I was planning an Ellis Chambers post for The 1940s Funny Animalphabet featuring his work in Buster Bunny. Then i noticed a slight technical problem. Though the title debuted in the late 1940s, the stories didn't appear until 1950-52.
Oops. I guess they'll have to wait a spell.
Holly didn't do a whole lot for the book - only eight stories ranging from one to eight pages. We ran his Tommy Turtle tale from Buster Bunny #3 previously. Here are the rest of his signed stories from Buster Bunny, with one exception. The only copy i've ever found of #13 was a scan, and that was destroyed by a clumsy attempt to 'restore' it. That Chester Cat tale will have to wait until either i find a paper copy or have the hours and patience to try to repair the damage. Today we've got Buster & Bill Bunny, Cuffy, Dizzy Duck and Goofy Gander.
Ellis' first and longest tale for Buster Bunny comics appeared in #4 -
On a side note, i don't know what the frell is wrong with the way Blogger is displaying the standard text for the post. It should be larger and easier to read. Maybe it is on your system. For reference, this text is "normal" sized. The credits note below is "smallest" size. This should display almost twice the size of the text below, but on my system they're pretty much the same size.
But maybe it's my settings...
page art by Ellis Holly Chambers from Buster Bunny #s 4, 5, 7, 9 & 10 (1950, 1951)
The artwork for these stories is absolutely gorgeous, on the level of Carl Barks and Walt Kelly even. I don’t know if maybe Chambers was laying off the drugs or simply got better at drawing over time but the artwork is so smooth and full of life. Although it’s extremely unlikely that any potential drawings that might exist somewhere will ever surface, if Chambers survived past the 50s instead of getting “rubbed out” I do wonder what he drew. Also what he drew in his free time, I wouldn’t be surprised if recreational drawings were underground comics before underground comics but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they were just cute. Or both. For a guy who stared down a bartender Chambers could sure draw funny animals with a lovely and carefree vibe.
ReplyDeleteThe morbid million dollar question: did Chambers ever rub anyone out himself? He was supposedly a sociopath after all. If it turns out he did I don’t know whether to swear off his comics or reread a bunch of them and see a subtle terrifying and fascinating depth. Or both.
It's terribly frustrating the we can only speculate with so very little knowledge from which to work. I do have a bunch of his '50s work set aside, so we'll see more from this time period. (And more from the '40s tomorrow over on the other blog)
ReplyDeleteBe careful not to mistake sociopath and psychopath. The terms are used fairly interchangeably in much of the media. Not saying that a sociopath can't kill without remorse, of course. But that's more psychopath behaviour.
Savage generalization completely ignoring varying degrees of both, of course. A sociopath is more likely to simply not care (which is why you see so many in politics).
Chambers potentially not caring could maybe explain the carefree nature of his comics. The atmosphere of these is carefree being happy. I like how his comics could be cheerful and creepy at the same time. Whereas many underground comics were cynical, Chambers were optimistic yet anything could happen. His works are like the missing link between the classic cartoons and modern artsy stuff inspired by them, like Cuphead and Shawn Dickinson. Whereas modern artists make these classic cartoon stuff wacky and surreal on purpose it seems Chambers just drew as he went along and his eccentric character spilled on the page. When it comes to those 30s cartoons the modern stuff inspired by them manages to be wonderful but the wackiness is clearly intentional. But in the early 30s it was young animators just going wild to demonstrate sound and cartoon wackiness before it was character oriented and instead just objects coming to life. I love both the 30s and modern-day rubberhose-inspired stuff but the fact that the early 30s wackiness was largely an accident gives it it’s own unique feel that was a product of young animators just making crazy gags to be funny during the Great Depression.
ReplyDeleteWith Chambers it seems his comics were in their own world and he had a unique style of cute and creepy that might have been a reflection of himself-something that can’t be replicated. It’s indeed frustrating that so little is known about him when his works and the little information about him make you wonder a lot about him. If Chambers had a brother(s) or sister(s) and assuming they had offspring that survives to this day, surely, somewhere, there is someone who knows things nobody else does. But we don’t even know if he had siblings or even how old he was when he hired Howie Post. I’d be dying to know how his childhood was like or whether he survived past the 50s or not.