dies.
REFERENCES
Ward, Lynd (2009). Vertigo: A novel in woodcuts. Dover Publications, Inc.
Ward, Lynd (1974). Storyteller without words; The wood engravings of Lynd Ward. Abrams.
Ward, Lynd (2010). Six novels in woodcuts. Library of America.
Ward, Lynd (1965). Nic of the woods. Houghton Mifflin.
Jones, Stephen (2015). The art of horror: An illustrated history. Applause.
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José Guadalupe Posada
12 Sep· Incomplet Design History
José Guadalupe Posada was a Mexican illustrator who worked in lithography and engraving, he was a very prolific image maker who completed an estimated 20,000 illustrations in his lifetime, with themes ranging from Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead illustrations, political cartoons, popular illustrations, and daily life, as well as illustrations for “shocking” crime stories. He was also known to have created illustrations for a number of children’s books in the form of cheaply printed chapbooks with the printer Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, making them accessible to wide audiences. Yet despite his enduring legacy, his contributions are not often discussed in histories of graphic design, yet his story reveals a deep history of image making and mass production of images in Mexico, which includes the foundation of the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a collective founded by Leopoldo Méndez, Luis Arenal, and Pablo O’Higgins. Posada’s popular Day of the Dead icons, such as the Calavera Catrina, have captured the hearts and imaginations of many. Born in 1852 in Aguascalientes, Mexico, he made his way to Mexico City after a devastating flood upended his life. It is perhaps this move that allowed his work to be “discovered” by artists and historians after his untimely death in 1913. Though his work has been recognized by art historians, and he has been honored with a number of posthumous exhibitions of his work around the world, there is still work to be done to include his story in histories of graphic design. His images were geared to popular audiences, and a wide range of people had access to them and enjoyed them in his lifetime.
TIMELINE
1852 - Born, February 2, Aguascalientes, Mexico
1860s - receives drawing instruction Municipal Academy of Drawing in Aguascalientes
1867 - Census records Posada as a Painter
1868 - Begins working with Trinidad Pedroza
1871 - First political Cartoon published in El Jicote
1872 - Pedroza and Posada move to León
1876 - Takes charge of Pedroza print shop
1888 - Moves to Mexico City
1888-90 - collaborates with the newspaper La Patria Ilustrada and the Revisita de Mexico
1910 - The Mexican Revolution begins
1913 - Died, January 20, Mexico City, Mexico
1920 - The Mexican Revolution ends
1937 - Taller de Gráfica Popular, collective founded by Leopoldo Méndez, Luis Arenal, and Pablo O’Higgins
REFERENCES
Acosta, T. (2023, September 19). Dia de los Muertos: Its rich history, traditions and why not all Mexicans celebrate it. Arizona Republic. https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/holidays/2023/09/19/origin-of-day-of-the-dead/70489251007/
Aguilar Montes de Oca, R. I. (2016). The Day of the Dead: One Ritual, NewFolk Costumes, and Old Identities. Folklore (Tartu, Estonia), 66, 95.
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023, October 19). León. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Leon-Mexico
Bunker, S. B. (2012). Creating Mexican consumer culture in the age of Porfirio Díaz. University of New Mexico Press.
Casillas, M. L. (2013). Posada & Manilla: Illustrations for Mexican Fairy Tales. RM.
Doyle, S., Grove, J., & Whitney, S. (Eds.). (2019). History of Illustration. Fairchild Books.
Frank, P. (1998). Posada’s Broadsides: Mexican popular imagery, 1890-1910. University of New Mexico Press.
Greenspan, J. (2018, August 31). 6 things you may not know about the Mexican Revolution. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-mexican-revolution
Kennedy, P. (2022, December 7). José Guadalupe Posada: Skulls, Skeletons and Macabre Mischief. Illustration Chronicles. https://illustrationchronicles.com/Jose-Guadalupe-Posada-Skulls-Skeletons-and-Macabre-Mischief
Lagasse, P., & Columbia University. (2018). Díaz, Porfirio. In The Columbia Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press.
Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada. (n.d.). Posada. https://www.posada-art-foundation.com/about-posada
Mexico. (n.d.). RSF. https://rsf.org/en/country/mexico
Recalls Disaster of 1888.; HUGE WATER WALL HITS LEON, MEXICO. (1926, June 25). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1926/06/25/archives/recalls-disaster-of-1888-huge-water-wall-hits-leon-mexico.html
Short biography — The Jean Charlot Foundation. (n.d.). The Jean Charlot Foundation. https://www.jeancharlot.org/short-biography
Taller de Gráfica Popular (Mexico City, Mexico) | The Art Institute of Chicago. (2001, July 4). The Art Institute of Chicago. https://www.artic.edu/artists/72887/taller-de-grafica-popular-mexico-city-mexico
Tyler, R. (1979). Posada’s Mexico. Library of Congress.
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Clip Art
7 Dec 2023· Incomplet Design History
From its origins in the 1950s from the pages of books to software like MacDraw in the 1980s to CD Roms, and finally moving online in the 1990s, Clip Art’s evolution took place along with that of graphic design. Even though clip art was mostly created by unnamed designers and illustrators and sold in packages or libraries, there are many important figures we know of whose clip art contributed to the history of graphic design. Joan Shogren, an early computer art pioneer and clip art designer; Frank Fruznya, whose iconic clip art defined an era; and Sean Tejaratchi, whose cult hit zine series Crap Hound celebrates Clip Art and visually meditates on social issues. Ultimately, clip art is a misunderstood element of graphic design that holds an essential place in its history. Clip art in many ways paved the way for stock photo and stock illustration use that is common practice among designers today.
TIMELINE
1928 – Tom Tierney born in Beaumont, Texas
1928– Dan X. Solo born
1932 – Joan Shogren born
1941 – Dover Publications founded
1947 – Jean Larcher born in Rennes, France
1949 – Tierney graduates from the University of Austin in Texas, majoring in painting and sculpture
1950s – Clip Art began to be produced in books for commercial sale, such as The Volk Corporation
1951 – Tierney serves in the US Military for 3 years
1952 – Frank Fruznya, prolific Clip Art illustrator, born in Illinois
1953 – Tierney movies to NYC to work as a fashion illustrator
1954 – Art Chantry born
1960s – Tom B. Sawyer created Clip Art for Harry Volk Jr’s Volk & Co’s “Clip Book of Line Art”series
1963 – Shogren designs set of rules to make the first computer art with Jim Larsen and Dr. Ralph Fessenden’s assistance at San Jose Univeristy in California
1963 – “Cybernation” exhibition of early computer art featuring Shogren took place at the San Jose State Partna Book Store
1962 – Solotype founded
1965 – Larcher graduates after studying typographic art at the Paris Chaamber of Commerce
1969 – Artist and illustrator Mitch O’Connell starts to freelance Clip Art illustration for Dynamic Graphics
1970s – Dover begins publishing Clip Art books
1970 – Sean Tejartchi born
1973 – Larcher begins freelance design work
1974 – Fruznya started to work for H&R; then was recruited to work for Dynamic Graphics
1976 – Tierney publishes his first paper doll book, “Thirty from the 30s” which attracted the attention of Dover
1979 – Peter Roizen and Heidi Roizen, brother and sister, co-found T/Maker
1981 – IBM introduces the first personal computer
1983 – Heidi Roizen takes over as president at T/Maker
1983 – ImageWriter printer released
1983 – VCN ExecuVision published IBM’s first Clip Art library
1984 – Shogren starts to work for T/Maker for ClickArt
1984 – T/Maker releases ClickArt Publications digital Clip Art collection
1984 – Brad Fregger creates Clip Art for Activision
1984 – Nova Development founded
1984 – MacPaint comes pre installed on Macintosh computers
1985 – “The Year of the Computer” mass production of personal computers helps change the world
1985 – LaserWriter printer is introduced
1986 – Graphic Source published Clip Art Books
1986 – Apple introduces the Macintosh Computer
1986 – Mac Plus released
1987 – MacPaint to longer pre installed on Macintosh computers
1987 – T/Maker introduced first vector Clip Art made with Adobe Illustrator
1988 – Adobe Systems released Adobe Illustrator
1989 – Company 3G Graphics published “Images with Impact!”
1994 – Crap Hound first published
1994 – Deluxe Corp buys remaining software lines from T/Maker, including ClickArt
1996 – Zedcor was the first company to offer Clip Art images as part of an online subscription service
1996 – Microsoft began to include Clip Art in it’s built in libraries
1996 – Animation Factory founded
1998-2001 – T/Makers ClickArt library sold each year due to large mergers and acquisitions to companies like Mattel and The Learning Company
1998 – Crap Hound ceases publishing
1999 – Animation Factory sold
2003 – Fruznya quits Dynamic Graphics after anonymously being the Clip Art world’s star illustrator in the 80s and 90s
2005 – Jupitermedia purchased Creatas, now owning all of Dynamic Grapahic’s clip art library
2005 – Tejaratchi begins to publish Crap Hound again
2009 – Jupitermedia went out of business
2009 – Fruzyna moves to Paradise, Michigan with his partner to paint
2012 – Solo passes away
2014 – Tierney passes away
2014 – Microsoft discontinues it’s Clip Art library in favor of Bing Image Search
2015 – Dat Boi, an Animation Factory asset, becomes an early internet meme
2015 – Larcher passes away
REFERENCES
Arntson, Amy E. (1988). Graphic Design Basics. Saunders College Publishing.
Borrell, J. (1988, January). Verbatim: An Interview With Heidi Roizen. MacWorld, 74–86.
Boudrot, T. (1989, October). New Graphics Take the Rough Edges Off Clip Art. Electronic Learning, 9(2), 54–56.
Brock, D. C. (2019, October 8). Slide logic: The emergence of presentation software and the Prehistory of PowerPoint. Computer History Museum. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://computerhistory.org/blog/slide-logic-the-emergence-of-presentation-software-and-the-prehistory-of-powerpoint/?key=slide-logic-the-emergence-of-presentation-software-and-the-prehistory-of-powerpoint
Chantry, A., & Rochester Monica René. (2015). Art Chantry Speaks: A Heretic's history of 20th-century graphic design. Feral House.
Clip Art Images: Definition, history, examples and sources. blog.icons8.com. (2020, September 7). Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://blog.icons8.com/articles/clip-art-images/
Cretan, J. (2011). Macpaint.org: Clip Art Historical Gallery. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from http://www.macpaint.org/clipart.html
Devroye, L. (n.d.). Dan X. Solo. Luc Devroye, School of Computer Science, McGill University. http://luc.devroye.org/solo.html
Eskilson, S. (2019). Graphic design: A New History. Yale University Press.
Fregger, B. (2018, November). Joan Shogren Computer Art Pioneer. http://fregger.com/Joan/index.html
Garber, M. (2014, December 2). A Eulogy to Clip Art, in Clip Art. The Atlantic. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/a-eulogy-to-clipart-in-clipart/383322/
Grant-Marsh, S. (Ed.). (1994, September). Editors' Choice: The Best Products Featured in MacWorld. MacWorld, 201–221.
Heller, S. (2012, May 25). Dan X. Solo, Type Revivalist, Dies. PRINT Magazine. https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/dan-x-solo-type-revivalist-dies/
Heller, S. (2022, June 6). The Daily Heller: Art Chantry Reconsidered in His Own Words. PRINT Magazine. https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-the-real-art-chantry-reconsidered/
Heid, J. (1987, August). Getting Started with Macintosh Graphics. MacWorld, 193–202.
Historic Zinesters Talking. (2009, October 24). Crap Hound Zine -- Sean Tejaratchi. Slide Share. https://www.slideshare.net/StaffDay/crap-hound-zine-sean-tejaratchi
Leifpeng. (2008, June 19). Tom Sawyer and Harry Volk. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2008/06/tom-sawyer-and-harry-volk_19.html.
Lopez, G. (2016, May 27). Dat boi, explained. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2016/5/27/11789968/dat-boi-o-shit-waddup
Mak, A. (2022, March 29). A Reminder That GIFs Didn’t Always Move. Slate Magazine. https://slate.com/technology/2022/03/the-history-of-gifs.html
Manely, D. (2016, December 2). History of clip art via Wikipedia. OldCuts. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.oldcuts.co/blogs/news/history-of-clip-art-via-wikipedia
Middleton, C., & Herriot, L. (2007). Instant graphics: Source and remix images for professional design. RotoVision.
Original Apple Macintosh 18 Page Brochure (Dec 1983). DigiBarn ads: Original Apple Macintosh 18 Page Brochure (Dec 1983). (1998). Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.digibarn.com/collections/ads/apple-mac/index.htm.
Paper Doll Author Tom Tierney. (2022). Dover Publications. https://www.doverpublications.com/tomtierney/
Pot, J. (2014, December 5). Clip Art is gone! here's how to find free images instead. MUO. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/clip-art-gone-heres-find-free-images-instead/
Sandberg-Diment, E. (1985, November 26). Personal Computers; Desktop Publishing Comes of Age . New York Times, p. 4.
Sanders, S., & Larchuk, T. (2014, December 3). Microsoft says goodbye to clip art. NPR. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/12/02/368060012/microsoft-says-goodbye-to-clip-art
Sawyer, T. B. (n.d.). Illustration Artwork. Thomas B. Sawyer. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from http://thomasbsawyer.com/illustrationartwork.html
Solenthaler, B. (2021, November). The Bart&Co.. historic clip art collection. Flickr. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/bartsol/sets/72157627595663028.
Smith, E. (2018, August 30). The history of Clip Art: They sold it in books. Tedium. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://tedium.co/2018/08/30/clip-art-history/
Sutton, B. (2014, December 4). In honor of the death of Clip Art, a brief illustrated history of Clip Art. Hyperallergic. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://hyperallergic.com/166533/in-honor-of-the-death-of-clip-art-a-brief-illustrated-history-of-clip-art/
Tejaratchi, S. (2014). Crap Hound (Vol. 5). Show & Tell Press.
