Bless You Red Baron

Freiherr Hermann von Richthofen, former ambassador to the UK from the Federal Republic of Germany, has died at the age of 87 after a short illness.

As the great nephew of the WW1 flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "the Red Baron", it was difficult for him to escape constant references to his famous relative, as well as the usual "We won the War" tropes.

Although I certainly grew up watching The Dam Busters and The Great Escape every 5 minutes on television, I also had a parent who loved Peanuts, and therefore knew all about Snoopy's exploits in the early days of aerial warfare.

Thus, when Ambassador von Richthofen arrived in London in 1989, my father found it very difficult to resist raising a fist and uttering the traditional cry, "Curse you Red Baron!" Von Richthofen graciously overlooked this, they became friends and, at the end of his posting, the ambassador bestowed the honour of Grosses Verdienstkreuz on the rabbi.

They remained in touch until my father's death in 2004 - I remember that he gave a speech at an intimate party in Potsdam in 2001 celebrating my parents 40th wedding anniversary.

If you can get past the paywall, there is a good analysis of von Richthofen's work in the UK in the Times here. My condolences to his family, may he rest in peace.

Drawing Practice - with Snoopygrams

 

There WILL be another #DrawingTogetherGM next week (or is it the week after? Better check before I get too excited), but to keep the plates spinning I've been trying to draw something in that slot each Sunday evening. That hour is quite important for my mental health - while I focus on the drawing, everything else is quiet for a while.

At the moment, I'm following the tutorials on Instagram for how to draw figures from Peanuts.  I know it's not the same as creating my own comic, but it is good practice in getting pen to paper, which I find quite difficult. In this drawing, Schroeder is more Little Richard than Clara Schumann. I was quite nervous about having a go at Schroeder as it is a side view and has a big prop. Indeed, I redid the pencil several times, which I haven't done before. 

Nu, hurrah for having a go, and hurrah for spinning the plates, and I can't wait until the group is together again.

Drawing Withdrawal

My Drawing Together group switched from weekly to monthly. I am missing it a lot. I decided to keep that same weekly hour for drawing, but it's so easy to be distracted when you have to be self-motivating. 

Thank goodness for Snoopygrams on Insta! Every now and then, they are offering a 5-minute tutorial on how to draw a Peanuts character. This week was Peppermint Patty (one of L's favourites):

Before I found these videos, I had only ever tried to draw Charlie Brown and Snoopy, and not since I was about 12. It's a bit scary to try to draw new characters (new for drawing), and afterwards the mistakes seem so glaring (fingers & toes, always. proportions. & half of PP's freckles are upside-down). But I'd like to improve, so I have to have a go.

Next up? Sally Brown and Schroeder. The piano should be fun! And, don't worry, I am also working on some things that are less copying and more my own ideas.

Drawing Together

Today was a day of work and drawing. There was joy for the hard work and great questions asked by my students taking their first steps in learning Hebrew. Then I joined the Graphic Medicine "Drawing Together" workshop for the first time. What a wonderfully safe place to do some drawing! We were given 10 minutes to draw 4 imaginary insects in 4 panels:

Then, in the next 10 minutes, we were invited to imagine a conversation between two of our insects:

Finally, we had a chance to show our work to the other (c. 45) people in the Zoom Room. Despite my current self-promotion, I find it makes me very anxious to let others see what I draw. It has felt a bit easier to share what I've done whilst under lockdown. Sending things out into the world when I remain safely in my bubble seems a little less scary! So I enjoyed what others had done and, right at the end of the session, held my page up to the camera. I hope to join the group again next week.

But the drawing wasn't over for the day. I checked Instagram (I'd posted a sweet photo of a flower in a friend's window box yesterday) and saw a short video showing how to draw Charlie Brown. So I thought I'd have a go.

NB when I was 11, the first Art task at SPGS was to paint a self portrait. Emptying our mother's flat, my sister recently came across that painting, lost for an unmentionable number of years:

That was the first version. And earlier this evening, this is what I managed to draw:

Hopefully the Snoopygrams Insta will offer guides to drawing the other characters also. I'll be keeping my eyes open. 

This was really a good day. I haven't even mentioned the wonderful Ayurvedic massage from L to help me recover from my little fall on Friday (everything's fine, poo poo poo, just a rather bruised dignity). It is important to remember the good days. Vi auguro una buona settimana.

Unusual Baby Names

with Downy, noch!

