p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.9px Arial; color: #424242} No other pin-up cartoon artist over a 30-year period was as prolific or as omnipresent as Bill Wenzel. Virtually every humor and men's magazine, ranging from Judge in the mid-'40s to Sex to Sexy in the '60s and '70s, boasted two, if not a dozen, of Wenzel's pin-up cartoons. Quick with pen and ink, Wenzel was equally adept with the brush, and nowhere was this more evident than in his work for the Humorama line of girlie digests.
When the life of Don Flowers was cut short in 1968 by the ill effects of emphysema, he left behind a career in newspaper cartooning that spanned more than four decades as well as one of the most fluid lines to grace the comics page. His cartoons evoked the art of Russell Patterson and Hank Ketcham, and nowhere was this more evident than in his quintessential single-panel pin-up cartoon, the aptly named Glamor Girls: Whether blondes or brunettes, showgirls or housewives, Flowers rendered his comely protagonists with equal aplomb. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.9px Arial; color: #424242}
by Alex Chun & Jacob Covey For more than 40 years, Dan DeCarlo best known for his definitive renditions of Archie Comics' Betty and Veronica, two of comics' most beloved icons. But before joining Archie and unbeknownst to many, DeCarlo has honed his skills as a good girl artist for the Humorama line of digest magazines. Following the immensely popular The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo, this second volume once again displays DeCarlo's sexiest Humorama pin-up cartoons, and continues Fanatagraphics' dedication to showcasing the best of the classic pin-up cartoonists.
During the 1950s, under the Humorama banner, Abe Goodman churned out scores of cheap digest-sized magazines that featured cheesecake photos and single panel pin-up cartoons. The digests featured the likes of Playboy's Jack Cole, Archie's Dan DeCarlo and glamour girl legend Bill Ward. In addition to these three pin-up cartooning luminaries, other notable who contributed to the pages of the Humorama digests included longtime illustrator Jefferson Machamer; Basil Wolverton, who influenced a generation of underground cartoonists; Mad's Dave Berg ("The Lighter Side"); and future syndicated cartoonists George Crenshaw ("Belvedere"), Bill Hoest ("The Lockhorns") and Brad Anderson ("Marmaduke").
Los Angeles in the 1960s gave the world some of the greatest music in rock 'n' roll history: "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas, "Mr. Tambourine Man" by the Byrds, and "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys, a song that magnificently summarized the joy and beauty of the era in three-and-a-half minutes. But there was a dark flip side to the fun fun fun of the music, a nexus between naïve young musicians and the fringe elements that exploited the decade's peace-love-and-flowers ethos, all fueled by sex, drugs, and overnight success. One surf music superstar unwittingly subsidized the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. The transplanted Texas singer Bobby Fuller might have been murdered by the Mob in what is still an unsolved case. And after hearing Charlie Manson sing, Neil Young recommended him to the president of Warner Bros. Records. Manson's ultimate rejection by the music industry likely led to the infamous murders that shocked a nation. Everybody Had an Ocean chronicles the migration of the rock 'n' roll business to Southern California and how the artists flourished there. The cast of characters is astonishing—Brian and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, eccentric producer Phil Spector, Cass Elliot, Sam Cooke, Ike and Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell, and scores of others—and their stories form a modern epic of the battles between innocence and cynicism and joy and terror. You'll never hear that beautiful music in quite the same way.
Trafficking is big business and those involved show no remorse, have no mercy, only a deadly intent to protect their income. Afina is a young Romanian girl with high expectations when she arrives in Brighton but she has been tricked and there is no job, only a life as a sex slave. Facing a desperate future, Afina tries to escape and a young female police officer, who comes to her aid, is stabbed. Powell's life has been torn apart for the second time and he is determined to find the man responsible for his daughter's death. Action, violence and sex abound in this taut thriller about one of today's worst crimes.
America, 2031. TV star Reuben Flagg is drafted to protect citizens of Chicago as a Plexus Ranger, having pretended to be one onscreen. The inexperienced Flagg must tackle an American blighted by a biased and oppressive media, dubious 'wars', widespread political corruption and environmental disaster.
Vintage glamour girl artist extraordinaire Bill Ward gets the full Fantagraphics Studio Edition treatment featuring Ward's most polished, fully-realized pinups from the 1950s and 1960s.
One of the most influential artists of his generation, Patterson's impact spanned decades. The list of Patterson's "alumni" ranged from virtually every published pin-up cartoonist to notables like Walt Disney and Hugh Hefner, who noted it was Patterson, not John Held, Jr. or F. Scott Fitzgerald, who best defined the strut and fret of American life between the two World Wars. Along with an introductory essay by illustration art historian Armando Mendez, this volume showcases Patterson at his pinnacle, featuring many his most important and dynamic magazine covers and illustrations. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial}
