The Paleobet

Rosemary Mosco of bird and moon describes herself as a nature lover with with a passion for science communication. She has a truely marvellous collection of illustrations and comics. You should check them out. As a fan of alphabets and prehistoric creatures, I can't resist sharing the Paleobet.

Mœbius

One artist who is universally revered amongst the comic book artists I've met is Mœbius, the nom de plume of French comic book artist Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012). He worked under his own name, producing the Franco-Belgian comics western series, Blueberry, amongst others, and under the pseudonym Gir, but I know his otherworldly, surreal and beautiful work as Mœbius best. The statue on the left the little figure is facing, is in fact a self-portrait. He was famous for his science fiction work, including the wordless comix fantasy 'Arzach', his influence and involvement in film, and his mainstream comics work, including on The Silver Surfer. I've often thought about posting his uniquely imaginative art, which is so beautiful drawn and coloured that his talent left other artists at a lost for words. Sadly, it's his untimely death which is prompting me to do so today.

Riding Ostriches

Occasionally, I see something illustrated which seems wonderfully absurd. Like this staging of a mannequin wearing Iris Apfel's apparel (and signature glasses) riding an ostrich from the Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel of the Peabody Essex Museum. Then, somehow, I am reminded of this by, say, an illustration,


Yiiha! by Sabine Gebhardt

which in turn brings to mind, a prize-winning screenprint by local Toronto printmaker (and teacher at Open Studio) Daryl Vocat:


Daryl Vocat, Practicing Strategic Invisibility is an
Excellent Way to Mislead Enemies, screenprint

which I mistakenly remembered as someone riding an ostrich, but which is nothing of the sort (but too delightfully absurd to omit). This sort of thing prompts me to search whether this is a more common idea than I would have thought (having the strong impression that ostriches are not kindly animals, and would be ill-inclined to accepting a rider).


Detective Comics #67, Cover: Original Art by Jerry Robinson(DC, 1942)

According to io9, not only did the first Batman comic book appearance (1942, in Detective Comics #67) of the villain Penguin involve a cover illustration of the crook riding an ostrich, but when it came up for auction last November, bids exceeded $200,000!

I knew nothing of old school video game Joust, where "the player controls a yellow knight riding a flying ostrich from a third-person perspective" but I admire this propaganda style poster by illustrator Steve Thomas:



Much to my surprise, even the most cursory enquiry reveals that not only riding, but racing ostriches is a reasonably common occurrence, and something people have been doing for some time.



“They’re Off!” - Thrills of the Turf in Ostrich Racing (Modern Mechanics, September, 1929)

I should really know better than to be surprised, being familiar, for instance with Rule 34 of the Internet. Ergo, there should also be some corollary: if some artist illustrates a whimsical and ill-advised behaviour, some person has tried it (and posted it to the Internet).

the book problem

This one is just true.



Comic by Grant Snider via drawn.

Girls in Gas Masks

Synchronicity? I'm not sure... but I couldn't help noticing that today I saw this photograph recently posted by Marieaunet:


gas mask by Louise Daddona
silver gelatin fine art prints
10"H x 8"W


and this 4" x 6" hand-pulled hand-colored linocut print by Mark Hill (markhillblockprints on etsy, and paperravenart on flickr) recently posted on the Printsy blog:



Both of them remind me of a painting I bought, Flora, from Just Mad Book Shop on etsy:



Just Mad Book Shop has a lot of girls in gas masks, in fact.

(If you are looking for ceramic men and bunnies wearing gas masks recall this recent magpie & whiskeyjack past).

A Canadian is Someone Who Knows How to Make Love in a Canoe

A little CanCon for you, Gentle Reader - today is all about the oft neglected Canadian History. Sometimes Canucks look south and worry that patriotism is somehow unseemly, but in honour of the upcoming Victoria Day (commonly known as May 2-4, after the 24-pack of beer) long weekend, today I am celebrating artists who love Canadian history.

Last week I went to the OCAD grad show, here in Toronto, and I was tickled by the work of Andrew Hutchinson. His large scale 3.5' by 5.5' (or in good Canadian metric: 1.07 m by 1.68 m) encaustic (wax) paintings on pine and maple are iconic and ironic.






