The Mona Gorilla!

There was a time when National Lampoon was one of my favorite publications. I'm not sure what makes one a suitable target audience for National Lampoon, but certainly one cannot be squeamish about references to sex, violence and all manner of other things which have at times been considered forces at work against the moral turpitude of the nation itself. I think one also has to have been reared on MAD and Cracked magazines, which for all their allured and outstanding craftsmanship, are sophomoric excursions into satire which nibble but rarely bite down. National Lampoon bit down.

National Lampoon was willing to "go there" so to speak. At its peak the magazine was rambunctious but still filled with a hidden zeal to make life as we know it better, though I'm sure the perpetrators of the magazine would deny that. The best and most effective satire points out the tragic failures of society and holds them up for ridicule, arguably to entertain, but also to bring about change.

Mona Gorilla is lightweight compared to much that was exposed in the periodical, but even in her skyward glance we see society's relationship to "great art" catch fire and begin to burn away. To read more about how this iconic revision of Leonardo da Vinci's classic came to be, read what the artist Rick Meyerwitz has to say here.

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Idyl Day!

Catherine Jeffrey Jones was born on this date in 1944. Jones was a seminal paperback artist in the 1960's and 1970's. She worked in comics some at DC and elsewhere, but it did not seem to be her primary focus.  Jones created the comic strip Idyll. I know it was featured only a short time ago at the Dojo, but it's really the only choice.  

(Berni Wrightson, Catherine Jeffrey Jones, Mike Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith - 1978)

Jeffrey Catherine Jones was an enigmatic artist. Part of "The Studio", she was most famous at the time for her incredible paperback covers. Many are on par with the best of Frazetta. Frazetta has said that Jones was his favorite artist. Her comics work was sporadic and most of it was not in the usual venues. Idyl, her most personal work appeared in the "Funny Pages" of National Lampoon, and was work not intended for the typical comic book buyer. 

(Dave Sim from Glamourpuss)

It was in the pages of National Lampoon that I first fell in love with Idyl. She was an alluring and exceedingly naked woman who mused about life and death and such stuff. She lived in a strange world in inhabited by talking animals. 

She's a bawdy Alice in Wonderland, if Alice was nude and mysteriously pregnant. 

Above is the very first "Idyl" installment. It was first published in National Lampoon November 1975 in their first and very distinctive section called simply "Funny Pages". 

Above is the final Idyl. It is marked by the singular panel and expansive thought balloon. 

 

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The Joy Of Sects!

I wrap up my year-long overview of the late great Neal Adams as well pay some proper heed to the holiday with one of his more audacious co-creations -- Son-O-God Comics. The image above by Adams is one of the most brilliant single-image take-downs of the hoary religiosity which has come to stand in for Christianity. Co-created with writers Sean Kelly and Michel Choquette, Neal Adams and company give organized religion quite the bashing in a series of stories in the pages of the iconoclastic National Lampoon. If you're of a mind and want to read more of this savage take on Christendom's holiest figure, then check out this highly potent link. 

National Lampoon, at least in its earliest days was the home to some savage satire about many of societies most sacred cows. The above cover by Mara Mcafee is perhaps my favorite from all their long catalog. It speaks to the holiday and at the same time makes it feel of the moment. At a time when Christianity is being use by some of its own adherents to promote singularly un-Christ-like agendas, scraping beneath the familiar ancient tales to get a fresh understanding seems a wise and prudent way forward. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday! 

More Christmas fun coming later today. 

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The Definitive Idyl And I'm Age!

Jeffrey Catherine Jones was an enigmatic artist. Part of "The Studio", she was most famous at the time for her incredible paperback covers. Many are on par with the best of Frazetta. Her comics work was sporadic and most of it was not in the usual venues. Idyl, her most personal work appeared in the "Funny Pages" of National Lampoon, and was work not intended for the typical comic book buyer. 

It was in the pages of National Lampoon that I first fell in love with Idyl. She was a lovely naked woman who mused about life and death and such stuff. She lived in a strange world in inhabited by talking animals. 

She's a bawdy Alice in Wonderland, if Alice was nude and mysteriously pregnant. 

Above is the very first "Idyl" installment. It was first published in National Lampoon November 1975 in their first and very distinctive section called simply "Funny Pages". 

Above is the final Idyl. It is marked by the singular panel and expansive thought balloon. 

 

One had to be observant in those wilderness days of comics to find your favorite artist's work. In addition to National Lampoon, Jones had work appear in Swank magazine, one of Playboy's lesser imitators.  

Some of that even more eccentric Jones material was gathered up in Ravens and Rainbows from Pacific Comics in 1981 and I only mention it for completion's sake. It is not included in this collection. We need another one for sure. 

