Top 10 Issues of The Comics Journal: #71 Part Three

COLUMNS:
"Suspended Animation: The Man of Spinach" (pages 97-100) by Jim Korkis [Seriously. Does it get any better than Mr. Korkis writing on the history of animation? As can be expected from Mr. Korkis, his column on the history of POPEYE cartoons begins with short histories of both the Fleischer Studios and the comic strip POPEYE. He then proceeds with a step-by-step evolution of the Fleischer POPEYE cartoons (from the pilot cartoon in the BETTY BOOP series) followed by the Famous Studios version, the ultra-streamlined television incarnation by Gene Deitch, a rare ABC Saturday morning feature-length one shot movie starring Popeye, and a 1978 Hanna-Barbera effort. Searching YouTube we can put together a visual version of Mr. Korkis' essay:


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"Suspended Animation: Animation 1981 The New Age of Animation" (pages 100-101) by Jim Korkis [Not content with the minutiae-rich POPEYE animated history Mr. Korkis also follows the theme of the issue with a short overview of all-things-animation in 1981. Ralph Bakshi's AMERICAN POP; Disney's THE FOX AND THE HOUND; HEAVY METAL movie; and Warner Brothers THE LOONEY, LOONEY BUGS BUNNY MOVIE are the feature movies he discusses. While Leonard Maltin's OF MICE AND MAGIC; Jeff Lenburg's THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANIMATED CARTOONS; Roger Maxwell's ART AND ANIMATION; Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald's WARNER BROTHERS CARTOONS; and, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston's DISNEY ANIMATION: THE ILLUSION OF LIFE are the books he lists from the previous year. Saturday Morning television cartoons from 1981 singled out are: SPIDERMAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS; THE KID SUPER POWER HOUR (Captain Marvel); THE SMURFS; Jack Kirby's GOLDIE GOLD; HEATHCLIFF/MARMADUKE; and, the (then) new Disney television show WALT DISNEY ON CBS. Mr. Korkis also recalls the deaths the previous year of Michael Maltese, Steve Bosustow, Lotte Reininger, and Hans Conreid. He concludes with a look ahead to the animation front in 1982.]

"The Lake Isle: Sturgeon: Love as Knowledge" (pages 104-105) by Carter Scholz photo [This a short, yet detailed, review of Theodore Sturgeon's writing in general, and in particular his two short stories "Brownshoes" and "Slow Sculpture." Carter Scholz was a prolific science fiction writer and critic at this time, a bilbiography of his writings can be found here.]

"Panel Progressions: The EC Progressives, Part Two: Bernard Krigstein" (pages 107-112) by Greg Potter [This long-running column was inaugurated in The Journal 47 (July 1979) with a column analyzing Will Eisner (accompanying the second half of a Will Eisner interview that issue). Subsequent installments ran in in issues 53(Neal Adams); 59(Jack Kirby); 63(Alex Raymond and Hal Foster); 67(Harvey Kurtzman, reprinted in THE COMICS JOURNAL LIBRARY Volume 7 without a copyright notice); this issue; and, a last gasp version that ran only once (that I'm aware of) in The Journal 94 (BAT LASH, supposed to be "analyses of the great comic series of the 1960s and 1970s" page 110), these were "from a work in progress by Gregory Potter." (The Journal 47, page 56) Mr. Potter also had an off and on career as a comic book writer as detailed at GCD.
This issue's installment focuses on Bernie Krigstein and his work on "Master Race." After a brief (and not necessarily accurate) capsule history of Mr. Krigstein's career up until his EC days, Mr. Potter does a fine turn describing the "single panel theory" of sequential art, it's strengths and weaknesses, and how it differs from the prevailing attitude of Will Eisner's "cinematic" storytelling (for a more modern example of the former, I believe Jaime Hernandez's storytelling is similar). Following this introduction of Mr. Krigstein's techniques he examines in detail, panel by panel "Master Race" (IMPACT 1, 1955. writer: Al Feldstein) which is also conveniently reproduced in it's entirety along with this essay. Coming at the story from structural, storytelling, fine art, and historical viewpoints Mr. Potter brings added insight into what is, arguably, one of the more revolutionary achievements in mainstream comics.]

THE COMICS JOURNAL (c)2010 Fantagraphics Books Inc.
"Popeye" (c)2010 King Features Syndicate, just saying is all.