Jack Davis art!--

June is halfway to the great cartoonist's eighty fourth birthday and I wanted to make a celebration out of it. So here are some of his Promo pieces from the late '80s. The original printed pieces were in the 'index card' format, hence the folds in the scans. They're reproduced here twice up from their original printed size.

Lucky you!

airline sketches--

Updated 6/23*



*Here's a larger image of our red-haired friend...

Happy Birthday, Mr. Wallace Wood!

The first Wally Wood-illustrated comic book story I remember seeing is "Batboy & Rubin", in a MAD paperback that my older cousin Louis had a copy of.
I'd never seen anything like it before... they were makin' fun of Batman!
After reading that paperback from cover to cover a few times I never looked at current events or pop culture in the same way again. I'm sure your introduction to MAD ran along similar lines.

In honor of what would have been Wallace Wood's 81st Birthday on June 17th, I present some of his best storytelling, scanned from a 1958 third printing of the Crown edition of "MAD FOR KEEPS".



Happy Birthday, Sailor.







script & layouts by Harvey Kurtzman


Story & Art TM & (C) EC Comics







enjoy!

Sharpie sketches--

Who IS that guy?

There's always that one guest at all family gatherings, the guy you can't place. You've seen him at every family function since you were three years old, but you never get the same answer when you ask other family members who the man is. One uncle says he used to date your godmother when she was in High School, another one says he's from Italy, and an older cousin claims he used to deliver chickens at a poultry farm. One family friend said he was an Israeli-born Greek. You never remember his name, and you've both been trading the same clumsy greeting for decades. Then you stand there uncomfortably, until you can slip away.

Sound familiar?

'70s...

I knew a few rebels and revolutionary's who burned their draft cards in an effort to protest the war.

They were the same jerks that would go around asking to borrow other guys' cards to use as I.D. to buy a can of beer or go to a bar or a club.

I never lent mine out, I didn't think they were a good risk.

digital drivel...

Can you think of a caption for this? I couldn't.

Will Elder (1921-2008)

Will Elder, collaborator with Harvey Kurtzman on MAD, Trump, Humbug, Goodman Beaver (panel above) & Little Annie Fanny passed away. He was, in my opinion, one of the greatest illustrators that ever worked in the comic strip form.

Here are a few more examples
of Mr. Elder's work
from Trump and Humbug:

How cool is this?---

If eveything goes according to plan, I'll be playing with the original trio of musicians I started out with in 1964, next Monday, in Long Island, New York. How cool is that?

So nice to have life-long friends!

I'll download our session, if I can.

That's me at the top,in 1976 in the Prince Valiant harcut, (yes I was really super hot!), and that's my guitarist, and songwriting partner, Lou Maresca in the next pic below. You should really try get to know him ladies, he's one potent dude. I'll include pix of our original guitarist George as soon as I can get them.

This last shot is from our 1975 show in Carroll Park, we used to play there every summer. Some long time residents still talk to me about those shows when I visit the old neighborhood.

*********************

Update, May 21: We kicked ass! Had a marathon jam of nearly eight hours, and didn't step on each other much. I still can't get over how well it went. If I lived in NYC I'd be able to do this all of the time and play gigs to boot. The only things missing would be my job at Disney and all of the wonderful friends I've made in L.A. But it still gets you thinking.

This post is dedicated to the memory of
our dear friend Anthony Raimondi

another '70s-style sketch--

The '70s sucked. It was the worst of times, it was the WORST of times. Get the idea? In those days I didn't have two nickels to rub together. I'd get jobs that other guys would have killed for; Post Office, etc... and I'd put in enough hours to purchase a new set of Ludwig drums, that I still have. But I wanted to be a musician. Or an artist. One thing I definitely didn't want to be was drafted and sent to Viet Nam. I didn't even know why we were there. Not that it was all rosey on the homefront. It wasn't. But at least I didn't have some sniper trying to blow my effing head off.
Nowadays people look back with nostalgia at that dread decade, but the early part of it was no picnic for me and my generation. The best part of it was seeing that disgraced bastard Nixon run out of office. That was fun. But, for my money you can take the '70s and shove 'em!
This new sketch, like the other one a few posts below is dedicated to Ralph Bakshi, one of the few guiding lights in the old days. Go out and buy "Ralph Bakshi: Unfiltered". You'll get something out of it, I guarantee it.

more comic book covers--

Some ol' stuff--

I thought I'd wrap up the month with two of April's biggest fools; Ralph Kramden & Ed Norton. The Phantom and Lou Albano issues were big leaps away from what my idea of Honeymooners stories should have been, but when you've got partners that are footing the bill you have to make them happy too. The Phantom issue was a complete "sell out" cashing in on the then wildly popular play. But the Lou Albano one was done for a good cause- each copy came with an envelope that you could use to mail a donation to The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and Lou was a Fundraising Chairman.

The Lou Albano cover was laid out by the legendary DC comics cover artist
Win Mortimer. In the late '40s Win illustrated almost every cover of Detective Comics.









The flying '55 Chevy Christmas cover was one of the most fun pieces for me because I finally got the chance to do a panoramic shot of Brooklyn. My friend Ted Camut helped me with the car rendering and the airbrush effects. This was my attempt at a DELL comics style cover.

lazy sunday '70s-style stoner sketch...

I used to fill sketchbooks with this kind of stuff in the early '70s. I was inspired by Robert Crumb and Ralph Bakshi in those days. Lately I've been devouring the new book on Bakshi "Unfiltered", so I guess the bug has bitten me again.

naso rosso--

I've added the larger images again.
I guess people like big noses.

Who knew?

la luna

sketchbook

Quick sketches
done during the 3 o'clock coffee break
with the gang at DCP...

fool...

Admittedly.... a very weak post, but I had to do something for April Fool's Day. This is a piece from last years' April ISM show. It's part of a rushed tryptic I tried to pull together in a week or two. I might have posted it before, but hey-- whatta'ya want for nothing?

I didn't attend this show and looking back I wish I had.

Here's a digital remix, one year later--