While Dick Briefer's classic Frankenstein is the most famous comic parody of the creature, it was far from the only such strip. Let's visit with another old favorite around these parts - Ellis Chambers - and his take on the creature from 1951 -
page art by Ellis Chambers for Holiday Comics #2 (1951)
Not as much a big fan of this story as most of Chambers' other works, but still nice, ever planning on posting more stories from Daffy Tunes?
ReplyDeleteHere's a reference to Chambers I made here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Psychedelics_Society/comments/au7yux/mdma_in_japanese_government_antidrug_psa_with/
I love the use of cartoons in Asian stuff haha. When my drawing skills get better years from now I might actually make a little comic poking fun at the American psychonaut community with an Ellis Holly Chambers esque. style-the guy who sliced open his own arm with a razor blade to put in heroin. I love that cartoon style and it'd be funny to show that the emperor has no clothes (the false promises of psychonautism) with a drawing style inspired by a clearly mentally ill drug addict. As an avid fan of the 30s, 40s, and 50s American cartoon style quite fun it will be to do a little comic in a style in that type by the wonderful cartoonist Ellis Holly Chambers, who based on what little we knew certainly didn't give a damn about anything "spiritual" but just drawing cartoons and shooting up. You know the psychonaut community is in a bad state when a drug-addicted possibly psychotic funny-animal drawing madman was better than said culture's "figures" like McKenna and the various "shamans" who perform cultural appropriation simply because he was selling wonderful funny animal comics instead of lies and propaganda with a bowtie such as the "stoned ape theory".
Sorry to leave you waiting so long.
ReplyDeleteI've got a big stack of Chamber's works in my sorting piles, and will definitely be running more over time. There won't be a lot from Daffy Tunes though - there was only one issue. Yeah,it was #12, but #11 was Captain Flight and #13 was Brenda Starr, because - comics.
On the plus side, he drew all 5 stories and provided the illos for the postal text pages.
So, definitely more to come.
Oh - and i enjoyed the full post which you excerpted above quote.
DeleteEllis Holly Chambers might have been a sociopath, as Milton Knight clarifies Howie calling Chambers a “psychotic”:
ReplyDeleteWell, he was using the term generically, as nonprofessionals did up until recently. Now folks would be more likely to define Chambers as a sociopath. Howard said Chambers could walk out with a bar stool and stare down the bartender. Intimidating, manipulating, on the edge.“
From: http://miltonknight.blogspot.com/2019/04/good-news.html?m=1
Nice to learn some new info about the man. He was a great artist but sounds like someone you wouldn’t want to piss off or even be around.
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ReplyDeleteA handsome and charismatic sociopath who drew funny animal comics? He sounds like a likeable and eccentric horror movie villain haha.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe the ominously portended character who shows up to save the surviving kids at the end?
ReplyDeleteNick - thanks for continuing to prod with a sharp stick to see if there's a reaction.
I gave up fighting my brain for a while. There are several posts laid out visually ranging from ancient Mickey Mouse strips to the old live-action Tintin film, but every time i tried to type the text my mind just wandered away. I finally decided to let it have its way, and hopefully it'll loop back around soon.
(And hopefully, too, this note is a sign that it's in the process of doing so)
Ellis’s charisma and apparently being very handsome, he sounds like someone could make a movie about him-problem is we know too little aside from those few things. If he was more well known I can easily imagine him becoming almost a mythical character like Walt Disney, with all sorts of legends about him. I really do wonder what happened to Chambers? Did he ride off into the sunset or did his lifestyle of drugs and staring down bartenders eventually get him the magic bullet? I’d love to see unpublished drawings or original art of his. And the million dollar question that’s morbid but I just have to ask: did he ever kill anyone? It’s not hard for a sociopath to do that. Of course most sociopaths don’t actually kill people but we can’t prove he didn’t and heroin can make even regular people act like sociopaths, what would it make a sociopath do to get their fix? I’d be conflicted about his works if it turns out he hurt people but at the same time that’d only make those cheerful funny animal comics where everyone is out to kill each other he drew that much more fascinating.
ReplyDeleteAnd the ancient Mickey Mouse comics have a flair to them the black and white Mickey Mouse cartoons also had. Like Ellis Holly Chambers work there’s an edge and playfulness and reckless joy in both the old Mickey comics and cartoons that just makes you feel so upbeat. Black and white Mickey Mouse, old Mickey Mouse comics, the works of Ellis Chambers, classic Looney Tunes, early Simpsons all had that joyful rebellious tone that make them not just stylized drawings but joyful art.