The Microsoft 365 Marketing Team, & Thomas, D. (2014, December 14). CLIP art is now powered by Bing Images. Microsoft 365 Blog. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2014/12/01/clip-art-now-powered-bing-images/
Tom Tierney Studios. (n.d.). Tom Tierney Studios. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://www.tomtierneystudios.com/
Vogt, P. J., & Goldman, A. (Hosts). (2016, April 14). Bbay King (No. 61) [Audio podcast episode]. In Reply all. Gimlet. https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/emhwx6/61-baby-king
Zantal-Wiener, A. (2017, August 27). Clip art through the years: A nostalgic look back. HubSpot Blog. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/clip-art-history
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When Book Design Gets Weird
30 Nov 2023· Incomplet Design History
Most books, not all, but most, follow conventions of book design that have been in place for literally hundreds of years. With very few exceptions, it wasn’t until the 1960s when authors began to play around with story structure that there were any books that also played with the structure of the book itself. And it was later still that graphic design started adding another layer to the storytelling in popular literature. The colors, the typography, the page layouts all came to be used in service of the story. In House of Leaves, when the story starts getting really weird, so does the page layout. In The Illuminae Files, the pages look like reports, transcriptions, and electronic messages and include diagrams and drawings. These books, and the others like them, ask something extra of the reader, but give back an experience that may delight some and infuriate others. However readers feel about this type of weird book design, these books push the boundaries of book design into new and exciting territory.
FURTHER READING
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
theMystery.doc by Matthew McIntosh
The Black Locomotive by Rian Hughes
Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
Bats of the Republic by Zachary Thomas
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer
Parabola by Lily Hoang
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia
Maxwell’s Demon by Steven Hall
REFERENCES
Aarseth, E. (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Abrams, J.J. & Dorst, D. (2013). S. New York: Mulholland Books.
CloudCuckooCountry. (2022, November 15). Ergodic Literature: The Weirdest Book Genre [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/tKX90LbnYd4?si=GYwECYZ4FdOzF9SO
Coe, J. (2011, October 28). Composition No. 1 by Marc Saporta - review. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/28/composition-no-1-saporta-review
Danielewski, M. Z. (2000). House of Leaves. New York: Pantheon Books.
Digital Humanities Initiative. (2019, March 14). Mark Z. Danielewski at SDSU Library, Standard Video [Video} YouTube. https://youtu.be/wwCp8Y6k_BI?si=s7zFZZOpPDuIXBrm
Forbidden Planet TV. (2021, July 29). Rian Hughes Stokes up the Black Locomotive [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/emge3qLMatM?si=WNWzNZgXrHwNA-mz
Hill. L. (2013, October 27). A Long Time Ago, in A Universe More Analog. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/books/j-j-abrams-and-doug-dorst-collaborate-on-a-book-s.html
Hughes, R. (2020). XX. New York: The Overlook Press.
Kaufman, A. & Kristof, J. (2015). Illuminae. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Kaufman, A. & Kristof, J. (2016). Gemina. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Kaufman, A. & Kristof, J. (2018). Obsidio. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Little Book Owl. (2015, December 15). Q&A w/ Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristof [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/jZ3_ulIEEe4?si=c6mXnEdBKTLaf5Ju
Roth, G. [VMSpod]. (2023, July 12). Virtual Memories #546 - Rian Hughes [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js0DYgMzKwQ
Roth, G. [VMSpod]. (2020, November 24). Virtual Memories #409 - Rian Hughes [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Iw_kuUqxyjM?si=8J9cEIZa2P5ToJHq
Star Sessions. (2014, May 18). J.J. Abrams & Doug Dorst Delve into S: A Multi-Layered Book Experience [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Adpb9Dn0PoM?si=lHXLynpj5Oj7fq07
Tales of the Ravenous Reader. (2018, April 11). Interview w/ Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristof | The Illuminae Files [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/gJl4eDRDM04?si=qetFYjnb9KIx6kOh
Talks at Google. (2016, August 11). The Familiar|Mark Z. Danielewski|Talks at Google [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/mw0bGiVDTMI?si=mn19emWU4ttp_CWh
Tyer, B. (2014, February 20). Untangling S., Doug Dorst’s Novel Within a Novel. Texas Observer. https://www.texasobserver.org/untangling-s-doug-dorsts-novel-within-novel/
Zambra, A. (2014). Multiple Choice. New York: Penguin Books.
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Tarot Decks
23 Nov 2023· Incomplet Design History
The History of Tarot decks intersects with symbology, or the study of symbols as well as their history, mass production of text and images, and popular culture, all of which are fields of study in the history of graphic design, and yet this subject has not been included in mainstream histories of design. Is this a reflection of the mystical, romanticized history of the cards, and one that implies a connection to divination or fortune telling? It is also a history that connects with the history of alchemy, and science, as well as with religious studies, esoterism, and occult, and yet the cards themselves emerged from secular roots. Tarot cards are not quite viewed as art and yet not celebrated as graphic design. The cards began as a simple game in Renaissance Italy, only gaining their association with esoterism in the 1700s when they were falsely connected with Hermeticism, and instilled with a completely fabricated Egyptian heritage. This history grew to include a connection to secret societies. Some of the most well-known decks of the 20th century and beyond were illustrated by women, including Moina Mathers, Lady Freida Harris, and Pamela Colman Smith and yet they are more associated with the men who dictated their design. Tarot cards have continued to evolve, transitioning away from being viewed as a tool for fortune telling and toward a new age tool for self-reflection, introspection, and self-help.
TIMELINE
1430s – Tarochi card game invented in Itlay
1450 – Visconti-Sforza deck made by Bonifacio Bembo
1491 – Sola-Busca deck made by Nicola di maestro Antonio
1770 – Jean Baptiste Alliette publishes A Way to Entertain Oneself With Cards
1776 – Antoine Court de Gebelin associates Tarot with esoterism and the occult
1781 – Antoine Court de Gebelin publishes Le Monde Primitif or the Primeval World
1855 – Éliphas Lévi piublishes Transcendental Magic
1888 – Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn founded
1906 – Jugendstil Tarot Deck designed by Ditha Moser
1907 – Images of the Sola Busca deck donated to the British Museum
1910 – Waite & Pamela Coleman Smith collaborate on the Waite Colman Smith Deck historically known as the Rider Waite deck
1944 – Aleister Crowley writes The Book of Toth, cards and illustrations by Lady Frieda Harris
1973 – The Tarot of Witches deck is created by Scottish artist and illustrator Fergus Hall for the film Live and Let Die
1977 – The Waite Colman Smith Deck goes into mass production
1978 – The Fantod Pack, a Parody deck designed by Edward Gorey is published
1984 – Mary K. Greer writes Tarot for yourself
1984 – Salvador Dali produces his Tarot deck
1992 – HIV Tarot produced by artist Kim Abeles
REFERENCES
Archetype. (2016). In J. L. Longe (Ed.), Gale Virtual Reference Library: The Gale encyclopedia of psychology (3rd ed.). Gale. Credo Reference: https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/galegp/archetype/0?institutionId=1845
Auger, E. E. (2004). Tarot and Other Meditation Decks: History, Theory, Aesthetics, Typology. McFarland.
Boley, M. (2023, April 10). Oracle Decks: What They Are and How To Use Them - Mental Musings - Medium. Medium. https://medium.com/musings-with-meg/oracle-decks-what-they-are-and-how-to-use-them-c037251a7a84
Dummett, M. (2007). Six XV-Century Tarot Cards: Who Painted Them? Artibus et Historiae, 28(56), 15–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20067158
Farley, H. (2009). A cultural history of tarot : From entertainment to esotericism. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Farley. (2006). The evolution of the 'mother' in Tarot. Hecate, 32(2), 68–87.
Gerstler, A. (1994). Kim Abeles. www.artforum.com. https://www.artforum.com/print/reviews/199401/kim-abeles-54441
Grimoire. (2007). In U. McGovern (Ed.), Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. Chambers Harrap. Credo Reference: https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/chambun/grimoire/0?institutionId=1845
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. (2007). In U. McGovern (Ed.), Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. Chambers Harrap. Credo Reference: https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/chambun/hermetic_order_of_the_golden_dawn/0?institutionId=1845
Hundley, J., Fiebig, J., & Kroll, M. (2020). Tarot. Taschen.
Maille, P. (2021). The Cards: The Evolution and Power of Tarot.
Parkinson, N. (2013). The Colour Reference Library, Royal College of Art, London. Journal of Design History. https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/ept004
Richman-Abdou, K. (2020). The spellbinding history of tarot cards, from a mainstream card game to a magical ritual. My Modern Met. https://mymodernmet.com/history-of-tarot-cards/
Roya, W. (2019). Debunking common myths about playing cards - Tarot & China. PlayingCardDecks.com. https://playingcarddecks.com/blogs/all-in/debunking-common-myths-about-playing-cards-tarot-cards
Schechter. (2020). Tarot's Italian Roots: For Devotees Of This 600-Year-Old Esoteric Art, A Trip To Milan Is In The Cards. National Geographic, 237(2), 34.
Schneider, M. (2015, February 24). Edward Gorey’s ‘anxious, irritable’ tarot card set is predictably perfect. DangerousMinds. https://dangerousminds.net/comments/edward\_goreys\_tarot\_card\_set
tarot. (2007). In U. McGovern (Ed.), Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. Chambers Harrap. Credo Reference: https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/chambun/tarot/0?institutionId=1845
Waite, A(rthur) E(dward) (1857–1942). (2007). In U. McGovern (Ed.), Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. Chambers Harrap. Credo Reference: https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/chambun/waite_a_rthur_e_dward_1857_1942/0?institutionId=1845
Wintle, S. (2022, July 17). A Moorish Sheet of Playing Cards — The World of Playing Cards. The World of Playing Cards. https://www.wopc.co.uk/spain/moorish/a-moorish-sheet-of-playing-cards
Wintle, S. (2023, July 19). Mamluk Playing Cards — The World of Playing Cards. The World of Playing Cards. https://www.wopc.co.uk/egypt/mamluk
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Representation
16 Nov 2023· Incomplet Design History
The history of graphic design has traditionally skewed toward designers from white hegemony. Where white men (and some women) tend to fill the pages, webpages, and galleries that celebrate design. As humanity evolves, we must realize the value of making space for more diverse voices in the design world. This episode elevates Black designers who have successfully fought against the forces of white supremacy and oppression to take back control of representation. Starting with Abolitionist broadsides, this episode examines how mostly white creators of broadsides, used to support the antislavery movement, were hindered by what we now call the “White Savior Complex” and that the tone of abolitionist imagery and vocabulary was marked by the perceived superiority of the white Northern audience. Next, we look to the famous “I AM A MAN” protest signs of the Civil Rights marches. These protest signs have endured and evolved into modern iterations as a piece of living history highlighting the fight for racial equality which continues to be an inspiration for art and design practices today. The episode also takes a deep dive into the life and work of Archie Boston. Archie Boston is a graphic designer known for creating subversive, self-aware work in the advertising and design industry. The genius of his designs is that he often appropriates and retrofits racist imagery, similar to how Black vernacular has reclaimed certain racial slurs. Rounding out the discussion is a survey of current design collectives and groups of professional creatives such as the Design Justice Network. This episode discovers insightful parallels between Black representation in the Abolition era and today, clearly demonstrating that the best advocates for Black freedom and equality are Black people. Graphic design in the hands of Black activists becomes a powerful force for positive change and strengthening communities.
TIMELINE - ARCHIE BOSTON
1943 – b Clewiston, Florida
1961 – started attending Chouinard Art Institute
1964 – interned at Carson/Roberts
1965 – worked at Hixson And Jorgensen Advertising
1966 – became art director at Botsford Ketchum
1967 – started Boston & Boston Design with his brother Bradford
1969 – left Boston & Boston and rejoined Botsford Ketchum
1973 – started Archie Boston Design
1977 – received master’s degree from the University of Southern California
1977 – started lecturing at California State University Long Beach (CSULB)
2001 – published Fly in the Buttermilk: Memoirs of an African American in Advertising Design & Design Education
2009 – published Lil' Colored Rascals in the Sunshine City
TIMELINE - BLACK DESIGNERS FIGHTING AGAINST PREJUDICE AND SYSTEMIC OPPRESSION
1830s – Abolitionist Broadsides, weaponized advocating to free slaves
1900 – WEB Du Bois and Black Data, Infographic Activism
1963 – March on Washington protest signs.
1966 – Boston and Boston advertisements, “Ku Klux Klan”, “For Sale”
1968 – I AM A MAN, Memphis Sanitation Strike
1980s – Archie Boston Graphic Design, “I don’t want to marry your daughter”
2016/2017 – Martin Typeface designed by Tré Seals inspired by I AM A MAN, Memphis Sanitation Strike posters
2021 – Black lives matter protest posters
REFERENCES
Archie Boston Graphic Design files. (n.d.). Online Archive of California. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8183dtf/
Archie Boston papers, 1963-2018 and undated - Archives & Manuscripts at Duke University Libraries. (n.d.). David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/bostonarchie
Barrett, L. (2014, February 12). “Am I not a man and a brother?” : The political power of the image. The Black Atlantic. https://sites.duke.edu/blackatlantic/2014/02/10/am-i-not-a-man-and-a-brother-the-political-power-of-the-image/
Barry, N. (2022, January 4). Project 3, Phase 1: - Nouria Barry - Medium. Medium. https://medium.com/@nouriabarry/project-3-phase-1-e6fe0757b57b
Black Disabled Lives Matter Riso Poster with Stickers Pack Bundle — jenwhitejohnson.com. (n.d.). https://jenwhitejohnson.com/Black-Disabled-Lives-Matter-Riso-Poster-with-Stickers-Pack-Bundle
Boston, A. (2001). Fly in the buttermilk: Memoirs of an African American in Advertising, Design & Design Education.
Boston, A. (2009). Lil’ colored rascals in the Sunshine city.
Daniel, J. (2015, February 18). Four Corners – an interview with Archie Boston. Design Week. https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/september-2013/four-corners-an-interview-with-archie-boston/
Epplett, A. (2022). Abolitionist Broadsides and Anti-Slavery Imagery — Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture. Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture. https://cmsmc.org/publications/abolitionist-and-anti-slavery-imagery
Frederick Douglass Project: In the Classroom: the Abolitionist Movement Packet | RBSCP. (n.d.). https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2890
Gaiter, C. (n.d.). Strikethrough: Typography Messages of Protest for Civil Rights. https://archive.bipocdesignhistory.com/. https://archive.bipocdesignhistory.com/ST-General
Hayes, J. (2021). Africobra: Messages to the people.
Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography (HMCT). (2020, October 21). Archie Boston lecture [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe5EVDoySwc
Jan. 6, 1832: New England Anti-Slavery Society founded - Zinn Education Project. (2023, January 18). Zinn Education Project. https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/anti-slavery-society/
McDonald, A. (2019, September 12). New Exhibit: “No One Can Suppress Archie Boston” - The Devil’s Tale. Duke University Libraries. https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2019/09/12/new-exhibit-no-one-can-suppress-archie-boston/
Munro, S. (2021, July 27) Zoom Interview Archie Boston and the Author.
