[profh0011]

Art Lortie reports FRED KIDA's obituary...

http://www.tcj.com/fred-kida-1920-2014/

[narfstar]

Another golden passing 

[profh0011]

AL FELDSTEIN @ 88

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/al-feldstein-former-mad-magazine-chief-dead-at-88-1.2627522

[profh0011]

DICK AYERS / R.I.P. at 90

Nuts. I hadn't heard back from him in some time (he used to answer my e-mails). Awhile back, he'd invited me to a comics show he was appearing at in northern NJ, but i wasn't able to go, both money & car troubles. I did meet him back in the mid-90's, and came away with the impression that he was one of the NICEST guys who had ever worked in the business.

In recent years, thanks to Bill Black's AC Comics reprints and then online research, I came to LOVE his work from the 50's as much or more than his inking from the 60's.

He pencilled EVERY single appearance of the original GHOST RIDER-- U.S. Marshall Rex Fury!

Before Nick Simon's Silver Age Marvel site went down (a little over 3 years ago), I'd been building a virtual "shrine" to Ayers' work, in the western section, and in particular, the GHOST RIDER section. I managed to post covers of every single comic Rex Fury appeared in-- even tthough not one of them was ever published by Marvel.

I've got "restorations" of a lot of them at my blog now...

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2011/09/ghost-rider.html

[paw broon]

Sad indeed.  Thank you for the link.  Excellent covers.

[nick caputo]

Dick Ayers was not only a terrific artist but a true gentleman. I have a tribute to him on my blog:

http://nick-caputo.blogspot.com/

[profh0011]

H.R. GIGER / R.I.P. at 74

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/13/hr-giger-dead-alien-artist_n_5314408.html

I "cast" this guy in one of my comics stories...

[Drusilla lives!]

I think the first time I saw a Giger work was in a magazine at the doctors office way back in the 70s... I don't know, perhaps it was Omni, but I hesitate to say.

No, I'm pretty sure this was BEFORE Alien (did a quick check and Omni commenced publication in 78). 

I'd say his very personal, stylized work was very "70s" in that it was perfectly reflective of that decade's dark, apprehensive complexity now that I think about it.  Much as Frazetta captured a similar mood in his own way in the 60s (although Frazetta's overall style, and less personal subject matter had wider appeal in my opinion).  And Giger was definitely a master of the airbrush and ink... talk about a bio-mechanical fusion, his technique was outstanding.  I guess artwork that's highly personal and requires great skill... yet somehow also becomes popular since it resonates with people, albeit in a "morbid" way... is "kitsch" to many.

I guess I liked his work... but in moderation.

Here's a link to the NY Times Giger obit.

[profh0011]

My 1st exposure was the cover to Emerson, Lake & Palmer's BRAIN SALAD SURGERY (1973).  My brother got into "FM" music for a while, got that and TRILOGY (1973) and got into the habit of playing BSS at peak volume.  Drove me nuts, I thought it was the weirdest S*** I had ever heard in my life.  Then one day (it was in mid-'77) he announced he'd bought 2 tickets to see them, and I was going, whether I liked it or not.  So I waited until he was out of the house, and put BSS on at a reasonable volume for a change... and started to get into it.

When we went to the show, imagine this-- I enjoyed the concert more than he did.  He was diaappointed in their new album, WORKS VOLUME 1 (1977), but I really liked it.  By the end of the year I'd bought every LP they put out, and went looking for more (which is how I also got all 5 albums by The Nice).

I still think BSS is one of the weirdest things I've ever heard, but once I got to like it, ALMOST anything else sounded "normal" by comparison.  So it allowed me to get into a LOT of different music I might not have otherwise.

I thought Giger's work was a PERFECT match for that album-- particularly the side-and-a-half composition, "Karn Evil 9".  Later, when I started reading about ALIEN (before it came out), I recognized his work from the earlier thing.

Apparently he suffered from horrible nightmares most of his life, and the only way to deal with them was to paint what he dreamed about.

I've had the 18" Kenner ALIEN toy since shortly after it came out.  Apparently, there's was a nasty reascvtion from parents to the ting, and it didn't sell, so I got one at Kiddie City for only $10 (half-price) when they were trying to get rid of the ugly things.  A few months later, they turned up at Creation conventions selling for $80 apiece!!!  Mine has been on display in my room for DECADES. I never put it away.  I have it standing right next to the model kid "The Visible Man".

I got a couple rather pricey books of Giger's art over the years, but I reached a point quite a while back when I realized, I "had enough". It wasn't that I saw sick of him, it's just that, I had all I felt I'd ever "need".  So, yeah... "in moderation".   

[Drusilla lives!]

... I got a couple rather pricey books of Giger's art over the years, but I reached a point quite a while back when I realized, I "had enough". It wasn't that I saw sick of him, it's just that, I had all I felt I'd ever "need".  So, yeah... "in moderation".   

Yeah, it's easy to get seduced by his work, especially if you've lived through the 70s.  As I mentioned there are so many themes running though it, issues that were confronting average people back then like never before (at least here in the US).  Sex and fetishism, overpopulation and abortion, drugs, war and death, man vs. machine, the occult... he hit on just about all the most controversial ones.  As I said, very personal stuff... and one would think not very marketable.  But again, I suppose he was an artist whose art came along at just the right moment, with a style that uniquely and succinctly expressed these themes for many people back then... especially in the sci-fi and fantasy art crowd. 

I think Necronomicon I and II, and Biomechanics are probably pretty much representative of his work though... although I should add that I don't have any of them personally.

... Apparently he suffered from horrible nightmares most of his life, and the only way to deal with them was to paint what he dreamed about. ...

Yes, I read that about him many years ago. 

Well, who knows, perhaps in death he finally can find the peace that eluded him so in life.

[profh0011]

For some reason, a song by the Atlanta GA all-girl band Catfight! comes to mind... "Can't Stop".

"When I go to Hell, the devil's gonna know my name
gonna roll his eyes and wish I never came!"

[Drusilla lives!]

Well, I was still trying to figure out who ELP was exactly... had to look them up on Wikipedia... as you probably have guessed, not a big fan. 

I do remember that "Welcome To The Show..." bit of Karn 9 though, one heard it a lot on the radio back in the day.

Btw, speaking of music, do you remember how everyone was so obsessed with sound quality back then?   As I was reading about them (ELP), I came across a bit regarding their live album being recorded in "Quadraphonic" sound... remember Quadraphonic sound?!? 

Wow, did THAT bring back memories... and what a silly bit of obsessive faddishness that all was, what a sales gimmick.  Today I find I don't even have stereo playback sometimes, and yet I'm still contented... go figure. 

[profh0011]

I still consider "Karn Evil 9, First Impression" (the 2-part thing that starts on Side 1 and finishes on Side 2 with "Welcome Back My Friends...") to be one of the WEIRDEST-sounding things I ever heard.  What cracked me up was when I realized the sound of the MOOG synthesizer was something I'd heard before-- almost the exact same thing-- on The Monkees' song "Star Collector" (in 1967).

BSS is one of those albums where every song sounds like it's by a different band.  "Still... You Turn Me On" is a moody ballad, "Benny The Bouncer" is honky-tonk, "Tocatta" is modern classical (I also have a recording of the full composition by a symphony orchestra-- ELP only does the 4th movement). But my favorite ELP song is the English folk ballad, "Jerusalem"-- which I first heard on MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS!

"Oh great. Now I have to stand in the fish tank and sing!"

One of the strangest things about "Karn Evil 9" is that the some of the lyrics seem very similar to the plot of the 1978 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA pilot.