Wednesday, February 28, 2007

I LOVES Me Dem "FUNNY ANIMALS"!


Anybody that knows me.. Already knows that I'm slowly assembling my own scrapbook/binder of Frazetta's old-timey 'Golden Age' comic-book work. And a big chunk of that, was the beautiful "Funny Animal" text illos & stories; that were published by 'Standard Comics' in the mid-to-late 4o's..
Today, was an awfully good day for me.. As I received the last of 3 different "Funny Animal' books that I'd been waiting on, won off eBay. This last one, was entitled: 'BARNYARD COMICS' #20. And not only did it have 3 different (2 of which, are featured here) text illos. But it also had a very nice 7-page "Barney Rooster" story!


If memory serves,-- both the 'Big Ears' and 'Forest Concert' illos were featured in the Kitchen Sink 'Small Wonders' trade paperback; published in '91. But I have a complete Checklist of the entirety of Frazetta's comic-book output.. And it's pretty shocking just how much artwork, is actually still missing from that particular book..
Plus, it was only published in black&white. To truly appreciate how gorgeous this stuff looks, it behooves you to see them in color! There's something about that slightly off-register printing on old yellowing pulp, that really enhances the "warmth" of these Pics!


Featured above, is the custom Christmas Card that I created for my family, in 2005.. It was my own attempt at staging some "Funny Animals" in a similar way. Unfortunately, I recall that the yellows didn't printout all that well; skewing towards a more-greenish tint.
This digital JPEG-version is actually closer to the original intent of the color scheme.

Off-and-on, I've also been developing a 'Pulp'-style crimefighter story, using s'more "Funny Animals".. I hope to get some of that stuff posted on here, later.
'Til next time, see ya!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice samples and that's a sharp looking card you drew!

Drazen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drazen said...

Those Frazetta funny animals are awesome.
theres something seedy and dishevellled about them, like they got some hooch hidden under the mushroom patch

Rich Dannys said...

andre - Thanks, man.. Much appreciated!

draz - Yeah, I dunno about seedy & dishevelled.. But they certainly always appear to be very footloose & fancy-free, don't they?
I think you're right.. There's gotta be some of that oldtime corn-mashed Joy Juice, fuelling all of those carefree feelings!! hah