Rapp, A. (September 1, 2008). "Archie Boston's Design Journey". AIGA. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
Reckdahl, K., & Rabut, A. (2020, March 12). This New Orleans artist challenges the way people see things. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/arts/bmike-artist-new-orleans.html
Toppins, A. (2020, August 18). Beyond the Bauhaus: I AM A MAN. AIGA Design Educators Community. https://educators.aiga.org/beyond-the-bauhaus-i-am-a-man/
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George Herriman & Krazy Kat
9 Nov 2023· Incomplet Design History
George Herriman was a cartoonist, illustrator, and pioneer of the cartoon comics genre, and is perhaps most known for his long-running and wildly popular comic strip Krazy Kat. Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, and John Jacob Astor, a wealthy business tycoon, were some of the famous fans of Herriman’s comics. Astor went so far as to name his dog Ignatz for the mouse that was Krazy Kat’s constant companion. Herriman’s work was not only popular but also influential and was said to have inspired cartoonists Patrick McDonnell, the creator of the strip Mutts, and Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes. There are even rumors that Walt Disney was inspired by Krazy Kat in his creation of Mickey Mouse, and visual similarities between the two characters are striking. Krazy Kat wasn’t just a goofy comic strip as it also provided social commentary containing themes of spirituality, surrealism, philosophy, literary allegories, the study of phrenology, as well as veiled commentary on racism. Although subtle, his allegories about racism reflect his opinion on the absurdity of social, economic, and political discrimination based on skin color. Many of the storylines in Krazy Kat were in fact hidden reflections of the artist’s own struggles, as a Creole man of mixed-race heritage, passing for white even at the time of his death. Herriman knew the consequences that would ensue if anyone found out about his racial ancestry, he intended his secret to die with him and not even his own daughters knew.
TIMELINE
1880 – b New Orleans, Louisiana
1890 – Herriman and family moved from Louisiana to LA; likely begins passing as white
1892 – Attended St. Vincent's Collegiate course
1896 – 16, Herriman joined the St. Vincent Lyceum; Excelled at Honors English, penmanship, geography, languages
1897 – Herriman worked at the first newspaper The Los Angeles Herald at 17 years old; Made first illustrations there.
1901 – Herriman first meets William Randolph Hearst & works for Evening Journal New York American.
1902 – Herriman married Mabel Lillian Bridge
1901-1922 – Herriman moved across the country working for multiple printing agencies
1911 – Krazy Kat & Ignatz's 1st official appearance under The Dingbat Family comics.
1913 – Krazy Kat finally is a stand-alone comic strip for The Evening Journal.
1922 – Permanent residence in LA under different papers for William Randolph Hearst from 1922 to his death.
1944 – died in his sleep at the age of 64
1971 – Herriman’s racial identity is discovered by Arthur Berger
REFERENCES
Bellot, G. (2017, January 19). The gender fluidity of Krazy Kat. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-gender-fluidity-of-krazy-kat
Fikes, R. (2021, January 19). George Joseph Herriman (1880-1944) https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/herriman-george-joseph-1880-1944/
Tisserand, M. (2016). Krazy: George Herriman, A life black and white. HarperCollinsPublishers
Walker, T. (2020, February 20). Influential comic artist George Herriman. The Dream Foundry. https://dreamfoundry.org/2020/02/14/influential-comic-artist-george-herriman/
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T.C. Cannon
2 Nov 2023· Incomplet Design History
An indigenous cowboy-artist from small-town Oklahoma, Tommy Wayne Cannon was born to Caddo and Kiowa parents in the Fall of 1946. Growing up he attended school in Gracemont and took an interest in the arts. As an adolescent, Cannon was self-taught in the arts and entered his works in regional art competitions through the Southern Plains Indian Museum. His success in these competitions, as well as his proficiency in multiple mediums, won him a scholarship to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was here that Cannon’s passion for art was met with an environment of tools and people that allowed for further exploration and refinement of his skills. In school, Cannon adopted his moniker “T. C.” Cannon, which is how he would be known professionally once his career began. The IAIA was not accredited as a College at the time, so Cannon enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute but was disappointed in the lack of community he had grown accustomed to at the IAIA. He dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, serving in combat in the late-stage offensives of the Vietnam War. Upon returning he attended Central State University (now UCO) in Edmond, Oklahoma where he met his wife, Barbara. Upon graduation, he produced work for a showcase alongside one of his IAIA mentors that toured the US and Europe. In preparation for his next showcase, solo at the Arbach Gallery in NYC, Cannon spent six years in his studio creating a large body of work. Tragically, just a few months prior to his showcase in May of 1978, Cannon was killed in a car accident in Santa Fe. He was only 31 years old.
TIMELINE
1946 — Born in Lawton Oklahoma
1961 — Age of 15, sold his first works to the Southern Plains Indian Museum
1964 — Enrolled in the Institute of American Indian Arts
1965 — The Voting Rights Act assured Native Americans right to vote
1967 — Begins tour of Vietnam under the 101st Airborne; While away, Rosemary Ellison included him in a traveling exhibition
1968 — Returns from war
1972 — Finishes his degree at Central State University in Edmond, Oklahoma, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
1972 — Included in, and toured with, a Smithsonian exhibit. Over the next six years he would go on to produce a large body of work in anticipation of his solo showcase.
1975 — Became Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth.
1978 — Died in a car crash in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Aged 31 years old.
1978 — His showcase is posthumously opened at the Arbach Gallery in New York
1988 — Inducted into the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians
REFERENCES

101st Airborne Division - Army Unit Directory. (n.d.). Together We Served. https://army.togetherweserved.com/army/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=PublicUnit&type=Unit&ID=231#membersinthisunit
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) :: FORT CAMPBELL. (n.d.). US Army. https://home.army.mil/campbell/index.php/101st
Action Painting & Gestural Painting | IAIA - Action/Abstraction Redefined. (n.d.). IAIA - Action/Abstraction Redefined. https://abstraction.iaia.edu/exhibition/action-gestural/?page=3
Color Field Painting movement Overview. (n.d.). The Art Story. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/color-field-painting/
Fauntleroy, G. (2018, July 16). Perspective: T.C. Cannon [1946–1978]. Western Art & Architecture. https://westernartandarchitecture.com/august-september-2018/perspective-t-c-cannon-1946-1978
Fritz Scholder | Biography. (n.d.). Fritz Scholder official Website. http://www.fritzscholder.com/biography.php
Kapplow, H., & Kapplow, H. (2018). The Bold Yet Too-Brief Art Career of T.C. Cannon. Hyperallergic. https://hyperallergic.com/446024/tc-cannon-peabody-essex-museum/
Krutak, L. (2018, January 23). Treasures Of The Iacb: T.C. Cannon, Who Shot The Arrow, Who Killed The Sparrow (1970). U.S. Department of The Interior. https://www.doi.gov/iacb/treasures-iacb-tc-cannon-who-shot-arrow-who-killed-sparrow-1970
Levy, M. (n.d.). TC Cannon. Medic in the Green Time. http://medicinthegreentime.com/tc-cannon/
Making History: Celebrating 60 years of IAIA and 50 years of MOCNA. (2022). Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). https://iaia.edu/making-history-celebrating-60-years-of-iaia-and-50-years-of-mocna/
New Mexico Red : T. C. Cannon : Color Field Paintings | IAIA - Action/Abstraction Redefined. (n.d.). IAIA - Action/Abstraction Redefined. https://abstraction.iaia.edu/exhibition/color-field/detail.php?artwork=t-c-cannon--new-mexico-red-1967
On Drinking Beer In Vietnam in 1967 , Edition 6-100 | Cannon, T. C. (Caddo/Kiowa). (n.d.). New Mexico Digital Collections. https://nmdigital.unm.edu/digital/collection/mcna/id/1154/
Pallant, C. (2015, March 4). The Essence of Forever. This Land Press - Made by You and Me. https://thislandpress.com/2015/03/04/the-essence-of-forever/
Purvis, R. (n.d.). SFAI and IAIA. ORBITS. https://matrix277.org/Object-61
Schjeldahl, P. (2019, April 8). T. C. Cannon’s Blazing Promise. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/15/t-c-cannons-blazing-promise-peter-schjeldahl
T.C. Cannon. (n.d.). Pierson Gallery, American Fine Art & Antiques – Tulsa, OK. https://piersongallery.com/t-c-cannon.html
TC Cannon. (n.d.). Windsor Betts. https://windsorbetts.com/artist/tc-cannon
T.C Cannon: At The Edge of America | PEM Native American Art. (n.d.). PEM | Peabody Essex Musuem. https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/t-c-cannon-at-the-edge-of-america
Watson, M. J. (n.d.). Cannon, Tommy Wayne. Oklahoma Historical Society | OHS. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=CA044
Waiting for the Bus (Anadarko Princess) by T.C. Cannon.
(n.d.). Oklahoma Arts Council.
https://www.arts.ok.gov/art_at_the_capitol/State_Art_Collection.php?c=sac&awid=177
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Women in Book Design
26 Oct 2023· Incomplet Design History
Women have long been a part of bookmaking, design, and publishing, dating as far back as handmade illuminated manuscripts, created before the printing press. In the 18th and 19th centuries, women were known to run some very successful book binderies, including Jane Steel, Katherine Waghorn, Jane Aitken, and Lorina Watkins. Most often women took over when their husbands or fathers died. Other women supported their husbands' work by setting type, such as Bertha Goudy, wife of noted book and type designer Frederic Goudy. Women also became very successful book designers following the era of book reform known as the Arts & Crafts period which resulted in the Private Press Movement. The Private Press movement was concerned with making high-quality books that were beautiful expressions of book design and a departure from the low-quality mass-produced books emerging from the industrial age and the Victorian era. Women were gaining entry into the design world as part of the Arts & Crafts movement, schools associated with the movement were cropping up all over Europe and in the United States as well, and women were enrolling in these schools in numbers not seen before. Historians note the high number of women who matriculated from the Glasgow Arts & Crafts school surpassed the number of men. As such it makes sense that we would find women designers in the history of the Private Press movement. Designers such as Margaret Armstrong and Amy Sacker designed book covers and interior pages during the era. Primarily ignored in many histories of art and design is the history of bookbinding. However, this history is also tied to the Arts & Crafts and the Private Press movement, bookbinding was another avenue of paid labor for women.
TIMELINE
10th Century – Ende, Spanish Illuminator of Manuscripts signs her work
18th Century – women begin owning and operating bookbinderies; women and girls were also employed in large numbers folding and stitching pages
1839 – Jane Burden (Morris), born
1859 – Jane Burden (Morris), marries William Morris
1863 – Alice Cordelia Morse, born
1867 – Margaret Armstrong, born
1867 – Amy Sacker, born
1879 – Alice Cordelia Morse attends the Cooper Union (segregated school for girls)
1880-1890 – Designing book covers becomes a professional practice
1885-1889 – Alice Cordelia Morse works for Tiffany & Co. designing stained glass; in 1889 she leaves Tiffany to begin a freelance career designing book covers
1889 – Jane Burden (Morris) designed the cover for Wilfrid Scawen Blunt’s In Vinculis
1890 – Armstrong’s first book cover design was for Sweet William by Marguerite Bouvet
1890-1940 – Margaret Armstrong's career as a book designer, produced some 270 book designs
1891 – Kelmscott Press founded by William Morris and Emery Walker
1901 – Amy Sacker received awarded a medal for designs at the Pan-American exposition
1893 – Morse chaired the Sub-Committee on Book-Covers, Wood Engraving, and Illustration of the Board of Women Managers for the Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition
1897 – Society of Arts & Crafts in Boston founded, active members included Amy Sacker, Sarah Wyman Whitman, Julia DeWolf Addison, and Mary Crease Sears
1910 – Women begin to dominate the modern decorative movement
1914 – Jane Burden (Morris), dies
1918 – Le Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant, announce a hierarchy of art and craft with women and craft at the bottom
1923 – Alice Cordelia Morse donates her book cover designs to the Metropolitan Museum Library
1937 – Bookmaking on the Distaff Side, a book published by women printers
1944 – Margaret Armstrong, dies
1961 – Alice Cordelia Morse, dies
1965 – Amy Sacker, dies
WOMEN IN BOOK DESIGN & BOOKBINDING HISTORY
This should not be considered a complete list of women in book design & bookbinding history, this is just a list of names uncovered for the research of this episode and intended to show that there is a wealth of names that could be included in histories of graphic design. This list focuses on women from the past, there is also a wealth of women designers who have worked more recently in book design, this too could become a future episode.
Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842-1904)Helena de Kay (1848-1916)Katherine Adams (1862-1952)Alice Cordelia Morse (1863 – 1961)Margaret Armstrong (1867–1944)Elizabeth Corbet Yeats (1868-1940)Bertha Goudy (1869-1935)Bertha Stuart (1869-1953)Anna Simons (1871-1951)Amy Sacker (1872-1965)Annie French (1872-1965)Emma Redington Lee Thayer (1874-1973)Jessie Marion King (1875-1949)Anna Sipkena (1877-1933)Vanessa Bell (1879-1961)Magdalena Koll (1879-1962?)Wilhelmina Drupsteen (1880-1966)Marion Louise Peabody (1881-1937)Olga Rosanowa (1886-1918)Rie Cramer (1887-1977)Alice Greinwald-Clarus (1887-1925)Ljubow Popowa (1889-1924)Jo Daemen (1891-1944)Galina Tschitschagowa/Chichagowa (1891-1967)Olga Tschitschagowa/Chichagowa (1892-1956)Antonia Sofronowa (1892-1966)Nina Brodinsky (1892-1978)Olga Brodinsky (unknown, sister to Nina Brodinsky)Freda Lingstrom (1893-1989)Lou Loeber (1894-1983)Vavara Stepanova (1894-1958)Amy Richards (1896 - 1918)Eva Aschoff (1899-1969)Erika Giovanna Klien (1900-1957)Margarete Leins (1900-1995)Fré (Frederika Cohen (1903-1943)Grete Stern (1904-1999)Louise E. Jefferson (1908-2002)Jane Bissell Grabhorn (1911-1973)Muriel Cooper (1925 -1994)Elaine Lustig Cohen (1927-2016)Bea Feitler (1938-1982)REFERENCES
Battershill, C. (2022). Women and Letterpress Printing 1920-2020: Gendered Impressions. Cambridge University Press.
