Good news Milt Gross fans! The book The Complete Milt Gross Comic Books and Life Story is already getting rave reviews! (“A must have!”-Cartoon Brew). The book hit the comic book stores yesterday. Al Jaffe, who wrote the FOLD-INtroduction, just got his copy and writes,

Hi Craig,

You’ve probably heard Amazon is fucked up with big techie probleeemos and the book can’t be ordered from them till they get their problems fixed. I heartily suggest ordering the book now from Bud Plant Books. Bud has been an honest comics and illustration oriented bookseller with a great eye for finding and offering treasures for decades. Bud’s a good friend of mine and Yoe Books and comics in general. We have had a button for him in the right hand column since the day the blog began. Bud is well worthy of our support. You can order The Complete Milt Gross Comic Books and Life Story by clicking here.

Milt Gross’ Count Screwloose! And Dan Gordon doing the opening panel with the Kilroys! Here’s another excerpt for you to dig from The Complete Milt Gross Comic Books and Life Story.

The book has over 350 full color pages of MIlt madness. It’ in comic shiops tomorrow, Wedneday or regular bookstores nexxt Tuesday. Or Amazon will have it in a day or two so you an order online now… Click here to buy this book.

— C. Yoe (in the funny papers)

The funniest comic book artist of all time (and an equally brilliant comic stripper and pioneering animator, “graphic novelist”, etc, etc.) was MILT GROSS! Today would have been his 115th birthday-and that’s no banana oil! To celebrate we present the funniest comic book story you surely ever read below.

This is just one story of over 350 full color pages in my new book hitting brick and on-line stores in approximately six days. Everyday till then we’ll be presenting a comic story, rare art and photos that didn’t fit in The Complete Milt Gross Comic Books and Life Story. The book has a special FOLD-INtroduction by Al Jaffee and a foreword by Herb Gross, Milt’s son. Click here to buy this book.

Buy this book now! Click here!

I.T.C.H.: When did you first encounter Nell Brinkley?

Trina Robbins: The first Brinkley pages I ever saw were very kindly given to me by Bill Blackbeard, and though they obviously were very beautiful, I saw them out of context, so I didn’t “get it.” If you see Nell out of context, all you see is beautiful art, but the writing that goes with it is necessary in order to really understand what she was doing. Then, when cat yronwode and I co-wrote the first book on women in comics, Women and the Comics, I still had very little to go on about Nell. The biggest piece of information I had came from a Los Angeles group of illustration fans, and that information later turned out to be absolutely faulty!

I.T.C.H.: What kind of a woman was she?

TR: The research I’ve done uncovers a woman whose outlook was as romantic as her writings. She seems to have been sheltered quite a bit from harsh reality by her mother, who managed everything for her. At the same time, she handled her extreme deadlines very well, and seems to have been politically aware. For instance, she was passionately angry about the mistreatment of the WWI vets during the Depression, and she also often expressed her admiration of Eleanor Roosevelt in her daily panels.

I.T.C.H.: Can you tell us a little about her working conditions?

TR: Nell had a carriage house behind her New Rochelle, NY, house, which she turned into a studio. From there she turned out her daily panels and Sunday pages, and often also her movie or stage reviews-a LOT of work! In order to meet her deadlines, she had worked out a system: as soon as she finished a page, she would roll it up and give it to her chauffeur, who would drive it to the train station in time to meet the train to NY. He would pass the art to the conductor through the train window, and when the train arrived at Grand Central station, there’d be a man from the Hearst syndicate waiting for it, to take it to the Hearst offices by deadline.

I.T.C.H.: How was her work received in her lifetime?

TR: Nell was a superstar! She had at least 3 popular songs written about her and her “Brinkley Girls,” when she traveled, newspaper reporters would be at the train station or later at her hotel room to interview her about how she liked their city, although usually the questions were simple stuff like “How do you like San Francisco girls,” to which she would of course answer, “They’re very pretty.” People, especially young women, collected and cut out her art and pasted it into scrapbooks, and little girls would cut out and color her black and white daily pages. Her fans, mostly female, also copied her art, and an obituary about her said that she had more copyists than any other artist except Charles Dana Gibson.

I.T.C.H.: If you wanted readers to know one thing about Nell Brinkley, what would it be?

T-R: Nell drew “like a girl.” My experience and research has shown me that for the most part contemporary male comics historians, scholars, and “experts” interpret pretty art as code for unimportant, trivial, “female.” The world of comics criticism needs to open up to a non male-centric way of looking at comic art, and I think that will only happen when more women enter into that world.

MoCCA (The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) is the most wonderful place in the world! It’s in New York City (arguably the birthplace of comic strips and comic books) and is staffed by the most enthusiastic and nicest people! Ellen Abramowitz and Karl Erickson head the terrifically dedicated army of volunteers. I always get a big smile on my face when I go there, like I did for their current kick-ass exhibit-perfectly presented-of Archie Comics. But I had a REALLY big smile on my face when I went to talk last night at MoCCA about The Art of Ditko-it was so fun and also so many of my friends showed up. Here’s some photos of the event that Gary Dunaier kindly took-with revealing photos of special guest “Faux Stan Lee” and the star of the show, in a very rare public appearance, “Faux Ditko”!

I’m on the panel, between two of my heroes, “Faux Stan Lee” and “Faux Ditko”-revealed to be two of my good friends-Jim Salicrup and Bob Burton-this sure surprised the hell out of me!

The crowd of Ditko fans raptly listening to my interview with actual dialogue from 1960s fanzine interviews with Ditko and Stan Lee’s introduction to The Art of Ditko.

“Faux Stan Lee,” “Faux Ditko” and “No-Faux Yoe” (me) talk about Steve Ditko’s amazing comics collected in the book.

You must go to MoCCA, and support this wonderful institution-you’ll enjoy yourself immensely. Hey, you can visit virtually right now and sign up to be a member and get involved. Go here: MoCCA!

Order the beautiful large format faux leather “Art of Ditko” by clicking here!

In the New York Times Book Review today! Steven Heller says, among other nice things, ”I’m ecstatic to learn from Craig Yoe’s Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster that after trying unsuccessfully to regain the Superman copyright, Shuster went on to produce erotic cartoons. The drawing is impeccable, it’s kinky and funny at the same time.”

THE TOON TREASURY OF CLASSIC CHILDREN’S COMICS seems to owe its very existence to the revered 1982 collection of comics stories entitled THE SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC BOOK COMICS. Both have about 350 pages of rare stories reprinted directly from the original newsprint pages of the comics of the Golden Age era. At least one person (Michael Barrier) was involved with both books and both books prominently feature the work of, among others, Walt Kelly, John Stanley, Carl Barks and C.C. Beck. This similarity is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing! The original book from 27 years ago has long been a favorite and, in fact, was my introduction to the delights of LITTLE LULU and UNCLE SCROOGE!

The respected and award-winning team of Art Spiegelman (Tell me I don’t have to recount his resume here of all places?) and Françoise Mouly have compiled this collection and they know good comics when they see them. In the introduction, the point is made that after the emasculation of adult comics by the Comics Code in the mid-1950′s, children’s comics became, surprisingly and subversively, the place where one could find more nuanced characters and even more adult subject matter, all dressed up in animal skins or funny clothes so nobody really noticed. These comics, it is said, were as much of an influence on the pioneering underground cartoonists of the 1960′s and ’70′s as the more openly anarchist MAD.

Once past all of that grown-up intellectual stuff, though, one is left here with a couple of hours or so of the most enjoyable couch reading imaginable. Old friends like Sheldon Mayer’s SCRIBBLY and SUGAR & SPIKE, LITTLE ARCHIE, THE FOX AND THE CROW, Dick Briefer’s FRANKENSTEIN, Disney’s Ducks, Basil Wolverton’s POWERHOUSE PEPPER, POGO and Fawcett’s CAPTAIN MARVEL mingle easily with fun and funny work from Jules Feiffer, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Cole, Milt Gross and a dozen more creators.

One could argue the lack of so much as a single Harvey Comics story but the stories that are present tend to mask that fact. I didn’t notice it until I was done. I’ve read where the story credited to Bob Bolling is actually by another artist. If so, this marks a sad exclusion for one of the greatest of all kids comics cartoonists but the story itself is still fun.

