CARTOONING WAS FUN

Once one could get a weekly salary for drawing like this.

From "The Hairy-Berry Bush" by Jim Tyer.

SOME PAINTINGS

FEELING BLAH

DELIGHT

  BRICK WALL

FAT WITCH

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

ALMOST DONE RANTING (I HOPE)...

People get irate when I lay part of the blame on the Democratic doorstep, but I do. I know of no one with more than a grudging approval of Ms. Clinton, even on FB. They weren't even trying. We can't afford to deny on our own shortcomings.
I'm sorry, the Dems did an incredibly weak job, and most of its voters will be too disillusioned or frightened of the future (very popular at the moment) to act. I've always felt that "our side" needs a "gonzo" candidate of its own, but they won't get one. The Dems should know by now that straight, mild Marquis of Queensbury types (who actually veer to the "right" so they will not "offend" voters) just won't capture a public when things have reached their current state..under a Dem president who wanted to play "bi-partisan" with people who wanted to see him dead; all colors of the public actually wanted marked improvement after W eight years ago, and we did not get it).
This is an age of meaningless conviction. The best the powers can do is accuse, deny or defend. "Well, so-and-so would have been worse..." Black Lives Matter has been the strongest movement in over 20 years. But I don't know if even Obama supports it. And *what-the-fuck* harm could it do if he came up with a meaningful statement now??

It's almost funny: if there is a President Trump, there will be a fierce internal struggle; nobody in Washington, even his aides, actually respects or likes him, or has faith in his abilities. They're just hitching their wagons to a maniac (by now a product, not an individual).

IT STILL MATTERS

To those who objected to my "Black Lives Matter" statement last night:

Those who cloud the issue, choosing to be confused and offended by it just can't face the issue. 50+ years ago, it was necessary for protesters to insist:

Does that threaten some people? Are you going to scream, "Well I'm a man, too"? You're sure acting like that.

BTW, Why doesn't Trump release his tax returns? "Just what are you hiding?"  

"ALL LIVES MATTER 2"

It still must be stated and restated that "Black Lives Matter" because society has demonstrated through concentrated efforts long and often that they *don't*. Bigoted whites immediately retort "All Lives Matter" to neutralize the issue; confuse it; wipe it away. But the problem is *not* equal. That "White Lives Matter" hardly needs restating. Again, it's demonstrated every day, every minute.-MK

"ALL LIVES MATTER"

Cartoon by A. B. Frost.

ILLUSTRATIONS VIVID

Quite a different approach by Huang Jing in this series of illustrations for THE LONG-HAIRED MAIDEN, 1986.

 

BEHIND THE IRON CUR-TOON

Jerry Beck just posted my article on his CARTOON RESEARCH blog:  FAIRY TALES FOR ADULTS! Soviet animation for grown-ups, 1949-1967...

http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/soyuzmultfilm-fairy-tales-for-adults/

THOUGHT

I hid thousands of my own originals from myself. It's less dizzying to produce more. Nowadays I'm trying not to look at the art I finished even *the week before*.

A MONSTER NAMED ZAOCHI

Illustrations from CHANG'E GOES TO THE MOON by Lou Jiaben.

WHATEVER YOU DO TO HIM, HE'S STILL OUR MIGHTY MOUSE!

LAW & ORDER (1950)

A GIRL AND A DEMON

Illustrations from A GIRL AND A DEMON, by Lou Jiaben. 1986.

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"I Say It's Spinach" played by Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, 1932. Poley McClintock had been doing a 'Popeye' voice with the band since 1927!

EXPRESSIONS

Expressions from HALIBU THE HUNTER, a Beijing book from 1988. Illustrated by Huang Wei & Chang Baosheng.

WHAT'S NEW?

Quite a few illustrated kids' books made it from Beijing to the Chinatown bookstores in NY & L.A. in the early 1980s. Here are some loopy ones from one of my favorites, drawn by Liang Peilong.

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I'm down to the Robin Hood weight I've been struggling for; I'm making what looks like a slow motion personal breakthrough; and I'm doing fine work you can't see. Everything's not bad right now. MK.

