Thursday, June 9, 2011

George Carlson's Polka-Dot King!

Let's continue with our exploration of Jingle Jangle Comics No. 14, April 1945. Today's story, "The Polka-Dot King and the Cranberry-Plated Crown," is by the great George Carlson. Carlson's layouts were supernaturally fine. Page after page of the following prove that genius, from any era, always has a way of looking modern.

Here is a one-page puzzle from the same issue, drawn by Carlson. Here, too: perfect balance.

Coming next: More George Carlson featuring the artist's best known creation - The Pie-Face Prince of Old Pretzelburg!

13 comments:

  1. This one really moves~! So much forward motion. The layouts are amazing. Using different shaped panels doesn't always work~ but it does here. That maze feels like my brain after too much paper wasted on my own drawings~!

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  2. Lysdexicuss: I've never seen any better layouts!

    Jeff: Everytime I look at Carlson's work, it seems fresh and new!

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  3. his should be a household name... amazing!

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  4. Karswell: I couldn't agree more. His work is so perfectly beautiful yet, at the same time, really out there. Carlson's universe is so full of mind-twisting touches: ice cream cones growing like flowers, folks dashing in exits, pipe smoking cacti, etc.

    Every page is a piece of art.

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  5. Carlson only appeared on my radar about 8 years ago, but I recognized his work immediately as that of a kindred spirit. Thanks for posting this!

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  6. Craig: More Carlson on the way next post!

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  7. A very cool story and terrific design. Thanks for featuring this, Mykal. Maybe it was the forerunning to Little Dot?

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  8. Gary: Great to hear from you! About Dot - Hey, you never know.

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  9. Bravo! It feels like old Sunday morning newspaper comics.

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  10. Excellent post. Have to say I miss the Gold Key Comics blog but The Big Blog works for me, being a fan of sher cartooning.

    I'm not sure, but I think Harlan Ellison wrote an essay about Jingle Jangle Comics in the classic book "All In Color For A Dime".

    Anyhow, beautiful work.

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  11. Yes, Harlan Ellison wrote about Carlson in the last chapter of All in Color For a Dime. He later said in an interview (in Starlog) that prices of back issues of Jingle Jangle had gone up after that essay was published. BTW, All in Color for a Dime had eleven chapters/essays, including Ted White on DC, Richard Lupoff on Captain Marvel, Don Thompson on Timely/Marvel Comics, and Roy Thomas on Fawcett Comics (besides the Marvel Family). The essays were originally published as articles in a fanzine.

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  12. Thanks for the tip about All In Color For A Dime!

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