Salon.com > Michael Dooley http://www.salon.com Sun, 26 May 2013 01:38:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Illustrator fights back against Marvel Comics http://www.salon.com/2012/07/19/illustrator_fights_back_against_marvel_comics/ http://www.salon.com/2012/07/19/illustrator_fights_back_against_marvel_comics/#comments Thu, 19 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12960093 ImprintNever mind whether Captain America is more powerful than Iron Man or Dr. Strange. The real problem is that Marvel Comics editor and publisher Stan Lee is vastly more powerful than Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others who originally drew those superheroes for the company. And Lee presently enjoys 100 percent ownership of the Marvel Universe, in both the public's perception and the legal arena. And what do the artists own? Zilch, that's what!

And this makes Arlen Schumer pretty pissed off!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/07/19/illustrator_fights_back_against_marvel_comics/feed/ 9 Not the Harvey Pekar graphic novel you’d expect http://www.salon.com/2012/07/13/not_the_harvey_pekar_graphic_novel_youd_expect/ http://www.salon.com/2012/07/13/not_the_harvey_pekar_graphic_novel_youd_expect/#comments Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:39:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12956512 Imprint Harvey Pekar had been collaborating with the comic book artist JT Waldman on a book project, one that charts the journey from his Zionist upbringing to his questioning of Israel's role in the world. But Pekar died in July 2010. Still, Waldman continued to work on it, and now it's about to be published. Peter Kuper describes Not the Israel my Parents Promised Me as "an insightful look at one of the burning topics of our time. With Pekar's scholarship and humor and JT Waldman's stylistically varied art, this graphic book is both visually entertaining and highly informative."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/07/13/not_the_harvey_pekar_graphic_novel_youd_expect/feed/ 3 Stan Mack’s Occupy-the-Fourth-of-July funnies http://www.salon.com/2012/07/10/stan_mack%e2%80%99s_occupy_the_fourth_of_july_funnies/ http://www.salon.com/2012/07/10/stan_mack%e2%80%99s_occupy_the_fourth_of_july_funnies/#comments Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12954373 ImprintIt’s 1776 in Philadelphia. Congressional delegates “sweat, swat flies, and argue independence.” They retreat to a tavern and casually dump Jefferson with the job of composing a declaration: “Tom, write us something dignified, yet magical.” Once he’s finished, all the congressmen shout out changes at him: “Drop 'independent’;” “Why ‘happiness’ instead of ‘property’? What’s ‘happiness’?”

The process is loud, sloppy, and often chaotic. It also feels like real life.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/07/10/stan_mack%e2%80%99s_occupy_the_fourth_of_july_funnies/feed/ 3 Graham Moore’s midcentury http://www.salon.com/2012/07/02/graham_moores_midcentury/ http://www.salon.com/2012/07/02/graham_moores_midcentury/#comments Mon, 02 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12948616 ImprintGraham Moore creates fine-art pieces that put you in a dancing mood, just by looking into them. In fact, many of them began as vintage LP record album covers, several decades pre-mp3. Then, under his knife, texts lose their legibility, images lose their identity, and those often dull cardboard sleeves are reconfigured into visual bop rhythms and beats that delight the eye.

This art grew out of Moore's graphic design career. He worked at studios and ad agencies in London back in 1985. In 1991, he landed in Los Angeles, where he now freelances and earns awards such as Print's Certificate of Excellence. He also teaches at Art Center College of Design and other schools around town, where his students learn non-digital, handmade methods of operation.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/07/02/graham_moores_midcentury/feed/ 0 Ray Bradbury: 1950s comics’ illustrated man http://www.salon.com/2012/06/21/ray_bradbury_1950s_comics_illustrated_man/ http://www.salon.com/2012/06/21/ray_bradbury_1950s_comics_illustrated_man/#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12940545 ImprintIn 1951, EC Comics started stealing Ray Bradbury's work. After three swipes, Bradbury sent a letter to editor Bill Gaines. Not a cease-and-desist order, though. Instead, he wrote, "Just a note to remind you of an oversight. You have not as yet sent on the check for $50.00 to cover the use of secondary rights on my two stories 'The Rocket Man' and 'Kaleidoscope. ... I feel this was probably overlooked in the general confusion of office work, and look forward to your payment in the near future."

