The final week of my friend Eric Lappegard’s semi-autobiographical comic strip Schmapples, drawn the week before his ultimately fatal car accident, can now be seen on his website (as can the comic strip he had in the Comix issue of City Pages the week he died). I recommend reading Schmapples starting from the beginning if you haven’t already read them. You won’t want to miss them. Eric gave himself one hell of a conclusion. Life can be terrible, but sometimes art can be perfect.
Please note that we’ll have a complete Schmapples collection available at the benefit show for Eric’s family on September 8th at Altered Esthetics.
I’ve decided to start slowly making my way through the Otto Messmer’s Felix the Cat cartoons that have been posted online that I can find in the order they were released. Here is Felix’s first cartoon, Feline Follies, from 1919. Technically, it isn’t even a Felix cartoon… he is referred to as “Master Tom” in this one. I don’t know if Messmer had much experience animating before this, but it sure looks like he must have. His proficiency for showing character in his characters is already apparent… look at “Master Tom’s” vanity as he checks himself out in the mirror. It is often noted that Felix was the first cartoon character with a well-defined personality. His personality is definitely what made him the most popular animated cartoon character of the twenties.
Besides the wonderful Felix animated cartoons, Messmer was a fantastic comic strip and comic book cartoonist. The ASIFA Animation Archive recently had a generous post of Felix Sunday newspaper comics which can be seen here. If you dig these comics, you won’t want to miss the excellent reprint book that came out from Fantagraphics a number of years ago, Nine Lives to Live.
I wish someone would do a huge reprint series of Messmer’s comic book work like the great Little Lulu books from Dark Horse… I can’t think of a better comic book to read to my almost 2-year-old daughter.
If you have a desire to draw your own interpretation of an Everett True strip and send it to me, I’d love to put it up for the internet for all to see with a link to your website or what have you. Send it to me at:
His family will be incurring considerable expenses from this horrible tragedy. Please consider giving a donation. Donations can be made to:
Account of Eric Lappegard
Voyager Bank
500 Marschall Road
Shakopee, MN 55379
There will also be a benefit event September 8th in the Twin Cities which will include a gallery show and comics anthology, a bike race and live music. You can get current information about it as it comes together on the Cartoonist Conspiracy blog. I hope to see you there.
Most good cartoonists do at least one thing really well… Basil Wolverton did a whole lot of things better than about anybody. He was the master in his time of hilarious, crazy, surreal, cartoony art (indeed, he is the father of the “spaghetti and meatball” school of cartooning). He was also fantastic at caricature, science fiction comics and horror comics. He even did amazing bible adaptations. Here is some of the great obscure Wolverton art from comicartfans.com. I recommend clicking on them to see larger versions on the comicartfans.com site. Note that there is more Wolverton to be found there as well if you do a search for him.
I think these are the only Wolverton pencils I’ve ever seen… some preliminary drawings for some Spacehawk comics.
The Comics Journal #284, currently at the printer, will contain a generous selection from such Opper strips as Happy Hooligan, Alphonse and Gaston, and the aforementioned Maud, as well as a lengthy and informative essay on the pioneering cartoonist’s career by Jared Gardner.
As I mentioned previously, I’ll be posting A.D. Condo’s Everett True cartoons on a regular basis until I run out of them… here’s another one.
If you have a desire to draw your own interpretation of an Everett True strip and send it to me, I’d love to put it up for the internet for all to see with a link to your website or what have you. Send it to me at:
