Boris Artzybasheff

The art of Boris Artybasheff certainly qualifies as weird. You can sample it in a recent reprint of one of his classic books, seen to the right.

Or, you can admire some of his covers for Time magazine.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 19, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Pop Art, Surrealism, Magazines, 1950s

The Arts: Super Mario

Have you ever wanted to see a collection of Mario fan art that ranged from cartoonish to realist? You can find it at Deviant Art. It even has some interesting Mario cosplay & Mario as a girl art. (This website has a very lenghty and detailed copyright notice, so I didn't feel safe posting any examples here.)

Posted By: fyshstyxx - Sun Jun 07, 2009 - Comments (0)
Category: Art, Pop Art, Costumes and Masks, Pop Culture, Videogames

Porky in Wackyland

As you're eating your Easter Ham, what better cartoon icon to think of than Porky Pig!

Posted By: Paul - Sun Apr 12, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Cryptozoology, Pop Art, Surrealism, Cartoons

Bad Luck Blackie

We all know that cartoon genius Tex Avery was an utter madman in his animation. But BAD LUCK BLACKIE strikes me as the most bizzare and surreal example of his art that I've ever seen.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 20, 2009 - Comments (10)
Category: Pop Art, Surrealism, Cartoons, Cats, Dogs, 1940s

The Tiger Lillies

Witness the weirdness that is the Tiger Lillies.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 28, 2008 - Comments (4)
Category: Art, Pop Art, Surrealism, Eccentrics, Fashion, Humor, Parody, Music, Theater and Stage, Body Painting

George Clinton’s Art

Are the paintings created by musician George Clinton especially weird, or just arty weird? They're probably no weirder than the man himself. But only you can decide, by visiting his gallery.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 15, 2008 - Comments (12)
Category: Art, Pop Art, Surrealism, Celebrities, Entertainment, Music

Harvey Comics

I loved reading Harvey Comics as a kid, and into "adulthood." (They're not published anymore, alas.) Their universe was quintessentially wacked and weird. As famed comics scribe Grant Morrison has remarked in an interview, sometimes the willed naivete of Silver Age writers following the Comics Code produced much stranger stuff than any consciously avant-garde writer could.

Take the two page strip to the right for instance, from an old digest-reprint of some Casper stuff. To parse it is to risk madness.

Is Nightmare indeed a mare, ie, female? if not, and even if so, is that the gayest hairdo ever, on horse or human? Why does a forest gnome like to hang out with a ghost horse? Why is playing human cowboys popular among the gnomes? Likewise riding an airplane. And finally, how demented does a ghost horse have to be, to stick planks up its butt and into its chest, and then purr like a cat, all in an effort to emulate a mechanical device so as to placate a gnome?

How I miss Harvey Comics! Thank goodness Dark Horse is reprinting some.....

Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 09, 2008 - Comments (15)
Category: Animals, Art, Comics, Pop Art, Surrealism, Body Modifications, Drugs, Entertainment, Flight, Games, History, Inventions, Pets, Writers, Cartoons, Hair Styling

Eugênio Hirsch

Discovering traces of a forgotten surrealist/pop artist is always nice and weird. That's why I'm happy to present here some data on Eugênio Hirsch--a name I believe will be little-known to English-speaking art-lovers.

I took the liberty of having Google translate his Spanish Wikipedia entry, and then cleaned up the text a bit.

Eugênio Hirsch (Vienna, 1923 - Rio de Janeiro, September 23 2001) was a visual artist of Austrian origin, considered one of the pioneers of Brazilian graphic design.

Eugênio Hirsch was born in Vienna, Austria in 1923. Given the imminence of World War II his family emigrated in 1938 to Argentina, where Hirsch was highlighted as a graphic artist. During his stay in Argentina, he lived in Buenos Aires where he worked for the Encyclopedia Codex. In 1947 he met Monteiro Lobato, who illustrated texts mentioned in the editorial. He also lived in San Miguel de Tucuman where he worked with Lino Spilimbergo Enea.

In 1955 he emigrated to Brazil. Beginning in 1960 he was hired by the publisher "Civilização Brasileira" and in a short time revolutionized the concept and design of book covers, becoming one of the biggest names in this specialty. In 1960 he won the Jabuti Award (highest distinction in the field Brazilian literary and artistic). He was considered a pioneer of graphic design with decisive influence on subsequent generations. One of his favorite quote was "Uma feita layer is to attack, did not to please" ( "A cap is used to attack, not to please"). In 1965 he traveled to the United States where he collaborated with Playboy magazine and then to Europe, but then returned to his adoptive country, Brazil.

Among his most famous works include the illustration done for the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. He was also recalled for his eccentric personality.

Eugênio Hirsch died in Rio de Janeiro on September 23, 2001.

You can see some of his book covers on this Flickr page. But my favorite is this one he did for the novel Flesh by the great Philip Jose Farmer.




How did I chance upon Hirsch's work? Through this pictorial in Playboy for December 1965. The mildly NSFW totality of the feature is to be found after the jump.





More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 10, 2008 - Comments (4)
Category: Art, Pop Art, Surrealism, History, Historical Figure, Literature, Books, Science Fiction, Magazines, Sexuality, Sex Symbols, World, Europe, South America