Meanwhile, 40 Years Ago In 1977...

Double Natural was a big year for me - lots of good things happening.

I got married again (to the same woman).

We conceived our first child, but #1 Son didn't arrive until '78.

I was a scifi geek, and we'd been listening to this Lucas guy talk (at Space Con, i believe - one of the local Los Angeles conventions we used to attend) about his big movie concept before it came out, so i was among those wearing Star Wars t-shirts at the opening of the first film. (Of Course he was selling t-shirts there before the movie opened - he had the merchandising rights in his contract)

But there was one thing happening on my birthday that occurred on the other side of the country, in New York City, and online galleries were many decades away - so i missed it: The Berni Wrightson Exhibition.

The ads for his Frankenstein Portfolio, with those incredibly luxurious inks that merged fine art and comic art so deliciously were appearing at the time, and inspiring great lust for the collection. Seeing that his work was going to be hanging in a gallery seemed so right, son, that we wanted very much to be there.

At least i eventually found a gallery catalog for the show - one of 500 signed by The Artist - so we can get a glimpse of what was on display:

Yeah, i never made it there.
But, it was still a good year.

(Better?)

art by Bernie Wrightson from the NYCA Gallery Catalog (Oct 1977)

This Is Me (Again Or Still)

I know that some would like to know more about the hermit behind the words, beyond the small snapshots that spill out in the ramblings. Every now and then i'll manage to get perhaps too open in an off-kilter sort of balance. But generally, i find it hard to consciously talk about my odd life, no matter how suited it might be to the topic of the blog. Somehow, that's largely detached from wandering through old memories, because i'm focused on the memories and not myself. It's something i'll try to work on.

Of course, that doesn't leave much for this post, does it?

Fortunately, there are still some small societies that tell my story, and the story of my peoples. So, we'll go to their tribal writ-

They, um...  they might have gotten a bit confused towards the end there.
Just a bit

the works by -3- from This Is Me (2011)

Once Upon A Time In Japan

As mentioned previously, we're rapidly running out of 2017 for all those old anniversary posts as yet unused. So let's do a big jump back today - 150 years - to 1867.

Obviously, we're not looking at comic books here, since they've yet to be invented. We're not even looking at magazine illustrations today - we're going to an Odd little book that collects Sketches of Japanese Manners & Customs.

Typically, i like to focus on the artists when presenting artwork, but that's not really possible in this case. You see, the book features "original coloured pictures by native artists" and that's all we need to know about them, because ... Empire.

Well - it was 150 years ago, middle of the 19th century. Still damned annoying, though.

I'll let this letter of introduction for the book explain the book:

And our frontpiece, which gives what art credits are present:

It's probably not with conscious intent that the word Japanese and the credit to Native Artists
appear on a dark background, making them harder to notice, right?

Topics of life in Japan were rather varied, and there were quite a few full colour plates in the book, as evidenced by the Table Of Contents and List Of Plates:

In addition to the plates listed above, the text of the book covered details of life in Japan, and line illustrations were sprinkled throughout the pages - also credited to "native artists":

As one might note, the textual perceptions are rather heavily 'of the times', every bit as much as the dismissal of the relevance of actual artists. Nonetheless, it is a most fascinating little book, and it does contain some nice examples of Japanese period art. So why don't we go ahead and look at some of those illustrations, eh?

Festival In Honour Of The Birth Of Children

We used to have a couple of Carp like that flying on our rooftop when i was very young. That meant there were two sons in the house. My sister was born the following year, but we moved. I never learned what to fly for a daughter - is that what the red-frilled wind-sock/flag represents? Or did they just hide their daughters? (so to speak)

Merchant's Great Festival

Otinta Lama

A Japanese Wedding

I'm so used to Chinese traditions that this looks like a funeral to me, with the white burial robes.

A Daimio Paying A State Visit

 I wonder - is that a famous mural in the background? 'Art in art' could be an interesting topic some day, no?

Ladies Of The Mikado's Court Performing The Butterfly Dance

The Sacrifice

A Daimio's Funeral

Cremation Of The Body

Public Wrestling In The Great Ampitheatre At Yeddo

Interior Of A Theatre

I love the recessed seating, but how do they pack the boxes?

Exposure For Infedelity

Interesting to note that they persecute both parties here. Have we moved backwards in this regard?

Praying A Soul Out Of Purgatory

Sudangee, or Last Offices

A Tea-House Merry-Making

Uya, or Public Bath-House

I most definitely prefer Onsen for my bath. But not everybody has the hot springs to construct one.

Illustrations by Native Artists for Sketches of Japanese Manners & Customs (1867)

The Old 52

Now that the DC universe is governed by the number of playing cards in a deck, let's take a look and see what's changed in the last 52 years...

Hmm...

Super Everything from Sam Cornell for Help #26 (1965)

In The Days Before Photoshop...

My peripatetic mind won't go where i want it to currently, and refuses to focus to write more than a sentence or two at a time. So we sidestep for today's edition of

Back in 1967, if one wanted to alter photographs it took time, patience, blades, airbrush and skill.
And yet, somehow, this happened anyway...

NOTE: The images for this post contain photo-manipulated nudity

and have been moved to our back room for adult content.

The text remains, along with the censored cover image below,

that you may make a fair guess as to whether or not you wish to look at the pics.
Please follow this link to The Other Voice Of ODD! archive

of the original post to view the artwork.

Those 10 images & limericks actually comprise about 85% of the book. It really did take a lot of effort to create this sort of thing without the wonders of modern photo/art software. No wonder i went all digital in the art almost 25 years ago.

This odd post comes from

words & pics by Mel Norman and Arthur Benwood for Treasure Chests (1967)

Who's Your Funnies

Winter is here, and i seem to be in hibernation mode. Doing double duty on the sleeping. Urg.

I find myself nodding off after only a few hours of wakefulness. In no small part, i'm sure, that's the system replenishing itself after depletion, but it's definitely a function of the shorter days and colder weather, too.

So, the point of this little ramble, eh?
Posts are running a little later lately while i'm running off-kilter.
But they'll get here eventually.

For our Sunday Morning Funnies, we continue with our Whovian cartoons, courtesy of Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett, and starting from their first collection together of Time Lord Ticklers - The Doctor Who Fun Book.

but, have you noticed? It's getting crowded out there...

Every now and then, they sprinkle in a short bit of story among the various teasers and tidbits-

And if we jump to the end of the 2nd collection (Bigger On The Inside), we find an ending and beginning...

Let's close out this bit with a spot of colour, eh? From the Doctor Who Annuals '92 & '94:

Only two more weeks and a day...

the works by Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett (1987-1994)