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Sunday, April 19, 2009
Topps #3: Pee-wee's Big Adventure
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In 1966, at the request of Art Spiegelman, I submitted gags for Topps' Insult Postcard series. The first freelance gag I sold to Topps was part of that series: "Come alive! You're in the Monster Generation!" spoofed the familiar Pepsi Generation commercials. Wally Wood and Ralph Reese illustrated the series.
.In 1966, at the request of Art Spiegelman, I submitted gags for Topps' Insult Postcard series. The first freelance gag I sold to Topps was part of that series: "Come alive! You're in the Monster Generation!" spoofed the familiar Pepsi Generation commercials. Wally Wood and Ralph Reese illustrated the series.
Cover: Esau Andrews
Although Ralph took an extended leave from illustrating, he returns this month with a wild DC Comics tale, "The Thirteenth Hour," featuring monsters crawling over buildings a la Cloverfield. Look for it in issue #13 (May) of editor Angela Rufino's revival of House of Mystery for Vertigo.
As I explained previously, I began working with the Topps Product Development staff in December 1967. By then, Art had taken off for San Francisco, and when he returned a few months later, we would take sketchpads down the hall to the Topps cafeteria, which was deserted during the hours before and after lunch. While the kitchen staff prepared lunch, we would drink coffee and toss gags back and forth.
Others in the Product Development department, run by Woody Gelman, were the cartoonist-designer Rick Varesi, Len Brown (now a classic country DJ in Austin, Texas), Mad writer Stan Hart (who only came in once a week), the clever, creative Larry Riley and the secretary, Faye Fleischer. Riley was a terrific raconteur with hilarious tales of his years working on Paramount animated cartoons, and I regret never tape recording his stories. When he left Topps, he worked as an animator on Ralph Bakshi's movie, Fritz the Cat (1972).
Although Ralph took an extended leave from illustrating, he returns this month with a wild DC Comics tale, "The Thirteenth Hour," featuring monsters crawling over buildings a la Cloverfield. Look for it in issue #13 (May) of editor Angela Rufino's revival of House of Mystery for Vertigo.As I explained previously, I began working with the Topps Product Development staff in December 1967. By then, Art had taken off for San Francisco, and when he returned a few months later, we would take sketchpads down the hall to the Topps cafeteria, which was deserted during the hours before and after lunch. While the kitchen staff prepared lunch, we would drink coffee and toss gags back and forth.
Others in the Product Development department, run by Woody Gelman, were the cartoonist-designer Rick Varesi, Len Brown (now a classic country DJ in Austin, Texas), Mad writer Stan Hart (who only came in once a week), the clever, creative Larry Riley and the secretary, Faye Fleischer. Riley was a terrific raconteur with hilarious tales of his years working on Paramount animated cartoons, and I regret never tape recording his stories. When he left Topps, he worked as an animator on Ralph Bakshi's movie, Fritz the Cat (1972).
The inventive Larry Riley at Topps
Occasionally, other people would arrive and briefly take a crack at gagwriting. However, a special knack was required, and these wannabe humorists usually had odd and puzzling notions of what constituted humor.
One day Woody Gelman explained to us that the Topps execs were sending in a crackerjack humor writer to work on creating cards with us. I don't think Woody was too pleased about the situation of a newcomer crashing his party. Rick, Len, Larry and I were sitting in Woody's office waiting for the new guy to arrive. Expectations were high, because why was he being sent over unless he was a funny fellow? Indeed, he came in wearing a plaid jacket, a bowtie and big, confident grin. In retrospect, he looked sort of like Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman.
After a round of introductions and handshakes, Pee-wee took a seat, and Woody asked him to go right into his presentation. Pee-wee pitched a very strange concept. He said, "Okay, picture this. You show the world as it looks from a dog's point of view." Dead silence... as we all tried to comprehend just what he was describing.
I said, "So in other words, the dog is looking up, and there's a drawing of what he sees in an up-angle from ground level?"
"Yes," said Pee-wee with a big smile, obviously proud of this idea.
I continued, "So if that's the first card in a series of 44 cards, what would you do for the other 43 cards? Would card #2 be a cat looking up? Then maybe a hamster?"
He had no response. His smile faded. He began to twist slowly in the wind. And after that meeting, we never saw him again. In the bubble gum universe, another bubble had burst.
