Dangerous Minds pal—and man about town in Los Angeles, New York and Paris—Michael Kurcfeld has just posted a new interview with Robert Crumb on the occasion of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris retrospective of his work. The show is on view until August 19.
You get to catch a peek of “Chichi Biguine,” the delightful Max Fleischer-esque interactive piece Crumb made in collaboration with Frederic Durieu, starring his “Mr. Natural” and “Angelfood McSpade” characters. Interestingly, Crumb also addresses criticism that “Angelfood McSpade” is a racist stereotype.
Laughing Squid‘s Scott Beale spotted this fabulous Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D. action figure. Boob is the “eminent physicist, polyglot classicist, prize-winning botanist, hard-biting satirist, talented pianist, good dentist too” who joins the Beatles to fight the Blue Meanies. Usually I only go in for the authentic vintage of this kind of thing, but this is really, really well-done.
Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D. is from McFarlane Toys and is available for purchase on Amazon.
What a long strange it’s been for Space Ghost - from Blip the monkey to the high priest of psychedelia, Timothy Leary.
Space Ghost: Now Timothy, tell me, what’s your secret identity?
Timothy Leary: I’m an outlaw, I’m a, a counter-culture person, and that’s where I like to be, out there on the, on the front lines, uh, with my friends.
Space Ghost: What sort of super-powers do you possess?
Timothy Leary: Oh, we flood your eyeballs, over, overload your, uh, your earballs, I give you patterns and swirls of color, and, uh, makin’ you feel better and better, yeah, the power of using light to, uh, to enhance consciousness and alter consciousness is the tricks I’m using now, and, so far, they’re legal, Space Ghost.
Space Ghost: Now, Tim, people depend on me to defend their planets and save millions of innocent lives from impending doom. What do you feel people expect from you?
Timothy Leary: Uh, Richard Nixon called me—I’m proud of this, Space Ghost—he called me the most dangerous man alive, and of course, I tried to be as dangerous to him as I could be. Outsiders, uh, like me a lot because I’ve given the man fits, so I’ve got a lot of friends out there.”
This appeared on TV as the third episode of Space Ghost Coast To Coast, but it was actually the first show of the series to be produced.
Oh yeah, Judy Tenuta (ugh) and Ashley Judd also appear.
I greatly admire Neil Coslett‘s award-winning animation Killing Time at Home from 2003, it’s a dark little tale that stays with you long after viewing. Originally produced by Nicola Black as part of the Mesh scheme, which Blackwatch Media ran for Channel 4 television in 2000 and 2007, producing 27 new digital animations that were shown on TV and at film festivals. It would be good to see Black kick-start a scheme like this again, and hopefully have Coslett make a follow-up to his superb wee film.
The Lovely Sorts of Degenerates at Everything is Terrible bring you a sweet collage of opening graphics and other detritus from local shows during everyone’s fave decade…
During its limited theatrical release in 1983 Rock & Rule was discounted by critics and ignored by audiences. But over the past three decades it has steadily gained a cult following, particularly among movie geeks who get a thrill out of watching anthropomorphic animals singing new wave songs.
With its amusing cyberpunk plot, clever direction by Clive Smith and a pretty fine soundtrack by Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick, Debbie Harry and Earth, Wind and Fire, Rock & Rule kept me engaged and entertained for the duration of its tight 77 minute running time…which is saying quite a bit considering I have little patience for animated movies. And it’s hard not to like a movie featuring an evil Mick Jagger in the form of a large cat-like humanoid.
If you like Ralph Bakshi and Heavy Metal, you should get a kick out of Rock & Rule.
Now this is delightful. Terry Gilliam has always seen the world differently. One of his fellow Pythons (Michael Palin?) said Gilliam described the world through his own particular language. Once, while flying over the Atlantic Ocean, Gilliam looked out of the window and remarked, “Wow, a whole bunch of water.” It’s wrong, but it’s also wonderfully right.
Gilliam (along with Ronald Searle and Ralph Steadman) was a major influence on my mis-spent doodling career, not for the illustrative style but for his uniquely original approach to animation and story-telling, where stories didn’t have to be linear, or have endings, and ideas counted for more than punchlines.
Here is Gilliam, looking like a hot young film star, in the studio of his Putney home (actually his spare back bedroom), explaining how he put together his famous “Fig Leaf” animation, from 1970.