Dunno about others, but I kinda like this take on WW...

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GeorgeC

Dunno about others, but I kinda like this take on WW...

Post by GeorgeC » August 23rd, 2010, 1:23 pm

http://purgetheory.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... -blah.html

Link to a blog by cartoonist Ben Caldwell.

Caldwell, in addition to doing designs for animation and writing/drawing a strip (Dare Detectives) and creating books on drawing, has done comic work in the past for DC and Marvel.

(Caldwell's books are among the best on adventure cartooning and cartooning in general. He has a nice fresh style. The instruction books are among the "best sketchbook"s by an artist that I've got!)

His Wonder Woman strip was published in Wednesday Comics by DC and later collected into a hardcover of the same name.

Caldwell submitted a proposal for a "young adults" version of Wonder Woman that would have skewed away from much of her complicated backstory and focused more on adventure elements and quirky sidekicks in addition to an attempt to make her more relatable. Parts of that proposal were reproduced on his blog as downloadable jpeg's.

His ideas certainly seem more palatable to me than the garbage going on in the current Wonder Woman monthly comic.

The drawings definitely have a charm missing in the latest leather-jacketed version of WW...

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Post by Randall » August 23rd, 2010, 8:29 pm

I like his work a lot. His Wednesday COmics WW strip was too cluttered, but his style is indeed fresh and appealing. If his young readers WW book got greenlit, I'd certainly give it a try. Looks like loads of fun.

But I don't mind JMS's latest WW comics either. After 60 years, I don't mind seeing an all-new, non-traditional take on the character. And the fact that his story will likely all be erased in the end doesn't mean it can't be good. And, though many hate it, I kinda like the new look, actually.

GeorgeC

Post by GeorgeC » August 23rd, 2010, 9:32 pm

WW looks like a NYC prostitute in the new outfit, Rand.

JMS is also a creator that rubs about half the people that still buy comics the wrong way, too. His ideas and storylines just don't generally stick after he leaves comics...

Besides that, DC has tried something like this storyline before and it didn't click at that time, either.

I agree in uncluttering the character a bit, but DC needs to find someone who wants to work WITHIN the character and not another revisionist and revamper. There are ways to make her more likeable without completely changing the character or missing the point that presentation and not her history is the problem here.

I think the Caldwell proposal is as close to getting those points as anything I've read online. Granted, I don't think mainstream comic fandom (in North America at any rate) is broadminded enough to accept his cartooning style in the mainstream monthly but it could do well in the kids' market that he suggested... Ironically, some of the better characterizations of Superman and Batman have occurred in the comic spin-offs based off of their animated series. Those books sell nowhere as well as the mainstream books (Action, Superman, Detective, Batman) in the US but there is sales evidence that they do much better overseas than the "mainstream reallity" books. The trade collections of the animated series books have also done okay in the US, too.




As ridiculous as Wonder Woman's traditional outfit may seem to some, it's iconic. It would be merchandising suicide and bad business to permanently discard that look, and I know DC won't do that... No, it's not her look that keeps the boys and the majority of girls away from her monthly comic.

The new leather jacket WW look is another bad Image fashion faux paux courtesty of Jim Lee, one of comicdom's worst costume designers. It's ironic that both Lee AND Alex Ross are such poor character designers in spite of otherwise excellent artistic abilities.

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Re:

Post by Randall » August 23rd, 2010, 11:36 pm

GeorgeC wrote:WW looks like a NYC prostitute in the new outfit, Rand.
Maybe, but it's no worse than her traditional bathing suit (or many worse costumes on other super-heroines). But don't worry, she'll have her old one back in a year. ;)

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Post by Ben » August 24th, 2010, 10:30 am

Yeah! That's almost as dumb as giving Superman a bla... Oh, wait...oops. ;)

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Re: Dunno about others, but I kinda like this take on WW...

Post by droosan » August 24th, 2010, 1:44 pm

First, Ben Caldwell is an amazing artist .. his 'digest-sized' Dare Detectives comic is über-cool, and would lend itself perfectly to an animated treatment. He's also among the few truly talented artists who has authored several "how-to-draw" books that are actually educational and 'accessible' -- to both beginners and professionals..! 8)

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Second, my favorite Wonder Woman 'take' was the April Fool's Day gag which Jerry Beck pulled, several years ago .. when he'd claimed to have found a 'lost' WWII-era Wonder Woman animated short, directed by Tex Avery: :lol:

Image

GeorgeC

Post by GeorgeC » August 24th, 2010, 7:53 pm

There's still stories about Tex Avery that I have yet to hear busted let alone confirmed.

Is it true that there was another cut of "Red Hot Riding Hood" released for US troops overseas, or it that just urban myth?

**********

The story I'd still like to get a decent answer for is why WB still drags its knuckles on getting the complete Tex Avery library of MGM shorts released to DVD. I'm at the point where I'm going to take matters into my own hands and just dupe my LD's to DVD-Recorder and eventually onto DVD-R's. I'm tired of waiting for WB at this point in time.

They've been told for 10 years that people want those shorts on DVD!



P.S. -- Droo, I think the best how-to instruction books are generally written for kids.

Most of the classical drawing books are written for academics and don't do much for me.

I like examples and clear language. Also, fun helps getting through the book. Drawing on the Artist Within and Niccolaides are kinda dry...


Besides Caldwell and some of the earlier Christopher Hart books (and Preston Blair!), I kind of like the "dynamic Force" drawing books.

There's really not a lot in classical drawing books that helps cartooning and animation, period.

The other huge problem I have is price with a bunch of books. Many are still $35-$40 and it's gotten harder to find them on the overstock/used book market in decent shape.

One of Don Graham's books got re-released and they want $75 for it on Amazon!

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Post by Ben » August 25th, 2010, 5:26 am

Actually, George, LD dupes of the Avery cartoons might be BETTER than whatever WB eventually brings out, if their grainy, reframed, DVNR'd Droopy collection is anything to go by... :(

GeorgeC

Re: Dunno about others, but I kinda like this take on WW...

Post by GeorgeC » August 26th, 2010, 3:37 am

Partial answer to my question about the "alternate version" of Red Hot Riding Hood --

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

"The film's original conclusion had Grandma marrying the wolf at a shotgun wedding (with a caricature of Tex Avery as the Justice of the Peace who marries them), and having the unhappy couple and their half-human half-wolf children attend Red's show[citation needed]. This ending, deleted for reasons of implied bestiality and how it made light of marriage (something that was considered taboo back in the days of the Hays Office Code), was replaced with one (that, ironically, has also been edited, but only on television) where The Wolf is back at the nightclub and tells the audience that he's through with chasing women and if he ever sees a woman again, he's going to kill himself. When Red soon appears onstage to perform again, the Wolf takes out two pistols and blasts himself in the head. The Wolf then drops dead, but his soul appears and begins to howl and whistle at Red.

"Prints with the original ending (where the Wolf is forced to marry the lusty Grandma) and the Wolf's racier reactions to Red had been shown to military audiences overseas during World War II, though it is not known if this print still exists."


*****************

I've also read about this in at least one animation history book.

I wonder if it's possible that the US Military or Library of Congress might have a copy of this version of the short in films preserved from World War II?

Granted, a lot of films were probably thrown away or lost (typical waste from government expenditures and war draw-downs) but it's a possible piece of history.

Not many theatrical shorts are known to have "alternate takes" or "director's cuts."

Maybe a private collector has a copy stashed somewhere?

This is one of those animation "urban legends" that has yet to be proven or busted...

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