20 Comic Artists (if you're serious about comics) pt. 1

There are, for me, three worlds of comics. The first is the newspaper comic. The second, the comic book. Third, the graphic novel.

I'm not, here, going to delve into the latter. Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller and the rest will have to wait. As for comic books, they were not a part of my childhood. Nor adolescence. I still don't read them now. The world of Marvel and DC are very far from my mind.

But I read newspaper comics a-plenty. There were whole bookcases full of newspaper comic anthologies. The following list, with one exception, consists of newspaper comics, and their digital equivalent, webcomics.

20. Bill Amend
















Foxtrot was a big part of my growing up. Objectively I can't argue for it too much. I could try and defend it's simplicity, it's characters, it's design. Really, the best thing it has going for it is writing. My family still quotes it often. I stopped reading it years ago, when it began a serious decline. But its golden years, in the mid-1990s, proved to be consistently humerous and well done.















19. Vaughn Bode





















The lecherous lizards of Bode's world are odd, to say the least. In pigin English they ruminate on all levels, from deep to dumb. Stylistically Bode has many imitators. As an underground artist he was able to blend in healthy amounts of erotica and other taboo elements into his work.

18. Jack Kent

Jack Kent's King Aroo was syndicated only briefly. It was gentle, humerous, and well done. Kent knew the tricks of comic design, and showed them off without being showy.

17. Kazu Kibushi

When I first discovered Kazu's Copper it was updating pretty regularly. The site how now gone dormant, leaving a small portfolio of brilliant little comics. Copper took advantage of the webcomic format, but without gimmicks. It couldn't be squeezed onto a newspaper, and uses this space for time: creating long pauses and reflective moments that punchline comics rarely allow.

16. Gary Trudeau

Doonesbury brought politics of the editorial page and into the funny pages. Now millions of readers are greeted by liberal Doonesbury and conservative counters like Mallard Fillmore. C'est la vie. Yet Doonesbury is stylistically better than average, and makes its points sharp and focused.

Influence map

Letter

To Swanson & Briggs Architectural Firm, greetings.

You are going to design me a scale model of a building.

I want the people to be about an inch = 6'. I have some rough sketches accompanying to get you started. You're going to take it pro bono.

But, you might ask, why would we do such a thing?

Here's how it goes down:

We're doomed. I don't mean in terms of global warming. I don't mean fossil fuels. I don't even mean molemen.

All civilizations fall. Take your long-runners, like Egypt. Egypt was essentially unparalleled for 3,000 years as a united empire. China, with some major gaps, was an empire for roughly the same length.

But we must mind the gaps. Some of those gaps were centuries-long. I'm not saying that America is going away for ever; but we are going to go away for a while. This is particularly interesting since we live in a time, the first moments of human history, when we are, in fact, a global civilization.

You know what's going to happen when the U.S. falls. Hoping that nukes aren't involved it won't be the stone age. It's not going to be Mad Max. There'll be population fluctuation, fighting, and, I predict, a sort of enlightened patchwork of princedoms.

It's going to happen fast, so the past won't be lost this time. Americans are too proud of their individual cultures and states to stay unified during such a disaster. There will be war as some inevitably try and take over. They won't succeed. Without modern states in place there's no way to hold such territory. Much less acquire it grass-roots when your neighbor is as strong as you.

When I think of enlightened monarchies my mind always goes to Spain of al-Andalus. The gardens, libraries, craftsmen, and learned princes ruling increasingly small territories.

That's what I picture: a modern al-Andalus. There will still be electricity (solar private generators and batteries) there will still be most of the background stabilizing ideals: egalitarianism, free speech, tolerance. Given that it is a kingdom, though, I predict some conservatism that's been dormant will arise.

These will be small, feudal, communities. Palaces built with modern designs. The reintroduction of the long-forgotten haggle in the market places.

When this goes down, in our lifetime (oh you betcha!) I want to be on top. I have every intention of holding one of these communes as a leader. And so that is what you are going to design for me: my palace.

Given the Sultanate quality of the world, and in my part to help stabilize the population after a severe loss, the palace works as a sort of John Dewey-inspired harem. There is the head lady, and I figure 24 other ladies who besides being mistresses will double as staff. In the spirit of enlightenment each lady gets their own studio suite. This is the bulk of the house, naturally.

If I know you, and I think I do, you're interested. You want to see this building as much as I do. It does occur to me however that you're probably busy. You have other projects.

Forget them. They're not as important as this. If you go down in history as the architect of this place it'll all be worth it. At least put the other stuff on the back burner.

It's a challenge. I want it to look finished, detailed, and structurally sound. When is the next time a job like this will fall into your lap?

