Comics / Comics News

Fantagraphics Bookstore Serves Classic Cheesecake

By The Editor
June 16, 2008 - 04:20

Event poster for "Now Serving Cheesecake."

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKSTORE & GALLERY “NOW SERVING CHEESECAKE.” THE CLASSIC ART OF CARTOON PIN-UP OPENS SATURDAY, JUNE 28

The post-war era in America gave rise to a remarkable number of amazing cartoonists retuning from overseas. These members of our “Greatest Generation” had their careers interrupted by World War II and again when the comic book hysteria of the 1950s all but erased this innocent pastime from the cultural landscape. When comic book work could no longer provide their livelihood, many turned to racy down-market digests, and in the process created a legacy of sensual and seductive pin-up art that remains as appealing today as it did when this distinctly American aesthetic emerged. A new exhibition at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery opening June 28 highlights the work of five of the most notorious pin-up cartoonists of this period.

“Now Serving Cheesecake: The Classic Art of Cartoon Pin-up,” organized by Los Angeles author and archivist Alex Chun, highlights stunning original artwork and artifacts by Jack Cole, Dan DeCarlo, Don Flowers, Bill Ward and Bill Wenzel. Chun is the author of no fewer than six books featuring the work of these artists and examining their contributions to American popular culture. Many of these artists enjoyed success in the field of mainstream comics, creating memorable characters like Plastic Man, Josie & the Pussycats, and Torchy Todd, working in newspaper syndication and comics publishers including Archie and Timely Comics - the predecessor to Marvel Comics. The publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham’s sensational tirade Seduction of the Innocent, and subsequent Senate hearings on Wertham’s suggestion that comic books led to juvenile delinquency and social deviancy, forced these artists onto the pages of men’s magazines. These popular digests, published primarily by Humorama, featured photos of 50s icons like Bettie Page and gag cartoons with scantily clad women. While mild by today’s standards, these anachronistic depictions of blonde bombshells, silly secretaries and gold-digging seductresses are emblematic of their era.

The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, June 28 and continues through July 25 at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, located at 1201 S. Vale St. The opening reception from 6:00 to 9:00 PM features a live pin-up cartooning demonstration and a performance of 50s torch songs by the Fraus. Author Alex Chun will attend to sign his many pin-up books, published by Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books. The opening coincides with the colorful “Artopia” Georgetown arts festival featuring art, music, dance, performance art, film, and the ever-popular Hazard Factory power tool races throughout the neighborhood.  Admission is free.

Listing Information
NOW SERVING CHEESECAKE: The Classic Art of Cartoon Pin-up!
Original Art and Artifacts by Jack Cole, Dan DeCarlo, Don Flowers, Bill Ward, and Bill Wenzel. Curated by Alex Chun.
Opening Reception Saturday, June 28, 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Live Pin-up Cartooning Demonstrations, music by the Fraus and more.

Exhibition continues through July 25, 2008
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street, Seattle
206.658.0110  www.fantagraphics.com
Open daily 11:30 – 8:00 PM. Sundays until 5:00 PM.

FEATURING THE WORK OF:
Jack Cole (1914 – 1958)
With his quirky line drawings and sensual watercolors, Jack Cole, under Hugh Hefner’s guiding hand, catapulted to stardom in the 1950s as Playboy’s marquis cartoonist, a position he held until his untimely death at the age of 43.  Unbeknownst to many, however, gag cartooning didn’t come naturally to Cole.  After finishing his legendary 14-year run on Quality Comics’ Plastic Man, Cole plunged blindly into cartooning and found himself honing his skills in the pages of the Humorama line of down-market digest magazines.  Though he signed his cartoons “Jake,” Cole’s exquisite line drawings and masterful use of ink-wash—a skill he carried over to Playboy—betrayed his pseudonym.

Dan DeCarlo (1919 – 2001)

For nearly half a decade, Dan DeCarlo was the Archie artist.  DeCarlo’s rendition of Riverdale’s teenage populace entertained and influenced generations of young people as he guided Archie and co. through their often goofy trials and tribulations.  Without a doubt, however, DeCarlo is best known for defining the look of every adolescent boy’s wet dream/fantasy, Betty and Veronica, with their trademark upturned noses, tight sweaters and barely-there mini-skirts.  With the help of Stan Lee, and unbeknownst to most, Decarlo also populated another world which he filled with cartoons featuring girls in lingerie—and often less—bearing an uncanny resemblance to his perennial blonde next door and spoiled brunette socialite.  From 1956 to 1963, DeCarlo produced hundreds of pin-up cartoons for the Humorama line of girly digests.

Don Flowers (1908 – 1968)

When the life of Don Flowers was cut short in 1968 by the ill effects of emphysema, he left behind a career in newspaper cartooning that spanned more than four decades as well as one of the most fluid lines to grace the comics page.  His cartoons evoked images of Russell Patterson and Hank Ketcham, and no where was this more evident than in his quintessential single-panel pin-up cartoon, the aptly named Glamor Girls.  Whether blondes or brunettes, showgirls or housewives, Flowers rendered his comely protagonists with equal aplomb. Reflecting on Flowers’ body of work, it quickly becomes evident that he was really an illustrator playing cartoonist.  He was equally skilled with the brush as with the pen, and was also well regarded for his spotting of blacks.  While Flowers spent nearly a quarter of a decade on Glamor Girls, it wasn’t until the 1960s that he finally broke free of Patterson’s influence and establish a more modern style that was uniquely his own.

Bill Ward (1919 – 1998)

While Bill Ward is perhaps best known for creating the Golden Age comic book icon Torchy Todd during his tenure at Quality Comics in the 1940s and 1950s, his blonde bombshell was a just a precursor of things to come.  For more than half a century, Ward made a career capitalizing on his ability to render the female form, and his exquisite stiletto-heeled vixens graced the pages of countless men’s and humor magazines.  What set Ward apart - and above - his talented contemporaries was his use of a medium called the conte crayon.  When drawn on a simple newsprint stock paper, this potent combination created a charcoal-like effect and color that gave Ward’s original art an elegant sepia-tone quality.  The conte crayon also allowed Ward to produce the wonderful sheen on girls’ stockings that became his trademark (along with his penchant for drawing extremely well-endowed women).

Bill Wenzel (1918 – 1987)

For a 30-year period, no pin-up cartoon artist was as prolific or as omnipresent as Bill Wenzel.  Virtually every humor and men’s magazine, ranging from Judge in the mid-‘40s to Sex to Sexty in the ‘60s and ‘70s, boasted two, if not a dozen, of Wenzel’s pin-up cartoons.  Quick with pen and ink, Wenzel was equally adept with the brush, and nowhere was this more evident than in his work for the Humorama line of girly digests.  Though wasp-waisted long-legged women were de rigueur in the digests, Wenzel set himself apart from the rest of the best with his decidedly more Rubenesque rendering of the female form.  And whether they were aloof secretaries biding their time waiting for their bosses to ditch their wives or smoldering vixens preparing for a night on the town, Wenzel’s women carried their weight well, the better to hold up their ample chests.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12