"Cowpoke in Africa" is another Krazy TV card with gag and color rough by me. John Severin drew the finish. The card caricatures Chuck Connors in the short-lived TV series Cowboy in Africa (1967-68). Coincidentally, Chuck Connors grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, within walking distance of the Bush Terminal where Topps offices were located.
One day Woody Gelman explained to us that the Topps execs were sending in a crackerjack humor writer to work on creating cards with us. I don't think Woody was too pleased about the situation of a newcomer crashing his party. Rick, Len, Larry and I were sitting in Woody's office waiting for the new guy to arrive. Expectations were high, because why was he being sent over unless he was a funny fellow? Indeed, he came in wearing a plaid jacket, a bowtie and big, confident grin. In retrospect, he looked sort of like Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman.
After a round of introductions and handshakes, Pee-wee took a seat, and Woody asked him to go right into his presentation. Pee-wee pitched a very strange concept. He said, "Okay, picture this. You show the world as it looks from a dog's point of view." Dead silence... as we all tried to comprehend just what he was describing.
I said, "So in other words, the dog is looking up, and there's a drawing of what he sees in an up-angle from ground level?"
"Yes," said Pee-wee with a big smile, obviously proud of this idea.
I continued, "So if that's the first card in a series of 44 cards, what would you do for the other 43 cards? Would card #2 be a cat looking up? Then maybe a hamster?"
He had no response. His smile faded. He began to twist slowly in the wind. And after that meeting, we never saw him again. In the bubble gum universe, another bubble had burst.
"Cowpoke in Africa" is another Krazy TV card with gag and color rough by me. John Severin drew the finish. The card caricatures Chuck Connors in the short-lived TV series Cowboy in Africa (1967-68). Coincidentally, Chuck Connors grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, within walking distance of the Bush Terminal where Topps offices were located.
Labels: gelman, krazy tv, memoir, monster, pee-wee, pepsi, ralph reese, reubens, topps, varesi
¶ 4:55 PM 4 comments
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Topps #2: Krazy TV
When I was at the Wally Wood Studio in 1967, there was a continual flow of cartoons created for products packaged by Topps Chewing Gum. Soon I was offered a job in the Product Development Department of Topps, which was then located in the old Bush Terminal building in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Taking the subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn each morning was a curious experience, as I soon discovered almost no one lived in Manhattan and worked in Brooklyn. I would ride trains empty except for a few stray social workers. Yet we would pass Manhattan-bound trains packed with hundreds of human sardines squeezed into giant rolling sardine cans.
The first assignment I was given was to create gags for a satirical card series with the working title, Funny TV. In a windowless metal cubicle, I sat at a desk with a flickering florescent lamp and began work using a layout pad, a Rapidograph and colored markers. The second day I started getting headaches, yet the headache would vanish if I stepped into the hallway. Soon I figured out that the headaches happened because the lamp was generating a strobe effect. The headaches went away when I got rid of the lamp.
Each gag had to spoof a specific television series of the late 1960s. Once my color roughs were approved, they were mailed to Mort Drucker or John Severin for finished line art following my layouts. When their inked drawings arrived, they were turned over to the Topps production department along with the color roughs (which were then used as color guides). The cards were eventually issued as a test series with the Funny TV working title changed to Krazy TV.
The use of Drucker and Severin was a calculated move to make the series resemble Mad artwork, and more than a few Topps products were inspired by or imitated certain Mad features. Coincidentally, the March 1967 issue of Mad had a Dick DeBartolo/Jack Davis parody of the TV show Daktari, but I hadn't seen it. The gag I roughed for Daktari was drawn by Drucker.
Notice in the Lazzie card by Severin that the lettering is different on the word "mumps". This is because the line I wrote was, "O.K., Mom! We'll come eat supper as soon as Lazzie finds a cure for cancer!" After the card was inked and lettered, some executive noticed the gagline and decided cancer should not be mentioned on a bubble gum card, so it was altered.
When I was at the Wally Wood Studio in 1967, there was a continual flow of cartoons created for products packaged by Topps Chewing Gum. Soon I was offered a job in the Product Development Department of Topps, which was then located in the old Bush Terminal building in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Taking the subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn each morning was a curious experience, as I soon discovered almost no one lived in Manhattan and worked in Brooklyn. I would ride trains empty except for a few stray social workers. Yet we would pass Manhattan-bound trains packed with hundreds of human sardines squeezed into giant rolling sardine cans.
