Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Re-Run

Monday, February 25, 2008

The trees outside my front door.

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Sunday, February 24, 2008

Memorial Bridge
Washington DC

Arlington Memorial Bridge viewed from the South Side, February 2008.

This "neo-classical" bridge was authorized to be built in 1925. Supposably the impetus for this broad concrete bridge was the experience of President Warren G. Harding who was trapped in traffic for three hours trying to cross the earlier (and smaller) wooden bridge which Arlington Memorial ultimately replaced.

To see more photographs, plus more history on this bridge, click on any of these images.

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Ink Portraits of George Washington Parke Custis (adopted son of George Washington, and the original owner of Arlington House) and Anne Hill Carter Lee (daughter that married Robert E. lee) below; Click to enlarge.

Anne Hill Carter Lee

George Washington Parke Custis

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Red, Blue and Yellow

Monday, February 18, 2008

Mickey Mouse Monday

Mickey Mouse playing a one stringed instrument.
This style still shows the rat-like characteristics
which were completely gone by the
time Disney did Fantasia less than a decade later.

The Adventures of Mickey Mouse
Copyright 1931 Walt Disney productions
David McKay Company, Publishers

Cover to the 1931 Adventures of Mickey Mouse.
Even ragged used copies like this sell for
$300.00 or more to collectors.

I was trying to find out who was the artist for the little book "The Adventures of Mickey Mouse" from 1931. The"50th Anniversary Edition" reprint provides no indication, though a number of the drawings have "Walt Disney" as the signature for the artist.

The three sections are simple adventure tales, though quite outdated by contemporary standards for children's books. The center tale is told entirely in rhyming couplets, in which Mickey has a run in with Peg Leg Pete over some buried pirate treasure. The tale begins with:

Mickey Mouse was full of fun.

He'd risen early with the sun,

And now was on his merry way

To hunt up some adventure gay.

Behind him loped his old houn' dog

Who'd often stop to sniff a log

Or any other thing in view,

For he sought bold adventure too.

The artwork is fun to look at, it has a looseness to it that fits with the styles I have seen in cartoon art from the early 20th century, before the art deco influence of the 1930s sharpened up the corners and shapes of cartoon art (compare, say, Dick Tracy or other strips that emphasized a connection to the angles and straight lines of deco).

Click on the images to see enlargements. Notice how peculiar the rat looks on the page in which Mickey is playing to an audience. It looks like something that might appear in a Mad Magazine satirizing Mickey Mouse, instead of a serious effort to draw one of his animal compatriots in a way which fit with the other stylized animal drawings.

Mickey Mouse. See the rat in the bottom. Click to enlarge

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Artwork from my comic book story Blanket of White.

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