He writes, "Canadian history is a little like an attic. Sometimes it's forgotten, but when you enter it you quickly realize that it is filled with wild and fantastic stuff. [...] The work recontextualizes the subject matter into a museological play designed to promote discussion on the subject of the Canadian 'character'"

Unable to identify any of these characters? Well now is your chance to look them up! Though their portraits are black and white, their stories are anything but. Even such a simple-minded but nonetheless usually effective search as going to wikipedia will tell you about the pride of Victoria, B.C., artist and author (& apparently potter & dog breeder & boarding house landlady), Emily Carr, which will lead invariably to the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson (who last canoe trip lead mysteriously to his death).

The more you read about Métis leader Louis Riel the more fascinating it gets. The by-line Canada's 'Ché' Guevara is only somewhat tongue-in-cheek: participating in the formation of Manitoba (maps unto Pan-Americanism south of the equator), heading two rebellions (Ché had many), being elected to Parliament, being a fugitive, being executed, being controversial and yet a folk hero to some. Reading up on Riel will lead us to Canada´s first Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald; we have historically been proud of our first PM*, but every schoolkid knows he would´ve drunk Churchill under the table.

The biography of Josiah Henson who escaped slavery via the underground railway to Upper Canada, inspired Stowe´s Uncle Tom´s Cabin.

Local hero Sir Sandford Fleming was an engineer most famous for inventing time zones.** His work with the railways made it obvious to him, if no one else, that standard time was a necessity.

You have to love a country whose national animal is the beaver.

Of course, you could always learn your Canadian history from Canadian web-comic artist Kate Beaton. She just won the Doug Wright Award. I bought her book at last week´s Toronto Comic Arts Festival. (She write and draws about European, American and her personal history and other things too). I love the point she makes that as Canadians, it is not that we are not patriotic so much as the fact that we do not take ourselves too seriously. We laugh at ourselves and our leaders, and hence it is okay if they (even our first one) are human (a trait we could contrast with our neighbours who seem to prefer lionization to poking fun):


(in case you can not identify any Prime Ministers - check the list).

Sometimes Canadians forget their revolutionaries. If you want a good yarn, look up some of the journalists/politicians/reformers/erstwhile revolutionaries of nineteenth century Toronto, including our first mayor, William Lyon Mackenzie (grandfather of William Lyon Mackenzie King, who deserves a post of his own, in the category of COLOURFUL Canadian Politics) and reform newspaper founder George Brown (shown here with political nemesis Sir John A.):


I leave with this poem by Dennis Lee:

1838
The Compact sat in parliament
To legalize their fun.
And now they're hanging Sammy Lount
And Captain Anderson
And if the catch Mackenzie
They will string him in the rain.
And England will erase us if
Mackenzie comes again.

The Bishop has a paper
That says he owns our land.
The Bishop has a Bible too
That says our souls are damned.
Mackenzie had a printing press.
It's soaking in the Bay.
And who will spike the Bishop till
Mackenzie comes again?

The British want the country
For the Empire and the view.
The Yankees want the country for
A yankee barbecue.
The Compact want the country
For their merrie green domain.
They'll all play finders-keepers till
Mackenzie comes again.

Mackenzie was a crazy man,
He wore his wig askew.
He donned three bulky overcoats
In case the bullets flew.
Mackenzie talked of fighting
While the fight went down the drain.
But who will speak for Canada?
Mackenzie, come again!

Nobody writes poetry about Canadian history which I would rather read, though I must say, it seems that Mackenzie did end up in the Yankee BBQ camp, so is yet another of the not-black-and-white, but all the more fascinating figures from our history.

The title of the post is a quotation from the well-respected intellectual, polymath, author, historian and broadcaster, Pierre Berton.

*Canadians are now slowing coming to terms with Sir John A MacDonald's role in suppressing Riel's rebellion, the creation of Residential Schools and treatment of indigeneous people in general. These things were not stressed in school curriculum, and those of us of settler heritage generally did not learn about things which we would now deem reprehensible. In the light of efforts at reconciliation with indigineous people, his name and likeness are begining to be removed.

**Did you know the Historica Minutes are on-line? What a hoot!