I’d be curious as to how young kids would take to these stories which are, of course, meant to be shared with them. I read the 1982 book out loud to my son so many times (voices and all!) that he enjoys this collection but he’s nearly 13 now. If anyone out there reads these classics to newer kids, let us know how they react.

THE TOON TREASURY OF CLASSIC CHILDREN’S COMICS is well worth its $40.00 price tag but several online sources offer it at a good discount. Between coupons and bookstore incentive bucks, I was able to get my copy for about half price. It’s a beautiful book all around and a worthy, if unofficial, follow-up to the Smithsonian book of all those years ago. Make sure you have your local Public Library order a copy or two, also.

I’m excited! Carole Postal just let me know that Sunday’s NY POST had a cover feature where they “reached out to some of” their “favorite pop culture junkies” to ask what they would buy these days with a few bucks in their pockets. Jeff Ayers of the Forbidden Planet said, “Craig Yoe’s Clean Cartoonists Dirty Drawings. It’s a weird mishmash of artists, contemporary and classic-who used to do Mad (to) Archie-doing naughty stuff. It’s mostly a cheesecake book, where you’re seeing artists doing something you didn’t possibly think they could ever come up with”.

And here’s what some other people have been saying about Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings lately:

“For the sheer joy of sex, we have Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings in which the incorrigible Craig Yoe has assembled furtive works by such otherwise respectable cartooners as Cliff Sterrett, Carl Barks, Paul Murray, Harry G. Peter, Martin Branner, and Stan and Jan Berenstain (to name a few) — all of whom are revealed as secretly lusting after the curvaceous gender, the nuder the better. Each display is accompanied by a short and informed biography of the cartoonist. Among the pictures are such rarities as Joe Shuster’s scantily clad ladies doing unspeakable things and a surprisingly chaste Wesley Morse. Not so rare, a handful of Virgil Partch’s cavorting nudes. Some other cavorting by VIP nudes was accomplished on the cover of the first issue of Playboy, announcing the publisher’s proclivity for cartoon sex. Other indecencies in the book include a Billy DeBeck rendering of Snuffy Smith pissing in the snow and some suspiciously Ditko-esque bondage bimbos usually associated with fetish artist Eric Stanton, with whom Steve Ditko shared a studio during much of his New York period, roughly 1958-1966.”
-R.C. Harvey/Rants and Raves

Harvey is always long-winded so just enough room for a few more recent brief excerpts:

“Looks Great!”
-Strange Ink

“Naughty!”
-Glorious Nonsense

“Treasures!”
-Playboy magazine

Amazon has a deal right now where you can save $6.38 or 32% on Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings. Even better they have a “better together” deal where you can get Clean Cartoonists Dirty Drawings and the latest Arf book, Arf Forum, together and save 13 bucks! Click here to get ‘em!

There is an extensive preview of Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings here.

Mike Gold over at the always interesting http://comicmix.com recently reviewed the new “Arf” book, “Arf Forum”:

Craig Yoe is not the most unusual man I’ve ever met. However, this is a statement that reveals more about me than it does about him, and since this is a review of his work I’ll try to stop scaring people.

Craig Yoe runs this place called Yoe! Studios, which is really just one single studio filled with talented people, a lot of energy, and great fun. They do all kinds of stuff: they create the Big Boy Comics (yes,
they’re still being published), they do those astonishingly packaged comics figurines that Dark Horse sells and they do design work and create toys and sundry chachkis for such clients as Kraft, Warner Bros. and Microsoft.

One of the many statuesque statues Yoe! Studio has done for Dark Horse…

They hand out Yoe! Studio whoopee cushions and thongs at important business trade shows. He used to run the Muppet Workshop. He actually looks like the Kelly Freas drawing, slightly dispelling the myth that if you don’t look like Corporate America, you won’t fit into Corporate America.

The castle that houses Yoe! Studios, the “Facts of Life” TV show was based on the school that was there before Yoe! took over.