Breuer, G., & Meer, J. (2012). Women in Graphic Design 1890-2012. Jovis Verlag.
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Underground Comix Part 2
19 Oct 2023· Incomplet Design History
If it seems like the underground comix scene was a raucous and raunchy boys club, that’s fairly accurate. However, there were plenty of women artists who reacted against the sexist depictions of women in comix, of which there was plenty. Their complaints about how women were being portrayed was seen to be just more censorship heaped on the male comix artists. Rather than just be quiet and go away, women like Trina Robbins, Willy Mendes, Linda Barry, Mary Fleener, and many others started drawing, bringing their own voices into the underground comix scene. Their experience in comix wasn’t all smooth sailing either. The women creating comix also insisted on absolute artistic freedom and the space to explore difficult topics, but it came at a price just like it did for the male comix artists. Undercover police, raids, and lawsuits while not necessarily the norm, seemed to be always looming. While some comix titles managed to run longer than others, the heyday of comix was all but over by the mid 1970s. However, the influence of underground comix is evident in the comics and graphic novels being published today that are willing to have serious discussions about equally serious topics.
TIMELINE
1880s – Comics began publication in American newspapers
1895 – The Yellow Kid by Richard Outcault first published
1914 – Krazy Kat by Geroge Herriman first published
1920s – Tijuana Bibles began to be published
1930s – Comic book began in America
1931 – Alice Schenker (born Alice Olsen) born in Racine, WI
1933 – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman
1936-1939 – The comic magazine format became popular
1936 – Victor Moscoso born in Spain
1937 – Frank Stack born in Houston, TX
1938 – Gary Arlington born in San Jose, CA
1938 – Trina Robbins born in Brooklyn, NY
1939 – “She Saw The World’s Fair” published by Wesley Morse
1939 – Harvey Pekar born in Cleveland, OH
1939 – Richard “Grass” Green born in Fort Wayne, IN
1940-1950s – Comic burnings became common in America
1940 – Gilbert Shelton born in Houston, TX
1940 – Manuel “Spain” Reodriguez born in Buffalo, NY
1941 – Vaughn Bodé born in Utica, NY
1941 – S. Clay Wilson (Steven Clay Wilson) born in Lincoln, Nebraska
1941 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson born in Texas
1942 – Rand Holmes born in Nova Scotia
1942 – Dan O’Neil born
1943 – Joel Beck born in Ross, CA
1943 – Robert Williaams born in Los Angeles, CA
1944 – George Herriman dies
1944 – Howard Cruse is born in Birmingham, AL
1943 – Robert Crumb born in Philadelphia, PA
1944 – Rick Griffin born in California
1944 – Bill Griffith born
1944 – Kim Deitch born in Los Angeles, CA
1944 – Max Gaines establishes Educational Comics
1944 – Mervyn “Skip” Williamson born in San Antonio, TX
1945 – Lee Mars born
1947 – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sued in NY Supreme Court to regain their rights to Superman; they lose the case and their jobs at DC Comics
1947 – Jay Lynch born in Orange, NJ
1947 – Max Gaines dies in a boat crash; son William Gaines takes over EC Comics
1948 – Art Spiegelman born in Stockholm, Sweden
1948 – Barbara “Willy” Mendes born
1948 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb born in Long Beach, NY
1949 – Marry Wings born Mary Geller in Chicago, IL
1950s – Student Press Movement starts
1950 – Educational Comics becomes Entertaining Comics under William Gaines
1950 – Gary Panter born in Durant, OK
1951 – Mary Fleener born
1952-1956 – Harvey Kurtzman is the editor of MAD Magazine
1953 – Roberta Gregory born in Los Angeles, CA
1954 – “Seduction of the Innocent” by psychiatrist Frederick Werthan published
1954 – Comics Code Authority established
1954 – Victor Moscoso starts at Cooper Union Art School in Manhattan
1955 – William Gaines starts humor magazine, MAD Magazine
1955 – Charles Burns born
1956 – After being cited by the CCA, EC comics diverts resources to new title MAD Magazine
1956 – Ralph Bakshi starts animating at Terrytoons
1956 – Alice and Don Schenker marry
1956 – Lynda Barry born in Richland Center, WI
1957 – Harvey Kurtzmaan’s Trump magazine published
1957 – Peter Baagge born in New York
1957-1960 – Spain Rodriguez studies at Silvermine Guild School of Art in New Canaan, CT
1958 – Moe Moskowitz moves to Bay Are and opens bookstore
1958 – Robert Crumb and his brother Charles publish satire magazine “Foo”
1958-1962 – Frank Stack and Gilbert Shelton edit University of Texas at Austin’s newspaper, The Texas Ranger
1959 – Victor Moscoso moves to San Francisco, CA
1960s – Underground comix movement started
1960 – MAD Magazine had circulation of 1.4 million
1960 – Rick Griffin met filmmaker John Severson at screening of Surf Fever movie
1960 – Harvey Kurtzman starts Help! Magazine
1960 – Phoebe Gloeckner born in Philadelphia, PA
1960 – Alison Bechdel born in Beech Creek, PA
1961 – Skip Williamson sells first comic to Help! Magazine
1961 – Daniel Clowes born in Chicaago, IL
1963 – In mainstream comics, Dell, DC and Marvel were the major publishers
1963 – Rick Griffin starts working at Surfer Magazine as a cartoonist, debuting “Murphy”
1963 – Rick Griffin is seriously injured as a passenger in a drunk driving accident
1963 – Spain Rodriguez starts work at the Western Electric Company Plant
1963 – Jay Lynch moves to Chicago to become a cartoonist
1956 – America gets involved in the Vietnam War
1963 – March On Washington
1963 – President John F. Kennedy assassinated
1963 – Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” is published
1964 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson publishes “God Nose”
1964 – After being promoted to director of cartoons at Terrytown, Ralph Bakshi left to run animation at Paramount Pictures
1962 – Frank Stack publishes “The Adventures of Jesus”
1962 – Harvey Pekar and Robert Crumb meet in Cleveland, OH and become friends and collaborators
1965 – Birth of the Underground Press
1965 – Rick Griffin picks up “Murphy” comics in Surfer after a pause
1965 – Schenkers launch Print Mint inside of Moskowitz’s bookstore
1965 – Spain Rodriguez spends summer in NYC creating cartoons for The Militant paper and joined anarchist group Resurgence Youth Movement
1965 – Robert Williams starts working as Art Director for Ed “Big Daddy” Roth
1965 – Robert Crumb starts taking LSD
1965 – Julie Doucet born in Saint-Lambert Quebec, Canada
1965-1966 – Mario Savia’s Free Speech Movement impacts Berkely’s campus
1966 – After graduating from San Francisco Art Institute, Victor Moscoso joins faculty
1966 – Art Spiegelman is Topps Bubblegum’s star artist
1966 – Spain Rodriguez has his first cover in paper East Village Other
1966 – Trina Robbins moved back to NYC from LA and worked for East Village Other as advisor and illustrator
1966 – Rick Griffin joins Jook Savages and designs posters for their art shows in San Francisco
1966 – Kim Deitch moves to NYC and gets “Sunshine Girl” published in The East Village Other
1966 – Joel Beck publishes “Lenny of Laredo”, “Marching Marvin” and “The Profit”
1966 – Print Mint publishes their first comix, a reprint of Beck’s “Lenny of Laredo”
1966 – NOW, of the National Organization for Women, was formed
1966 – Underground Press Syndicate established by East Village Other editor Walter Bowart
1966 – Weekly & monthly underground papers regularly publish Underground Comix
1967 – Robert Crumb leaves Cleveland, OH, his job at Americana Greetings, and wife Dana to move to San Francisco, CA
1967 – Gilbert Shelton’s “Wonder Wart Hog” published by Pete Millar
1967 – Victor Moscoso and RIck Griffin begin to collaborate on posters and Zap Comics covers
1967 – Rick Griffin commissioned for “Pow-Wow, a Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In” held in Golden Gate Park’s polo grounds
1967 – Art Spiegelman comes up with the idea for Wacky Packs working for Topps Bubblegum
1967 – “Summer of Love” takes place in San Francisco for 9 months
1967 – Bijou Funnies, initially The Chicago Mirror, founded by Skip WIlliamson and Jay Lynch in Chigaco, IL
1967 – Art Spiegelman moves to San Francisco, CA
1967 – “Cavalier” Magazine serializes Robert Crumb’s “Fritz the Cat”
1967 – First drawings of Gilbert Shelton’s The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers appear on a flier for short student film “The Texas Hippies March on the Capitol”
1967-1973 – Jay Lynch’s “‘Nard ‘n’ Pat” comic publication years
1968 – Rand Holmes moves to Vancouver, Canada and works for Georgia Straight a weekly underground tabloid and starts “The Adventures of Harold Hedd”
1968 – S. Clay Wilson moves to San Francisco and becomes friends with Robert Crumb, starts to contribute to Zap Comics
1968 – First issue of Zap Comix by Robert Crumb released
1968 – “Keep on Truckin’” one page comix published in Zap Comix by Robert Crumb
1968 – Robert Crumb sends for his wife Dana to join him in San Francisco
1968 – Robert Crumb first sees S. Clay Wilson’s comix work
1968 – Gary Arlington opens his comic book store in the Mission District in San Francisco, CA
1968 – Spain Rodriguez’s cover for Feb 2nd issue of East Village Other creates legal issues over depiction of a sexual act
1968 – Robert Crumb publishes “Zap”
1968 – Skip Williamson’s “Snappy Sammy Smoot (1968-1996) makes its debut in Bijou Funnies
1968 – Robert William’s controversial painting “Appetite for Destruction” is used as album art for the Guns ‘N’ Roses album of the same name
1968 – “Yellow Dog” comix anthology started by Joel Beck and John Thompson
1968-1973 – Skip Williamson’s Sammy Smoot character is played by Carl Reiner on the comedy TV show “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In”
1968-1975 – Considered the boom years of Underground Comix
1968 – Apex Novelties ran by Don Donaahue starts publishing comix
1968 – US Government outlaws LSD
1968 – Robert Crumb starts “Snatch Comix” published by Apex Novelties
1969 – Neil Armstrong lands on the moon
1969-1970 – “Odd Bodkins” by Dan O’Neil is published in the San Francisco Oracle
1969 – Whitney Museum Exhibition “Human Concern/Personal Torment: The Grotesque in American Art” showed some of Robert Crumb’s work
1969 – Roger Brand at the first comic convention panel for Underground Comix artists, declined to invite Trina Robbins
1969 – Rip Off Press founded by Gilbert Shelton, Jack “Jaxon” Jackson, Dave Moriarty and Fred Todd
1969 – Kim Deitch and Trinaa Robbins start dating
1969 – Bill Griffith and Jay Kinney meet and start idea for “Young Lust”
1969 – Vaughn Bode briefly edits “Gothic Blimp Works”; Kim Deitch begins to edit “Gothic Blimp Works”
1969 – Print Mint is raided by police over “Zap Comix” fourth issue (featured “Joe Blow” incest comic by Robert Crumb)
1969 – Schenkers arrested over violation of California Penal Code Section 311.2 (illegal distribution of pornography) due to publishing “Zap Comics” fourth issue
1969 – S. Clay Wilson contributes to “Jiz Comics” under pseudonym Howard Crankwood
1970s – Graphic Novel format began
1970s –Jack “Jaxon” Jackson creates historical narrative comix like “Comanche Moon”, “Los Tejanos”
1970 – Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s shop closes and Robert Williams ends his tenure as Art Director
1970 – Chris Kirkpatrick, owner of New Yorker Book Store that sold Zap Comix, convicted
1970 – Bill Griffith moves to San Francisco, CA
1970 – Trina Robbins and Kim Deitch’s daughter Casey born
1970 – “It Ain’t Me Babe” the first women’s liberation newspaper, was published in Berkley
1970 – Kitchen Sink Press ran by Denis Kitchen founded
1970 – “Skull” published by Rip Off Press
1970 – Many Underground Comix artists met and created The Cartoon Workers Union
1970 – Robert William released collected “Coochy Cooty Men’s Comics” published by Print Mint
1970 – Last Gasp Eco Funnies ran by Ron Turner founded
1970 – “Young Lust” by Bill Griffith and Jaay Kinney published by Company & Sons
1970 – Robert Crumb meets with Ralph Bakshi and Steve Kraantz about making a movie out of his popular character Fritz the Cat
1970 – “Abortion Eve” comic produced by Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevely
1970 – Spain Rodriguez releases “Zodiac Mindwarp” (East Village Other) and “Subert” (Rip Off Press)
1970 – Kim Deitch and Trina Robbins end their relationship
1971 – Gilbert Shelton’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers first released
1971 – Roberta Gregory attend CSU Long Beach and contributes “Feminist Funnies” to their newspaper
1971 – S. Clay Wilson contributes to “Bent” (Print Mint)
1971 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb grates with degree in fine art from University of Arizona
1971 – “Ms Magazine” founded by Gloria Steinem and art directed by Bea Feitler
1971 – Bill Griffith’s “Zippy the Pinhead” debuts in Real Pulp Comics #1 by Print Mint
1971 – Dan O’Neil and the Air Pirates (Bobby London, Shary Flenniken, Gary Hallgren, and Ted Richards) create “Air Pirate Funnies” published by Last Gasp
1971 – Lee Marr’s “Pudge” & “Girl Blimp” published
1971 – Roberta Gregory sells her first comic to “Wimmen’s Comix”
1971 – Disney filed suit in Northern District of California against the comic artists from the “Air Pirate Funnies”
1971 – Rip Off Press moves from Mowry’s Opera House to 17th Street
1971 – After moving back to NYC, Art Spiegelman once again returns to San Francisco, CA
1972 – “The Adventures of Harold Hedd” released in first collected volume, the second volume out the following year
1972 – “Tits ‘n’ Clits” All women comix anthology by Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevely published first issue (Nanny Goat Productions)
1972 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb has comix debut in “Wimmen’s Comix” #1 with “Goldie a Neurotic Woman”
1972 – Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb meet at a San Francisco party
1972 – “Fritz the Cat” movie directed by Ralph Bakshi released
1972 – 2 all women’s comix anthologies started “Wimmen’s Comix” (Trina Robbins, Last Gasp) and “Tit’s & Clits” (Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevelyl, Nanny Goat Productions)
1972 – Disney granted it’s injunction against Dan O’Neil and the other comic artists from “Air Pirate Funnies”; found guilty of copyright infringement and trade disparagement
1972 – “Bizzare Sex” started published by Denis Kitchen of Kitchen Sink Press
1972 – Print Mint hits 1 million issues of “Zap Comix” sold
1973 – Rand Holmes travels to San Francisco, CA to get the second volume of “The Adventures of Harold Hedd” published by Last Gasp
1973 – Bill Griffith’s “A Sour Look at the Comix Scene, or Out of the Inkwell and Into the Toilet” runs in The San Francisco Phoenix
1973 – Undercover cop buys first issue of “Tits ‘n’ Clits” at San Francisco Bookstore Fahrenheit 451; owners charged with selling pornography and Farmer and Cheverly are forced to hide from law enforcement for 2 years
1973 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb moves onto Robert Crumb’s farm property as his girlfriend
1973 – “Come Out Comix” by Mary Wings self-published
1973 – Year of the Crash of Comix
1973 – Rick Griffin is a born again Christian
1973 – Gilbert Shelton’s The Fabulous Furry Freak Brother’s comics had sold 400,000 copies; eventually selling 45 million copies to date in 16 different languages
1972 – Haavery Pekar’s first story “Brilliant American Maniacs Series No. 1 Crazy Ed” published in “People’s Comics” with art by Robert Crumb
1972 – Justin Green publishes “Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary”
1972 – Art Spiegelman publishes first 3 pages of Maus
1973 –Supreme Court’s Miller v. California decision rules that vendors can be jailed and retroactively fined for selling obscene materials, cannot plead ignorance to contents
1974 – Jay Lynch has a one week tenure as editor at Hustler Magazine
