Bambi wants YOU

Disney's Bambi "Protect Our Forest Friends" by preventing wildfire poster, in Skyline, Falls Church, VA.

More cartoon murals in Navy Hospitals

Here's 3 more pictures from the Navy's Bureau of Medicine & Surgery's files...



Where Else? - The Pediatric Waiting Room. US Navy Hospital Subic Bay, Republic of Philippines. Dedicated June 5, 1973. [Note Peanuts comic strip mural on wall].Published in Navy Medicine, October 1973.

Navy Medicine Historical Files Collection - Facilities - Subic Bay, Philippines 12-0232-025



Light and Airy - Pediatric waiting room and clinical spaces. US Navy Hospital Subic Bay, Republic of Philippines. Dedicated June 5, 1973. [Note Disney cartoon mural on wall].Published in Navy Medicine, October 1973.

Navy Medicine Historical Files Collection - Facilities - Subic Bay, Philippines 12-0232-026



Pediatric Waiting Room - CDR G.W. Baldauf, MSC, USN, AO, at US Navy Hospital Subic Bay, communes with an articulate art critic. US Navy Hospital Subic Bay, Republic of Philippines. Dedicated June 5, 1973. [Note Disney cartoon mural on wall].

Published in Navy Medicine, October 1973.Navy Medicine Historical Files Collection - Facilities - Subic Bay, Philippines 12-0232-027

Rethinking Rascally Roy (Lichtenstein, not Thomas)

Around the time Roy Lichtenstein starting painting his canvases influenced by comic book panels, editor Stan Lee was giving everyone at Marvel Comics a nickname to make the company appear more homey. Since Lichtenstein usually appropriated images from DC Comics, he probably wouldn't have qualified for one, but if he did, he probably should have gotten the 'Rascally' that eventually settled on writer Roy Thomas. Lichtenstein seems to have spent his entire career engaging with other art forms, appropriating them, making sport of them, but also in some odd way, respecting them.

The National Gallery of Art is mounting a large career-spanning retrospective that begins with one of Lichtenstein's first comic-derived images - the Gallery's Look Mickey (1961). At the press preview, curators kept noting that the original image is from Donald Duck Lost and Found, a Little Golden Book from 1960, and not a comic book, but honestly that's a difference that makes no difference. Lichtenstein had come up with a hook, and a look, and together these let him break into the big time. To our eyes, familiar with almost forty years of later works, Look Mickey looks crude. The dots that texture Mickey's head and Donald's eyes are handpainted, and not made by forcing paint through a metal screen with a toothbrush as he would later turn to. The underlying pencil can be seen - something almost inconceivable in his work of just a few years later. Lichtenstein worked by doing a freehand drawing, projecting that piece onto a larger canvas and drawing it there, and then painting that. Examine this painting closely so you're prepared to see his technique evolve and tighten up as he finds his groove.



The Gallery owns 375 pieces of Lichtenstein's art -- one of the largest collections -- and this exhibit has 100 paintings, drawings and sculptures in it. They've borrowed from other museums and the show will travel to England and France after being here in DC. For comics and cartoon fans, after Look Mickey you can skip the rest of the Early Pop Art gallery, and go view the black & white drawing Alka Seltzer (1966) in the next room. To this reviewer, Jack Kirby's influence appears obvious -- and doesn't appear in the rest of the Black and White series. Kirby's Marvel Comics work had settled into its mature phase with the heavy black lines and over the top action that would typify his work. Lichtenstein's drawing of this banal subject produces a glass of Alka Seltzer that would look at home in the hands of Dr. Doom, if he ever stopped trying to conquer the world for a few minutes and looked after himself.

Instead of Marvel Comics, Lichtenstein turned to DC Comics for works in his Romance and War series. 1962's Masterpiece is the first in his Romance series, and he works in a joke about his new status as a darling of the art world. Contrast this work with Ohhh... Alright..., from 1964, and you can see his quoting of the comics medium becoming surer and cleaner, especially after he begins using his technique of painting through metal screens. Unfortunately, looking at the images here produces one of the main problems with Lichtenstein's comic-influenced art. When they are reproduced in a book (or blog) they become the same size as the comic they're taken from and this gives the viewer a false impression. These pieces are big, and the scaling-up while removing extraneous detail, and repositioning graphic elements gives them a... grandeur that insists that you see them in person.

Lichtenstein probably would have been a competent, if uninspiring comic book artist (think Don Heck) -- the original sketch for Ohhh... Alright... is in the exhibit and shows he could have done that, but the path he chose was probably better for all concerned. Bart Beaty's Comics Versus Art (University of Toronto Press, 2012) has a good chapter about the angst that Lichtenstein's work inspires in comic book readers - an angst I share. Lichtenstein was working from then-current comic books like Girls' Romances and Secret Hearts, and titling his works with an attribution such as Whaam! (after Novick)  or Whaam! ( All American Men of War #89) rather than simply Whaam! would have been a gesture of respect to other artists who, although working as commercial illustrators in comic books, still considered what they were doing to be art.


