#The Official Ralph Bakshi Art & Animation

[volleypearlfan]

I posted 192 times in 2022

8 posts created (4%)

184 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@plutovhs2020

@official-ducktown

@ankle-beez

@science-bastard

@strangeauthor

I tagged 76 of my posts in 2022

#steven universe - 12 posts

#evangelion - 8 posts

#sonic - 6 posts

#ready jet go - 6 posts

#su - 5 posts

#sailor moon - 4 posts

#spy x family - 4 posts

#the owl house - 4 posts

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Longest Tag: 64 characters

#also gumball and ttg are quite cynical and are popular with kids

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Follow up to cringe culture essay: animated film edition

My post about cringe culture, fandoms, and kids media, which you can read here, briefly mentioned how outsiders mock animation fans for using animated kids shows to say that animation is for everyone. I want to follow up on that point.

I had the displeasure of seeing an awful post on my Twitter timeline that went “the ‘animation IS cinema’ people always pick the dweebiest movies to make their argument. Just post Beavis and Butt-Head Do America guys, nobody would disagree” Wow okay mr edgelord. You sound like a stereotypical Disney Channel bully.

The ‘animation is cinema’ image comes from The Mitchells vs the Machines, which is a family-friendly movie that many hold up as a good example of an animated movie, and how animation is for everyone. This gets mocked by outsiders (usually snooty Letterboxd types) who think that this movie uses the “Grubhub art style” or some BS like that. As you can see, people who act like that think animation is only for children, and plug their ears and go LALALA when you bring up good animated kids’ films with mass appeal. Whether you like it or not, animation always has and always will be cinema.

This brings us to another problem: a lack of mainstream adult animated films. Thanks to the stigma that animation is only for children, we never get mass-marketed animated movies for adults these days, and any movies that ARE for adults are only shown at art house theaters. Sausage Party was a mass-marketed adult movie, but it alienated its audience with its crass humor and kiddie appearance (Silly Rabbit, CGI animation is for kids! /s)

I feel like if adult animated films were marketed more, they would reach a wider audience. As much as I love Mitchells and most of Pixar’s output, animation fans should definitely check out movies specifically aimed at adults. Expand your palate a bit. It’s okay to watch kids stuff, and it’s okay if you only like kids stuff, but adult animation needs to be appreciated more, since it suffers a stigma that it’s all low-brow, poorly animated, offensive comedy.

ADULT ANIMATED FILMS TO CHECK OUT:

Beavis and Butthead Do America (as well as Beavis and Butthead Do the Universe) - These are more teen movies then adult movies, and they are low brow, but they do it (badumtsh) in the best possible way

Heavy Metal (1981)

Watership Down*

Fantastic Planet

Akira

Ghost in the Shell

Perfect Blue

Paprika

The End of Evangelion

Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer

Princess Mononoke*

Princess (2006 danish movie)

The Plague Dogs

Entergalactic

The works of Ralph Bakshi

I Lost My Body

The Spine of Night

Pink Floyd - The Wall

The Prince of Egypt*

*these are technically aimed at kids, but I mean it when I say that they deserve higher ratings and feel more adult than family-friendly

Feel free to add more suggestions

13 notes - Posted December 10, 2022

#4

I’m watching the spectacular spider-man and I think this meme represents Harry’s character arc

19 notes - Posted December 8, 2022

#3

See the full post

74 notes - Posted June 6, 2022

#2

On Cringe Culture, Kids' Shows, and Elitism

i'M nOt rEaDiNg aLl tHaT" Ok, scroll down for the TL:DR. (Also on SpaceHey and Blogspot)

The now ex-CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek, has stated the animation is only for children. Never mind that this is the same company that owns The Simpsons, and was founded by a guy who said, and I quote "You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."

Naturally, this has caused universal backlash within the animation community, with many people defending animation as a medium for everyone, not just kids. However, the animation community was also mocked by outsiders for using kids' shows, such as Gravity Falls, to prove that animation is for everyone. In fact, the animation community (more specifically the western animation community) has always been cruelly harassed by outsiders for watching cartoons, especially ones aimed at children.

There is nothing wrong with watching children's shows AT ALL. Watching kids' shows doesn't make you immature, a pedophile, or whatever bullshit that outsiders want to spew. Remember the Walt Disney quote above; many kids' shows are designed to be appealing to multiple audiences, including adults. Kids' shows with adult appeal (or ones that don't annoy the living daylights out of parents, or are legitimately good for kids) are more likely to be praised and recommended by said parents than, say, Cocomelon.

However, because of the stigma attached to kids' shows, many animation fans feel the need to hate on/ignore slice-of-life or comedy cartoons, while only praising plot-driven or "dark" ones like Gravity Falls, The Owl House, and Avatar, and say that they are "not for kids." Again, there is NOTHING wrong with liking kids' shows (these shows do feel more YA-ish though, but that's another subject for another blog). All three of these shows are very high quality, and you don't need to justify your enjoyment of them to outsiders. The constant prioritization of dramatic cartoons over lighthearted ones in the cartoon fandom creates a sense of snobby elitism, and leads to...