Payment was quickly made, followed by two dozen more stories—officially authorized and duly credited.


To genre fans who prefer more challenging speculative fiction, Bradbury was known as the SF writer for people who don't like SF. However, his adaptations, which also included his horror tales, worked just fine for the EC line, which appealed to smarter-than-average kids.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/06/21/ray_bradbury_1950s_comics_illustrated_man/feed/ 0 The Fuse box http://www.salon.com/2012/06/13/the_fuse_box/ http://www.salon.com/2012/06/13/the_fuse_box/#comments Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12936752 ImprintIt's 1994 and Steve Heller is on a rant about a Fuse magazine font called LushUS. It's "an abominable typeface. It's…"

"… vernacular carried to an extreme?" I offer.

"Vernacular carried to stupidity," he replies. "It ain't funny. There are certain extremes that are unnecessary, or too ingrown. Design for design, and so what?"

So what, indeed.That's the question a lot of type lovers were asking around the time I interviewed Steve for Emigre magazine about his controversial Eye magazine essay "The Cult of the Ugly." In it, he'd described LushUS as an "affront" to typographic standards that "simply contributes to the perpetuation of bad design."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/06/13/the_fuse_box/feed/ 2 Illustrating the ’60s music revolution http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/illustrating_the_60s_music_revolution/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/illustrating_the_60s_music_revolution/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12926233 Imprint"When did music become so important?" That's Don Draper from last week's "Mad Men," set in 1966. Later in the episode he turns off "Tomorrow Never Knows," from the Beatles album "Revolver," and walks out of the room.

[caption id="attachment_325801" align="aligncenter" width="445" caption="art: Rick Griffin"][/caption]

There's something happening here, but you don't know what it is — do you, Mr. Draper? One year later, Rolling Stone magazine will make its debut, followed soon by "Rock and Other Four Letter Words."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/illustrating_the_60s_music_revolution/feed/ 14 Wet, revisited http://www.salon.com/2012/05/04/wet_revisited_salpart/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/04/wet_revisited_salpart/#comments Fri, 04 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12913741 ImprintIn the late 1970s, bohemian hipsters on L.A.'s west side were getting Wet. At the time, it was highly influential among local artists, designers and architects, despite its small circulation. And now, "Making Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing," provides a sampling of its spirit.

[caption id="attachment_312951" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="Poster illustration and design: John Van Hamersveld."][/caption]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/04/wet_revisited_salpart/feed/ 4 Black Dahlia beginnings http://www.salon.com/2012/04/20/black_dahlia_beginnings/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/20/black_dahlia_beginnings/#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12879901 ImprintWrapping up my interview with crime historian Joan Renner, we delve deeper into an unsolved murder mystery. Joan explores her theory that the victim’s Black Dahlia persona began when she was still alive. Read part one, with more details of the Dahlia investigation, here.

Our conversation picks up with Joan describing her passion for cosmetics ephemera from the 1920s and 1930s.

Joan Renner: About twenty years ago I began to collect vintage face powder compacts. The compacts nicely dovetailed with my interest in classic film, fashion, and the history of women. A few years after purchasing my first compact – a souvenir from the 1939 New York World’s Fair with that exquisite trylon and perisphere design – I was searching an online auction site and a few commercial face powder boxes popped up along with the compacts. I was struck by the beautiful graphics. In subsequent searches I found that there were boxes in a dizzying array of designs. I was hooked. My extensive collection of over 500 pieces includes commercial face powder boxes, hair net packages, bobby pin cards, and print ads circa 1900-1950.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/20/black_dahlia_beginnings/feed/ 3 Anarchy in L.A. http://www.salon.com/2012/04/13/anarchy_in_l_a/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/13/anarchy_in_l_a/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12852461 [caption id="attachment_297441" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="Folk The Banks, 2011. Ink, collage and acetate on paper, 18 x 18 inches, image © Jamie Reid and courtesy Isis Gallery."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_297601" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Shepard at a recent public session of my Art Center class: a "Creative Entrepreneurs" panel moderated by Petrula Vrontikis. Photo by Joan Dooley."][/caption]