Craig Yoe is also a major, long-time comics fan, among the best and brightest Ohio has had to offer comics, which is saying a lot (the tip of the iceberg: Jerry Siegel, Tony Isabella, Maggie Thompson, Mike W. Barr, Harlan Ellison, ComicMix’s own Martha Thomases and Mike Raub). But, to no one’s surprise, his tastes are as unusual as he is.

For the past couple years, he’s been foisting his line art fantasies on the general public with his Arf series, published by Fantagraphics. There are three such books out right now – in order, Modern Arf, Arf Museum, and Arf Forum. No matter how hardcore a comics enthusiast you might be, there’s a lot of weird stuff in these volumes that you should see, that you would want to see.

(order Arf Forum here)

His roster of reprinted talent includes (in alphabetical order): Ernie Bushmiller, Charlie Chaplin, Robert Crumb, Salvador Dali, Dan DeCarlo, Jack Davis, Rudolph Dirks, Max Ernst, Jimmy Hatlo, Hugh Hefner, Reamer Keller, George Herriman, Frank King, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Patrick McDonnell, Pablo Picasso, Artie Spiegelman, Mort Walker, and Wally Wood. That’s a really eclectic group of cartoonists; and, yes, I meant cartoonists. You might not have perceived some of the above as such.

This is one of the many great images related to reading comic books in the latest “Arf Forum” book…

(click for a closer look)

There’s tons of comics in each action-packed volume, with a bit of a focus on cheesecake and pin-up. Most of it falls into the “extremely hard to find and I’ll bet you’ve never seen it before” category. Some falls into the “never before reprinted” category. Almost all of it falls into the “holy shit” category. Craig wisely keeps the narrative to a minimum, letting the graphics speak for themselves.

Each “Arf” book features a cartoonist that drew sexy pin-up style cartoons. “Arf Forum” presents the Italian artist Kremos…

“And now get undressed, agent X4781. This document is very compromising and must be sewn in your panties.”
“But, if it were so important, wouldn’t it be better to put it in a more secure place, chief?”
(click for a closer look)

If it’s possible to put a creator’s most bizarre predilections between the covers, Craig Yoe has done just that in his Arf series. They must be seen to be believed, but if you’re placing an order at your friendly neighborhood comics shop or at Amazon or you’re at one of the better big box bookshops, each book (there will be more) is $19.95 and if you’ve got it to spare, take a shot in the dark. He’s got (surprise!) a website all about it, and he takes orders there.

Artsey-fartsey has never been so much fun. I doubt you’ll be disappointed, and you just might be amazed.

Heidi MacDonald alerted me to the fact that Publishers Weekly just ran a review of Arf Forum on their “PW Comics” website. I’ve taken the liberty of reprinting the text below.

(order Arf Forum here)

“Readers will find this book doing strange and wonderful things to their minds. Imagine someone going through old magazines and stopping whenever an unusual picture or story catches his attention. Then imagine this reader taking the time to cut out the oddities and stick them in a file folder. And finally imagine someone selecting the most unusual, striking things out of a drawer filled with such folders and printing them in an elegantly designed, lovingly printed anthology. Arf Forum features Max Ernst’s surrealist collages (a man with the head of an Easter Island statue cavorting in various melodramatic scenes) as well as a sleazy photo story from the early 1940s about a visit to a comics studio where girls pose in their underwear.

“Yoe’s warm memoir of a meeting with cartoonist Bill Holman (Smokey Stover) shows the modern audience how dazzling this comic strip was, while a piece about ultra-obscure artist William Ekgren (known only for three covers) offers a tantalizing glimpse of an unfulfilled talent.

(click to read this comic)

“Yoe fills this volume to the gills: Stan Lee on irate readers, Italian cartoonist Kremos’s girly cartoons, a photo of Elvis reading a Betty and Veronica comic. There’s no overall theme here except “Isn’t this cool!” but that’s enough; it is cool”.

MONDAY MORNING
“Where did we leave off yesterday?”
“At home, boss, don’t you remember?”

Above: Elvis reads Betty and Veronica on his first major tour, part of the many images of people reading comics in Arf Forum.

As the girl said in the movie Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure, “Thanks P.W.!” I’m interested in hearing indivduals reactions to the latest Arf book, too. Send them to yoecomix(at)hotmail(dot)com and I’ll run the letters on the blog.