Bertie Bruin Tries to Kill his Forest Pals

The last couple of posts featured the freaked-out funny-animal comics of H. Chambers If you missed them, check out the stories of Eddie the Elephant and Percy Pelican from the pages of Hi-Ho Comics #1  (1946).

This story, “Bertie Bruin” continues the fascinatingly freakish art of H. Chambers, but with an added twist: Some of the most horrible storytelling I’ve ever seen in a comic book!



It’s quite an object lesson in what NOT to do when drawing comics.

In the transition from page 2 to page 3 I had NO idea what the heck was going on. The flopping stage direction and confusingly similar character designs left me scratching my head, wondering if the pages were printed out of order.

And what happened between the last panel of page 3 and the first panel of page 4???
Once I figured it out, I went along for the ride and enjoyed watching a cute story disintegrate into confusion because of bad staging. But it’s a fun disaster.

Percy Pelican – The H. Chambers Comic Book Madness Continues

Last week I posted an Eddie Elephant comic book story by H. Chambers, from Hi-Ho Comics #1 (back in 1946). Here’s another trippy tale, Percy Pelican, which features my favorite art from the whole comic!
Make sure to check out the previous post (and the comments for that post) for more info about the enigmatic H. Chambers!

Eddie Elephant – 1946 Hallucinogenic Funny Animal Comix by H. Chambers

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This story comes from Hi-Ho Comics #1 --- a 1946 comic published by Four Star Publications. It’s filled with 45 pages of insane tripped out comics by H. Chambers. So who is this H. Chambers?

Milton Knight provides some tantalizing information about cartoonist H. Chambers:

“It's Holly Chambers! (Holly was his middle name; I think his first name began with an E.) My late friend, Howie Post, used to share a studio with him and had several vivid tales to tell: he described Chambers as a handsome, charismatic "psychotic" who could walk out with a bar stool and stare down the bartender with a "what are you going to do about it?"

Post also revealed that Chambers was a heroin addict who could shoot up and complete a comic book overnight: "Who needs women when you have this??"
As colorful as his comics, that was Holly Chambers. Howard lost track of him in the 50s, and suspected that he was "rubbed out" by his drug connections.”

Thanks to Milton Knight for that priceless and tantalizing info. It explains a lot – and raises about a million other questions that will probably never be answered.
More of these comics coming soon!

How to Get Your Cintiq Tablet To Recognize Your Stylus Pen

Cintiq users: Have you ever fired up your Wacom tablet and find that you can't draw anything because your pen doesn't show up on the screen? When your stylus stops working, here are a couple proven ways to get your tablet to recognize it again, so you can get back to your digital drawing, inking and painting:

There's not much room on this blog to show you the full-sized version, so if you want to see it bigger, just click thru on the video while it's playing and you'll be able to see it full-sized on YouTube.

Every once in a while, the stylus pen on my Cintiq tablet just doesn't show up on the screen. The last time it happened on my older computer I never got it to work again, until I upgraded to Windows 7.

Anyway, the last time it happened, I scoured the web for tech help forums and I finally found the answers. Sometimes you just need to turn the monitor off and start it again. But if that doesn't work, you have to tweak the Windows Services. Don't worry -- it's easy if you follow along with the video (above).

If you have any Wacom tablet tips, let me know in the comments. Anytime we can share these discoveries it helps everybody else!

Funnybook Freak-out: Hi-Ho Comics

Coming up in the next few posts: some of the freakiest funny animal comic book stories I've ever seen! Here's a tiny sneak peek of the goodies to come:
…and
Oh, man...that Percy Pelican splash panel is amazing!
…all from the fermented & demented pen
of one “H. Chambers.”

Anybody know who this guy is? I’ve looked him up, but zippo-zilch-nada so far.
It’s all coming up soon, so stay tuned ^_^

Hey Look! Full-Color Scans of Harvey Kurtzman’s Late 40’s Masterpiece

Harvey Kurtzman is my biggest cartooning inspiration, and his “Hey Look” one-pagers are my favorite examples of his hilarious work.

The book collection of these comics is out-of-print, and selling for upwards of $80, but lucky for us, Chris at Comicrazys has posted some beautiful full-color scans of these late 1940’s cartoon masterpieces. These panels are just a random assortment of some of my favorite Kurtzman drawings. Make sure to click over to :
http://comicrazys.com/2010/11/24/hey-look-in-color-and-mad-covers-harvey-kurtzman/
…to see the full pages in all their cartoony glory!
http://comicrazys.com/2010/11/24/hey-look-in-color-and-mad-covers-harvey-kurtzman/

Secret Harvey Kurtzman Comic Book Activity Page from 1949

These pages aren’t signed, but they’re certainly the work of  genius cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman!
I came across these pages while flipping through dozens of comic scans…looking for some cool comic oddity to share on the blog. But THIS! *swoon*

Based on the ever-evolving  cartooning styles during Harvey Kurtzman’s pre-MAD “Hey Look” comics, I’d peg these as being drawn around 1947.

From “Little Aspirin” #1 July 1949 The Little Aspirin comic was published in 1949, but I’m betting these filler pages were sitting around for a couple years before they were published.