...fans of lighthearted shows like Big City Greens and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic being bullied for liking said shows because they are "childish." Which, in turn, leads to fans of lighthearted kids' shows trying to make their shows seem dark in order to make the elitists like them. Back in the day, many bronies made dark fan works based on MLP such as "Cupcakes," "Smile HD," and "Rainbow Factory" and put them out in public with no age restriction, resulting in a bunch of traumatized children. The bronies also acted like they were the target audience and not children.

Apart from the bronies' fan works, MLP also suffered from exaggerated darkness on TV Tropes subpages. Speaking of TV Tropes, there was a very infamous incident regarding the kids' show "Ready Jet Go!" Aside from the stigma surrounding general kids' programs, you also have the stigma attached to preschool shows that they are dumb and for babies (never mind that babies/infants are too young to watch TV, and if they watch it before they turn 2, it would really hurt their brain. Look up the Baby Einstein controversy for more info), especially with GoAnimate users making it hip to hate on Dora and Barney. Not every preschool/elementary show is the same as Cocomelon. There are many high-quality programs for the little ones such as Arthur, Cyberchase, Sesame Street, Bluey, Mister Rogers, VeggieTales, Oswald, Blue's Clues, LazyTown, Bear in the Big Blue House, and WordGirl. Can you really blame fans for liking them when they’re just so good?

With all this in mind, someone once made a Nightmare Fuel page for Ready Jet Go on TV Tropes in order to make it more popular, because the user felt alone in liking the show and it was a big comfort for them. They also cited the snobbery of the cartoon community as a reason for their making the page on the Nightmare Fuel cleanup thread. The page was eventually deleted because it was mocked cruelly by 4chan. It didn't make the show more popular, it gave it a bad reputation.

The user shouldn't have to had made that stupid page with examples exaggerating the show's supposed scariness. If it weren't for the cartoon community being a bunch of elitists, as well as the kids/preschool show stigma, this wouldn't have happened. The sad part is, even though the page is long gone, the page STILL gets brought up by RJG haters to mock the show, its' fans, and TV Tropes for "pissing their pants over Ready Jet Go" which is beating a dead horse at this point. Seriously, make like Elsa and LET IT GO. Please stop bringing it up, and if you’re reading this blog, please don’t look it up. Please have sympathy for Ready Jet Go fans. We’re actually a very nice fandom.

The 4chan bullying also ties into cringe culture. On sites such as DeviantArt, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and 4chan, many people are considered "cringe" and cyberbullied for "crimes" like making a colorful character or watching cartoons. The cyberbullies in question are just a bunch of pathetic lowlives who bully people for being happy, because they think that bullying happy people will make them feel better about their disgusting selves.

As noted here, cringe culture affects autistic people the most. Autistic people tend to get really passionate about their favorite things, or "special interests," and like to talk about them all the time and make their own characters. But according to some unwritten rule of society, your OCs have to be as deep as Shakespeare, and you're not allowed to like 'childish' things even a little bit. (I think it's worth mentioning that the Nightmare Fuel person was autistic themselves). Many proponents of cringe culture participate in concern trolling, acting like they don't want so-called "cringe" people to be bullied and want them to be good artists/writers. Cringe culture doesn't make people become better creators, it makes them become boring creators and repressing their true passions.

Every autistic person is different, which is why it's called the autism spectrum. However, it is true that a lot of autistic people enjoy children's media, likely because of how calming and simple they tend to be. For example, Thomas the Tank Engine is very popular with autistics because the engines' emotions are easy to tell, and the show has a chill atmosphere (by the way, the Thomas fandom is a frequent victim of cringe culture). Plus, it legitimately has Tolkien-level lore dating back to the 1940s. I'm not even kidding, look up "The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways." It always pisses me off when outsiders act surprised that "tHOmAs tHe tRaIn hAs A fAnDoM?!?1!" It's based on a book series that's existed since 1945, of fucking course it has a fandom, dumbass.

TL;DR - 'Animation is for everyone' and 'it's okay to like kids' cartoons/lighthearted cartoons' are statements that can and should co-exist. Also, autistic people can like whatever they want and those who harass them are the scum of the earth.

458 notes - Posted November 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I love you stylized CGI I love you spider verse I love you arcane I love you the peanuts movie I love you the bad guys I love you Mitchells vs the machines I love you Puss in boots the last wish I love you Entergalactic

1,048 notes - Posted December 13, 2022

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Original production art from "Fire & Ice" has been added for #frazettafriday! Link to listings in bio. #frankfrazetta #animationcel #productiondrawing

Ralph Bakshi

Artist

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[canmom]

Animation Night 76: Rankin//Bass

When it comes to naming Western animation studios, you’ve got the really old school studios from the early 20th century like Fleischer, Disney and Warner Bros. You’ve got the offshoots of Disney like Don Bluth Productions and Dreamworks. You’ve got the oddball directors like Ralph Bakshi would who hop from studio to studio, whoever would take their pitch. Head over to Europe and you find a lot of smaller studios like Cartoon Saloon, Bobbypills, Xilam or (long list of French studios) who tend to work on massively multinational collabs designed to scoop up arts funding from as many countries as possible. There are limited-animation oriented TV studios, which is to say there is Hanna-Barbera.

And then there’s Rankin/Bass!