1974 – Lynda Barry attends Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA
1974 – Art Spiegelman self publishes “Ace Hole” and “Midget Detective”
1974 – Marvel releases “Comix Book”
1974 – S. Clay Wilson contributes to “Pork” (Co-Op Press)
1974 – “The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat” directed by Ralph Bakshi released
1975 – The Schenkers working partnership with Bob and Peggy Rita dissolves and Print Mint slows down production and distribution
1975 – “Felch Comics” by Keith Green
1975 – Vietnam War ends, American troops withdraw from Saigon
1975 – Victor Moscoso starts attending Yale
1975 – Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman create “Arcade” comix anthology
1975 – Vaughn Bodé dies at age 33
1976 – Harvey Pekar self publishes “How I Quit Collecting Records and Put Out a Comic Book with the Money I Saved” with art by Robert Crumb
1976 – “Wet Satin” erotic satirical all-women’s comics anthology published by Kitchen Sink Press
1976 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb moves off of the Crumb farm commune
1976 – Mary Wing’s “Dyke Shorts” is self-published
1976 – Roberta Gregory creates “Dynamite Damsels” (Self-published)
1976 – Copyright Act becomes law
1976 – Lee Marrs “The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp” featured the first openly bisexual character in comics
1967 – Larry Fuller creates “Gay Heartthrobs”
1976 – Harvey Pekar’s “American Splendor #1” published
1976 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Diane Noomin start “Twisted Sisters”
1976-1077 – Punk scene emerges
1971 – Howard Cruse’s “Barefootz” first published
1977 – Kitchen Sink Press reprints Joel Becks comics under title “Joel Beck’s Comics & Stories”
1977 – Gary Panter moves to Los Angeles, CA
1977 – S. Clay Wilson releases comix with his most popular character “The Checkered Demon” (Last Gasp)
1977 – Gilbert Shelton’s character Fat Freddy’s cat from “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” gets its own spin off comic
1977 – Robert Crumb divorces Dana
1978 – Gilbert Shelton moves to San Francisco, CA from Austin, TX
1978 – First graphic novel “A Contract With God” by Will Eisner is published by Baronet Press
1978 – Dan O’Neils appeal in the case of Dismney and the Air Pirates does not rule in O’Neil’s favor
1978 – Gilbert Shelton makes “Shakedown Street” album cover for The Grateful Dead
1978 – Paul Mavrides starts to collaborate on “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers”
1979 – Gilbert Shelton and wife/agent Lora move to Europe
1979 – The Supreme Court declines to take Dan O’Neil’s appeal case against Disney
1979 – Robert William publishes “The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams”
1979 – Mary Wings creates drug awareness book “Are Your Highs Getting You Down?” with a California Arts Council Grant
1979 – Denis Kitchen approaches Howaard Cruse about making “Gay Comix”
1979 – Rip Off Press ends
1979 – Art Spiegelman starts to teach at the School of Visual Arts in NY
1980 – First issue of “Gay Comix” (Kitchen SInk Press) released, edited by Howard Cruse
1980 – “Raw” comics anthology created by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly
1980-1991 – Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman serialized
1981 – “Wimmen’s Comix” takes a 6 year hiatus
1981 – Daniel Clowes and his friends create “Psycho Comics”
1981 – Robert Crumb starts comix magazine “Weirdo” published by Last Gasp
1981 – Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb’s daughter Sophie is born; they move to Southern France
1982 – Last issue of “Bizzare Sex” released
1982 – Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez create “Love and Rockets” published by Fantagraphics
1983 – “Dykes to Watch Out For” by Alison Bechdel first published
1984 – Mary Fleener self publishes her first comic “Hoodoo”
1984 – Robert Crumb passes editorship of “Weirdo” to Peter Bagge
1985 – Print Mint, since renamed Reprint Mint, is sold by the Schenkers
1985 – Mary Wings “She Came Too Late” lesbian detective novel published
1985 – Topps Bubbglegum starts Garbage Pail Kids cards
1986 – Doubleday publishes the first of it’s two collected volumes of Harvye Pekar’s “American Splendor” with the next coming out the following year
1986 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson publishes “Illustrated History of Ranching in Texas”
1986 – Peter Bagge resigns as editor at “Weirdo”; Aline Kominsky-Crumb takes over
1987 – Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb marry
1988 – “Dirty Plotte” by Julie Doucet was first self-published
1988 – Roberta Gregory self publishes “Winging It” and “Sheila and the Unicorn”
1989 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackon publishes “Rip Off Pres: The Golden Era #21”
1989 – Daniel Clowes first issue of “Eightball”
1989 – Roberta Gregory moves to Seattle and begins to work at Fantagraphics Books
1990 – Art Spiegelman receives a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on Maus’ second volume
1990 – Peter Bagge first publishes “Hate” (Fantagraaphics)
1991 – American Splendor’s once a year regular release stops with issue fifteen
1991 – Rick Griffin dies after motorcycle accident
1991 – Roberta Gregory’s “Naughty Bits” issue one self published
1991 – “Dirty Plotte” published by Drawn & Quarterly
1991 – Julie Doucet moves to NYC for one year and makes “My New York Diary”
1992 – Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman wins a Pulitzer Prize
1992 – “Wimmen’s Comix” publishes it’s last issue
1993 – Don Schenkers dies
1994 – Robert Williams first published “Juxtapoz Arts & Culture” Magazine
1995 – “Stuck Rubber Baby” by Howard Cruse published
1995 – “Black Hole” by Charles Burns first published by Fantagraphics
1995 – “Crumb” documentary about Robert Crumb by Terry Zwigoff is released
1996 – Mary Fleener’s “Life of the Party” released
1998 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson creates “Lost Cause”
1999 – Joel Beck dies
2001-2003 – Roberta Gregory’s popular character Bitchy Bitch from “Naughty Bits” starred in the animated cartoon “Life’s a Bitch” on Comedy Network (Canada) and Oxygen Network (US)
2001 – Daniel Clowes “Eightball” story “Ghost World” is made into a movie of the same name
2002 – Rand Holmes dies
2002 – Phoebe Gloeckner’s “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” published by Frog Books
2003 – “American Splendor” the award winning movie about Harvey Pekar’s life starring Paul Giamatti is released
2005 – “Black Hole” by Charles Burns released as graphic novel by Fantagraphics
2006 –Jack “Jaxon” Jackson dies
2006 – “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” by Alison Bechdel published
2010 – Harvey Pekar dies
2015 – “Fun Home” the Broadway Musical wins a Tony for best musical
2015 – “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” by Phoebe Glockner made into a movie with the same name
2017 – Skip Williamson and Jay Lynch die within a week and a half of each other
2019 – Howard Cruse dies
2020 – Alice Schnker dies
2021 – Streaming channel Tubi releases 8 episode show “The Freak Brothers” based on Gilbert Shelton’s “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers”
2021 – Spain Rodriguez dies
2021 – S. Clay Wilson dies
2022 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb dies
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Frank, P. (2018, June 19). Mary Wings just wanted an orgasm when she created the First Lesbian Comic Book. HuffPost. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mary-wings-created-first-lesbian-comic-book\_n\_5b23d937e4b0d4fc01fdd783
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Underground Comix Part 1
12 Oct 2023· Incomplet Design History
Comix, spelled with an x at the end instead of c, is a uniquely American movement and brings to mind eccentric, explicit, and subversive comics aimed at an adult audience. Having roots in the explicit Tijuana Bibles of the 1920, the lurid horror comics produced by EC, and the later wackiness of MAD Magazine, Comix creators defied censorship laws and American moral standards to create their unique artistic visions and thrived as a part of the Counterculture movement of the 1960s. In some respects, comix were a reaction against what the artists saw as the over-sanitized mainstream comics that did nothing innovative or interesting. While comix creators came from all over the US, the hotbed for comix innovation happened in San Francisco. Many cite the first issue of Robert Crumb’s anthology “Zap” as the birth of underground comix as a movement and the number of comix grew rapidly after that. The complete artistic freedom comix artists insisted on came at a price as they pushed up against censorship with their themes of sexism, racism, violence, and questionable morality. Comix artists, publishers and the shops selling comix titles faced police raids and lawsuits, some of which lasted for years. Pushing up against censorship (and good taste) comix proved that comics could be more than just superheroes saving the day.
TIMELINE
1880s – Comics began publication in American newspapers
1895 – The Yellow Kid by Richard Outcault first published
1914 – Krazy Kat by Geroge Herriman first published
1920s – Tijuana Bibles began to be published
1930s – Comic book began in America
1931 – Alice Schenker (born Alice Olsen) born in Racine, WI
1933 – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman
1936-1939 – The comic magazine format became popular
1936 – Victor Moscoso born in Spain
1937 – Frank Stack born in Houston, TX
1938 – Gary Arlington born in San Jose, CA
1938 – Trina Robbins born in Brooklyn, NY
1939 – “She Saw The World’s Fair” published by Wesley Morse
1939 – Harvey Pekar born in Cleveland, OH
1939 – Richard “Grass” Green born in Fort Wayne, IN
1940-1950s – Comic burnings became common in America
1940 – Gilbert Shelton born in Houston, TX
1940 – Manuel “Spain” Reodriguez born in Buffalo, NY
1941 – Vaughn Bodé born in Utica, NY
1941 – S. Clay Wilson (Steven Clay Wilson) born in Lincoln, Nebraska
1941 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson born in Texas
1942 – Rand Holmes born in Nova Scotia
1942 – Dan O’Neil born
1943 – Joel Beck born in Ross, CA
1943 – Robert Williaams born in Los Angeles, CA
1944 – George Herriman dies
1944 – Howard Cruse is born in Birmingham, AL
1943 – Robert Crumb born in Philadelphia, PA
1944 – Rick Griffin born in California
1944 – Bill Griffith born
1944 – Kim Deitch born in Los Angeles, CA
1944 – Max Gaines establishes Educational Comics
1944 – Mervyn “Skip” Williamson born in San Antonio, TX
1945 – Lee Mars born
1947 – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sued in NY Supreme Court to regain their rights to Superman; they lose the case and their jobs at DC Comics
1947 – Jay Lynch born in Orange, NJ
1947 – Max Gaines dies in a boat crash; son William Gaines takes over EC Comics
1948 – Art Spiegelman born in Stockholm, Sweden
1948 – Barbara “Willy” Mendes born
1948 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb born in Long Beach, NY
1949 – Marry Wings born Mary Geller in Chicago, IL
1950s – Student Press Movement starts
1950 – Educational Comics becomes Entertaining Comics under William Gaines
1950 – Gary Panter born in Durant, OK
1951 – Mary Fleener born
1952-1956 – Harvey Kurtzman is the editor of MAD Magazine
1953 – Roberta Gregory born in Los Angeles, CA
1954 – “Seduction of the Innocent” by psychiatrist Frederick Werthan published
1954 – Comics Code Authority established
1954 – Victor Moscoso starts at Cooper Union Art School in Manhattan
1955 – William Gaines starts humor magazine, MAD Magazine
1955 – Charles Burns born
1956 – After being cited by the CCA, EC comics diverts resources to new title MAD Magazine
1956 – Ralph Bakshi starts animating at Terrytoons
1956 – Alice and Don Schenker marry
1956 – Lynda Barry born in Richland Center, WI
1957 – Harvey Kurtzmaan’s Trump magazine published
1957 – Peter Baagge born in New York
1957-1960 – Spain Rodriguez studies at Silvermine Guild School of Art in New Canaan, CT
1958 – Moe Moskowitz moves to Bay Are and opens bookstore
1958 – Robert Crumb and his brother Charles publish satire magazine “Foo”
1958-1962 – Frank Stack and Gilbert Shelton edit University of Texas at Austin’s newspaper, The Texas Ranger
1959 – Victor Moscoso moves to San Francisco, CA
1960s – Underground comix movement started
1960 – MAD Magazine had circulation of 1.4 million
1960 – Rick Griffin met filmmaker John Severson at screening of Surf Fever movie
1960 – Harvey Kurtzman starts Help! Magazine
1960 – Phoebe Gloeckner born in Philadelphia, PA
1960 – Alison Bechdel born in Beech Creek, PA
1961 – Skip Williamson sells first comic to Help! Magazine
1961 – Daniel Clowes born in Chicaago, IL
1963 – In mainstream comics, Dell, DC and Marvel were the major publishers
1963 – Rick Griffin starts working at Surfer Magazine as a cartoonist, debuting “Murphy”
1963 – Rick Griffin is seriously injured as a passenger in a drunk driving accident
1963 – Spain Rodriguez starts work at the Western Electric Company Plant
1963 – Jay Lynch moves to Chicago to become a cartoonist
1956 – America gets involved in the Vietnam War
1963 – March On Washington
1963 – President John F. Kennedy assassinated
1963 – Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” is published
1964 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson publishes “God Nose”
1964 – After being promoted to director of cartoons at Terrytown, Ralph Bakshi left to run animation at Paramount Pictures
1962 – Frank Stack publishes “The Adventures of Jesus”
1962 – Harvey Pekar and Robert Crumb meet in Cleveland, OH and become friends and collaborators
1965 – Birth of the Underground Press
1965 – Rick Griffin picks up “Murphy” comics in Surfer after a pause
1965 – Schenkers launch Print Mint inside of Moskowitz’s bookstore
1965 – Spain Rodriguez spends summer in NYC creating cartoons for The Militant paper and joined anarchist group Resurgence Youth Movement
1965 – Robert Williams starts working as Art Director for Ed “Big Daddy” Roth
1965 – Robert Crumb starts taking LSD
1965 – Julie Doucet born in Saint-Lambert Quebec, Canada
1965-1966 – Mario Savia’s Free Speech Movement impacts Berkely’s campus
1966 – After graduating from San Francisco Art Institute, Victor Moscoso joins faculty
1966 – Art Spiegelman is Topps Bubblegum’s star artist
1966 – Spain Rodriguez has his first cover in paper East Village Other
1966 – Trina Robbins moved back to NYC from LA and worked for East Village Other as advisor and illustrator
1966 – Rick Griffin joins Jook Savages and designs posters for their art shows in San Francisco
1966 – Kim Deitch moves to NYC and gets “Sunshine Girl” published in The East Village Other
1966 – Joel Beck publishes “Lenny of Laredo”, “Marching Marvin” and “The Profit”
1966 – Print Mint publishes their first comix, a reprint of Beck’s “Lenny of Laredo”
1966 – NOW, of the National Organization for Women, was formed
1966 – Underground Press Syndicate established by East Village Other editor Walter Bowart
1966 – Weekly & monthly underground papers regularly publish Underground Comix
1967 – Robert Crumb leaves Cleveland, OH, his job at Americana Greetings, and wife Dana to move to San Francisco, CA
1967 – Gilbert Shelton’s “Wonder Wart Hog” published by Pete Millar
1967 – Victor Moscoso and RIck Griffin begin to collaborate on posters and Zap Comics covers
1967 – Rick Griffin commissioned for “Pow-Wow, a Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In” held in Golden Gate Park’s polo grounds
1967 – Art Spiegelman comes up with the idea for Wacky Packs working for Topps Bubblegum
1967 – “Summer of Love” takes place in San Francisco for 9 months
1967 – Bijou Funnies, initially The Chicago Mirror, founded by Skip WIlliamson and Jay Lynch in Chigaco, IL
1967 – Art Spiegelman moves to San Francisco, CA
1967 – “Cavalier” Magazine serializes Robert Crumb’s “Fritz the Cat”
