SVENGOOLIE BY DREW FRIEDMAN

A few weeks ago I posted the Ed Wood trading cards series in several installments with art by noted underground cartoonist and caricaturist extraordinaire, Drew Friedman. Friedman's stipple technique involves a countless number of single ink marks that somehow end up being a near-photographic image of the person he's drawing.

Well, the artistic master of pimples and pustules has done it again. Below is his recent personality portrait of none other than TV horror host Svengoolie, and I must say it's a "spot-on" likeness.

Svengoolie's weekly show airs on MeTV Saturday nights here in the Seattle area. Last Saturday he screened WEREWOLF OF LONDON and this week it's HORROR OF DRACULA. Check out his website on the right sidebar of this page.

ED WOOD TRADING CARDS (PART 2)

Not to be confused with The Mighty Carson Art Players, here's the next 12 cards in the Ed Wood, Jr.'s Players Cards set.

ED WOOD TRADING CARDS

Some of the worst "horror" films of all time are attributed to Ed Wood, Jr. While some may disagree, I would surmise it is a very small--but vocal--percentage. With promising titles like BRIDE OF THE GORILLA, NIGHT OF THE GHOULS and, yes, ORGY OF THE DEAD, the viewer will end up finding them all, in a word, amateurish. Still, these very same films can easily be otherwise categorized as "so bad, they're good". And that, folks, sums up the conundrum of Wood's cinematic oeuvre. Love 'em or hate 'em, they have garnered a true cult following over the years, to say nothing about the man himself.

In 1993, Kitchen Sink Press issued a 36-card, shrink-wrapped set called THE ED WOOD, JR. PLAYERS CARDS. Each standard-size "trading" card has an image of one of the actors or actresses who were in his films. The card back contains text information about each person's career and which Wood movie(s) they appeared in. The complete set is considered rare by some dealers.

The artwork is drawn by underground cartoonist Drew Friedman. Like Robert Crumb, Friedman also found mainstream success and is highly regarded for his spot-on caricatures that have just a touch of the odd to them.

In a 2017 interview with THE COMICS JOURNAL, Friedman quipped that his style wouldn't be of interest to "people who find warts, pimples, wrinkles, flop-sweat, jowls, boils, rosacea, nose hairs, ear hairs, drool, baggy eyes, gin blossoms, moles, liver spots, neck waddles, nasal labia folds, crinkles, furrows, creases, puss, pustules, bumps, lumps, yellowing and/or rotting teeth, missing teeth, gums, dentures, saliva, double chins, triple chins, blotches, scars, lumps, zits, five o'clock shadows, folds, bulbous noses, craters, chapped lips, man-boobs, goiters, pock marks, whiteheads, blackheads, rashes, nose leakages, emasculations, calluses, scabs, balding/bald heads, nodules, freckles, protuberances, welts, carbuncles, papules, festers, and Shemp distasteful," adding, "Liver spots are my Ninas [a reference to [an inside nod to Al Hirschfeld]."

Friedman sites, among others, Mort Drucker, Jack Davis and Al Hirschfeld as influences. After reading the above, I'd have to add Basil Wolverton without the geometric facial features!

Here are the first 12 cards of the series:

BELA LUGOSI'S SCARIEST ROLE

When NATIONAL LAMPOON magazine first hit the stands back in the 70s, I was a regular reader. Admittedly, some of the jokes were a little over this teenager's head, but for the most part it was miles more "sophisticated" than say, MAD or CRACKED (which were and are my first two favorites, SICK being 4th on the list after NL). Also, PLAYBOY cartoonist Gahan Wilson and Frank Frazetta were contributors, and Catherine nee Jeffrey Jones debuted her (back then, "his") "Idyll" character in its pages.

There was also a sprinkling of nudity and horror once in a while. Illustrating the latter is this example from an auction that was held just recently. It is a page of original art by cartoonist and humorist, Drew Friedman (the son of Bruce Jay Friedman, author and editor who contributed fiction to PLAYBOY and other men's magazines) that satirizes Bela Lugosi's morphine addiction. While one may think a humorous view of this topic to be in the worst of bad taste, it is actually done with a concurrently sympathetic tone.

When the gavel dropped, the piece sold for $6,572.50.

Here are the details from the auction lot:

Drew Friedman National Lampoon #1/1986 "Bela Lugosi's Scariest Role" Complete 1-Page Story Original Art (National Lampoon, Inc., 1986). A benchmark in the long collaborative stretch of brothers Josh Alan and Drew Friedman, respectively writer and artist. This stellar page chronicles the troubled career of Hollywood actor Bela "Dracula" Lugosi in satiric yet compassionate terms. Amazing to consider how many of millions of tiny dots of ink go into just one of these incredibly detailed panels. Signed at lower margin. Ink (pointillism, or stipple, technique) over graphite on Bristol board, with Zipatone shading film and typeset lettering. Image area, 7.5" x 11.5", framed out to 17" x 20". Excellent condition.