Rankin/Bass are a bit of an odd beast, in that they were perhaps one of the earliest studios to primarily produce animation via international outsourcing - and while nowadays that usually means South Korea and the Philippines, back in 1960 that largely meant Japan.

Rankin/Bass, founded naturally by two guys called Rankin and Bass (in 1960 under the name Videocraft International, based in New York), took American money and sent it to animators at some of the oldest anime studios including Toei, Eiken/TCJ and Mushi Pro to draw or stopmotion animate their films, which they would voice act with American VAs. But the studio they’re most associated with is Topcraft, which you may remember from Animation Night 70 as the studio which old Hayao chose to make Nausicaa; outside of this rare exception, Topcraft almost exclusively served Western productions, largely for Rankin and Bass. And after Topcraft vanished shortly after Nausicaa, with the majority of its animators going on to follow Miyazaki to the exciting new Studio Ghibli, but a certain portion hung on, creating Pacific Animation Corporation. You can see the full list here.

The way things seem to work at this studio, Arthur Rankin and and Jules Bass themselves directed basically all their movies. On the Japanese side, the stop motion ‘animagic’ productions are credited to Tadahito Mochinaga at MOM production; Topcraft was led by Toru Hara, formery of Toei, before he joined the Ghibli exodus.

For the first few decades of the studios existence, Rankin/Bass specialised in, well, ‘holiday specials’ for various US xtian celebrations like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Since the official line of Animation Night is that the only valid one of these is Halloween and all others are revisionist, we are going to pass over these without much comment. Which means we’re speeding forwards to the late 70s, where they started to branch out a little. First were a series of hourlong TV specials, and then, suddenly, childrens’ books were in, starting with Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

Why did this happen at this particular point in history? I’m honestly not sure, although perhaps the success of Zuiyo Eizo’s World Masterpiece Theatre series (also talked about on Night 70) had a lot to do with it? Or perhaps they were hoping to fill the space left by a weak decade at Disney? In any case, in the space of about a decade, Rankin/Bass dived head first into adapting fantasy books - among them Tolkien’s Return of the King, The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle (certainly the best remembered), The Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson, and a version of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

The particular visual style of this period of Rankin/Bass movies stands out - if not necessarily always for good reasons, those giant hobbit eyes are certainly a choice! The 70s and early 80s were a period when ‘fantasy’ had not yet ossified into its current rigid commercial aesthetic (i.e. the Star Wars money machine was still revving up), watercolour paintings and fantasy artists were throwing out some fascinating feelers into aesthetic space. At its best this led to some brilliant works like Belladonna of Sadness [Animation Night 69] over in Japan, the rise of French comics artists such as Meobius, and even disjointed but very compelling Bakshi movies like Wizards.

It may contextualise things to note that this song by Leonard Nimoy was made in 1968:

...which is admittedly a full decade and then some before The Last Unicorn, but that’s the vibe. Imagine a drawing of a hobbit with a pipe on top of a weed shop... oh, you don’t have those outside of Glastonbury? Huh.

So, let’s have a look at a couple of these movies.

The Last Unicorn (1982) is actually the only one I’ve seen, capturing a suitably ethereal and melancholy atmosphere - perhaps not surprising since the book’s author Peter S. Beagle wrote the screenplay as well. Rankin/Bass were the last animation company to be approached, initially horrifying the author, but he came around after seeing the Japanese animators’ character designs (which include a fascinating cloven-hoofed look for the unicorn herself that recalls illuminated manuscripts and medieval tapestries, apparently intentionally!) and the voice actors’ performances. @mogsk​ reports actually meeting the guy at a screening of a remastered version with additional inbetweens, and he was very happy about the adaptation, only regretting that they hadn’t had the budget for more full animation in the first place.

It was rly cool, we were sitting in the second row to the front, and the guy in front of us kept turning around and excitedly talking about each scene, and when the lights came up at the end t hey handed him a mic and he was like ,"So yeah I'm peter s beagle!" lol

A lot of the tone has to do with the score, composed by Jimmy Webb with the band America and singer Lucy Mitchell. A reviewer is quoted as calling it “an appropriately somber and sentimental blend of fairy tale motifs and dark, Wagnerian cues” and disparaging the folk ballads which became so common in other rankin/bass films, but honestly these ballads now convey a feeling of ‘hey it’s (only just ceased to be) the 70s’ and it really works here. At least I think the OP is pretty :p

So yeah that’s who’s on it, but what’s it about? It’s a tragic little story about a unicorn who goes looking for any other survivors of the magical creature genocide by a tyrannical monster known as the Red Bull, falls into various misadventures including a traveling circus, and it gets very bleak indeed when she has to turn human to evade capture.

As for our second movie... one of the Tolkiens might be an obvious pick, but instead, I’m going to take the opportunity to show @mogsk​ the one R/B fantasy film she hasn’t seen... and nor have I so this one’s a roll of the dice. That is The Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson, If you look at the poster you might be like, “hey bryn have you gone mad” (you fools I was mad all along), but the film itself looks like... well, a late 70s fantasy film, so high drawing counts, some rotoscopy looking scenes, often kinda-stiff animation but also some beautiful 70s-anime approaches to stuff like fire.

