Medieval Tron
It’s no wonder that Neatorama reader Guy won the recent Bent Objects caption contest – turns out he’s one of the guys behind Brevity, a darn funny syndicated comic strip. This one above, titled Medieval Tron, is my favorite, but they’ve got tons of other great stuff.
Links: Lots of comic panels at Comics.com | Brevity’s official website – Thanks Guy!
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Stephen King's New Comic: American Vampire
Having done novels, short stories, and web-serials, Stephen King is branching out to … comics. He’s agreed to co-write the first five issues of American Vampire by Scott Snyder, a new series for DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint:
So what lured the master of horror to comics after all this time? He certainly hasn’t been lacking for work, with a new novel, Under the Dome, due out November 10. He also released a novella, Ur, exclusively for the Amazon Kindle in February. But apparently, the promise of a fresh take on vampires was enough to entice King to make the jump.
Link (Illustration by Rafael Albuquerque) – Thanks Brian Ries!
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Transformers + Airbrush Car Art + Mad Magazine Fold-In = ???
What do you get when you mix together Transformers, airbrush car art and Mad Magazine Fold-in?
Jeremy Kramer and Eric Vaughn of Truck Bearing Kibble, one of my favorite webcomics, have the answer! I won’t spoil the fun for you, so you’ve got to check it out yourself: Link
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Comic Origins of Phrases
The following is an article
from Uncle
John's Triumphant 20th Who says that comic books don't contribute much to literature? Here's a few choice phrases, which origin can be traced back to comic strips: Security Blanket
Charles Schulz first used the concept in June 1, 1954, Peanuts comic strip by giving Linus a blanket to carry everywhere he went. Linus called it his "security blanket." The term is now used by psychologists to define a child's (or anyone's) excessive attachment to a particular object. (Photo: Time Magazine 1965 cover) "We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us"
After winning the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812, Commodore Oliver Perry wrote in a dispatch to General William Henry Harrison, "We have met the enemy, and he is ours." Walt Kelly, author of the comic strip Pogo, reworded the phrase as "We have met the enemy and he is us," in the foreword to his 1953 Pogo collection The Pogo Papers. The meaning: Mankind's greatest threat is ... mankind. The quote became better known when Kelly used it on a poster he was hired to illustrate for the first Earth Day in 1970. The Heebie-Jeebies
Other phrases coined by DeBeck: "horsefeathers," "hotsie-totsie," and "googly-eyed" (after Barney Google, who had huge, bulbous eyes). The strip also gave us the nickname "Sparky," from the name of Barney's horse, Sparkplug. (Many young comic-strip fans were given the name "Sparky," among them, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz.) Palooka
It came from the main character of the 1920s strip Joe Palooka. Joe Palooka was a boxer - likeable but dumb, a trait that probably came from repeated blows to his head in the ring. Soon after the strip's debut, any big, dumb guy might be called a palooka. Milquetoast
Thanks to the comic strip, by the 1930s the word "milquetoast" had become common slang to describe anybody who, like Milquetoast, was weak and timid. Sadie Hawkins Day
It's from Al Capp's L'il Abner. One day a year in the comic strip's rural setting of Dogpatch, single women would chase the single men around. If they caught one, they got to keep - er, marry him. The day got its name from Sadie Hawkins, the first woman in Dogpatch who caught a husband that way. High schools in the United States still hold "Sadie Hawkins Dances," to which the girls invite the boys. Foo Fighter
In Bill Holman's 1930s strip Smokey Stover, the title character rode around in a bizarre-looking two-wheeled fire engine (with a fire hydrant attached to it) that Smokey called a "foo fighter." The term was used by World War II pilots for any unidentified aircraft (including UFOs). The phrase became popular again in the 1990s when it was used as the name of the rock band Foo Fighters. |
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The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader. Proving that some things do get better with age, the latest Bathroom Reader is jam-packed with 600 pages of fascinating trivia, forgotten history, strange lawsuits and other neat articles. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!
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Pioneering
child psychologist Richard Passman is given credit for identifying the
phenomenon of children habitually clutching or carrying a favorite toy
for comfort and security. 
Billy
DeBeck coined the term in his hugely popular 1920s comic strip, 
"Milk
toast" was a simple dish (toast served in milk) frequently served
at soup kitchens in the 1920s. Harold Webster named the main character
in his late 1920s strip, The Timid Soul, Caspar Milquetoast.