1967 – First drawings of Gilbert Shelton’s The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers appear on a flier for short student film “The Texas Hippies March on the Capitol”
1967-1973 – Jay Lynch’s “‘Nard ‘n’ Pat” comic publication years
1968 – Rand Holmes moves to Vancouver, Canada and works for Georgia Straight a weekly underground tabloid and starts “The Adventures of Harold Hedd”
1968 – S. Clay Wilson moves to San Francisco and becomes friends with Robert Crumb, starts to contribute to Zap Comics
1968 – First issue of Zap Comix by Robert Crumb released
1968 – “Keep on Truckin’” one page comix published in Zap Comix by Robert Crumb
1968 – Robert Crumb sends for his wife Dana to join him in San Francisco
1968 – Robert Crumb first sees S. Clay Wilson’s comix work
1968 – Gary Arlington opens his comic book store in the Mission District in San Francisco, CA
1968 – Spain Rodriguez’s cover for Feb 2nd issue of East Village Other creates legal issues over depiction of a sexual act
1968 – Robert Crumb publishes “Zap”
1968 – Skip Williamson’s “Snappy Sammy Smoot (1968-1996) makes its debut in Bijou Funnies
1968 – Robert William’s controversial painting “Appetite for Destruction” is used as album art for the Guns ‘N’ Roses album of the same name
1968 – “Yellow Dog” comix anthology started by Joel Beck and John Thompson
1968-1973 – Skip Williamson’s Sammy Smoot character is played by Carl Reiner on the comedy TV show “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In”
1968-1975 – Considered the boom years of Underground Comix
1968 – Apex Novelties ran by Don Donaahue starts publishing comix
1968 – US Government outlaws LSD
1968 – Robert Crumb starts “Snatch Comix” published by Apex Novelties
1969 – Neil Armstrong lands on the moon
1969-1970 – “Odd Bodkins” by Dan O’Neil is published in the San Francisco Oracle
1969 – Whitney Museum Exhibition “Human Concern/Personal Torment: The Grotesque in American Art” showed some of Robert Crumb’s work
1969 – Roger Brand at the first comic convention panel for Underground Comix artists, declined to invite Trina Robbins
1969 – Rip Off Press founded by Gilbert Shelton, Jack “Jaxon” Jackson, Dave Moriarty and Fred Todd
1969 – Kim Deitch and Trinaa Robbins start dating
1969 – Bill Griffith and Jay Kinney meet and start idea for “Young Lust”
1969 – Vaughn Bode briefly edits “Gothic Blimp Works”; Kim Deitch begins to edit “Gothic Blimp Works”
1969 – Print Mint is raided by police over “Zap Comix” fourth issue (featured “Joe Blow” incest comic by Robert Crumb)
1969 – Schenkers arrested over violation of California Penal Code Section 311.2 (illegal distribution of pornography) due to publishing “Zap Comics” fourth issue
1969 – S. Clay Wilson contributes to “Jiz Comics” under pseudonym Howard Crankwood
1970s – Graphic Novel format began
1970s –Jack “Jaxon” Jackson creates historical narrative comix like “Comanche Moon”, “Los Tejanos”
1970 – Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s shop closes and Robert Williams ends his tenure as Art Director
1970 – Chris Kirkpatrick, owner of New Yorker Book Store that sold Zap Comix, convicted
1970 – Bill Griffith moves to San Francisco, CA
1970 – Trina Robbins and Kim Deitch’s daughter Casey born
1970 – “It Ain’t Me Babe” the first women’s liberation newspaper, was published in Berkley
1970 – Kitchen Sink Press ran by Denis Kitchen founded
1970 – “Skull” published by Rip Off Press
1970 – Many Underground Comix artists met and created The Cartoon Workers Union
1970 – Robert William released collected “Coochy Cooty Men’s Comics” published by Print Mint
1970 – Last Gasp Eco Funnies ran by Ron Turner founded
1970 – “Young Lust” by Bill Griffith and Jaay Kinney published by Company & Sons
1970 – Robert Crumb meets with Ralph Bakshi and Steve Kraantz about making a movie out of his popular character Fritz the Cat
1970 – “Abortion Eve” comic produced by Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevely
1970 – Spain Rodriguez releases “Zodiac Mindwarp” (East Village Other) and “Subert” (Rip Off Press)
1970 – Kim Deitch and Trina Robbins end their relationship
1971 – Gilbert Shelton’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers first released
1971 – Roberta Gregory attend CSU Long Beach and contributes “Feminist Funnies” to their newspaper
1971 – S. Clay Wilson contributes to “Bent” (Print Mint)
1971 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb grates with degree in fine art from University of Arizona
1971 – “Ms Magazine” founded by Gloria Steinem and art directed by Bea Feitler
1971 – Bill Griffith’s “Zippy the Pinhead” debuts in Real Pulp Comics #1 by Print Mint
1971 – Dan O’Neil and the Air Pirates (Bobby London, Shary Flenniken, Gary Hallgren, and Ted Richards) create “Air Pirate Funnies” published by Last Gasp
1971 – Lee Marr’s “Pudge” & “Girl Blimp” published
1971 – Roberta Gregory sells her first comic to “Wimmen’s Comix”
1971 – Disney filed suit in Northern District of California against the comic artists from the “Air Pirate Funnies”
1971 – Rip Off Press moves from Mowry’s Opera House to 17th Street
1971 – After moving back to NYC, Art Spiegelman once again returns to San Francisco, CA
1972 – “The Adventures of Harold Hedd” released in first collected volume, the second volume out the following year
1972 – “Tits ‘n’ Clits” All women comix anthology by Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevely published first issue (Nanny Goat Productions)
1972 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb has comix debut in “Wimmen’s Comix” #1 with “Goldie a Neurotic Woman”
1972 – Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb meet at a San Francisco party
1972 – “Fritz the Cat” movie directed by Ralph Bakshi released
1972 – 2 all women’s comix anthologies started “Wimmen’s Comix” (Trina Robbins, Last Gasp) and “Tit’s & Clits” (Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevelyl, Nanny Goat Productions)
1972 – Disney granted it’s injunction against Dan O’Neil and the other comic artists from “Air Pirate Funnies”; found guilty of copyright infringement and trade disparagement
1972 – “Bizzare Sex” started published by Denis Kitchen of Kitchen Sink Press
1972 – Print Mint hits 1 million issues of “Zap Comix” sold
1973 – Rand Holmes travels to San Francisco, CA to get the second volume of “The Adventures of Harold Hedd” published by Last Gasp
1973 – Bill Griffith’s “A Sour Look at the Comix Scene, or Out of the Inkwell and Into the Toilet” runs in The San Francisco Phoenix
1973 – Undercover cop buys first issue of “Tits ‘n’ Clits” at San Francisco Bookstore Fahrenheit 451; owners charged with selling pornography and Farmer and Cheverly are forced to hide from law enforcement for 2 years
1973 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb moves onto Robert Crumb’s farm property as his girlfriend
1973 – “Come Out Comix” by Mary Wings self-published
1973 – Year of the Crash of Comix
1973 – Rick Griffin is a born again Christian
1973 – Gilbert Shelton’s The Fabulous Furry Freak Brother’s comics had sold 400,000 copies; eventually selling 45 million copies to date in 16 different languages
1972 – Haavery Pekar’s first story “Brilliant American Maniacs Series No. 1 Crazy Ed” published in “People’s Comics” with art by Robert Crumb
1972 – Justin Green publishes “Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary”
1972 – Art Spiegelman publishes first 3 pages of Maus
1973 –Supreme Court’s Miller v. California decision rules that vendors can be jailed and retroactively fined for selling obscene materials, cannot plead ignorance to contents
1974 – Jay Lynch has a one week tenure as editor at Hustler Magazine
1974 – Lynda Barry attends Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA
1974 – Art Spiegelman self publishes “Ace Hole” and “Midget Detective”
1974 – Marvel releases “Comix Book”
1974 – S. Clay Wilson contributes to “Pork” (Co-Op Press)
1974 – “The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat” directed by Ralph Bakshi released
1975 – The Schenkers working partnership with Bob and Peggy Rita dissolves and Print Mint slows down production and distribution
1975 – “Felch Comics” by Keith Green
1975 – Vietnam War ends, American troops withdraw from Saigon
1975 – Victor Moscoso starts attending Yale
1975 – Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman create “Arcade” comix anthology
1975 – Vaughn Bodé dies at age 33
1976 – Harvey Pekar self publishes “How I Quit Collecting Records and Put Out a Comic Book with the Money I Saved” with art by Robert Crumb
1976 – “Wet Satin” erotic satirical all-women’s comics anthology published by Kitchen Sink Press
1976 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb moves off of the Crumb farm commune
1976 – Mary Wing’s “Dyke Shorts” is self-published
1976 – Roberta Gregory creates “Dynamite Damsels” (Self-published)
1976 – Copyright Act becomes law
1976 – Lee Marrs “The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp” featured the first openly bisexual character in comics
1967 – Larry Fuller creates “Gay Heartthrobs”
1976 – Harvey Pekar’s “American Splendor #1” published
1976 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Diane Noomin start “Twisted Sisters”
1976-1077 – Punk scene emerges
1971 – Howard Cruse’s “Barefootz” first published
1977 – Kitchen Sink Press reprints Joel Becks comics under title “Joel Beck’s Comics & Stories”
1977 – Gary Panter moves to Los Angeles, CA
1977 – S. Clay Wilson releases comix with his most popular character “The Checkered Demon” (Last Gasp)
1977 – Gilbert Shelton’s character Fat Freddy’s cat from “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” gets its own spin off comic
1977 – Robert Crumb divorces Dana
1978 – Gilbert Shelton moves to San Francisco, CA from Austin, TX
1978 – First graphic novel “A Contract With God” by Will Eisner is published by Baronet Press
1978 – Dan O’Neils appeal in the case of Dismney and the Air Pirates does not rule in O’Neil’s favor
1978 – Gilbert Shelton makes “Shakedown Street” album cover for The Grateful Dead
1978 – Paul Mavrides starts to collaborate on “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers”
1979 – Gilbert Shelton and wife/agent Lora move to Europe
1979 – The Supreme Court declines to take Dan O’Neil’s appeal case against Disney
1979 – Robert William publishes “The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams”
1979 – Mary Wings creates drug awareness book “Are Your Highs Getting You Down?” with a California Arts Council Grant
1979 – Denis Kitchen approaches Howaard Cruse about making “Gay Comix”
1979 – Rip Off Press ends
1979 – Art Spiegelman starts to teach at the School of Visual Arts in NY
1980 – First issue of “Gay Comix” (Kitchen SInk Press) released, edited by Howard Cruse
1980 – “Raw” comics anthology created by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly
1980-1991 – Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman serialized
1981 – “Wimmen’s Comix” takes a 6 year hiatus
1981 – Daniel Clowes and his friends create “Psycho Comics”
1981 – Robert Crumb starts comix magazine “Weirdo” published by Last Gasp
1981 – Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb’s daughter Sophie is born; they move to Southern France
1982 – Last issue of “Bizzare Sex” released
1982 – Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez create “Love and Rockets” published by Fantagraphics
1983 – “Dykes to Watch Out For” by Alison Bechdel first published
1984 – Mary Fleener self publishes her first comic “Hoodoo”
1984 – Robert Crumb passes editorship of “Weirdo” to Peter Bagge
1985 – Print Mint, since renamed Reprint Mint, is sold by the Schenkers
1985 – Mary Wings “She Came Too Late” lesbian detective novel published
1985 – Topps Bubbglegum starts Garbage Pail Kids cards
1986 – Doubleday publishes the first of it’s two collected volumes of Harvye Pekar’s “American Splendor” with the next coming out the following year
1986 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson publishes “Illustrated History of Ranching in Texas”
1986 – Peter Bagge resigns as editor at “Weirdo”; Aline Kominsky-Crumb takes over
1987 – Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb marry
1988 – “Dirty Plotte” by Julie Doucet was first self-published
1988 – Roberta Gregory self publishes “Winging It” and “Sheila and the Unicorn”
1989 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackon publishes “Rip Off Pres: The Golden Era #21”
1989 – Daniel Clowes first issue of “Eightball”
1989 – Roberta Gregory moves to Seattle and begins to work at Fantagraphics Books
1990 – Art Spiegelman receives a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on Maus’ second volume
1990 – Peter Bagge first publishes “Hate” (Fantagraaphics)
1991 – American Splendor’s once a year regular release stops with issue fifteen
1991 – Rick Griffin dies after motorcycle accident
1991 – Roberta Gregory’s “Naughty Bits” issue one self published
1991 – “Dirty Plotte” published by Drawn & Quarterly
1991 – Julie Doucet moves to NYC for one year and makes “My New York Diary”
1992 – Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman wins a Pulitzer Prize
1992 – “Wimmen’s Comix” publishes it’s last issue
1993 – Don Schenkers dies
1994 – Robert Williams first published “Juxtapoz Arts & Culture” Magazine
1995 – “Stuck Rubber Baby” by Howard Cruse published
1995 – “Black Hole” by Charles Burns first published by Fantagraphics
1995 – “Crumb” documentary about Robert Crumb by Terry Zwigoff is released
1996 – Mary Fleener’s “Life of the Party” released
1998 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson creates “Lost Cause”
1999 – Joel Beck dies
2001-2003 – Roberta Gregory’s popular character Bitchy Bitch from “Naughty Bits” starred in the animated cartoon “Life’s a Bitch” on Comedy Network (Canada) and Oxygen Network (US)
2001 – Daniel Clowes “Eightball” story “Ghost World” is made into a movie of the same name
2002 – Rand Holmes dies
2002 – Phoebe Gloeckner’s “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” published by Frog Books
2003 – “American Splendor” the award winning movie about Harvey Pekar’s life starring Paul Giamatti is released
2005 – “Black Hole” by Charles Burns released as graphic novel by Fantagraphics
2006 –Jack “Jaxon” Jackson dies
2006 – “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” by Alison Bechdel published
2010 – Harvey Pekar dies
2015 – “Fun Home” the Broadway Musical wins a Tony for best musical
2015 – “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” by Phoebe Glockner made into a movie with the same name
2017 – Skip Williamson and Jay Lynch die within a week and a half of each other
2019 – Howard Cruse dies
2020 – Alice Schnker dies
2021 – Streaming channel Tubi releases 8 episode show “The Freak Brothers” based on Gilbert Shelton’s “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers”
2021 – Spain Rodriguez dies
2021 – S. Clay Wilson dies
2022 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb dies
REFERENCES
About. Robert Williams Official Site. (2022). Retrieved December 27, 2022, from https://www.robtwilliamsstudio.com/about
Beat Staff. (2016, May 11). Interview: Roberta Gregory on Mother Mountain, wimmen's comix, & bitchy bitch. Comics Beat. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.comicsbeat.com/interview-roberta-gregory-on-mother-mountain-wimmens-comix-bitchy-bitch/
Bernsau, T. (2021, January 20). Car Toons for car guys. MotorTrend. Retrieved December 29, 2022, from https://www.motortrend.com/features/0908rc-the-car-toons-of-pete-millar/
Chakraborty, P. (2021). "Sex and the Aesthetics of the Vulgar: Reading the Creative Paradox in the Works of Robert Crumb." Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry, 07(02), 120–148. https://doi.org/10.35684/jlci.2021.7206
Chute, H. (2006, season-04). Decoding Comics. Modern Fiction Studies, 52(4), 1014–1027. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26286682
Chute, H. (2019). Why Comics?: From Underground to Everywhere (Reprint). Harper Perennial.
