color my world

[davemerrill]

Mister Kitty's Stupid Comics takes a gander at the spectacle of coloring books based on comic books that weren't really that popular. Was there nothing they wouldn't make a coloring book about?



Actually this whole thing is just an excuse to show off this Tippy Teen coloring book, which we picked up last week in Tennessee. So if you're curious to find out what it was like to try to do the work of Tower Comics' coloring department with a pack of waxy, off-brand crayons, now's your chance!!


Probably going to spend most of the weekend moving stuff around and cleaning stuff up and putting stuff back where it needs to go. I really need to get a Let's Anime column out of the gate too. And of course Zero Fighter needs to be updated! And there's an AN staff meeting on Sunday, and I really should make a trip to Home Depot for a doormat now that things are snowy and slushy. So busy busy busy. That's one way to stay warm, I guess.

Comments

[tohoscope.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm floored. I had no idea there was a Tippy Teen coloring book. And they reprint Go Go and Animal. Yeah, I've got that issue.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I was kind of flipping out in the antique mall. It was cute.

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

You learn something new each day!

Color My World

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, Dave...

One of the things I'm hoping to eventually get up on the new blog is a Hokuto no Ken coloring book Mitsuyoshi sent me waaay back in the day. Seriously. I'm thinking it was so the kids who were tired of seeing all that white blood in the anime could get creative with the gore.

RWG (yet another example of why Japan is truly The Land of WTF?)

Re: Color My World

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Would love to see that.

Re: Color My World

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Quick aside, Rob, I've been wanting to post replies to your blog but it refuses to acknowledge my existence, so poo!

I have the HG Macross 'pilot' tape right here. haw. haw.

Re: Color My World

[(Anonymous)]

To be honest, I didn't expect to get comments so soon, so I hadn't even bothered to check out that section. Hopefully, it's open to everyone now.

Unfortunately, I'm not set up for anime at the moment. I gave away my entire tape collection before the last move and don't even have a VHS player at the moment. Nothing but a borrowed laptop, actually. I'm pretty much still a vagabond at present...

RWG (life without some kind of tape/DVD player seems...strange)

Re: Color My World

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Ow, hope things get better!

It's hard to find a VHS machine of any kind anymore! My two have finally died and all that's left is a VHS/DVD combi with the DVD side dead.

It's a real pain, let me tell you!

Keep blogging, more of the old guard will find you :)

Re: Color My World

[coderjoe.livejournal.com]

If you need it transferred, I may be able to help. I have 2 SVHS decks that still work (at least for playback, last I checked. Bought the second because the inputs on the first were going weird).

Re: Color My World

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Hard to find a VHS machine? You can pick one up in the thrift store for ten or fifteen bucks, they're lousy with the things. A DVD/VCR combo will run you forty or fifty. I saw a few in Costco over the holiday that were cheap enough to make me seriously think about getting a new VCR, just to make transfering tapes to DVD a little easier. None of mine have remotes any more, it's kind of a pain sometimes.

[coderjoe.livejournal.com]

Is it me, or does Tippy bear a striking resemblance to Betty Cooper? At least her colored version up in the upper left corner.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Well, the artist here is Samm Schwartz, who did draw Betty Cooper a lot. Though he's better known for his Jughead, of course. The Mr Kitty piece goes into a bit more detail about Tippy Teen's roster of Archie talent.

[giebergoldfarb.livejournal.com]

In Bob Bolling's interview with Gary Brown, Bolling says that Tower comics boss and ex-Archie editor Harry Shorten, who hired him at Archie (Shorten hired all the Archie talent roster, basically, and then was booted out by John Goldwater for asking to become a partner), called him and asked him to come to Tower and do "Little Tippy." Not feeling secure enough at Archie to risk working for both companies, he said no. But a Bolling "Little Tippy" to compete with "Little Archie" would have been something to see -- think of the mad scientist and previously-unknown kid characters he would have created, plus Tippy would have met aliens in every other story.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

That is fascinating! It's like the missing piece of the Tippy Teen puzzle. Thanks!

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

I, for one, see nothing at all wrong with that. Nope, not a thing.

also, fishnets FTW.

My crayons don't have either 'keen' or 'groovy'! What do I do? Can I use markers or pastels?

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

There's probably fan fiction out there somewhere that links the "Tippy Teen" universe with the "Archie" universe.

The big Archie thing right now is the crossover with Josie & The Pussycats where Archie and Valerie have a romance - OR DO THEY? Archie/Josie crossover-- big deal. That's so 1970. I say wake me when they bring back "Cricket" O'Dell. And Pepper, and Sock, f'crissakes.

[giebergoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying this to be contrarian, but I really think Harry Lucey was Archie's best "good girl" artist, even compared to DeCarlo. DeCarlo was great and all, but Lucey's drawings seem at once vaguely dirtier and somehow more real -- not "real" in the sense that Tippy or Go-Go are constructed like real human beings in that drawing, but "real" in the sense that the poses kind of look a little awkward and angular.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I think Lucey's work is a bit old-fashioned, but there's some real talent there. You can tell he knows what he's doing, and there's some thinking of what goes on underneath the surface. I like DeCarlo, but sometimes his work gets a little TOO slick. I guess it depends on who inks it.