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The Influences Behind The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats by Adam Koford
The following is a guest blog by Adam
Koford, current curator (if you believe his tale) and/or creator (if
you believe John Hodgman
and everyone else) of the Laugh-Out-Loud Cat comic strip and the The
Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out
Alex has graciously asked if I would write a post about the comic strip I help create and curate entitled the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats. You may have seen it featured here from time to time on Neatorama. If not, and you don't know what I'm talking about, feel free to visit the archive of the comic, which contains well over 1000 installments.
I'll wait.
Done? Good.
Here's a very short version of the history of the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats comic strip (which you may or may not believe): in 1912, my great-grandfather Aloysius Koford created a short-lived comic strip featuring two hobo cats, Kitteh (the big one) and Pip (the small one). In spite of it's quick disappearance from the few newspapers that ran it, the world and words of the two filthy felines he drew somehow made their way into the cultural subconscious of America, and ultimately the internet. Though long dormant, Aloysius' influence finally resurfaced sometime within the past few years, in a much-transmogrified form, as LOLCats. If you are unfamiliar with standard-issue internet LOLCats, I am both shocked and somehow very happy for you.
As I mentioned, some have chosen not to believe this origin of the webcomic I've been saddled with for the past 21 months. That is their right. John Hodgman, in his introduction to my new collection of comics (the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out, available now from Abrams ComicArts), makes a valiant attempt to disprove my tale. I leave it to you, the reader, to weigh the evidence and be the judge. But let's leave that debate for another time (I myself am not sure whom to believe anymore).
Several cultural touchstones show evidence of being influenced by my great-grandfather's handiwork. Or, if you don't believe my great-grandfather actually existed: I, Adam Koford (coincidentally also a cartoonist) have looked to several influences in the creation of the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats comics. I'll list a few of the less obvious examples, without mentioning the LOLspeak we've all learned to love and hate.
Paper Moon
Peter Bogdonovich's wonderful road movie about a traveling con-man and the young girl who may or may not be his daughter was released on the day I was born. The two aren't technically hoboes, but they are petty thieves, and by the end of the film you'll love them both.
Sullivan's Travels
Preston Sturges' 1941 film starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake is a movie about hoboes. John L. Sullivan (McCrea) is a movie director tired of making popular comedies. To research his career-shifting epic of the common man, entitled O Brother Where Art Thou?, he decides to hit the road as a hobo to see how the down and out live. Hilarity ensues, plots are twisted, lessons are learned, and Veronica Lake makes the best looking tramp you ever saw.
Old Doc Yak
I
first read the adventures of Sidney Smith's anthropomorphic talking yak
on the Barnacle
Press website, which has several months of the strip archived. It's
not his most significant creation, and not particularly monumental in
the history of comics, but it is fun to read.
I've since learned (with the help of the essential Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics and several wonderful blogs) that most early 20th Century comic strips still retain their charm if you're willing to invest some time to get to know the characters.
Hank Ketcham
Dennis the Menace was never my favorite character growing up: in his 50 year history, you can count the number of times his parents smiled on one hand, and I he didn't use that slingshot nearly enough. But it was certainly fun to look at. Hank Ketcham and his ghost artist Al Wiseman crafted a charming world that any cartoonist would be wise to learn from.
B. Kliban
You'll
likely recognize his trademark cat, especially if you have any memories
of the 1970s, but Bernard Kliban created many more strange and hilarious
drawings. To me, he's the quintessential cartoonist: his work can be cryptic
and impenetrable on one hand, and timelessly funny on the other.
My very own children
They say you should write what you know, and I don't think I could have created Pip before I had kids of my own. Pip's inexplicable fascination with leaves has it's genesis in my own son's early obsession with any and every tiny rock we'd come across in our meanderings. Kitteh's anger at the mere mention of ducks has it's roots in one of my kid's early perception that ducks only existed to be chased (he's since learned otherwise).
Finally, the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats wouldn't exist without people like you. That may sound trite, but it's true. I started the project as a way to make money, one drawing at a time. Nearly 1,100 drawings (only a few of which I still own), 600 or so fan club members, and a hardcover book later, you've helped me create a little world of hoboes and bindle sticks I've grown to love exploring. Thank you.
_____
A.
Koford is the cartoonist behind such web gems as the 700
Hoboes Project, Order-a-Monkey
(the origins of our collaborative Caption
Monkey series), Alphabet
of Monsters, Onomatopedia,
and oh yes, the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats as well as the Neatoramabot and Neatoramanaut.
Definitely check out Adam's new book The
Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out
_____
Are you an author and would like your book featured on Neatorama? Please email me about a possible guest blog post just like this one!
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