As someone who suffered (a bit) as a child from having an unusual first name (I was called "Persil" at school for several years as a result), stories about celebrities cursing their kids in this way catch my eye. Viz the recent naming by Elon Musk & his partner Grimes of their baby boy, who is to be known as X Æ A-12. According to Jack Guy at CNN, the parents disagree on how to pronounce it:

"(Grimes) previously explained that Æ is the Elven spelling of AI, which is shorthand for artificial intelligence. 'It's just X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I,' wrote Grimes on Thursday in a response to a query on Instagram.

However, Muse told podcast host Joe Rogan a different pronunciation of the name in a conversation released Thursday ... 'I mean it's just X, the letter X. And then, the Æ is, like, pronounced "Ash" ... and then, A-12.'"

This reminds me of the character 5 in Peanuts:

But in the end, the last word has to go to Caitlin Moran, who noted yesterday in the Times:

"Ever keen not to pass judgment, I wish  merely to observe that, in naming their child, Musk and Grimes appear to have chosen a "strong" password, comprising letters, numerals and punctuation, and if it takes naming your baby that to remember how to log into your Gmail account, fair enough."

Thank you for laughing at her joke.

Cartoon Heroes: Origins

Stuck at home recovering from the flu it crossed my mind to trace the family tree of my interest in cartoons and comic strips. It was always my dream as a child to have a career as a syndicated cartoonist. The minor obstacle to the fulfilment of that dream was that I'm not very good at drawing. Not that this is a definitive obstacle. The main reason has more to do with not putting in the time and effort, i.e., I created a character but did not develop his world.

The very first cartoons that I remember were Peanuts. Old paperback collections with crumbling yellow pages on my father's desk, and once a week in colour on the inside back page of the Observer Sunday magazine.

First Peanuts comic October 1950

Charlie Brown was hapless but loveable, Lucy was a smart and grumpy girl just like the women in my family, and Snoopy was so cool. Curse you Red Baron! I drew Snoopies and Charlie Browns all over my rough books at school. They've been with me all my life. My character - Pomme de Terre - is clearly related to that round-headed kid. When Charles M Schulz died in 2000, many cartoonists dedicated a strip to him. This one made me cry:

Those Sunday newspaper glossy magazines were the source of the other cartoons that got my attention as a pre-teen. Jules Feiffer was also published in the Observer magazine, although nearer the contents page at the front. I loved his spiky drawings. I was probably a bit full of myself for having such grown-up tastes.

Feiffer started out in the mid-1940's as an assistant to the Parent of graphic novels Mr Will Eisner, and got his first strip in the Village Voice in 1956.

Feiffer's coverage of US politics, and focus on President Richard M Nixon, coincided with my political awakening thanks to Bonnie & Henry teaching me about Watergate.

It also helped that Feiffer illustrated one of the greatest books of all time, i.e., The Phantom Tollbooth.

These were the cartoons with which I began. Otherwise, I was a Marvel comics fan, saving my pennies for the monthly import of The Fantastic Four, and regularly reading Spiderman, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and the Silver Surfer.

To this day Peanuts rules, even in reruns. The Observer stopped publishing Feiffer in 1978, but I got his book Tantrum (1979). It's considered by many to be one of the first graphic novels. And Neil Gaiman loved it also :-)

Happy 2013 from the ravaj!

Whether or not you celebrate 1st January as a New Year, it's always good to have an opportunity to clear the decks and start over. If I were to reduce all my hopes and wishes and plans to one central thought, it would be to hold dear and close those I love.

with best wishes for a healthy and fulfilling 2013!

sparky, aka charles m schulz

as seen by kim scafuro
there is a new biography of charles m schulz out that presents him as a depressed and melancholy man who worked out his issues through his drawings. the ny times reviewer discusses the book in the context of our cultural stereotype of the tortured artist, and suggests that the author:

"(depicts) Mr. Schulz as a much more self-aware and autobiographical artist than has been understood previously, a conduit for his times and the timeless subjects of art: longing, love, heartbreak, disappointment, distrust. (One strip, drawn when Mr. Schulz’s first marriage was breaking up and his wife, suspicious of an affair, was questioning his phone bills, shows Charlie Brown yelling at a lovesick Snoopy: “And stop making those long-distance phone calls!”)"

while, as the reviewer quotes schulz:

"“All the loves in the strip are unrequited; all the baseball games are lost; all the test scores are D-minuses; the Great Pumpkin never comes; and the football is always pulled away.”"

i think i shall have to read the book myself before i may make up my mind. if you are interested in the suffering artist question, please read here.

nb thank you to alison bechdel for the tip re the above pic - below is its inspiration.