This one... the plot’s pretty daft, a buncha wizards get together and have an argument about the fate of humanity. Forbidden to fight among themselves, the 'good’ wizards deputise a small group of humans to steal the bad wizard’s crown. Meanwhile a young Peter Dickinson - author of the book, self-inserting here! - gets isekaied into the past and accidentally downloaded into a dragon’s body. From there we get a kind of science vs magic subtheme which honestly sounds a little painful, as Peter attempts to fit dragons into his 20th-century ontology, but we shall see...

And oh! Guess this is actually our first isekai on here. Wasn’t expecting that. I shall save an attempt to research the history of isekai for when we end up doing an actual anime one.

Anyway, it looks like it will have some fun vocal performances and cool visuals, so hopefully a chill and amusing time, and it still has something of the colouring of 70s/early 80s anime which should give some visual appeal even if it’s not quite the technical showoffiness of something like Horus. Idk, let’s roll the device.

Animation Night 76 will start... now! I know, late again. Hopefully this will be a fun one to recover from any surgeries, illnesses, malaises, and misfortunes you may have experienced in the last week <3 head to twitch.tv/canmom when you are ready!

[secretmellowblog]

GUYS GUYS I WAS ON TWITTER AND

RALPH BAKSHI RETWEETED MY RALPH BAKSHI ARAGORN CAT?????

A while ago the Bakshi twitter account (the one that sells all the old art and stuff from his films) liked my Ralph Bakshi Boromir cat,......but now this is becoming a PATTERN

I know it’s probably not actually Bakshi himself, but still it’s like. 

What does it mean when the twitter account that represents the mildly well-known animator who produced a bunch of mostly forgotten cult classics in a weird rotoscoped animation style begins liking your drawings of his characters as cats? What does it mean? What are we????

The point is: these drawings of Ralph Bakshi Boromir and Aragorn as cats are both OFFICIALLY RALPH BAKSHI APPROVED:

[sanrionlove]

I posted 236 times in 2021

6 posts created (3%)

230 posts reblogged (97%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 38.3 posts.

I added 441 tags in 2021

#sanrion - 104 posts

#sansa x tyrion - 82 posts

#tyrion lannister - 62 posts

#sansa stark - 53 posts

#got - 48 posts

#game of thrones - 35 posts

#otp: you were the best of them - 16 posts

#asoiaf - 16 posts

#tyrion lannister appreciation week 2021 - 14 posts

#peter dinklage - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 128 characters

#if something like veritaserum existed in the got universe you know that sansa would have just blurted this out when interrogated

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

About me

Thank you @attonitos-gloria

Favorite color: I love every color out there, but I'm currently in a big ocher phase.

Currently reading: Sensor, by Junji Ito.

Last song: Page twenty eight, by Sleeping At Last. I've been listening a lot of love songs (they are my writing fuel) and been playing on repeat Por Amarte Así by Cristian Castro most of all.

Last series: The Terror, absolutely incredible series. A must watch.

Last movie: The Lord of the Rings, the animated 1978 adaptation directed by Ralph Bakshi. It was really fun to see those early depictions of Legolas, Boromir, Elrond and Aragorn, how distinct they were from the images we have today of those characters.

Sweet, savory, or spicy: Savory AND sweet. What do we say to spicy food? not today.

Craving: To be a better person, more responsible and committed with my life and the people around me. To make more art, produce produce produce.

Tea or coffee: Coffe AND tea. Coffe with milk always and forever, happiness in the form of a beverage. However, tea is also a great companion and I end up drinking it more often throughout the day.

Currently working on: I should be working on a couple of paintings that I have to submit before October to compete in a contest. Hope I'll make it! And of course I have my sanrion fic waiting, All He Could See was Her Face... It will return, your honor, I swear.

Tagging: @xprettypoppyx @escaily and @demelzatheshipper

A big hug to @attonitos-gloria and hope your week got a lot brighter! (also, SO excited for 'till kingdom come and it's sequel to come!! yay!)

Sending good vibes to all my sanrion peeps out there.

4 notes • Posted 2021-08-26 05:39:40 GMT

#4

Experience the greatest love story ever told. Watch the official trailer for #CyranoMovie now, from director Joe Wright and starring Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. – in theaters this December.

So excited for this! Love to see Peter on a proper leading role.

5 notes • Posted 2021-10-13 21:51:09 GMT

#3

Think about me It's antidote and poison for the heart Think straight That burns and soaks That comes and goes Where are you? Stuck between the lines of a goodbye Your memory lingers here Like a cloudburst in May It hits me hard And it falls so hard it almost Burns my skin Burns and soaks all the same And I don't know what to think anymore If your memory is good or bad for me

(x)

26 notes • Posted 2021-09-20 06:25:51 GMT

#2

Jon Snow and Tyrion at the Wall.

- For the Tyrion Lannister Appreciation Week 2021 -

Day 5 – “He is a giant among us, here at the end of the world.”

Meereen/The North

28 notes • Posted 2021-06-12 02:32:35 GMT

#1

-For the Tyrion Lannister Appreciation Week 2021-

Day 3 – “A little kindness, everyone deserves that much...”

The Shy Maid/Marriages

"What happened to your family was a terrible crime. I didn't know your brother, he seemed like a good man but I didn't know him. Your mother, on the other hand, I admired her. She wanted to have me executed but I admired her. She was a strong woman and she was fierce when it came to protecting her children."

