Thursday, January 11th, 2007

Time	Event
9:48a	New Smithson! Right this way: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/smithson/series.php The girls are in Smithson's Shakespeare garden. From the Victorian period to the turn of the century, some literary-minded people were really into random stuff mentioned in the works of Shakespeare, the logic being, I suppose, that the great Bard had imbued fennel and columbine with magic poetry power just by writing about them. Hence the phenomenon of Shakespeare gardens, which grow only plants mentioned in the works of Shakespeare. There was also a dude named Eugene Schieffelin who tried to bring all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to America, which is why the New World now has starlings, a major pest and a threat to endemic songbirds and woodpeckers, which they outcompete. All the starlings in North America are descended from birds released by Schiefflelin into Central Park in 1890. Thanks a lot, Eugene Schieffelin, you dumbass. Interestingly, it's been theorized that the starlings in North America may end up increasing to the point that they fill the huge gap in the ecosystem left by the passenger pigeon. This would mean that, in time, we'll get mega-flocks of starlings blacking out the sky for up to an hour at a time, filling the air with the deafening sound of their wingbeats and covering everything for miles around in their poo. Which would be upsetting, but kind of cool. What's that? You don't want to hear about ecological crises caused by well-read Victorians? You want another installment of the Overlooked Manga Festival? Okay, but keep that fin de siècle state of mind, because I'm staying in the same general time period. ( Read more... ) (8 Comments | Comment on this)
1:44p	Making Cartoonists Cry, Part 327 One of the pieces currently on display at the Cartoon Art Museum is the original art for this Walt Kelly book cover, kindly on loan from the collection of Steve Leialoha. Here's a closer look at the lower right corner, to give you an idea of how insanely detailed, yet adorable, this thing is. Got that, my cartoonist friends? Now consider the following two facts: 1. The original art looks exactly like the finished cover, only bigger and in black and white. The title, author, price, and tiny little fiddly details are all part of a single pen-and-ink drawing. 2. There is no white-out anywhere on it. Actually, that's not strictly true. There's a tiny dab of white paint on the "$1" at the upper right corner, presumably because Kelly decided that the price needed to stand out more. And that's it. WALT KELLY = GOD. OTHER CARTOONISTS = SCHOOLED. (16 Comments | Comment on this)

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