Thursday, May 13, 2010

Frank Frazetta, Abbott & Moffat

Frank Frazetta

Abbott & Moffat -- behind "Variety's" frakking firewall.

12 comments:

Christian Lindke said...

One always likes to read that one of the great illustrators of the 20th century had "inherent adolescent sexuality" in his illustrations.

Remind me why anyone reads Wired again.

Fire and Ice is lackluster?

The stoner who wrote this tripe should go take a nap in the back of his Chevy Van.

Me? I'll stick to the Cimmerian's obits.

http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=14477#more-14477

http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=14387#more-14387

David Chute said...

I'd say "adolescent" is about right. In other words, for allowing sex to figure at at all, FF's work was more mature than a lot of "guy" entertainment, which is typically pre-adolescent, no-gurls-allowed-in-the-treehouse stuff. (I worked all this out with my editor doing a "Guy Movies" piece for Men's Journal a couple of years ago. You can look it up.)

See how simple? I can tell by your taste in entertaiment what stage of development you had achieved when the process was arrested. I would be happy to communicate my conclusions to you in a private e-mail.

Christian Lindke said...

It depends upon what aspects of his illustrations I admire. The nudity is what I find most dull. It is his use of color and line that are remarkable, as well as his application of classical techniques.

I find most psychobabble analysis to be vapid and based in a superiority complex of one kind or another.

Maybe the sexuality of his pieces is adolescent, but his application of technique isn't. One could as easily state that Matisse's nudes are adolescent.

As for the development of my sense of taste being arrested, I find the mere suggestion an affront and insulting. I am continually striving to encounter new works to expand my understanding of taste. I very much subscribe to an Eliot-esque interpretation of artistic tradition and doing so requires continual re-examination and challenge.

Christian Lindke said...

But thank you for providing another example of why the "Athenian Stranger" of THE LAWS recommends that old men be required to drink to excess from time to time.

David Chute said...

Pulling out the "O" word. Has it come to this?

"Psychobabble" is offensive unless you're just frakking around with it, which is about my speed.

All due respect, I actually don't think it is possible to call Matisse's nudes adolsecent. But enrormously over-endowed females posing on rocks in fur bikinis? I feel I'm on firmer ground there.

Unless you believe that all nudes are adolsecent, in which case I may have to revise my diagnosis.

Tulkinghorn said...

LOL, as the kids say....

Assuming arguendo that FF is as good a painter as you think he is (never having seen one in the flesh (whoops) it's hard to tell, but the work is certainly handsome and sophisticated in reproduction), an issue still remains.

I think that it's hard to deny that its narrative content is the substantial basis of popularity of the work... (Kind of true for most illustrators -- Wyeth or Pyle, pirate or Sir Lancelot)

And I don't imagine that you take issue either with that or, indeed, with the narrative itself.

So?

Whether you find the work heroic or bombastic is a real judgement and doesn't necessarily stem from condescension.

I think it's fair to accuse him of being reductive, that is, of simplifying complex written work into a series of less complex images primarily of appeal to -- and I have to say it -- adolescent boys and their fellow-travelers.

Maybe not, though.

Tulkinghorn said...

LOL was for Christian's old joke.

David Chute said...

A very old joke, indeed.

Christian Lindke said...

Psychobabble as something to be "played around" with I can appreciate. When done casually, it can actually be useful.

But I am one mere "frakking" away from boycotting this website. I don't find it droll -- as I did fralling when I was 9. I don't find it a sufficient substitute for profanity -- as I do the use of Chinese in FIREFLY.

I just find it annoying.

BTW, I think Wyeth's work to be vastly superior to Pyle's, chiefly because the non-genre Wyeth work is quite wonderful. See the sorrow and the hope in his depiction of Adam and Eve:

http://brandywine.doetech.net/Voyager/image.cfm?ImageKey=19868&ImageFile=/VoyagerImages/NCW_1030.jpg&TableKey=OBJECT:1531754

David Chute said...

Oh, I am so tempted...

You have no idea.

But I am also bigger than that.

At least for the time being.

Christian Lindke said...

I am not bigger than this, and innuendo is sufficient.

Goodbye.

David Chute said...

Too bad.

Or maybe not. If something this trivial really is a deal-breaker.