29 notes • Posted 2021-06-10 09:03:11 GMT

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[dare2draw]

They've Killed Fritz!!!

ABOUT -

Bakshi made his name and living via animated films, comic strips, advertising and cartooning beginning from a young age - all in pursuit of supporting his insatiable drive for creating art. He was either going to be living on the street as an artist or be an artist with a paycheck. Luckily, he was able to marry both his artistic passions with a real job right out of Manhattan's School of Industrial Arts in NYC...

More about Ralph Bakshi

Official website 

[believermag]

Who Will Think of the Children?

Jim Knipfel on Satire and Children’s Books

This past September, the Abrams’ imprint Image, which specializes in illustrated and reference works, published a novelty book entitled Bad Little Children’s Books by the pseudonymous Arthur Gackley. The small hardcover, which itself quite deliberately resembled a little golden book, featured carefully-rendered and patently offensive parodies of classic children's book covers. Instead of happy, apple-cheeked tykes doing pleasant wholesome things, Gackley’s covers featured kids farting, puking, and using drugs. Others included children with dildoes and racially inflammatory portrayals of Middle Eastern, Asian, and Native American youngsters. The book was clearly labeled a work of satire aimed at adults, and adults with a certain tolerance for bad taste and crass jokes.

Upon its initial release it received positive reviews and sold fairly well. Then in early December, a former librarian named Kelly Jensen posted an entry on Bookriot entitled “It’s Not Funny. It’s Racist.”  

“This kind of 'humor' is never acceptable,” Ms. Jensen wrote. “It’s deadly.”

Jensen’s rant circulated quickly across social media, and Abrams suddenly found itself besieged by attacks from the outraged and offended, who assailed Gackley for creating the book in the first place, and the Abrams editorial board for agreeing to publish it.

“There is a difference between ‘hate speech’ and free speech,” one outraged member of the kidlit comunity wrote on Facebook. “In the same way, you cannot yell ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater just because you feel like it. This book was in very bad, insulting, racist taste, and designed to look like a children's book. How is that a good idea? Children are too young to understand this as parody. If it's for adults, why is that even funny? Oh, I guess if you are a racist you would think it's funny.”

Another tweeted, “Sounds like something that should've been completely ignored and removed before it hit the shelves. Just because we have the freedom of speech, it can be taken way too far.”

Still another confused and enervated soul wrote, “Argue all that you want, but this particular book was for children yes? Or no? If it was, does that mean we should allow and subject young children to gratuitous violence, gore and pornography? And what age is it acceptable? Does this mean we have to start putting PG-14 on printed material and make it mandatory because certain writers can't conduct themselves with a moral scale?”

Another angry reader summed it up quite simply by posting, “Freedom is bullshit, literally.”

[Note: As much as possible, the spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors which peppered the above posts have been corrected here for the sake of simple comprehensibility.]

Although Abrams initially stood by Gackley and the First Amendment right to offend, and had received the public support of several anti-censorship organizations, by December tenth the noise had simply grown too shrill. Mr. Gackley, maintaining to the end his intentions had been grossly misinterpreted, admitted there was no way to salvage things, and asked that Abrams not reprint the book. In a statement, Abrams announced they would be complying with his wishes. Although Bad Little Children’s Books was not banned in any official capacity, it had all but completely vanished from online booksellers within a few days after the announcement. Used copies, while available, are now selling for outrageous prices.

At the same time that this was happening, there were also calls to ban the (real) children’s books When We Was Fierce and A Birthday Cake for George Washington. The invented slang used in the former was interpreted as racist by some parent groups, and the latter was attacked for its historically inaccurate portrayal of the daily lives of slaves on Washington’s estate. Meanwhile, a mother in Tennessee led the call to pull Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks from the local school system. The New York Times bestselling biography, which concerned a Baltimore woman whose massive cervical tumor had become the invaluable source of several generations worth of cell lines used by cancer researchers, was being taught in local high schools as a means of educating students both about cancer and about racial issues within the medical community. The Tennessee mother calling for its removal, however, found the book pornographic.

Point being, I guess, that certain sectors of the population harbor an insatiable, even desperate desire to be shocked and offended by something they’ve read, seen, or even heard about, and the drive to ban these things (made much easier with the advent of social media) will likely always be with us. But back to the Gackley for a moment. Reading through the enraged postings aimed at Abrams, a number of the offended make the point that they are not attempting to censor, but are merely exercising their own First Amendment right to criticize. That’s fine and understandable. But the crux of the matter is that these people would be much happier if the book never existed in the first place, and considered Abrams’ decision a glorious victory for their cause.

Let’s try to put it in some sort of semi-comprehensible historical context. Dark and occasionally tasteless adult-oriented satires of children’s books, television and toys have been with us about as long as media aimed specifically at the innocent set. We just can’t help ourselves. Present us with the doe-eyed lukewarm treacle of the Smurfs or Care Bears, and some of us will instinctively reach for a baseball bat. In the case of Bad Little Children’s Books, the outrage in many instances seems to be sparked less by the content than form, and the fear that the book might actually be mistaken for legitimate kidlit. So here are a handful of similar cases from the last half-century. While reactions and results differ wildly, a certain historical pattern does seem to emerge.

