I'm Only Funny on Paper

I'm Only Funny On Paper

A comic.

Happy E-Day to you...

I'm Only Funny On Paper

I'm Only Funny on Paper

A comic.

The 50 States Project

Michigan: 

For another state I have lived in, though briefly, I wanted to try and unify the varying isms and uniqueries of the state of Michigan. Car manufacturing seemed obvious, along with Motown and winter.  what I ended up with was a pretty downbeat hero that looks like he belongs in Detroit.

With a Motown beat in his heart, The Motor City Mitten Man drives hard for his state. With lakes aplenty and jobs sparse, the Mitten Man has his mittened fingers cut out for him (or rathere wishes they were). His only weakness, his lack of dexterity, is often exploited by enemies who tempt him with a telephone to dial.

TGIF!

TGIF!

R. Crumb's Book of Genesis - Illustrated!

Thank God it's Friday!  And to celebrate, I thought I could recommend a comic for you that will not only satisfy your religious needs for the weekend, but all your non religious needs as well.  What I'm referring to is Robert Crumb's Illustrated Book of Genesis.  That's right, every chapter, including the boring "begats" part, is illustrated completely and 100% literally.

God never looked so majestic.

When I say the word literal, I mean it literally.  Crumb has left nothing said in the Robert Alter translation of the Bible as metaphor or symbolic.  So we see Noah and the arc, as it is described.

You see, most animals can be folded up for storage.  With his literal visualizations, Crumb strips down the story to what it inescapably is: A story.

 

A story about love.

Love.

But aside from this indictment of the text by merely presenting it literally, Crumb gives us a a gorgeous set of pages to look at that make the oftentimes tedious text fall away from your consciousness.  Simply from a visual standpoint, the comic itself is gorgeous, full of texture, drama, and gloriously narrative images.

The comic rightfully had a lot of praise when it was released.  He received several award nominations and public praise and even scorn.  The scorn. to me. is hilarious, since it came from religious fundamentalists who think its all true anyway.  If they don't want sex and violence in Bible adaptations, they need to get a new bible. I mean, Crumb is only trying to accurately translate world mythology into his own art form.

What a Jerk!

Have a nice weekend.  Hope we don't get wiped off the face of the earth on a whim.

Creators: Shel Silverstein

Creators

A growing list of influential artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, and creatives.

Shel Silverstein

There are some people that just have so much stuff inside them that they nearly burst with it.  And finding just one way to let it out isn't enough, they have to keep trying different ways to let it out.  That "it" is extremely important to them.  "It" is so important that it must be shared any way they can.

That is the way Shel Silverstein was.

There is much to be inspired by here.  By his artistic craft, his poetry writing, and his idea construction.  There is something about the way he writes that makes it whimsical enough for children yet profound enough for adults.  He has a flair for silliness as well as sensitivity.  I once tried to write poetry like he did... I couldn't quite master it.
But, he was not only a poet and an artist, but he was also a playwright and songwriter.

Here's him with Johnny Cash Singing the song he wrote" a Boy Named Sue."  I still laugh whenever I here him sing.
His work is widely known, so I don't think I need to explain it, so I'll just share some favorites.

It doesn't take much to be hilarious.

The giving tree, in search of selflessness.

Some things are worth listening to.

So long.

I'M Only Funny on Paper

I'm Only Funny on Paper

A comic.

The 50 States Project

For our latest installment of the 50 states project, I'll bring you to the state of my birth, Ohio.  I had all kinds of wacky ideas for Ohio's superhero (Taft in a tub, The Mighty Porker-pig avenger, Mr. Wright, Drew Carey) but I was struggling for a coherent theme.  Eventually I settled on focusing on the sky, since the Wright brothers, Neil Armstrong, and the Air force call our state home.  It seemed fitting since Ohio always had a kind of deluded idea of itself, wanting to be a state of great cities and ending up with a bunch of second bananas (lousy Illinois/Tennessee/California). So, here he is, full of lofty ideas and not a lot else, Here's Buckeye.

Rife with delusions of grandeur and an obsession with its own progressiveness, Buckeye is a spaceman-like hero who has a ray gun (Which is actually a flashing light) and flies around in a Wright brothers plane (so, 4 feet off the ground at thirty miles per hour, often getting caught in trees) that converts into a riverboat (that gets caught on sandbars when the river is low or on fire). Evil beware! Buckeye Rocks! (Like Cleveland).