My Favorite Photographs Department, pt. 2:

Henri Cartier- Bresson (August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004), Alicante, Spain (1933)

My Favorite Photographs Department, pt. 1

Eugène Atget (February 12, 1857 – August 4, 1927), Organ Grinder (1898):

Hal Foster's Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs' most famous creation Tarzan of the Apes came in many forms: books, movies, radio and in the comics. I discovered Tarzan through a wonderful book my father had and passed onto me. The reason the book is so great is not just because of Burroughs' plot, which includes Tarzan's origin, but because of Hal Foster's drawings.

Foster (August 18, 1892 – July 25, 1982), who later became famous for "Prince Valiant", first drew Tarzan in January, 1929 for the comics section. He left the strip but came back In 1931 to draw only the Sunday episodes. An expert draughtsman and storyteller, Foster's panels read like storyboards for the best Tarzan movie never made.

Subsequent Tarzan artists (most notably Burne Hogarth) left their mark, but I never liked them quite as much.

Unfortunately, as in so much of the culture of the '30's, there are elements in these strips that I thought unconsciously racist and for that I apologize in advance. One hopes these elements will not hamper your enjoyment of Foster's line too much.

Years later I saw a copy of a Conan comic in which John Buscema inked his own pencils. There it was- that great Hal Foster look. Obviously John loved Foster's run on Tarzan as much as I did!

John Buscema channeling Hal Foster in Conan # 39

Goodbye, Mr. Jobs

Stephen Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011): inventor, visionary, innovator, master showman, cancer survivor, cancer victim.

I've never owned a computer that wasn't an Apple. I still have, somewhere here in the chaos that is my basement office, one of the Macintosh models pictured above. I've kept it. It's not worth anything, and the software to run it is long gone, but I kept it because I felt that it was an important machine, and I'm not all that fond of machines. Yet there it is, sitting on a bookshelf, looking just like the ones in the picture.

My tiny I-Pod is in my car, waiting until I go to the gym tomorrow, when I'll plug it in my ears to ease the psychic pain of the elliptical trainer. I'm typing this blog on my wireless Apple keyboard, into my latest Mac: OS 10.6.8. It's about the size of a square paperback book.

Of course, I could go on and on. 

Steve Jobs has touched the lives of billions around the world. His machines and inventions, like Pixar, have enriched society in such a global way that his name has become synonymous not just with commerce, but with the narrow world that embraces creativity and commerce, ideas and production, financial and aesthetic success. 

Steve Jobs was somehow able to marry creative thinking with commercial success, beautiful design with titanic application. He was able to take on every challenge and solve them in the most elegant way possible.

Except the last one. He wasn't able to live long enough.

Ed Wynn

Much like Joe E. Brown and Oliver Hardy, Ed Wynn had the kind of face that lent itself to caricature. His cartoon likeness turned up in Warner Bros.' "Shuffle Off to Buffalo", and his face graces a pot of jam in Max Fleischer's  "Betty in Blunderland".

A successful vaudeville, radio and television comedian, he took on dramatic roles in the last decade of his life at his son Keenan's urging (although the two always seemed to be the same age to a dumb kid like me.)

A lot of things are sweet about this ad: it's originally done in watercolors, it's signed, there's a horse's nose in it, and it's about a fire- chief sponsored by a flammable product. I suppose Texaco water would have been a tough sell back then, certainly much harder to market and far less profitable.

Ironic Car Department

And you thought the word "ironic" was only used in comics:

The Cult of Stupid

I don't want to join the Cult of Stupid.

I don't want to assume vaccines lead to "mental retardation."
I don't want to call Social Security "a Ponzie Scheme."
I don't want to strap on my gun to attend a political rally or a townhall meeting.
I don't want to make less than $20,000 a year and still support lower taxes for the rich.
I don't want to condemn intellectuals.
I don't want to condemn homosexuals.
I don't want to condemn people who belong to non- Christian religions.
I don't want to hate black people or any other minority or majority for that matter.
I don't want to stop government grants and loans for college educations.
I don't believe the president was born anywhere else than Hawaii. I don't need to see his birth certificate any more than I need to see anyone else's.
I don't want America's aesthetic culture to decline any further.
I don't want to elect leaders who pretend to be stupid just to get votes.
I don't want to elect leaders who actually are stupid.
I don't want to join the Cult of Stupid.

But, hey, that's just me.