Costello, B., & Gremins, B. (2021). The Other 1980s: Reframing Comics’ Crucial Decade. Louisiana State University Press.
Dalzell, T. (2020, February 20). Remembering Alice Schenker, whose Print Mint on Telegraph Avenue sparked the 1960s poster revolution. Berkeleyside. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.berkeleyside.org/2020/02/20/remembering-alice-schenker-whose-print-mint-on-telegraph-avenue-sparked-the-1960s-poster-revolution
Danky, J. P., & Kitchen, D. (2009). Underground classics: The transformation of comics into Comix. Abrams.
Dauber, J. (2022). American Comics: A History. W. W. Norton & Company.
Doherty , B. (2023). Dirty pictures: How an underground network of nerds, feminists, misfits, geniuses, bikers,... Potheads, printers, intellectuals, and art school. Harry N. Abraams.
Ebert, R. (2005, November 20). Crumb Movie Review & Film Summary (1995): Roger Ebert. Crumb movie review & film summary (1995) | Roger Ebert. Retrieved December 22, 2022, from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-crumb-1994
Elam, E. (2013, February 15). Gilbert Shelton in Conversation. T_he Comics Journal ._ Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.tcj.com/gilbert-shelton-in-conversation/
Estren, M. J. (2012). A History of Underground Comics. Ronin Publishing, Inc.
Frank, P. (2018, June 19). Mary Wings just wanted an orgasm when she created the First Lesbian Comic Book. HuffPost. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mary-wings-created-first-lesbian-comic-book\_n\_5b23d937e4b0d4fc01fdd783
Freeman, J. (2017, November 3). Exclusive: Gilbert Shelton reveals some Fabulous furry freak brothers secrets, new collection extracts_! downthetubes.net._ Retrieved December 21, 2022, from https://downthetubes.net/exclusive-gilbert-shelton-reveals-some-fabulous-furry-freak-brothers-secrets-new-collection-extracts/
Gabilliet, J., Beaty, B., & Nguyen, N. (2013). Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books(Illustrated). University Press of Mississippi.
Garcia, E. (2017). The Hernandez Brothers: Love, Rockets, and Alternative Comics (Latinx and Latin American Profiles)(1st ed.). University of Pittsburgh Press.
Gary Panter. Lambiek Comiclopedia . (2022, July 22). Retrieved December 16, 2022, from https://www.lambiek.net/artists/p/panter.htm
Gomez, B. (2017, March 29). She changed comics: Roberta Gregory interview. Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://cbldf.org/2017/03/she-changed-comics-roberta-gregory-interview/
Gregory, R. (2009). My Creative History. Roberta Gregory . Retrieved December 26, 2022, from http://www.robertagregory.com/Robertagregory/Robertas\_History.html
Griffith, B. (2002). A Bill Griffith Bibliography: (Out of Print & Hard to Find) Covers & Contents . A Bill Griffith bibliography. Retrieved December 5, 2022, from https://www.zippythepinhead.com/pages/biblio.html
Griffith, B. (2003). Still asking the unanswerable question, 'are we having fun yet?'. Still Asking the Unanswerable Question, ‘Are We Having Fun Yet?’ Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://imagetextjournal.com/still-asking-the-unanswerable-question-are-we-having-fun-yet/
Groth, G. (2011, February 9). An interview with Victor Moscoso. The Comics Journal. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.tcj.com/an-interview-with-victor-moscoso/
Hatfield, C., & Beaty, B. (2020). Comics studies: A guidebook. Rutgers University Press.
Hatfield, C. (2005, August 2). Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature (Illustrated). University Press of Mississippi.
Jean-Paul, J., & Cruse, H. (2021). Stuck Rubber Baby. CASTERMAN.
Jennings, J., Duffy, D., Woods, A. A., Wimberly, R., Greene, S., Richardson, A., Love, J., Love, R., & Knight, K. (2020, March 31). Black Comix Returns. Magnetic Press.
Julie Doucet. _Lambiek Comiclopedia. (_2022, June 20). Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/doucet.htm
Kaplan, A. (2010). From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books. Jewish Publication Society.
Knuddle, K. (2022, October 4). Jay Lynch. Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved December 27, 2022, from https://www.lambiek.net/artists/l/lynch.htm
Knuddle, K. (2022, September 27). Robert Williams. Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved December 27, 2022, from https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/williams\_r.htm
Knuddle, K. (2022, September 27). Skip Williamson. Lambiek Comiclopedia . Retrieved December 3, 2022, from https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/williamson\_skip.htm
Lambiek. (2022, January 20). Joel Beck. Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved December 19, 2022, from https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/beck\_joel.htm
Mary Fleener. Lambiek Comiclopedia. (2021, February 13). Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.lambiek.net/artists/f/fleener\_mary.htm
Mietkiewicz, H. (2011, June 11). Holmes, Rand (1942-2002). THE JOE SHUSTER AWARDS Canadian Comics Awards, News & Links. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://joeshusterawards.com/hof/hof-rand-holmes-1942-2002/
Milligan, M. (2021, October 19). Tubi grooves into Adult Toons with debut original 'The Freak Brothers'. Animation Magazine. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.animationmagazine.net/2021/10/tubi-grooves-into-adult-toons-with-debut-original-the-freak-brothers/
Fox, M. S. (2013). Zap Comix. Underground Comix Joint. Retrieved December 29, 2022, from https://comixjoint.com/zapcomix.html
Of the Golden Age comics houses, EC was the greatest; Weird! Incredible! Mad! (2020, September 23). The Economist. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A681897193/OVIC?u=edmo56673&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=cd9e73a6
Olsza, M. (2020). Feminist (and/as) alternative media practices in women's underground comix in the 1970s 1. Polish Journal for American Studies, 14, 21-37,139. Retrieved from https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/feminist-as-alternative-media-practices-womens/docview/2473439187/se-2
Pagano, K. (2012, August 18). Mary Fleener lives art on the edge. North Coast Current. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.northcoastcurrent.com/north-coast-beat/2012/08/mary-fleener-lives-art-on-the-edge/
Panter, G. (2007). Biography . Gary Panter. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from http://www.garypanter.com/site/index.php/about/biography/
Pencil, S. (2020). Rated Savx: The Savage Pencil Skratchbook. Strange Attractor Press.
Pilcher, T., & Kannenberg Jr., G. (2008). Erotic comics : a graphic history from Tijuana bibles to underground comix. The Ilex Press Limited.
Prescott, G. (2017, March 21). About: Life of the Party: An Interview with Mary Fleener. Art & Illustration by Mary Fleener. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from http://www.maryfleener.com/about/
Rand Holmes. Lambiek Comiclopedia. (2021, January 16). Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/holmes\_rand.htm
Roberta Gregory. Lambiek Comiclopedia. (2021, January 1). Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.lambiek.net/artists/g/gregory.htm
Robbins, T. (1999). From girls to grrrlz : a history of [women’s] comics from teens to zines. Chronicle Books.
Rosenkranz, P. (2008, May 20). Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963 - 1975 (Reprint). Fantagraphics Books.
Sabin, R. (2001). Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels (Revised ed.). Phaidon Press.
Seigal, B. (1997, January 8). Life of the party : Cartoonist Mary Fleener draws on a zest for life and an appreciation for the world's everyday zaniness. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-01-08-ls-16304-story.html
Seves, P. R. (2018). Eric Stanton & the History of the Bizarre Underground (1st ed.). Schiffer.
Smith, H. (2021, February 10). S. Clay Wilson, who helped launch the underground comix movement, dies at 79. The Washington Post Online.
Szasz, F. M. (2013, September 15). Atomic Comics: Cartoonists Confront the Nuclear World (1st ed.). University of Nevada Press.
Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels. (2011). Reference Reviews; Harlow, 25(6), 52–53.
Wanzo, R. (2018, June 1). The Normative Broken: Melinda Gebbie, Feminist Comix, and Child Sexuality Temporalities. American Literature, 90(2), 347–375. https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-4564334
Wiggins, R. (2010, March 3). Me and Gilbert Shelton: A Memoir [web log]. Retrieved December 14, 2022, from http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/ramsey-wiggins-me-and-gilbert-shelton.html.
Williams, P. (2020, January 17). Dreaming the Graphic Novel: The Novelization of Comics (None). Rutgers University Press.
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Yolanda Margarita López
5 Oct 2023· Incomplet Design History
During the 1960s, the Chicano Movement or "El Movimiento" gave way for Chicano artists, designers, and printmakers to emerge. The Chicano Movement united Chicanos, Americans of Mexican heritage who chose that label, in a new shared identity to fight for social and political empowerment. One of the creatives that made their mark in support of this movement was Yolanda Margarita López, a feminist painter, printmaker, educator, and film producer. She was best known for her works focusing on the experiences of Mexican-American and Chicana women, often challenging the harmful ethnic stereotypes associated with them. López is most known for the Guadalupe series, where she reimagines Our Lady of Guadalupe in the image of the everyday Chicana woman. López was essential to the case of Los Siete de La Raza, or The Seven of the Hispanic Community. In this case, seven Latino youths were falsely accused of killing police officer Joseph Brodnick in San Francisco on May 1st, 1969. The political art and design work she produced in support of the seven falsely accused helped rally the San Francisco community together in support and led to the acquitting of the seven youths. López, through her activism, challenged stereotypes of Chicana women and advocated for the Latino community as well as other marginalized communities over the course of her creative career.
TIMELINE
1942 – Born on November 1 in San Diego, CA
1968 – Third World Liberation Strikes
1969 – Los Siete de La Raza
1971 – Enrolled at San Diego State University
1975 – Graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in painting and drawing
1977 – ¿A Donde Vas, Chicana?
1978 – Start of Guadalupe Series
1979 – University of California, San Diego, receiving a Master of Fine Arts
2021 – Yolanda dies of complications from Liver Cancer
REFERENCES
Daly, C.-S. (2021) Yolanda López, artist who painted the iconic Virgen de Guadalupe series, dies at 79, Mission Local. Available at: https://missionlocal.org/2021/09/yolanda-lopez-artist-who-painted-the-iconic-virgen-de-guadalupe-series-dies-at-79/ (Accessed: November 27, 2022).
Davalos, K.M. (2008) Yolanda M. López. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press.
Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute (no date) Chavez, the UFW and the "wetback" problem, News RSS. Available at: https://humanrights.fhi.duke.edu/chavez-ufw-and-wetback-problem/ (Accessed: November 27, 2022).
Genial generating engagement and new initiatives for ... - exploratorium (no date). Available at: https://www.exploratorium.edu/sites/default/files/Genial\_2017\_Terms\_of\_Usage.pdf (Accessed: November 28, 2022).