His decision not to do this continues to lead to headlines such as 2011's Connecting the Dots Between the Record $43 Million Lichtenstein and the $431 Comic Strip It Was Copied From, and articles that start "Imagine you drew a comic book for a nominal fee and a world-famous artist recreated in paint a panel from that work and sold it for millions of dollars without you receiving any credit or royalties." Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein is an entire website devoted to tracking the original comic panels that Lichtenstein repurposed / appropriated for his paintings.

His Brushstrokes series began with Brushstrokes (1965), which the exhibit explains came from "The Painting," Strange Suspense Stories #72 (Charlton Comics, October 1964) -- the NGA reproduces the panel, but neglects to mention that the original artwork is by Dick Giordano. This was among his last of this type of work. Instead he began painting large fake brushstrokes over his now trademark dots, or painting the explosions without any intervening war comic scene. The exhibit wall text for Whaam! suggests a reason, quoting him reflecting "If you go through [comic books], you'll find that there are very few frames that... would be useful to you. Most of them are in transition, they don't really sum anything up and it's the ones that sum up the idea that I like best."

Lichenstein then moved completely away from the comics-influenced paintings to do similar paintings with other fine art as the subject, such as a faux woodcut of a Washington by Gilbert Stuart. Picasso and Cezanne and the Laocoon were Lichtensteinized. He painted faux architectural elements and faux mirrors, and did sculptures and paintings quoting art deco. He made landscapes out of dots. All of these can be seen in the show.

But in the 1990s and towards the end of his career, Lichtenstein returned to comic book art and looked back at the romance comic books he had painted from 30 years earlier -- this time, he just left off the clothing for his Nudes series. Without their captions or word balloons, and with a more radical use of dots, these paintings seem further removed from their sources than his earlier works.


A lot has been written on Lichtenstein, and I'm obviously not an expert on his work, but I do think that his 1978 Self-Portrait, in which he depicts himself as a mirror hovering above an empty shirt -- while witty -- may very well also depict a deeper ambivalence about his career.

The exhibit Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective runs from October 14, 2012–January 13, 2013 at the National Gallery of Art. I can honestly recommend it to anyone interested in comic art who is willing to think about art, illustration, comics and where they all crash together. I would have preferred to see more of the original source material in the show -- only two comics panels are reproduced in the exhibit text  -- and buying a 1960s DC romance comic or two wouldn't bust anyone's budget. An excellent catalog by curators James Rondeau and Sheena Wagstaff is available, and the Gallery has several events planned including ones at local restaurants Busboys and Poets and Ben's Chili Bowl.

UPDATE: Here's some pages that Lichtenstein used from Charlton and DC Comics (thanks to Prof. Witek)-

STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #72 p. 25

Secret Hearts #83, Nov. 1962



All-American Men of War #90



All-American Men of War #89

Donald Duck in Navy medicine

I was filing some material at work today, and ran across this image of Donald Duck.

There's two other uses of the same image in the book that can be seen on the Flickr site. The caption for this one is:

Disney's Donald Duck "Mob 8 Insignia" page 160 of The Story of U.S. Naval Mobile Hospital Number 8 by CAPT. William H.H. Turville, NY: Robert W. Kelly Publishing Corp, ca. 1946.

From BUMED's Navy Medicine Historical Files Collection - Facilities - Base Hospitals.  12-0185-003

Donald in pre-World War 2 US Navy yearbook

I'm not an expert in Disney history, but most people know the company helped America's war effort in World War II by designing logos for units, and making training films. At work, I've stumbled across this pre-war (to America at least) example of the Naval Air Station Pensacola Florida yearbook The Flight Jacket 1940, which was compiled for the training class for new pilots. At some point in the next few months, the yearbook will be transferred to the more appropriate Navy Department Library in the Washington Navy Yard which appears to need a copy. In the meantime, one can see scans of the famed Duck here.

Jiminy Cricket poster in National Library of Medicine

I found this tonight while looking up safety posters for another reason. The National Library of Medicine, just north of the city in Bethesda, has a massive poster collection with a lot of cartoons and cartoonists represented, but I haven't seen this one before.

Feb 27: Disney Live: Mickey's Magic Show at Patriot Center

Feb 27th sees 2 shows of Disney Live: Mickey's Magic Show at Patriot Center with tickets between $22 - $50.

Chinese Disneyland leads to landgrabs, according to Post

Disneyland project in Shanghai spotlights forced evictions in China
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 19, 2010; A08

Disney plays workshop at Glen Echo's Adventure Theatre this summer

Here's the PR:

 

Adventure Theatre Announces the Summer Musical Theatre Workshop Productions

Adventure Theatre, the longest-running children's theatre in the Washington, D.C., area is kicking-off its 31st Annual Summer Musical Theatre Workshop for children ages 6-15 with an exciting line-up of children's productions including Disney's Aladdin Jr., Disney's 101 Dalmatians Kids, The Magical Land of Oz and Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum*, each facilitated by professionally trained Directors, Choreographers, and Musical Directors.

