50YrsCollctngCmcs Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Disney also had their contraption, the Multi-plane camera that helped them add depth to their animations. I love this stuff. The digital equivalent of this idea has been widely used in CG animation. Not to add visual interest but to cut cost by breaking a complex 3d scene into multiple layers that can be edited independently and rendered in parallel. In the end, all the layers are collapsed into the final 2d frame, just like Disney did back then. Back in 2002 I was lucky enough to be in New Zealand prior to the release of the LOTR Two Towers movie. We were on a tour of WETA (Peter Jackson's company) and were taken into the room where the film was being transcribed from servers to the master print. It is something that we don't think of too often but in the case of these movies that film only existed digitally prior to that transcription. It was a really intriguing moment watching that film slowly spool out of a high end Sony film printer (so high end there are only five of these units on the globe.) I know the guys who developed all of the early animation techniques would just love the new developments today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Was reading Batman # 2 last night and this caught my eyes. In the panels below, Batman sounds like he is sub-contracting with Doc Savage and his Crime College. As per Lester Dent in The Pirate Of The Pacific, the Crime College, Doc's Criminal Treatment Facility is described as "An institution which Doc maintained in upstate New York- a place where Doc sent all the criminals he captured. There, the lawbreakers underwent an amazing treatment in which their brains were operated upon and all memory of their past wiped out. Then they received training which turned them into useful citizens. This unusual institution was Doc's own idea. He never sent a criminal to prison. They all went to the institution, to be operated upon by specialists whom Doc had trained. They were turned loose entirely reformed men- they didn't know they had ever been crooks." Compare that to Batman: "[..] Then we'll take him to a famous brain specialist for an operation, so that he be cured and turned into a valuable citizen." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayman Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Was reading Batman # 2 last night and this caught my eyes. In the panels below, Batman sounds like he is sub-contracting with Doc Savage and his Crime College. As per Lester Dent in The Pirate Of The Pacific, the Crime College, Doc's Criminal Treatment Facility is described as "An institution which Doc maintained in upstate New York- a place where Doc sent all the criminals he captured. There, the lawbreakers underwent an amazing treatment in which their brains were operated upon and all memory of their past wiped out. Then they received training which turned them into useful citizens. This unusual institution was Doc's own idea. He never sent a criminal to prison. They all went to the institution, to be operated upon by specialists whom Doc had trained. They were turned loose entirely reformed men- they didn't know they had ever been crooks." Compare that to Batman: "[..] Then we'll take him to a famous brain specialist for an operation, so that he be cured and turned into a valuable citizen." Wow! Very Clockwork Orange! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB-Gun Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 BZ, have you shown any Ace publications? I don't remember seeing any but that doesn't mean you don't have a stack in one of those bookcases. I noticed this new scan from GA.UK had a Kurtzman cover. His style reminds me of Oksner. I haven't seen a lot of his covers (mostly remember his Hey Look series) and I like this one with the nifty robot. I have been a fan of Four Favorites and Super-Mystery since I read an article about them in Masquerader #6 published by Vosburg. bb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 Thanks, Scrooge. It looks like they retouched photostats of actual covers. It took me a sec to recognize that the Human Torch was #4. Very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 Was reading Batman # 2 last night and this caught my eyes. In the panels below, Batman sounds like he is sub-contracting with Doc Savage and his Crime College. As per Lester Dent in The Pirate Of The Pacific, the Crime College, Doc's Criminal Treatment Facility is described as "An institution which Doc maintained in upstate New York- a place where Doc sent all the criminals he captured. There, the lawbreakers underwent an amazing treatment in which their brains were operated upon and all memory of their past wiped out. Then they received training which turned them into useful citizens. This unusual institution was Doc's own idea. He never sent a criminal to prison. They all went to the institution, to be operated upon by specialists whom Doc had trained. They were turned loose entirely reformed men- they didn't know they had ever been crooks." Compare that to Batman: "[..] Then we'll take him to a famous brain specialist for an operation, so that he be cured and turned into a valuable citizen." Yikes! Better living through science. I didn't remember that aspect of Doc Savage (or Batman's) storyline. Further reading on the subject: Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 BZ, have you shown any Ace publications? I don't remember seeing any but that doesn't mean you don't have a stack in one of those bookcases. How about Dotty Comics? I noticed this new scan from GA.UK had a Kurtzman cover. His style reminds me of Oksner. I haven't seen a lot of his covers (mostly remember his Hey Look series) and I like this one with the nifty robot. I didn't know Kurtzman had worked for Ace. I like that there's a door leading into the robot. (thumbs u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 Paratrooper, have you seen this cover? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratrooper Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Actually no, didn't have that one on my list. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB-Gun Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 BZ, have you shown any Ace publications? I don't remember seeing any but that doesn't mean you don't have a stack in one of those bookcases. How about Dotty Comics? I noticed this new scan from GA.UK had a Kurtzman cover. His style reminds me of Oksner. I haven't seen a lot of his covers (mostly remember his Hey Look series) and I like this one with the nifty robot. I didn't know Kurtzman had worked for Ace. I like that there's a door leading into the robot. (thumbs u Dotty would count as Ace I guess. There were several pre-code horror titles too. Kurtzman worked for Ace in 1943 according to the Who's Who. ACE PERIODICALS BUCKSKIN (wr/pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 LASH LIGHTNING (wr/pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 MAGNO (pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 MR. RISK (pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 PAUL REVERE JR. (pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 UNKNOWN SOLDIER, THE (pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 Cole also did some nifty splash pages for Ace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 *sigh* ... if only Wertham had been balanced in reporting his findings ... like these authors. The image below is part of the Discussion by A.L. Rautman and Edna Brower in their article: War Themes in Children's Stories in The Journal of Psychology, 1945, 19, 191-202. The authors showed 10 images to the children and then asked them to write a story about the images. The images range from "On the floor against a couch is the huddled form of a boy with his head bowed in his right arm. Beside him on the floor is a revolver" to "A little girl is climbing a winding flight of stairs". The study then analyze how many stories were connected to the War or Killing or Death and also if the story's ending was Happy / Neutral / Sad. The older the students, the more likely that those who wrote about the War had Sad ending while there is no difference across age in the percentage of Sad ending occurence. From there you should read the paragraph below. The connection to Wertham? Similar to Wertham's argument that kids are exposed constantly to violence via comic books, during WWII, children were bombarded by news about the War, yet, it didn't significantly change their attitude and it only marginally affected children. Wertham to my knowledge never took a random sample of children and tested the difference in their perception of violence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Anyone want to take a guess at who was Superman's biggest competition? ... Mickey Mouse Frank T. Wilson reports in his Reading Interests of Young Children (The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1941, 58, 363-389) the result of a survey he ran in the late fall of the school year 1938-1939. Granted there were only 152 respondents for the 175 surveys sent but the questions are very interesting, including 'Which are his favorite comic strips?' The results are ... Btw, favorite Movie Star was Shirley Temple and favorite Radio Star was Uncle Don, out-galloping The Lone Ranger! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted April 1, 2009 Author Share Posted April 1, 2009 Kurtzman worked for Ace in 1943 according to the Who's Who. ACE PERIODICALS BUCKSKIN (wr/pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 LASH LIGHTNING (wr/pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 MAGNO (pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 MR. RISK (pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 PAUL REVERE JR. (pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 UNKNOWN SOLDIER, THE (pen/ink/) 1943 > 43 Kurtzman's earliest printed work was a cartoon he submitted to Tip Top Comics in 1939. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted April 1, 2009 Author Share Posted April 1, 2009 *sigh* ... if only Wertham had been balanced in reporting his findings ... I like Wertham's comment in Seduction of the Innocent: "I have known many adults who have treasured throughout their lives some of the books they read as children. I have never come across any adult nor adolescent who had outgrown comic-book reading who would ever dream of keeping any of these "books" for any sentimental or other reason." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted April 1, 2009 Author Share Posted April 1, 2009 I never would have guessed that Little Mary Mixup and Peter Rabbit were among the top 10. I wonder what was the age of those who responded. The results of the survey might have been decidedly different for older readers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Well, it's mainly the Kindergardeners who liked Peter Rabbit, the older children in the study liked Tracy and Smiling Jack better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted April 1, 2009 Author Share Posted April 1, 2009 Well, it's mainly the Kindergardeners who liked Peter Rabbit, the older children in the study liked Tracy and Smiling Jack better That makes sense. It would be interesting to see a survey that included all readers and have the results broken down to various age groups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Well, it's mainly the Kindergardeners who liked Peter Rabbit, the older children in the study liked Tracy and Smiling Jack better That makes sense. It would be interesting to see a survey that included all readers and have the results broken down to various age groups. I know! Still looking for it ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Continued reading Batman # 2 yesterday and here came this page with a blatant disregard to the loss of lives on the part of the pygmies, not only in these panels but also on the previous page where Batman "dispatches" 8 of them from the roofs of a speeding train. Of course, given the times, it shouldn't be too surprising ... but still, a little over the top. Mainly, this episode reminded me of the sad story of Ota Benga Here's from a Kirkus review of Ota Benga: The Pygmy in the Zoo by Phillips Verner Bradford and Harvey Blume (1992): "Like so many others at the end of the 19th century, Samuel Phillips Verner was caught up in the enthusiasm for science, especially Darwinism and anthropology, which seemed to promise that a tidy scientific ranking could be imposed not only on plants and animals but on races as well. To this end, Verner, originally a Presbyterian missionary in the Congo, was commissioned to supply the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis with a band of pygmies for the anthropology exhibit. These pygmies--including Benga--were to join the famed Native American leader Geronimo, a Patagonian Indian, and other ``permanent wildmen of the world, the races that had been left behind.'' But Verner himself was a man of considerable complexity. Determined, like his hero Robinson Crusoe, to escape the safe ``middle station'' in life, he was also as a southerner haunted by racial guilt. He developed a close and warm friendship with Benga, who asked to stay on after the Fair was over. Delivered by Verner to the Natural History Museum in New York, where he soon became ``restless,'' Benga was then transferred to the Bronx Zoo. There, his presence in the same cage as an ape, along with a description identifying him as ``The African Pygmy Exhibited Each Afternoon,'' outraged the media and the public. Verner, congenitally broke, agreed to have local black clergy house Benga in a black orphanage. Later, the pygmy was moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, where, though he became a respected member of local black society, memories of his African past haunted him. He finally committed suicide in 1916. A somber cautionary tale, well told, of human ambition, arrogance, and ignorance unchecked." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 In Detective # 42, Batman is on the prowl trying to catch a killer who presages his murders by mutilating the victim's portrait. Here Batman tries to go up to the penthouse of a soon-to-be victim trying to prevent the crime and he uses (for the first time I believe) suction cups to go up the facade of the building. Now, as mentioned in the caption, human flies were "common" earlier in the century and certainly it is part of the inspiration but The Shadow had been using the gimmick quite often before Batman did ... inspiration? Maybe. Here's an excerpt from The Black Falcon, from The Shadow Magazine, February 1st 1934, the issue I am currently reading: (Note: my italics) "A batlike shape was clinging to a wall which projected at an angle from the set-in fire tower. Invisible in the darkness, this hidden creature seemed other than a human form. Above a shrouded head was a darkened, open window of Rowland Ransdale's apartment. Something squdged upon the wall. The mobster who had turned back to his fellows paused to listen. The sound was so elusive that he gave it no second thought. He did not hear another similar noised that followed. The batlike shape was moving away from the fire tower. Past the angle, it crept with sidewise crablike motion along the extended wall. The glow of city lights revealed the figure dimly. Like a huge vampire, The Shadow was sidling across a vertical surface! Hands and feet were pressing against the wall. Each was equipped with a large concave disk of rubber. Each pressure of a suction cup gave its wearer purchase upon the wall. Each twist released one of the supports. The Shadow had become a human fly. So familiar was he with this method of progress that his motions were timed to perfect precision. [..]" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
