Happy Birthday, Will Eisner (March 6, 1917- January 3rd, 2005)

What a treat to open Google today and see this:

Yes, it's the great Will Eisner's 94th birthday, and Google felt it was important enough to give Mr. Eisner their special graphic treatment.

For those L by L readers not familiar with Will Eisner and his work (and I'm sure there are one or two, maybe), he was, along with Jack Kirby, Walt Kelly, Harvey Kurtzman and very few others, one of the finest purveyors of comic art and writing in the history of the medium. Words like influential, seminal and groundbreaking barely begin to describe Mr. Eisner's contributions. He was that good.

Most of his fame centers around his prewar creation The Spirit, which ran as an eight- page supplement in Sunday comic sections throughout the United States from 1940 until the mid 1950's.

A classic Spirit splash page

Eisner managed to tell fully developed stories week after week in only eight pages, utilizing progressive graphic techniques that showed the influence of the cinema (especially Orson Welles' Citizen Kane) in the storytelling, sound effects and the transitions from panel to panel. The Spirit usually began with a unique and eye- catching splash page, designed to draw the reader into the plot. The addition of beautiful and dangerous femme fatales, mysterious villains, lovable regulars and the working class invulnerabilty of the Spirit himself made for terrific Sunday reading.

The fact that The Spirit was published in newspapers rather than comics (along with several other features) gave the strip its unique quality. Everything happens fast in The Spirit.

Mr. Eisner was one of the rare artists who also excelled as a businessman, and after The Spirit's run he made a small fortune doing illustrations for a wide range of publications.

His comic work (or "sequential" work as he liked to call it) was rediscovered in the '60's and re-published in comic book form, which is how I first saw it. From the first story I saw, in a Harvey Comic anthology of classic Spirit strips, I was hooked. It was incredible work.

Mr, Eisner's life and times are the history of comics in this country. It makes for fascinating reading and I thoroughly recommend his website: http://www.willeisner.com/

The Art in the Snapshot

From the archives of "If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger...", this other- worldly  snapshot of Betty Grable:

Goodnight, Jane (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011)

The Baby Dolls

Mardi Gras is in full swing in New Orleans- there's a parade every day it seems, and the city is gearing up for Fat Tuesday as only AGC can. As a public service to lucky L by L readers, I've set up a camera on the parade route! Well, not really- but someone else has and here's the address: http://www.nola.com/paradecam/.

A quote from Gumbo Ya Ya, reprinted in Al Rose's invaluable Storyville, New Orleans:
"A crowd of Baby Dolls came along, all dressed up in tight, scanty trunks, silk blouses and poke bonnets with ribbons tied under dusky chins. The costumes were in every color of the rainbow and some that are not. They joined the crowd, dancing and shaking themselves."

The Baby Dolls, an African American all- female Krewe (for lack of a better term- I doubt there's a formal krewe) still parade during Mardi Gras, sometimes in conjunction with the Zulu celebration. The  earliest known activity of the Baby Dolls is recorded in 1912, well prior to the closing of Storyville.

In 2003, the irrepressible Antoinette K- Doe revived the flagging Krewe. Under her tutelege, the Baby Dolls enjoyed a resurgence in popularity.

Antoinette K- Doe's Baby Dolls

In an article published in the Gambit shortly after Antoinette's death on Mardi Gras Day,  2009, she said, "The Baby Dolls had disappeared, and I brought the Baby Dolls back. I named them the Ernie K-Doe Baby Dolls. The reason I did that was to show the new Baby Dolls are career ladies. We all working ladies. The history of Baby Dolls, from years ago when I was a little girl, I thought they were baby dolls that I could play with.

"My grandmother told me, 'No, it’s ladies.' It developed into getting history on the Baby Dolls, because I was always fascinated by our culture. And I understood that the Baby Dolls was whores. I knew they had the Red Light District, the Baby Dolls here. So when I brought the Baby Dolls back, I didn’t want them to have the reputation they had before. I said, 'You know what? Let’s clean up the act.' So we made it career ladies."

Ms. K- Doe was due to lead the Baby Doll Krewe on the very day she died. They marched without her, knowing she'd want the parade to keep going.

This set of photographs, found in the excellent Louisiana Digital Library show the Baby Dolls circa 1942. There's no real caption information beyond that and the people in the pictures are not identified.

Portrait of the Artist Formerly Known as Young

Circa 1970:

The Carmonica

First there was this article, from the New Zealand Herald:

Naturally this made me curious, because I play harmonica. And know how to drive a car.

So then I found this:

This was interesting. The harmonicas are not only larger than your standard diatonic Hohner Marine Band, but they are completely unmarked. No branding whatsoever. They are also double reed harmonicas- the kind that invoke the image of cape- wearing gendarmes strolling along the Seine on a warm Parisienne night.

Further research uncovered this:

 

Well, gentle reader, you know me- when it comes to getting the low- down skinny for my loyal L by L readers, I leave no stone unturned.

Finally I found this:



So now we know. Three hundred and thirty harmonicas traveling at 100 km/h sounds sort of like the end chord of "Day in the Life" by the Beatles.

After listening to the video I can tell you that a) the harmonicas are, thankfully, all in the same key and b) if you were driving this car and needed to use the horn in a life or death situation, you'd be completely screwed.

Chinese Toilet Waterfall

When I saw this, I couldn't help thinking of a Lowell Thomas- type travelog, "From deep inside mysterious China comes a hidden marvel all but incomprehensible to the Western mind and way of life!"

This is from the blog Damn Cool Pics, via Dinosaurs and Robots.

And I quote: "China always amazes world with weird and astonishing things. China’s Toilet Seat Waterfall is in South China’s Gunagdong Province. Its made from thousands of recycled toilet seats, urinals, and sinks. It is about 100 meters long and 5 meter tall.

"This art project is a part of local tradeshow for pottery and porcelain products. It attracts many visitors to take a look for this weird waterfall."

I'm sure the sound of all that water from all those toilets is very soothing, and talk about inventive recycling! My guess is this is only one of the many interesting things we'll be seeing in the coming years from our future Chinese masters.