A few years after the National Lampoon gig, Jones found another home for his musings. In the pages of Heavy Metal he introduced the strip "I'm Age". Once again, we are treated to a single page filled with obscure musings. 

His style has developed, away from his crunchy roots into a more relaxed look. He has said that the lush brush failed to connect with his hand and fingers in the same way that a pen did, so the change.I can't say I like it as well, but it sureain't bad. The messages of this series don't feel as opaque to me for whatever reason. 

I'll mention this here just because I can, but I highly recommend Jeffrey Jones - The Definitive Reference from Vanguard. My only complaint is that to fit in all of the many Jones paperback covers and such, the images are postage-stamp size for the most part. If I ever thought of trying to collect all of these (and I have quite a few) I realize the futility of that effort. Still and all, an instructive and pleasurable tome. 

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Novembris!

It's an important month for us all. We all know that the fate of the free world hinges on the next American election for President. If we as a nation choose wisely as I anticipate we will, then stability will be maintained, and we can look to improvements. If otherwise, then we'll cross those bridges when they are required. I intended this past year to eschew large monthly themes and keep the blog more diverse. I've largely failed, and I won't try that anymore. I love themes. I just do. It structures both my reading, viewing, and my writing, and it's just fun to organize. Here are the themes for this month. 

I find Jack H. Harris to be a fascinating figure in vintage cinema. He was the man behind The Blob, a surprise hit from a truly independent outfit during the height of the monster-movie mania in the late 50s. He quickly produced two more sci-fi monster movies before fading away. He reappeared as a packager of other people's movies, sometimes with some of his input. He continued to show up as a producer mostly until 1991. There are thirteen movies listed in his filmography for which he was responsible for directly or indirectly, and I'm going to take a look at all of them this month. Some I've already reviewed over the years, and I'll get those reviews out and dust them and spruce them up. But many of these movies I'd never seen and more than a few I'd never heard of. I'll let his book Father of Blob help guide me. 

C.S. Lewis wrote a masterpiece for kids and the rest of us with his Narnia stories. The stories are intentionally a bit heavy-handed at times when it comes to Christian theological interpretation. But despite Aslan standing in for Jesus Christ in the mythic realm of Narnia, the stories can be read sans that, but don't get riled if I bring those elements up from time to time. I plan to read the books in their internally historical order and not in the order of publication, which has always been my default. I have also procured some of the companion book or two to assist in a deeper understanding of the Lewis saga. 

Expect more Neal Adams material. I've spent the whole year of 2024 to this point showcasing his work and this month will be no different. 

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And all sorts of other stuff as well. 

And as I mentioned before, we have an election we have to survive. If this doesn't go well, I might have to take to my bed, and all bets are off. 

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Bored Of The Rings!

I'm not sure how much off a crossover there is or was for The Lord of the Rings and The Harvard Lampoon, but there must have been enough for Signet Books to publish Bored of the Rings in 1969. Parodies of this kind are exceedingly timely affairs, speaking to the concerns of a moment, but this book has stayed in print for decades ever drifting off the sails of its highly successful inspiration. The main purpose of a good parody is to take the source material and identify what makes it silly and stupid if pushed to a limit. The writers Henry Beard and Doug Kenney saw clearly that the somewhat overly serious and sanctimonious tone of Tolkien's epic was easy pickings. And they were right. 

Michael Firth produced the first cover (see above) which takes a slap at the wonderful triptych covers produced by for the Ballantine paperback editions of the trilogy. That is my favorite cover image for the series, which sadly has gotten far duller and more traditional in the ensuing years. The map seen in the books is parodied and evokes the feel of the tasty originals. 

In the story itself we follow four Boggies named Frito, Spam, Pepsi, and Moxie as they follow the questionable advice of the wizard Goodgulf and are assisted by Arrowroot the son of Arrowshirt as they leave Bug End and follow a quest begun years before when Frito's uncle Dildo Baggins stole a ring from Goddam, a ring coveted by the sorcerer Sorhed. They encounter all manner of friends and foes such as the helpful but stone Tom Benzidrine and his best gal Hashberry. Resistance is futile as someone said. 

Even as a devoted Tolkien fan it's a hoot to see this nigh sacred text shredded in this way. The Middle-Earth books are if anything earnest and that's something which is well ripe for parody. Tolkien was building a mythology, and he spent a lifetime making it a vibrant and rich one. The two chaps who churned out Bored of the Rings took a few weeks to show us all that even the mightiest of epics can withstand mockery. If it can't, then it wasn't as potent as we thought. 

It was the success of Bored of the Rings that at least in part inspired the creators to license the "Lampoon" name and begin the humor magazine National Lampoon which poked holes in sundry sacred cows for years to come. 

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