Carbon Alley #30

This one is a bit messy. My "smooth" bristol completely betrayed me. When the panel lines started bleeding all over I knew I was in for it.

Utopian Interlude

With all the talk of zombies and armageddon lately, I thought it would be nice to have a utopian interlude. I pulled this Westinghouse ad from the amazing Paleo-Future blog, a daily chronicle of the future that never happened. Elektro is awesome! He sells appliances and sings and smokes! I don't know about Sparko though. Rags the robotic dog from Woody Allen's Sleeper is a much more pleasing artificial companion.

Interestingly, I just bought Dylan's album Bringing It All Back Home, and was just listening to "Gates of Eden" while writing this, which seems to be about paradise lost, kinda. I guess we can't help but return to zombies and armageddon, eventually.

Another Armageddon Wednesday

Why? Why not? Here's a still of Bert the Turtle from the educational film Duck and Cover, produced in 1950. I haven't seen it for a while, so I don't know if the monkey with the firecracker is supposed to represent nuclear holocaust or what, but it's a damn fine allusion.



"That way, colliding particles of hydrogen won't bonk you on the head."

Another Zombie Monday

It's another Zombie Monday! Here we have a pic of Donald with Bombie the Zombie from Carl Barks' "Voodoo Hoodoo," published in Donald Duck Four Color 238, 1949. Poor Bombie doesn't mean any harm. He just wants to go home. Originally, Barks drew Bombie with wide, pupil-less eyes, but the editors at Dell thought it was too creepy for kids. Consequently he looks like a drunken bum.

Note the no-longer current use of the term "dreamboat." Or it could be that Donald's all a-twitter when it comes to the undead.

Carbon Alley - 6/22/2007

Armageddon Wednesday

Just thought I'd take this time to point out that my local post office also happens to be my local fallout shelter. I'm not sure anyone but me has really taken the time to acknowledge that. Are all the old granite-walled post offices designated as such? If so, rest assured that after the bombs fall postal workers will rule the world! Imagine, a whole planet of people ruining my mail. The whistling alone would be deafening.

Zombie Monday

Hooray! It's Zombie Monday! In honor of Zombie Monday, I thought I would post the film poster for Ed Wood's Plan 9, which I happen to love. Plan 9, of course, "deals with the resurrection of the dead. Long distance electrodes shot into the pineal and pituitary gland of the recently dead." Ah, bliss.

Will next week begin with another Zombie Monday? We shall see...

Carbon Alley - 6/15/2007

Donald's the Man

I've saved this for a while but really needed to post it. Hell, I may post it on both of my blogs. More info at Cartoon Brew.

Killer Ducks

I officially can't wait for the day that a scenario presents itself to me where someone shouts, "What's happening?" and my sincere response is "Birds are everywhere!"

Mark Trail post #4? I can't remember.

Carbon Alley - 6/08/2007

Yes, they are drinking CC.

Rabbits and Cigs

I haven't yet blog-dropped Amid Amidi's Cartoon Modern, a companion piece to his book, Cartoon Modern, and a great source for post-golden-era animation design analysis. The pic above is from a storyboard for a UPA-produced Old Gold commercial with a Rube Goldberg type situation going on. It really stood out to me, the stark white/black relationships, the pastel/chalk textures, and the toy bunny cheerfully transporting cigarettes.

Carbon Alley - 6/01/2007

Used different paper on this one. Expensive paper. Gave me a headache.