ImprintNever mind the Shepard Fairey criminal contempt conviction, here's Jamie Reid. The designer who branded the Sex Pistols so indelibly by ripping across Her Majesty's face now has his first solo West Coast exhibition at Shepard's Subliminal Projects Gallery.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/13/anarchy_in_l_a/feed/ 1 The real Black Dahlia http://www.salon.com/2012/04/09/the_real_black_dahlia/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/09/the_real_black_dahlia/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12790651 [caption id="attachment_293371" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="Imprint illustration: Scott Gandell."][/caption]

 

So I’m at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood to scope this 1933 Stanwyck flick about broads behind bars, but before it starts this dame gets up in front, name Joan Renner. Says her passion is historic crime and vintage cosmetics: sounds to me like a lethal combination. Then she gives the whole audience the inside skinny about the real characters behind the motion picture story, and about femmes fatales in general.

And then the lights go out.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/09/the_real_black_dahlia/feed/ 12 Pop art’s political legacy http://www.salon.com/2012/03/26/pop_arts_political_legacy/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/26/pop_arts_political_legacy/#comments Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12723181 ImprintPopular culture, capitalist critique and female empowerment are among the topics of this, the last of a three-part feature on "Pop and Politics," one of the programs at the 100th annual College Art Association conference in Los Angeles. Part one, my interview with Anthony E. Grudin about Andy Warhol and comic books, is here. Part two, the first half of this interview with art historians Allison Unruh and Kalliopi Minioudaki, who organized "Pop and Politics," is here.

[caption id="attachment_282541" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="Chryssa Romanos: Reportage, 1965. Collage on canvas, 65 x 55 cm. © Dimitris Tsoublekas."][/caption]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/26/pop_arts_political_legacy/feed/ 0 Pop art’s proto-feminists http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/pop_art_feminists_imprint/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/pop_art_feminists_imprint/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12702031 ImprintIn 1963, Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" drew attention to the stifling state of American womanhood, and Roy Lichtenstein painted what might be considered a visual analogue: "Drowning Girl," who'd rather be engulfed by tidal waves than call Brad for help. It was also the year Andy Warhol began his grungy, frightening Race Riot silkscreens, as civil rights protests grew. And James Rosenquist was working his way up to "F-111," his big, bold antiwar statement of 1965, as Vietnam came into public focus. And a good many other pop artists around the globe were also picturing social concerns and changes on the horizon.

[caption id="attachment_281691" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="Niki de Saint-Phalle: Kennedy-Khrushchev, 1962. © 2012 Niki Charitable Art Foundation."][/caption]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/23/pop_art_feminists_imprint/feed/ 0 Warhol’s working-class superheroes http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/warhol_working_class_imprint/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/warhol_working_class_imprint/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12676901 Imprint
Anthony E. Grudin cares about the working class. He also cares – a lot – about Andy Warhol. Not the later Warhol, who pandered to high society celebs, but the younger man, with one foot headed for the galleries and the other still hustling for commercial illustration gigs. Anthony, an assistant professor of art and art history at the University of Vermont, has written articles and delivered symposium papers about that early 1960s Warhol. His interest is in that transition period, as the aspiring fine artist drew fashion items for upscale advertisers while adapting Cokes, Campbell’s, comics and other blue-collar consumer products onto canvases.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/warhol_working_class_imprint/feed/ 7 Resurrecting a comic art icon http://www.salon.com/2012/03/06/resurrecting_a_comic_art_icon/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/06/resurrecting_a_comic_art_icon/#comments Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12483591 ImprintWally Wood is most acclaimed for his comical comic books, mainly his acclaimed work for Mad back in its original, pre-magazine, 1950s incarnation. But his personal life was a drama verging on tragedy and culminating with his suicide in 1981. Only now, three decades later, is his story heading toward a happy ending, with a burst of renewed interest in his work. Among the most spectacular products are two oversize coffee table books: IDW's "Wally Wood's EC Stories: Artist's Edition," just released and already sold out of its first print run, and "Came the Dawn and Other Stories by Wally Wood," from Fantagraphics, scheduled for summer.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/06/resurrecting_a_comic_art_icon/feed/ 8 The animated fight against globalization http://www.salon.com/2012/02/28/the_animated_fight_against_globalization/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/28/the_animated_fight_against_globalization/#comments Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12441711 ImprintAnimations of real life chitchat have a rich – and even an Academy Award-winning – history. John and Faith Hubley received Oscars for their cell painted "Moonbird," a visualization of their kids' playful fantasies, back in 1959, and for their 1962 "The Hole," a transformation of a Dizzy Gillespie verbal improv riff. And Nick Park's "Creature Comforts" from 1989 – the claymation that launched Aardman and led to Wallace and Gromit – also won.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/28/the_animated_fight_against_globalization/feed/ 2 Gidra takes on the American war machine http://www.salon.com/2012/02/23/gidra_takes_on_the_american_war_machine/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/23/gidra_takes_on_the_american_war_machine/#comments Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12406401 Remember those radical underground rags of the late 1960s? The East Village Other. The Berkeley Barb. The L.A. Free Press. Gidra. Wait … Gidra?