Seth Combs Oct. 10, 2021 5:15 A.M.P.T.F.T.S.more sharing optionsS.C.extra sharing options F.T.L.I.E.C.L.U.R.L.C.P. (2021) The art and activism of Yolanda López, Tribune. Available at: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/story/2021-10-10/the-art-and-activism-of-yolanda-lopez (Accessed: November 27, 2022).
¡Printing the revolution!: The rise and impact of Chicano graphics, 1965 to now (no date) ¡Printing the Revolution!: The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now | Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Available at: https://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibitions/printing-revolution-rise-and-impact-chicano-graphics-1965-now (Accessed: November 27, 2022).
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Black Film Posters
28 Sep 2023· Incomplet Design History
There is a rich history of Black films and filmmaking in the United States that stems from the history of segregation, which created a need for separate films for separate audiences. Since mainstream Hollywood ignored Black audiences, Black filmmakers took the lead in making all Black or “colored” cast films for their audiences. These films have become known as race films. The goal was to shoot films for and about Black folks that were positive and uplifting, to counteract the stereotyped portrayals of mainstream movies. The era of race films dates from roughly 1912-1950 when following World War II movie theaters began to desegregate, Black culture began to be subsumed by white culture, and Black music, dancing, and other performances began to be seen as profitable by Hollywood studios. Much like mainstream white movies, Black films were advertised and marketed to Black audiences through film posters. In many cases where the original films were not well preserved, all that remains as evidence of these films are posters.
TIMELINE
1912-1950 – Race films were made by Black filmmakers and producers with “All colored cast”
1915 – Deeply racist film, The Birth of a Nation is screened, protests of which leads to the formation of the NAACP
1919 – The Homesteader, first film written by Black Filmmaker Oscar Micheaux
1923 – The Bull-dogger is filmed in Oklahoma by the Norman Manufacturing Company staring Black rodeo performer Bill Pickett
1943 – Some of the first mainstream Hollywood films for Black audiences include Stormy Weather and Cabin in the Sky
1948 – The Betrayal, last film written by Black Filmmaker Oscar Micheaux
1953 – Movie theaters desegregated, resulting from a U.S. Supreme court ruling to desegregate restaurants, though many southern states would hold out for at least another decade.
1971 – Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, the first Blaxploitation film premieres, written and directed by Black filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles
1984 – Art Sims designs film poster for Steven Speilberg’s The Color Purple
1992 – John Duke Kisch published a book on his collection of Black film posters called A Separate Cinema
1995 – Art Sims designs controversial film poster for Spike Lee’s Clockers
1995 – Edward Mapp donates a substantial collection of Black film posters to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences collection in the Margaret Herrick Library
2000 – Art Sims designs a controversial film poster for Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, depicting racist stereotypes, which audiences pushed back on, until they realized that designer and filmmaker were Black and the stereotypes were intentionally satirical.
2000-2011 – The Mapp Collection, donated to Indiana University by Dr. Edward Mapp of New York City, consists of two series: Film Publicity, 1930-2002 and Films, 1934-2004.
2005 – Portions of Mapp's collection of Black-cast film posters toured the country with the Smithsonian’s Traveling Exhibition Service as Close Up in Black: African American Film Posters.
2020 – John Kisch’s Collection was purchased by The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
REFERENCES
Art Sims visionary designer of spike lee's movie posters gets NY honor at the AIGA national design center May 19th. (2010, May 17). PR Newswire https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/wire-feeds/art-sims-visionary-designer-spike-lees-movie/docview/288129084/se-2
Caro, M. (1995, Sep 13). `CLOCKERS' AD CAMPAIGN GETTING A NEW LOOK: [NORTH SPORTS FINAL, CN EDITION]. Chicago Tribune (Pre-1997 Fulltext) Retrieved from https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libproxy.uco.edu/newspapers/clockers-ad-campaign-getting-new-look/docview/283992830/se-2
Collins, S. (1996, Feb 08). Leaving a paper trail; african americans spent many years at the periphery of hollywood in films with all-black casts. some posters the academy recently acquired are the only surviving chronicle of much of this history.: [home edition]. Los Angeles Times (Pre-1997 Fulltext) Retrieved from https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libproxy.uco.edu/newspapers/leaving-paper-trail-african-americans-spent-many/docview/293272302/se-2
Cripps, M. T. &. (2022, October 19). Close-Up in Black: African-American Films Posters from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Apparent First Edition). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Edward Mapp Collection, 1937-2011 - Archives online at Indiana University. (n.d.). https://archives.iu.edu/catalog/VAC1069
Kisch, J., Nourmand, T., Lee, S., Gates, H. L., & Doggett, P. (2014, September 18). Separate Cinema: The First 100 Years of Black Poster Art (First Edition). Reel Art Press.
Laski, B. (1995, September 18). U switches ‘Clockers’ art after ‘Anatomy’ lesson. Variety. https://variety.com/1995/scene/markets-festivals/u-switches-clockers-art-after-anatomy-lesson-99130142/
McCluskey, A. T. (2003). Director’s Notes: Imaging Blackness, 1915-2002: Exhibit Documents Black Hollywood through Film Posters. Black Camera, 18(2), 1–2. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27761620
Machemer, T. (2020, January 16). George Lucas' New Museum Acquires Major Archive of African American Film History. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/george-lucas-museum-acquires-huge-archive-african-american-cinema-180973999/
Mapp, E., & McCluskey, A. T. (2003). An Interview with Dr. Edward Mapp: A Passion for Collecting Black Film. Black Camera, 18(2), 1–10. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27761621
Martin, M.. (2018). GALLERY: Poster Art as Cultural Labor in the Cinematic Archive of Claire Denis. Black Camera, 10(1), 144–155. https://doi.org/10.2979/blackcamera.10.1.08
Octane, & Octane. (2021). Celebrating America’s Pioneer Black Graphic Designers: Art Sims (1954 – Present) | Octane Design Studios. Octane Design Studios | #MoreThanGraphics. https://lexoctane.com/?p=15067
Pearce-Doughlin, S., Goldsmith, A., & Hamilton, D. (2013). Colorism. In P. L. Mason (Ed.), Encyclopedia of race and racism (2nd ed.). Gale. Credo Reference: https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/galerace/colorism/0?institutionId=1845
PrintMag. (2013, December 11). Spike Lee’s Other Poster Design Bamboozle: Saul Bass. PRINT Magazine. https://www.printmag.com/graphic-design/spike-lee-s-other-poster-design-bamboozle-saul-bass/
Reid, M. A. (2005, March 17). Black Lenses, Black Voices: African American Film Now (Genre and Beyond: A Film Studies Series) (Edition Unstated). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Richburg, C. (2016, March 27). Art Sims Talks Creating Iconic ‘New Jack City’ Movie Poster, Film’s 25th Anniversary. EURweb. https://eurweb.com/2016/03/27/art-sims-talks-creating-new-jack-city-movie-poster/
Schaefer, S. (1995, September 8). Poster Imposter. EW.com. https://ew.com/article/1995/09/08/poster-imposter/
Shivers, K. (2000, Mar 22). Sims shows how a picture is worth a box office hit. Los Angeles Sentinel. Retrieved from https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libproxy.uco.edu/newspapers/sims-shows-how-picture-is-worth-box-office-hit/docview/369327904/se-2
Smith, I. H. (2018, October 3). Selling the Movie: The Art of the Film Poster. University of Texas Press.
Stevens, I_._ (2020, June 3) I turn my back on you: black movie poster art | The pictures | Sight & Sound. British Film Institute. https://www2.bfi.org.uk/explore-film-tv/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-articles/features/pictures/i-turn-my-back-you-black
Type Directors Club. (2020, December 2). Kelly Walters - Ain’t dat a shame [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8sLYAFnCdE
Web Editor. (2022, February 2). The Activists who Desegregated Arlington’s Movie Theaters. https://library.arlingtonva.us/2022/02/02/the-activists-who-desegregated-arlingtons-movie-theaters/#:~:text=Finally%2C%20in%201953%2C%20a%20U.S.,to%20local%20theaters%20as%20well.
Wilson, M., & Benson, O. (2014). Colorism. In S. Thompson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of diversity and social justice. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Credo Reference: https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/rowmandasj/colorism/0?institutionId=1845
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Edward Gorey
21 Sep 2023· Incomplet Design History
Edward Gorey was probably best known as an author and illustrator of more than 100 books in his lifetime. Collector's items today, his books have become icons in and of themselves, darkly humorous and humorously dark. The books defied genres and publishers sometimes had a hard time determining how to market them. They were illustrated yes, but the dark and sometimes gruesome tales certainly weren’t children's books. This contribution was undoubtedly significant, but this was not the limit of his career, which included designing book covers, sets, and costumes for theater and ballet (including the Tony award-winning designs for Dracula in 1977), and the illustrations for animations for the PBS Mystery! series, a shortened version of which can still be seen today. Gorey’s book cover designs are often identifiable by his hand-lettered titles, which he claims he did because he didn’t know much about type. Additionally, Gorey was an icon of fashion in the New York scene, he and his extensive collection of fur coats were the subjects of multiple articles on the New York Fashion scene. Yet despite his numerous contributions, he is not mentioned in design or illustration history books, is his absence from the design history canon a result of gatekeeping? Was it because he mostly designed book covers for inexpensive paperback books rather than glamorous hardcovers? Or Possibly because his own work was described by critics as “macabre”, “gothic”, or even “campy”. Or was it because of his association with the LGBT community? Many have speculated about his sexual orientation, even though Gorey was not “out” and he preferred ambiguity only going so far as to admit to an interviewer that he supposed he was gay, but didn’t “identify with it much”.
TIMELINE
1925 – b Chicago, Illinois, as Edward St. John Gorey
1942 – was accepted to Harvard
1942 – Drafted into the Army, served stateside during WWII at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, deferred college entrance
1946 – Begins at Harvard, education is paid for by the G.I. Bill, majoring in French Literature
1953– Hired at Anchor /Doubleday as a book cover designer, moves to NYC
1953 – Publishes first book of his own, The Unstrung Harp
1962 – Founds the Fantod Press to publish his own books
1962-63 – Hired as an art director at Bobbs-Merrill, publisher
1963 – Begins working as a Freelance book designer and illustrator, begins living part-time at the cape
1963 – Publishes abecedary, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, along with The Insect God and The West Wing
1977 – Designs sets and costumes for Broadway revival of Dracula, wins a Tony award for both
1980 – Creates illustrations for animated introduction to PBS Mystery!
1983 – Resolves to leave the city (NYC), moves permanently and full-time to the Cape
2000 – d Gorey dies at age 75
2002 – Edward Gorey’s home at the cape becomes a museum, The Edward Gorey House
REFERENCES
Borrelli-Persson, L. (2021, October 30). Celebrating Edward Gorey, Style Icon. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/celebrating-edward-gorey-style-icon
Brottman, M. (2005) High theory/low culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Curwen, T. (2004, Jul 18). ART; light from a dark star; before the current rise of graphic novels, there was Edward Gorey, whose tales and drawings still baffle -- and attract -- new fans.: [HOME EDITION]. Los Angeles Times Retrieved from https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libproxy.uco.edu/newspapers/art-light-dark-star-before-current-rise-graphic/docview/422042911/se-2?accountid=14516
Dery, M. (2018). Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey (Illustrated ed.). Little, Brown and Company.
Dery, M. (2020, January-February). Edward Gorey's Gothic Nonsense. The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, 27(1), 18+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A616752005/LitRC?u=edmo56673&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=f73cab8e
Devers, A. N. (2011, January 5). The Coats of Edward Gorey. The Paris Review. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/01/04/the-coats-of-edward-gorey/
Dubner, S. (2022, May 20). The University of Impossible-to-Get-Into. Freakonomics. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-university-of-impossible-to-get-into/
Gottlieb, R. (2018, December 31). Superb Oddities: Robert Gottlieb Reviews a Biography of Edward Gorey. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/books/review/edward-gorey-mark-dery-born-to-be-posthumous.html
Green, J. (2020, April 1). The Gay History of America’s Classic Children’s Books. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/t-magazine/gay-children-book-authors.html
Gussow, M. (2000, April 17). Edward Gorey, Artist and Author Who Turned the Macabre Into a Career, Dies at 75. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/17/arts/edward-gorey-artist-and-author-who-turned-the-macabre-into-a-career-dies-at-75.html
Heller. (1999). “Book Covers, Edward Gorey”. Design Literacy (continued) : understanding graphic design.
Heller, S. (1999, Jan 06). Edward Gorey's cover story: [toronto edition]. National Post Retrieved from https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/edward-goreys-cover-story/docview/329355783/se-2?accountid=14516
Kurutz, S. (2018, November 1). The Granddaddy of Goth. New York Times, D1(L). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A560663228/OVIC?u=edmo56673&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=4e2ba0c0
Myers, Q. (2020, March 30). Why Did We Grow Up Thinking a Piercing in the Right Ear Was Gay? MEL Magazine. https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/gay-piercing-right-ear-left-ear-history
Nadel, A. (2019). The Lavender Scare. The Journal of American History (Bloomington, Ind.), 106(3), 845–847. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaz663
Petermann, E. (2018). The child's death as punishment or nonsense? Edward Gorey's "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" (1963) and the cautionary verse tradition. Bookbird, 56(4), 22. doi:https://doi.org/10.1353/bkb.2018.0062
Schneider, R. (2020). Start of a Decade: "Camp Leaders" The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, 27(1), 4–4.
Seufert, C. [Christopher Seufert]. (2020, May 8). Dick Cavett Interviews Edward Gorey, Nov. 30, 1977 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cng3K8FGj28
Sontag, S. (2018). Notes on Camp. Penguin Classics.
Sontag, S. (2018). One Culture and The New Sensibility. In Notes On Camp (pp. 34–55). Penguin Classics.
Spark Admissions. (2021, June 8). Exploring Ivy League Acceptance Rates. https://www.sparkadmissions.com/blog/ivy-league-acceptance-rates-just-how-hard-is-it-to-get-in/
Stonewall UK. (2022, July 19). Convictions and cautions for gross indecency. Stonewall.
https://www.stonewall.org.uk/help-advice/information-and-resources/criminal-law/convictions-and-cautions-gross-indecency#:%7E:text=The%20Criminal%20Justice%20and%20Public,were%20deleted%20from%20the%20statutes
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