I'll be in New York the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I'll expect my model to have been started, if not completed.

Sincerely,


Richard S. Johnson

Stuff and Things

I was recently intrigued by the Georgia Guidestones. Here they are:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

As stated previously, I had a vision as a child that it would be up to me to save the world's culture. The guidestones, which I fully support, are set to jumpstart civilization after a collapse.

Anyone who studies history, even in passing, knows that collapse will come. There have been major collapses everywhere, throughout all time periods: from the Soviet Union to China's Three Kingdoms, Rome to the Aztecs, the Mughals in India to the Iroquois. America will collapse. So will the E.U., Japan, and South Africa. Sad, but true.

They may all collapse at once. The cause may be so devastating that the guidestones will be useless (total nuclear annihilation, mass core ejection of the sun). Or they might be more historical, and humanity will be given the chance to rebuild itself.

Every single generation is responsible to itself, and this also mandates a responsibility to the past and future. The peoples of the past set aside and elevated some things for our benefit. We needs must preserve and rightfully cherish these things: undeveloped landscapes, endangered species, novels, sheet music, sculptures and chronicles. So, too, must we sift out our best offerings for the next lot to admire and learn from.

Some people go through life trying to make the stuff that will be remembered. Some go through life trying to survive, or in a haze. And some people work to preserve the past and sort the present with an eye to the future.

Whoever built the guidestones is in the latter. So am I. I wouldn't mind being in the first group, but I find myself drawn to the functions of a transmitter, storyteller, and archivist.

I have a vision of a dwelling much like The Shadow Gallery from V for Vendetta. Bookcases, from top left, with Gilgamesh down to, bottom right, the best of the 20th century. Music from around the world, from all different epochs. 100 years of drama, comedy, and visual splendor. Works of art from 30,000 years and nearly as many movements and cultures.

But I'm glad for the guidestones of Georgia. The Hoover Dam. The Svalbard seedbank. For all my cultural preservation would be of no consequence if there aren't people enough for civilization. Here's hoping they make it to Georgia and Norway before they hit up my place.

Places to Go...

If I had the time and money, hoo boy!

I've been very lucky. I've seen some of the most interesting and inspiring things in the world. I've been to five countries outside my own! Of 28 wonders of the world I've seen 10. That's pretty awesome. (GG Bridge, Empire State Building, Aurora Borealis, Temple of Artemis, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Hagia Sophia, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Stonehenge, and the Colosseum.)

Here are places I'd like to go/things I'd like to see.

First Order:

Egypt - Pyramids, Historic sites of Alexandria and Cairo, The Nile and Abu Simbel
China - The Great Wall, The Qin Mausoleum, Lushang National Park, Defeng and the Longmen Grottoes, Beijing (Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, National Museum, Imperial Tombs, Zoo), Nanjing (Temple of Confucius, Nanjing Museum, City Wall and Stone Town, Linggu Temple)
Brazil - Harbor and Sugarloaf in Rio, The Central Amazon forest and river, Itaipu Dam, Baia
Japan - Himeji, Okayama and Kanazawa Castles, Itsukushima, Hiroshima, Kyoto (Kiyomizu, Golden Temple, To-Ji, Jodo Shinsu Temples), Tokyo (Mt. Fuji, National Museum, Imperial Palace)
Australia - Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Tasmanian Wilderness, Sydney (Opera House, Luna Park, Blue Mountains)
India - Agra Fort and Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Mahabodhi Temple, Sarnath, Kushinagar, Sundarbans National Park, Kolkata (Victoria Memorial, Indian Museum, Dakshineswar, Jorasanko Thakur Bari), Mumbai (Elephanta Caves, Victoria Terminus, Hanging Gardens, Sanjay Gandhi National Park)
Mexico - Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec sites of La Venta, Palenque, Chichen Itza, Teotihuacan, and Calakmul, Mexico City (National Museum, Metropolitan Cathedral, Xochimilco)
France - Chartres, Mont St. Michel, Chunnel, Versailles and Fontainbleau, Paris (Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Louvre and D'Orsay, Tuileries, Notre Dame)
Iran - Bam, Persepolis, Cyrus' Tomb, Tehran (National Museum and Golestan Palace)
Indonesia - Bali, Komodo, Sumatra (Gunung Leuser), Borneo (Gunung Palung), Java (Borobudur and Prambanan)

Second Order:

Spain - Alhambra, Cordoba
Nepal - Lumbini, Everest
Cambodia - Angkor Wat
Mali - Timbuktu
Russia - Historic Novgorod, Moscow (Red Square, Trinity of Lavra), St. Petersburg (Peterhof, Winter Palace, Hermitage)
Saudi Arabia - Mecca and Medina
Panama - Canal
Canada - L'Anse Aux, CN Tower, Banff National Park
Iraq - Historic sites of Baghdad, Babylon and Ur
Chile - Easter Island
Tanzania - Olduvai, Great Migration
Jordan - Petra
Zimbabwe - Victoria Falls, Great Zimbabwe, Zanzibar
Peru - Machu Pichu
Netherlands - Modern protection works, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum, Royal Palace)
Israel - Historic Jerusalem
Ecuador - Galapagos

Tertiary Sites (Places I'd need to go back to):

Italy: Last Supper
Turkey: Troy, Cappadocia, Pamukkale
Greece: Rhodes
UK: Canterbury, London Science Museum

Places in the US to go to:

Monticello and Mt. Vernon, Falling Water, Amish Country and Gettysburg, Everglades, Badlands and Mt. Rushmore, Ellis Island and the Staue of Liberty, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, New Orleans, Big Bend and the Guadalupe Mountains, Grand Canyon, Glacier Bay and Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska, and Hawaii.

Places in the U.S. I've already seen:

Arcadia, Canyonlands, Mesa Verde, Arches, Yosemite, Bryce Canyon, Gunnison, Capitol Reef, Lassen Volcanic, Kings Canyon, Redwood, Sequoia, and Rocky Mountain Parks, Independence Hall, NYC (Guggenheim, MoMA, Natural History Museum, MET, Central Park), Boston (Faneuil Hall, Trinity Church, adjacent Quincy and Salem, MA), Newport mansions, Hearst Castle, LA (Getty, La Brea tarpits, Disneyland, Griffith Park and Grauman's Chinese Theatre), Seattle's Space Needle, The Capitol and White House, Lincoln, Vietnam and Jefferson Memorials, and San Francisco (everything is cool).

Cool Places elsewhere I've already seen:

The 9 wonders listed above
Monte Verde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica
Delphi, Mycenae and the Acropolis in Greece
Grand Bazaar, Topkapi, Blue and Suleymanie Mosques, Cagaloglu Hammam and Ephesus in Turkey
The Giant's Causeway, Historic Liverpool, Bath, and York, Oxford, British Museum, Tower of London, National Gallery, Loch Ness and the Isle of Skye, Avebury, Tintern Abbey, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast and Leeds in the UK

Television

I don't watch much T.V. As a television critic I am undoubtedly unqualified. Yet all the same, given an affinity for lists, hierarchies and categories here are my favorite T.V. shows.

1. Fawlty Towers

2. Connections

3. Coupling (UK)

4. Clone High

5. Mystery Science Theater 3000

6. Cosmos: A Personal Voyage

7. Brideshead Revisited

8. Daria

9. The Prisoner (original)

10. Dekalog

11. The Twilight Zone (original)

12. Frasier

13. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

14. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

15. Star Trek: The Next Generation

16. The Singing Detective

17. Phineas and Ferb

18. John Adams

19. Band of Brothers

20. The Muppet Show (original)

21. Iron Chef (Japanese original)

22. Monty Python's Flying Circus

23. The Simpsons

24. I, Claudius

25. Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law

Hon. Mentions:

How I Met Your Mother

Jeeves and Wooster

Top Gear

David Attenborough (anything)

Stargate SG-1, Farscape, and Sliders before they began to suck

Or you can consult the handy flowchart below.

Distilled Movie lists

No repeated directors. No repeated decades. No repeated genres. No repeated countries.

All still classics.

Sound difficult? It is. Here are two examples of how it can be done.

00s City of God - Brazilian Thriller: Meirelles and Lund
90s Chungking Express - Chinese Romance: Kar-Wai
80s Cinema Paradiso - Italian Drama: Tornatore
70s Solaris - Soviet Sci-Fi: Tarkovsky
60s Yojimbo - Japanese Action: Kurosawa
50s Smiles of a Summer Night - Swedish Comedy: Bergman
40s Fantasia - American Animation: Disney
30s Olympia - German Documentary: Riefenstahl
20s The Passion of Joan of Arc - French Biopic: Dreyer

00s Paprika - Japanese Animation: Kon
90s Farewell My Concubine - Chinese Epic: Kaige
80s Wings of Desire - German Romance: Wenders
70s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - French Comedy: Bunuel
60s 8 1/2 - Italian Drama: Fellini
50s The Apu Trilogy - Indian Biopic: Ray
40s The Third Man - British Thriller: Reed
30s The Wizard of Oz - American Musical: Fleming
20s Man With a Movie Camera - Soviet Documentary: Vertov