Wasn't that a monster in those dumb Godzilla movies? Yes, but just because he tried to lay waste to Japan and the rest of civilization, Gidra wasn't all bad. Which is how five UCLA students felt when they decided to name their newspaper after this three-headed winged dragon from outer space.

The ambitions of Gidra, which published monthly from 1969 to 1974, were more modest, and more noble. Its editors only wanted to destroy American imperialism in Southeast Asia and racism at home. As the "Voice of the Asian American Movement," it promoted pride in Japanese culture, which had not fully recovered from the legacy of World War II incarceration. And was recently part of Drawing the Line, a Pacific Standard Time exhibition at L.A.'s Japanese American National Museum.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/23/gidra_takes_on_the_american_war_machine/feed/ 4 Inside Germany’s famed art school http://www.salon.com/2012/02/16/bauhaus_imprint/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/16/bauhaus_imprint/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12364221 [caption id="attachment_259581" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="T. Lux Feininger: Metalltanz, about 1928 - 1929. Gelatin silver print, 4 1/4 x 5 5/8 in. © estate of T. Lux Feininger. Credit: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles."][/caption]

ImprintThose wild and crazy Bauhaus boys and girls, with their improv jazz band and beach antics and clownish poses. They weren't just dedicated students at what was probably the most influential design school in the 20th century. They were also partying hearty in 1920s Germany… before Fascism put a brutal end to this hotbed of creative innovation.

Virginia Heckert, curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, put together a selection of photos by Bauhaus masters and students as a companion to Lyonel Feininger: Photographs 1928 – 1939, on view at the Getty through March 11.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/16/bauhaus_imprint/feed/ 3 The eerie photographs of a famed painter http://www.salon.com/2012/02/07/feininger_photos_imprint/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/07/feininger_photos_imprint/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12308041 [caption id="attachment_256291" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="Bauhaus, March 26, 1929. Gelatin silver print, 7 1/16 x 5 5/8 in. Credit: Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin. © Artists Rights Society, New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn."][/caption]

ImprintHitler declared his paintings degenerate. Of course, Lyonel Feininger was actually one of the 20th century's most important American avant-garde artists: at various times a Cubist, Expressionist and Secessionist. He's also well known as one of the Bauhaus's original faculty, and was even a distinguished newspaper comic strip artist. But a photographer? Really?

Truth is, Feininger didn't even pick up a camera until 1928, when he was in his late 50s and had fallen under the influence of his sons Andreas and T. Lux and, primarily, of fellow Bauhaus master László Moholy-Nagy. And he considered his photographing to be more of an experimental – and inspirational – means to a painterly end. But a recent exhibition has shed new light on this practically unknown aspect of his already formidable career.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/07/feininger_photos_imprint/feed/ 6 “Mad Men’s” long-standing 9/11 connection http://www.salon.com/2012/01/24/mad_mens_long_standing_911_connection/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/24/mad_mens_long_standing_911_connection/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12221561
Imprint
"Mad Men" Season 5 … about time! But that new outdoor ad of the guy suspended in white space … what's the big idea? It's certainly eye-catching. And it's already become controversial. In those respects it may be meant to announce "Don Draper: The George Lois years."

People are offended by the obvious 9/11 association. It's undeniably deliberate, and most dramatic when seen on Manhattan's bus shelters, where the plexiglass superimposes the city's surrounding buildings over the falling mad man. But of course, he's been falling ever since the show's very first episode.

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