JGR Freaky Friday: Ernest Chiriacka 1954 Esquire Calendar!

Ten months of Ernest Chiriacka’s 1954 Esquire Calendar. At the time of this post I couldn’t locate decent size images for May and July that’s why they are missing from the above images. The quality-control part of me just could not post sub-quality small size version, however, the meticulous and anal completest in me wants to post all twelve months.

Both parts of myself were able to come to a compromise; to post the ten large size images as a photo set and then tack on the two small sized missing months as an inline image in this text area.

Here are the missing small images May:

And here’s July:

Don’t know who this incredible pulp/pin-up artist was? Read up on Ernest Chiriacka here!

As always Roboteers, please enjoy!

It’s time to get freaky, see my other questionable Freaky Friday posts here.

~Joe

Lost and Forgotten Gag Comics of Erik Christensen “Victor Borge of the Easel” Vintage Sleaze Danish Cartoonist

From the vintagesleaze website:

Forgotten and lost Danish cartoonist Erik Christensen had one brief moment of fame here in the states, but it was unfortunately under his pseudonym alone… “CHRIS” and I had to translate some Danish to identify him now over 50 years later. He also worked under the name ECHRI and over the course of a long and interesting career worked in animation, advertising and comic strips.

Christensen may have created a character known as “Beatnik Bob” He would today be in his eighties, but researchers at cartoon museums in Denmark have had no luck tracking him down. He may also have been something of a Beatnik himself, as there seem to be Danish words like “unreliable” and “lazy” in his sparse biography. Seems kinda rude to me.

The images here were shown in a 1958 issue of Fling Magazine, published as a special little insert called the “Fling Folio” which profiled artists and photographers. At the time, he was apparently known as “Victor Borge of the Easel” as he was also a piano player.

Erik? If you are around, scholars at the Cartoon Museum in Denmark are looking for you

As always gang, enjoy!

~Joe

Weird-Ohs Car-Icky-Tures

Woofelnerts gang, here is some really cool box artwork! Please do enjoy, gang!

Here’s a quote from where I’ve reblogged this from, humungus:

Weird-Ohs Car-Icky-Tures, Plastic Model Kits Box Art

~Joe

Tex Avery Online Found Images (Part 2 of 2)

Woofnerts Roboteers, here’s part two in my Tex Avery posts of goodies for you all gang. Avery’s impact on animation is nothing less than Earth shattering.

I downloaded these images way back sometime around 2002 and recently found them while cleaning up my computer, therefore all credit goes to the original poster. Much thanks stranger!

Here’s a little info on him:

Avery’s influence can be seen in almost all of the animated cartoon series by various studios in the 1940s and 1950s. Gary Morris described Avery’s innovative approach:

Above all, [Avery] steered the Warner Bros. house style away from Disney-esque sentimentality and made cartoons that appealed equally to adults, who appreciated Avery’s speed, sarcasm, and irony, and to kids, who liked the nonstop action. Disney’s “cute and cuddly” creatures, under Avery’s guidance, were transformed into unflappable wits like Bugs Bunny, endearing buffoons like Porky Pig, or dazzling crazies like Daffy Duck. Even the classic fairy tale, a market that Disney had cornered, was appropriated by Avery, who made innocent heroines like Red Riding Hood into sexy jazz babies, more than a match for any Wolf. Avery also endeared himself to intellectuals by constantly breaking through the artifice of the cartoon, having characters leap out of the end credits, loudly object to the plot of the cartoon they were starring in, or speak directly to the audience.^[1]

I highly recommend you search out his short animated gems and give them a watch. They are jam-packed with lightening fast sight gags and jokes. Avery was a true genius in the field of animated comedy.

As always gang, please do enjoy!!

~Joe

Tex Avery Online Found Images (Part 1 of 2)

Here is part one of some awesome Tex Avery stills from various animated short films he directed.

I downloaded these images way back sometime around 2002 and recently found them while cleaning up my computer, therefore all credit goes to the original poster. Much thanks stranger!

Here’s a little info on him:

Frederick Bean “Texas/Fred/Tex” Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, creating the characters of Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, and developing Porky Pig, Chilly Willy (this last one for the Walter Lantz Studio) into the personas for which they are remembered.

and

Avery’s style of directing encouraged animators to stretch the boundaries of the medium to do things in a cartoon that could not be done in the world of live-action film. An often-quoted line about Avery’s cartoons was, “In a cartoon you can do anything.”^[2] He also performed a great deal of voice work in his cartoons, usually throwaway bits (e.g. the Santa Claus seen briefly in Who Killed Who?), but Tex did fill in for Bill Thompson as Droopy, although the individual cartoons where Avery did this have never been specified.

I highly recommend you search out his short animated gems and give them a watch. They are jam-packed with lightening fast sight gags and jokes. Avery was a true genius in the field of animated comedy.

As always gang, please do enjoy!!

~Joe

Topps bubblegum trading cards, Batman by Norman Saunders

Norman Saunders (of Topps Mars Attacks trading cards fame) is one of my favorite pulp magazine artists. He was quite prolific in his career painting a “…total of 867 [pulp magazine covers], which is the highest number of covers painted by any pulp artist.”

I found this spiffy cards here!

About the cards:

At the height of the hoopla over ABC-TV’s campy Batman series, Saunders was hired by Topps to produce a line of bubblegum trading cards that depicted the Caped Crusader and Robin, the Boy Wonder, in dozens of precarious situations facing such familiar villains as the Joker and Catwoman.

Partial Quote about the artist, written by his son David:

After two years of unsuccesful attempts to work within the confines of post-war slick magazines, Saunders left the slicks and returned to working for pulp magazines, where he was in constant demand for the remaining years of that industry. During this period he added another 421 pulp covers to his lifetime total of 867, which is the highest number of covers painted by any pulp artist.

He painted his last pulp cover in 1960. Saunders found all of his subsequent clients in the subculture publishing world of paperbacks, comic books, men’s adventure magazines, and trading cards.

Norman Saunders lived long enough to see himself celebrated as the legendary creator of many iconic images of American popular culture.

He retired to his wife’s hometown and died of emphysema at age 82 in Columbus Nebraska on March 7, 1989.

Read the full article here - and as always Roboteers, enjoy!

~Joe