mondojohnson

From the “better-late-than-never” files:

Roy Edward Disney, nephew of Walt, died December 16, 2009 at the age of 79. He is rightly credited with bringing back the hand-crafted artistic legacy of Disney, and also with bucking the greedy grotesqueries of the Michael Eisner years. It was his vision that brought us the beautiful, classically-animated Princess and the Frog (for instance).

But I think Roy Disney’s greatest gift was resurrection of the 1945 collaboration between Disney artist John Hench and Salvador Dali, Destino. Dali and Hench got eight months into the project before the financial strains of World War II put an end to the ambitious venture. In 1999, Roy Disney decided to have Destino finished, handing the priceless storyboards over to French animator Dominique Monfrey, who along with an army of animators completed the short. It is mostly hand-drawn, with a bit of computer animation. There are eighteen seconds of the original — the bit with the two tortoises.

Here it is, enjoy:

[Source: Wikipedia]

Painter and ukulele artisan Amy Crehore has prepared this entrancing (and beautifully framed) work for the upcoming Dark Pop 2.0 show at NYC’s Last Rites gallery.

“We all had to do a piece of ‘dark art’ for the show and this is mine,” says Crehore on her blog. It’s called A Curious Shelter, and features a smiling, Krampus-like monster with inscrutable motives toward the naked girl he’s sheltering. Is he sinister or sweet? Or both — dark art as dark chocolate?

I love it.

Here is the show info for my pals in NYC:

Dark Pop 2.0
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 9th from 7-11pm
Last Rites Gallery
511 W. 33rd St. – 3rd Fl.
New York, NY 10001
212.529.0666
lastritesgallery.com

Tremendous sci-fi pulp artwork, thanks to Micky the Pixel and his awesome collection of mag covers. This one looks to me like a gay alien cyclops sprucing up in the mirror before cruising the saunas. Can’t read the writing, anyone want to translate?

5/30/2009: UPDATE! My friend Julia Leyda has translated: “Roto, Rescuer of the Earth!” I always knew the alien gay cyclops were in our corner.

Yusuf, the beautiful singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, brought a joyful tear to my eye on The Colbert Report. Enjoy.

I love Drew Friedman, the legendary illustrator whose comicbook-pointillistic-photorealistic style has had me transfixed since pre-teenhood (in Heavy Metal and National Lampoon, back when that was a radically funny publication).

This is a commissioned portrait he recently did of “Schlitzie”, the iconic sideshow pinhead who became a heroic mascot to me and all the other freaks — including, famously, the Ramones — who felt a cozy comfort in the “one of us, one of us” chant.

Friedman’s portrait captures this heroic aspect of the noble freak amazingly well. I love it.

(And yes, I am using the terms “freak” and “pinhead” without irony or apology )