Ralph Bakshi’s 1972 animated feature Fritz the Cat, based on the R. Crumb character, became notorious overnight for being the first theatrically-released cartoon to receive an X rating from the MPAA. What people tend to forget is that the film received the distinction not on account of its sexual content, nor because it included characters who were overtly racist, misogynistic drug addicts who cursed a lot. The real problem was the film featured cute and fuzzy animals who were racist, misogynistic drug addicts who cursed a lot, and had sex. The MPAA board was afraid people would see the cartoon poster and stroll into the theater, family in tow, expecting the latest Disney opus. By modern standards the film should have received nothing more than an R rating, but the damning “adults only” designation was an effort to avoid any confusion. It didn’t matter. People saw the X rating and immediately concluded Bakshi had made a hardcore cartoon in a diabolical effort to corrupt the nation’s youth. Although the publicity attracted large audiences and earned the film an undeniable bit of underground cred, that same publicity did irreparable damage to Bakshi’s career. For decades afterward, even while trying to redeem himself with the family-friendly Mighty Mouse cartoon series for TV, he found himself labeled a racist, sexist pornographer determined to get America’s young people hooked on heroin—charges leveled at him mostly by people who had never seen Fritz the Cat.

Long before he won a Pulitzer for Maus and became a regular contributor to The New Yorker, cartoonist Art Spiegelman spent twenty years working for the Topps trading card company. Among other things, he was one of the primary creative forces behind Topps' wildly popular and wickedly subversive Wacky Packages series, which satirized American consumer products. In 1985, Topps attempted to arrange a licensing deal to release a series of trading cards based on Cabbage Patch Dolls, which were all the rage at the time. Finding licensing fees had already gone through the roof, they decided instead to release a Wacky Packages-style parody. As it happened, an unreleased Wacky Packages design called Garbage Pail Kids was already on the boards, so they ran with it.

Spiegelman and the involved artists took the basic design of the cuddly and adorable plush dolls beloved by all the world and twisted them into deranged monstrosities covered in snot, vomit, oozing sores and bugs. From the moment they hit convenience store checkout counters, the GPK stickers were outrageously popular. Although some school systems banned them as an unwelcome distraction and more than a few parents were mortified and disgusted that any sick individual would do such a horrible thing to something so innocent and cuddly, there was no organized grassroots effort to censor the stickers on moral grounds. Topps' only real trouble came in the form of a copyright infringement suit filed by the Cabbage Patch Dolls’ creators, Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc.

Topps’ argument that what they were doing was clear and obvious parody (and therefore protected under the First Amendment) didn’t quite cut it. The suit was settled out of court, with Topps agreeing to alter the Garbage Pail Kids logo and basic character design so as to avoid any possible confusion with the original dolls. The stickers continued to come out, and went on to inspire an animated television series, a feature film, a book and an unholy array of merchandise ranging from trash cans to sunglasses. In the end, it could easily be argued that over time the Garbage Pail Kids had more of a lasting impact on the culture than their inspiration.

Struwwelpeter was first published in Germany in 1845. The cautionary and terrifying collection of nursery rhymes (with graphic accompanying illustrations to drive the point home) warned children that if they sucked their thumnbs, didn’t eat their dinner, didn’t clean themselves up properly, mistreated their pets or threw tantrums, a horrible fate awaited them. The book became a standard instructional volume in most German households with young children. In 1898, a similar but decidedly British version was released in England under the title Shockheaded Peter, and was nearly as popular. Nobody it seemed thought much about presenting naughty children with images of potential disfigurement or death. The book helped keep the little buggers in line.

In 1999, American indie publisher Feral House released a gorgeous new edition of Struwwelpeter, complete with new illustrations, interpretive and historical essays, and assorted bowdlerized and satirical versions of the nursery rhymes which had appeared over the years. Feral House, which had always prided itself on publishing dangerous and controversial works, soon found this simple history and analysis of a once popular if disturbing children’s book could be just as troublesome as their books by notorious British serial killer Ian Brady or the Church of Satan’s Anton LaVey.

“Yes, we had minor trouble with Struwwelpeter,” says Feral House founder and publisher Adam Parfrey.  “But most of that was put to rest when bookstores simply refused to carry the book. I guess 21st century Americans are more touchy than the Germans of yore. For a while, a couple chains and many independent bookstores stopped carrying the Anton LaVey books we published after Geraldo Rivera put on those sensationalist programs about Satanism... I credit Marilyn Manson for putting an end to that crap. After he spoke out about it, so many people went into bookstores to order them that the stores saw best to get them back into their shops. Time passed, and the crazy ideas receded.”

Parfrey also sees a potential connection between the backlash Abrams suffered over Bad Little Children’s Books and the present brouhaha over what has been termed “fake news.”

“Right now there’s a good bit of madness going on with Trump-loving crazies, including Alex Jones and Infowars building up this idea that Hillary Clinton and John Podesta are torturing and killing children…and they’re pointing at Marina Abramović, too. That’s a big deal on Facebook at this instant. And anyone who poo-poos this story is being accused of covering up kiddie killing. I can see how this sort of madness can amplify into the book trade, a situation where parodies are mistaken for outright kiddie torture. Sad, isn’t it?”