The Summer Musical Theatre Workshop is a daytime workshop in which children audition for one of four age-appropriate productions, and will then participate in two full weeks of show rehearsals, music and dancing which culminate in a full-scale production of each show on the Adventure Theatre stage. Students will also attend Adventure Theatre's main stage performance If You Give a Pig a Pancake, ride Glen Echo Park's carousel, participate in a talent show, receive a commemorative t-shirt and enjoy a cast party. Adventure Theatre's Summer Musical Theatre Workshop has proven to be one of the most rewarding, challenging and confidence-boosting summer experiences for kids.

"We are increasing the value of the workshops by staffing them with instructors and counselors who can accommodate children with musical-theater aspirations, while keeping the same atmosphere of relaxed fun for those who don't," says Kathryn Hnatio, Education Director and acting Summer Musical Theatre Workshop Artistic Director.

Michael Bobbitt, Adventure Theatre's Producing Artistic Director and Summer Musical Theatre Workshop Choreographer continues, "Adventure Theatre's Summer Musical Theatre session is a highly interactive and educational workshop that focuses on fun, teamwork, self-esteem, a sense of ownership, presentation skills and bringing out the best performance from each of its students."

Summer Musical Theatre Workshop parents agree: "Our daughters had a wonderful experience and continue to sing the songs all day," says one 2009 parent.

Adventure Theatre's Summer Musical Theatre Workshops run Monday-Friday from 9am-4pm, June 14th to August 27th. Before and aftercare options are available.

Session 1 (mini session)- June 14 – 18

Session 2 – June 21 - July 2

Session 3 – July 5- July 16

Session 4 – July 19 - July 30

Session 5 – August 2 - August 13

Session 6 - August 16 - August 27

For more information or to inquire about tuition prices, please contact Adventure Theatre's Summer Musical Theatre Workshop Program Coordinator Selena Anguiano at 301-634-2275 or sanguiano@adventuretheatre.org.  Also, visit www.adventuretheatre.org for more information on the Summer Musical Theatre Workshop and other educational programs at Adventure Theatre.

 

Disney's Mulan still running

I missed this interview earlier, but the play is still going on.

Actress sees self in Mulan's story, By Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, November 20, 2009.

The play's details are Disney's Mulan, Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda. 301-280-1660. http://www.imaginationstage.org. Wednesday-Jan. 10. $10-$21.

Disney's newest princess and the question of race

An op-ed piece on The Princess and the Frog from Disney - Spoiler alert: This Disney princess gets a job, By Sara Sarasohn, Washington Post December 6, 2009.

Wash Times on Disney purchase of Marvel

Out of characters: Disney should go indie, By Sonny Bunch, Washington Times September 25 2009.

NY Times continues to be the comics fan's paper

In today's paper - Tom Tomorrow's cover for Pearl Jam - Bad Luck Turns Good: That's Rock 'n' Roll, By BEN SISARIO, September 8, 2009.

In tomorrow's - a story on a Disneyana exhibit - Blowing the Pixie Dust Off Disney’s Archives, By BROOKS BARNES, September 9, 2009

Nate Beeler's excellent cartoon Disney and Marvel

follow the link...

When Superhero Mutants Go Disney
By: Nate Beeler
Examiner Staff Writer
9/1/09http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/NateBeelerToons/When-Superhero-Mutants-Go-Disney-56425677.html

Onion on terra-cotta mousketeers find

Today's Onion has an article about a new archeological discovery -
Legion of Terra-cotta Mouseketeers Found Beneath Disney World, Onion (August 6 2009): 1, 6.

National Geographic is opening an exhibit of the Chinese warriors in the fall - perhaps some of the Mouseketeers will sneak in.

Washington Times on animation

'Disney's 'hetero' bias,' Amanda Carpenter, Washington Post Friday, July 3, 2009 is a not-particularly-interesting, nor shocking article, but there's an excellent article on animation voice Jim Cummings - "The 'stealth celebrity': Cummings' voice is famous, but his face is not," By Kelly Jane Torrance,
Washington Times Friday, July 3, 2009.

Washington Post highlights

In addition to the Jen Sorenson story mentioned a few days ago, Steve Brodner covered the Travel section. In the Business section, Disney's investment into healthy food is examined.

Post on Disney's latest Princess ... who's black

Fortunately, we know that it had to be in production long before the Obamas entered the White House so it's not as opportunistic as it might appear. For information on The Princess and the Frog, see "A Fairy Tale Beginning: Snow White, She's Not. Among Disney's Royal Ladies, Tiana Is a Notable First," By Neely Tucker, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, April 19, 2009.

Wall Street wrong on Pixar too

Here's an interesting article - "Pixar's Art Leaves Profit Watchers Edgy," By BROOKS BARNES, New York Times April 6, 2009. Apparently the new UP isn't commercial enough, and neither were Ratatouille or Wall-E. Sigh. Aren't these the same Wall Street people that have run our country's finances into the ground?