Salon.com > Steven Brower

Famous writers’ art and design

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I attended the High School of Music and Art in Harlem, graduating in 1970. As one might expect, it was a place rich with talent. The program was split in two (as the name implies), and as I walked the halls, music would pour out from every corner. What I found interesting then was that many of the talents spilled over from one side to the other. I can’t speak to the visual art of the music students, as it was not so evident, but many of the art students were among the best singer-songwriters and rock musicians in the school. Indeed, our most famous classmate, Paul Stanley (née Stan Eisen) of Kiss, was an art student. I played in bands for fifteen years or so myself.

Barney Rosset: R.I.P.

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This past February, the iconoclast publisher Barney Rosset died at the age of 89. Rosset was the publisher of Grove Press from 1951 until 1985. He published D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover in its first unexpurgated U.S. edition in 1957, and in 1964 he published Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer in its original uncensored form, fighting and winning the legal right to do so all the way up to the Supreme Court. In recognition of his contributions to both American and world literature, Rosset was awarded the Pen International Publisher Citation, the French title “Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,” and a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation.

[caption id="attachment_338241" align="aligncenter" width="492" caption="Barney Rosset in front of the “Join the Underground” poster featuring an illustration by Tomi Ungerer satirizing American involvement in Vietnam."][/caption]

How to resurrect a comic book

Wed, 23 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Memory is evanescent. I can’t recall where I made the purchase; perhaps it was during an elementary-school or Cub Scout trip. Nor do I remember my exact age; it was anywhere between 8 and 10. What I do remember vividly is the visceral experience: the feel and smell of the paper as I unfurled it. The sense that I was both witnessing and experiencing history, which I then held tangibly in my hands. In the morning of that day, my mother had given me some small change for the day's trip, and I spent it on a reproduction of the Declaration of Independence. It was printed on a rough-hewn, yellow paper stock with stains on both sides, and it had a rigidity that made it hard to open (it was folded in quarters). The reproduction possessed a distinct smell, and the texture was coarse, as if it was once damp and left to dry. “Onion paper,” my mother explained when I got home. It sounded exotic. Sadly, I've forgotten the whereabouts of that formative piece of paper, but the power of the experience has remained.

From superheroes to doughboys

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

In the early part of the 20th century the first American cartoonists were the superstars of their times. Their work was received by an adoring audience, they earned lucrative contracts and toured the country to give chalk talks to a welcoming public. Richard Felton Outcault’s "Yellow Kid," Bud Fisher’s "Mutt and Jeff," Rudolph Dirks’s "Katzenjammer Kids," Winsor McCay’s "Little Nemo," George McManus’ "Jiggs and Maggie," Sidney Smith’s "The Gumps" were all extremely popular entertainment, earning some of their creators upwards of $1 million annually.

With the introduction of Superman in Action Comics No. 1 in 1938, the longer form of comic books sold in the millions of copies per issue but the artists themselves didn’t fare as well, earning only dollars per page. Following the congressional hearings on juvenile delinquency and comic books in 1954, the industry tightened, and many titles ceased. In the back of David Hajdu’s "The Ten-Cent Plague" hundreds of artists are listed who left comics never to return. The question at hand is: Where did they go? Many, as it turns out, headed to the more profitable field of advertising.

That’s not the original Hulk!

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Jack Kirby is widely recognized as one of the most important comic creators of the 20th century. Co-creator of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the X-Men, and creator of Darkseid, The Demon, OMAC and myriad others, he still can’t get no respect.

Early in 1992 my phone rang. At the time I was an art director at a book publisher in Manhattan, and it was some time before I learned the art of being taken to lunch. On the other end was a book agent. “Do you want to go to lunch?” “No thanks,” I replied. “Then I guess you don’t want to meet Jack Kirby?” Less then an hour later I walked into the lobby of the hotel where the Kirbys were staying. I was the first to arrive, and walked over and introduced myself to Jack and Roz. The raison d'être for the meeting was that Jack and Ray Wyman were shopping around "The Art of Jack Kirby." I will save the details of that meeting for another time, but suffice it to say Jack regaled me with war stories over lunch, and I met one of the greatest influences on my early life. Unfortunately I could not convince my publisher how important I believed the book to be. Sadly, almost exactly two years later I learned Jack had passed.