As a final example, in 2010 Simon and Schuster published my book These Children Who Come at You With Knives, a collection of darkly comic fairy tales aimed at adults. Across roughly a dozen stories written in traditional fairy tale formats (though with more cursing, gratuitous gore, and uncontrolled bodily functions), assorted anthropomorphized animals, magical creatures, human children, the elderly and the dull-witted come to various terrible ends. The book received decent reviews and publicity, but there was no outcry, no controversy, and no one insisted the book be banned in order to protect the innocent. Meaning, of course, that I didn’t sell millions as a result of the hoo-hah.  Christ, I’ve even heard from people who use them as bedtime stories for their own kids. Dammit! What the hell did I do wrong?

I think I made two deadly mistakes. First, despite my best efforts to the contrary, my publisher decided to release the book without illustrations, meaning it could never possibly be confused with an actual children’s book. More devastating still, I was cursed with bad timing. These Children Who Come at You With Knives was released halfway through President Obama’s first term, and while there was certainly a good deal of rancor in the air, satire was still a viable form and accepted as such, at least among the literate. 

In different eras and in different ways, all the above examples were damned by a public inflicting its own preconceived notions upon works of obvious satire, insisting they be what the public believed them to be instead of what they actually were. 

By the time Bad little Children’s Books was released, the world had become too ridiculous, too absurd, and as a result we lost our sense of humor. There was simply no longer any way to lampoon our chosen leaders or our own insecurities, with the world itself poised and ready to top us at every turn. In short, the book’s publication coincided with the precise moment satire breathed its last, meaning readers had no choice but to take Gackley’s work, as Parfrey points out, at face value. Lucky bastard.

Jim Knipfel is the author of Slackjaw, These Children Who Come at You with Knives, The Blow-Off, and several other books, most recently Residue (Red Hen Press, 2015). his work has appeared in New York Press, the Wall Street Journal, the Village Voice and dozens of other publications.

[rockrevoltmagazine]

INTERVIEW: TRASH DEITY

  “Hailing from Los Angeles with roots in the legendary Chicago Wax Trax! scene comes the new duo Trash Deity. Combining the chaos and energy of the classic Wax Trax! sound updated with hard and modern production, Trash Deity is Groovie Mann aka Franke N. Nardiello (My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult frontman/writer) and accomplished music producer and industrial artist JDN aka John D. Norten (Blue Eyed Christ).” Writes this unique duos official Facebook page.

  Trash Diety is a force unlike any other, uniting two spectacular musicians with a magnificent vision. Senior journalist Anabel DFlux had the sincere pleasure of picking their minds about the latest EP Frantic Child, and all that comes forth with it!

  RockRevolt: Hey there! Thank you for chatting with me! How are you?

JDN: We’re doing Great, just released our new EP, Frantic Child, which has remixes from our Metropolis Album Cross & Divide that came out in September. We’re super proud of the album, Groovie Mann is gearing up to release the new My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult album and tour, and I’m finishing the new Blue Eyed Christ album and producing and mixing some other exciting known and new artists.

RR: Tell me about the new EP. How did you two conceptualize this album?

Groovie Mann: We thought it would be interesting to have peoples takes on the songs. People that we respect and know and like as artists.

JDN: People seem to discover and digest singles and songs more than albums often these days, so we thought we’d put the EP out to give some songs to focus on as well as another spin on the sound.

RR: What was the writing, recording, and production process like?

JDN: The writing and recording of the Cross & Divide album sort of evolved over time. It always starts with us going through tracks I have and choosing what to focus on with lyrics and vocals. Groovie Mann will come over with a bag of goodies of inspiration, old magazines, pulp novels, notebooks with newspaper headlines cut and pasted, lyric journals, and we throw it all in a blender and out comes a Trash Deity song.

RR: You both come from very unique musical backgrounds! What has it been like working together? Has your creative process changed as a result of this musical union?

GM: It’s more spontaneous because it’s new and it’s always exciting to work with a great producer.  

JDN: Since Blue Eyed Christ is primarily me, it’s great working on another creative partnership. When I’m working with new and creative people, there’s always something to take away and learn.

RR: I hear you launched an awesome contest in advance of your EP! The Fan Album Art Contest for Frantic Child/Cross & Divide Remix EP. Tell me more about this! How did this idea come about?

GM: Our publicist, Tracy at TAG, reached out to Regen who was interested in hosting the contest. We Thought it would be fun because of my paintings and ties to the art community and many of our fans are creative artists and people.  

RR: How are you enjoying partnering with ReGen Magazine?

GM: They’re Ace!

JDN: Regen is great, they do a lot to promote and bring together the Industrial Community and fans of the old school Wax Trax! and mixing in new bands with that sound and bringing it all together.

RR: How do you hope fans interpret the new music?

GM: With their feet stomping to the pace of the beat, like glam rock with electro shock punk. My main influences are Glam rock, experimental and punk. That’s to me what makes industrial.

JDN: We’ve had pretty universal great reaction to the album. As far as interpretation of our songs, that’s up to the individual. Many of our songs are abstract, you can probably learn more about yourself from what you think the mean, like a Rorschach Inkblot test.

RR: Upcoming show plans? How would you describe your show visually?