OLD HUGO AD

A "Mr. Phil" posted this: An ad for an edition of HUGO that was to come out from another publisher before Fantagraphics' the following year.

COPYRIGHT 2016 BY MILTON KNIGHT

VOILA! ZE JOB, SHE IS DONE!

I'll probably think of something I forgot, but until then, the final draft of my first novel is officially finished!! 59,500 words; 220 pages.

Milt

CHAINED FOR LIFE

The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins by Dean Jensen. 

The Hilton Sisters were conjoined twins who were what society had great problems with: sexually magnetic freaks. Just finishing this book and I highly recommend it. The Hiltons are remembered now for their two movies, FREAKS and the "bad" cult classic, CHAINED FOR LIFE. Outstandingly researched, with remembrances of those who knew them. Written with an urgency that reads as an absorbing novel.  They were raised as show biz slaves, lauded by audiences and high society, reviled as spawns of the devil (even into the 1960s!) and imagined as sexual deviates. The book relates their dramatic ups and downs in life: from renowned Broadway music performers to low level strippers and back again. (It includes a very in-depth study of the making CHAINED FOR LIFE, which lost them their life savings for at least the second time.)

Amazon information and reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Lives-Loves-Daisy-Violet-Hilton/dp/1580087582?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

BRUSH STROKES GO UPHILL

CGI is not an "improvement" on drawn animation, stupid people! It's just different from it!!

Jankovics Marcell - Sisyphus (1974)

I love the point where the man pops into an abstract, swirling Ronald Searle-type line. It's this kind of graphic horseplay that excited me about animation in the first place. Connie Rasinski animation at 3:05. But Jankovics improves on it, with purposeful timing & finesse.  

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PAINT POT SYMPHONY(1950)

 

THE CASE OF THE ARTIST

Animation for adults from USSR.
"1962...The artist-realist accidentally creates an abstract painting and becomes famous."
There is even a spoof of Jackson Pollock at work.Cold War propaganda equating abstract art with Western falseness, but it is clear that the film makers adored that art. Some of the best abstract painting & animation I've seen. By comparison, the "positive" realist art for "the people" comes across as falsity, especially at the wind-up. The moral is ironic, and the artists involved most likely knew it. What are you gonna do in a Fascist state? Un-be-fucking-lievable. And, thankfully, in pantomime.
(I haven't yet found a translation of the name of the creator.)

LAUGH AND SIN

LAUGH AND SIN, a short Russian gag from a few years ago. I came up with a "Slug & Ginger" gag in the 1980s that was very similar to this. At the time, it was irredeemably hostile and inappropriate.

Only one of a series of naughty TV fillers, aired, I would guess, after midnight. Here are, supposedly, all of them. Real SEX TO SEXTY stuff. (The "mermaid" one is possibly the pilot; it has the least repetitious gag, better cartooning, and a sexier woman.)

THERE'S A MAN IN THE FUNNY PAPERS WE ALL KNOW

Crumb as seen by a black cartoonist! Isn't that interesting? Hmmm? I smell a Taschen book! (Strictly segregated, of course!) From a TURTLES comic, about 1987.

 

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The kind of scribble I make when I get a pose idea but am otherwise occupied.

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Link:  "Tom Thumb's Drum", about 1931 by Jay Wilbur and His Band.

 © Copyright 2016 by Milton Knight

REVIEWS!

Responses from two advance readers of THAT'S SHOW BIZ!, my first novel:

"I have read five chapters of your book and I have to say I'm loving it.  Loving it!  Great prose style, well rounded characters, a great feel for the sleazy world they live in.  The only thing I suggest is being more definite about when it takes place.  Until you mention television it could be any time from the teens to the fifties.  Let the audience know when this is taking place.  Other than that I am eating it up.  Good show old man!"

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"The story is very vivid both in terms of the settings and characterizations. You can see and feel the events as they unfold. A for real page-turner!"

Thanks, fellas!-MK.

YOU KNOW WHAT??...I'm HAPPY.

I've completed the final draft of my first novel. Final before I test it on a few who've volunteered to read it, that is. Four bells for Milton!