The first assignment I was given was to create gags for a satirical card series with the working title, Funny TV. In a windowless metal cubicle, I sat at a desk with a flickering florescent lamp and began work using a layout pad, a Rapidograph and colored markers. The second day I started getting headaches, yet the headache would vanish if I stepped into the hallway. Soon I figured out that the headaches happened because the lamp was generating a strobe effect. The headaches went away when I got rid of the lamp.
Each gag had to spoof a specific television series of the late 1960s. Once my color roughs were approved, they were mailed to Mort Drucker or John Severin for finished line art following my layouts. When their inked drawings arrived, they were turned over to the Topps production department along with the color roughs (which were then used as color guides). The cards were eventually issued as a test series with the Funny TV working title changed to Krazy TV.The use of Drucker and Severin was a calculated move to make the series resemble Mad artwork, and more than a few Topps products were inspired by or imitated certain Mad features. Coincidentally, the March 1967 issue of Mad had a Dick DeBartolo/Jack Davis parody of the TV show Daktari, but I hadn't seen it. The gag I roughed for Daktari was drawn by Drucker.
Notice in the Lazzie card by Severin that the lettering is different on the word "mumps". This is because the line I wrote was, "O.K., Mom! We'll come eat supper as soon as Lazzie finds a cure for cancer!" After the card was inked and lettered, some executive noticed the gagline and decided cancer should not be mentioned on a bubble gum card, so it was altered.
Labels: daktari, doctari, drucker, krazy tv, lassie, lazzie, topps
¶ 3:47 AM 4 comments
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
"Write if you get work."
Control click on above heading to hear Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding. Or click here for Bob and Ray's Encyclopedic Book of Wonder.
The other cast members on the Bob and Ray television series (1951-53) were Cloris Leachman and Audrey Meadows. Above: Meadows plays a game of Duplication with Bob and Ray. The game required Peppermint Patties, cards, checkers and cribbage boards. The series was also known as Club Embassy.
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Control click on above heading to hear Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding. Or click here for Bob and Ray's Encyclopedic Book of Wonder.The NYC Paley Center has an upcoming (3/31) Bob and Ray panel discussion with Bob Elliott (now 85), Chris Elliott and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. The connection is that Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" segment is based on an old Bob and Ray routine.
The other cast members on the Bob and Ray television series (1951-53) were Cloris Leachman and Audrey Meadows. Above: Meadows plays a game of Duplication with Bob and Ray. The game required Peppermint Patties, cards, checkers and cribbage boards. The series was also known as Club Embassy.
NPR interview with Bob Elliott.
Thanks to collector Ira Gallen, here's a 1952 clip from the series involving a pitch for the Bob and Ray Burglar Kit.
When you click to enlarge Bob and Ray Throw a Stereo Spectacular (RCA LSP 1773), you can see that on this 1958 Living Stereo record jacket Jack Davis managed to squeeze in almost every performer and group heard on the album. (The only one I don't see is the Percussion Ensemble.)
Thanks to collector Ira Gallen, here's a 1952 clip from the series involving a pitch for the Bob and Ray Burglar Kit.
When you click to enlarge Bob and Ray Throw a Stereo Spectacular (RCA LSP 1773), you can see that on this 1958 Living Stereo record jacket Jack Davis managed to squeeze in almost every performer and group heard on the album. (The only one I don't see is the Percussion Ensemble.)
Listen above for episodes of Bob and Ray's Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife. When I was last at the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center), I saw they had a huge amount of uncataloged Bob and Ray shows. In 1954 I stayed up until 11pm to listen each night to their late night series, a bit more informal than their daytime shows, yet I never see that series mentioned in print and never run across any CDs or MP3s specifically noting the late night series. Odd. Does anyone know if this is around somewhere? Another item I recall: the Bob and Ray newsletter, available if one wrote in and requested to be placed on the mailing list. Has anyone ever seen this?
Labels: audrey meadows, bob and ray, krazy tv, olbermann, peppermint, radio
¶ 8:44 AM 4 comments