JDN: We keep threatening to put something together, it just has to make sense, like touring with another established Metropolis artist, or Festivals like Cold Waves.

RR: Music videos?

JDN: We have the two videos we did with Neill Kull before the Metropolis deal. Those both really set up the visual aesthetics of the band, “Finger on a Trigger” and the first song we wrote, “Run 4 Your Lies!”. We opted instead to use the other fan art submissions for the remixes on youtube. We thought that would be a cool way to represent the work of the Artists who did covers for the contest.

RR: How do you describe your music to people and what image do you think your music conveys?

GM: Multifaceted and open for many interpretations. Something with Strong will power to exist and leave the doors open for the listener to interpret.

RR: How would you define the word “success”?

GM: Success is getting acknowledgement from the people you respect and admire.

JDN: Success has many faces, the professional success from sales, the personal success from accomplishing something you’re proud of, etc.

RR: What are your fondest musical memories?

GM: as a fan Going to my first show when I was 17 seeing Lou Reed perform Sally Can’t Dance Tour. Shooting the Sex on Wheels animated video and meeting Ralph Bakshi for the cool world movie. Either that or filming the scene in the crow.

JDN: Seeing Duran Duran, Prince, and Depeche Mode. My first 3 concerts. for Blue Eyed Christ I remember a particularly great Metro show at the height of Industrial in the 90s, rolling around on stage at the end of the song “Crash” reciting the end lyrics, “I’m falling apart, I’m slipping away from myself”, I had sort of an out of body experience from my music, the lights, the crowd, I could see myself from above, very cool.

RR: Any last words for your fans before we conclude this interview?

JDN: Stay tuned for more in the Trash Deity saga, enjoy our output available now, and we will be back in the lab working on the next adventure soon!

  Connect with Trash Deity Here:

Facebook Twitter SoundCloud YouTube

INTERVIEW: TRASH DEITY was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

[whatsupsac]

What’s Up With Your Weekend, 2/9-11/18:

Friday:

Startup Weekend Sacramento: Women’s Edition: TechStars Global Startup Weekend Women is focused on empowering women in the Sacramento region who want to try their idea for real. Sacramento's event is one of hundreds of TechStars Startup Weekend events happening around the world as part of of TechStars Global Startup Women Weekend. Capitol Event Center. Friday 6PM-Sunday. $29-99.

Guys! Create a Valentine: Come to Verge and create a Valentine for your loved one! Want it sassy? Want it sweet? They'll have all the materials you need to make a one-of-a-kind Valentine that doesn't suck! Oh did we mention? FREE BEER! Yea, they will have that too! Verge Center for the Arts. 6-8PM. Must be 21+ to drink. $10 for members, $15 for non-members.

The Nether by Jennifer Haley: The Nether is a virtual wonderland that provides total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every desire. But when a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest corners of the imagination. Winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and seven 2013 L.A. Ovation Awards including Best New Play, The Nether is both a serpentine crime drama and haunting sci-fi thriller that explores the consequences of living out our private dreams. Capital Stage. 8PM. $28-38.

6th Kevin Bacon Soundtrack Tribute Show: The Kevin Bacon Soundtrack Tribute will have bands playing your favorite songs from Kevin Bacon movies and TV shows all night. Let’s dance! Torch Club. Doors at 8PM, Show at 8:30PM. 21+. $8 cover.

Saturday:

The Midtown Bizarre: Love is in the air and there’s no better place to pick up something you love for the people you love than at the Midtown Bizarre! Grab a friend, a delicious coffee and shop great goods by All Elements Apothecary, Boxed and Potted, Cabine Monde, Cultured Card Co, Mothbear, Phoebe Sherman, and Southside Vintage. Identity Coffees. 10AM-4PM.

Bacon Suicide IPA Night: It's the most magical week of the year - Sacramento Baconfest is back and there are tons of rad events happening all over the city. A few years ago Pangea Cafe decided to mix a bunch of IPA's together and top it with a piece of delicious crispy bacon. The end result was something truly awesome and has become a Baconfest tradition. Come out and enjoy a delicious IPA Bacon treat! Pangaea Cafe. 3-10PM. 

Undefine. by Lara Kaur: Sol Collective hosts the opening reception for undefine., a photography exhibition by Lara Kaur, a photographer residing in the Bay Area whose work focuses on using photography as a tool to heal and empower while exploring self-expression, identity, resilience, and emotional connections. Undefine. is devoted to courage, resistance, solidarity, self, community, healing, deconstruction, reconstruction and to centering the voices of women of color. Sol Collective. 5-8PM.

Sacramento Brazilian Carnaval 2018: The Brazilian Cultural Exchange presents an exciting evening of delicious food, live music and cultural entertainment to celebrate Carnaval 2018! CLARA. (The Brazilian Center is located in the CLARA parking lot, closest to the corner of 25th & O). 6-11PM. Free admission, food & drinks available for purchase.

Second Saturday “Art, Wine and Chocolate” Art Reception: February's wine-inspired exhibit will feature artwork made from wine, about wine, or even after drinking wine. Enjoy a wine-inspired art exhibit, wine & chocolate pairings, live music by Clemon Charles Music and a themed cocktail benefiting M5Arts. CK Arts, 2500 J Street. 6-9PM.

Breakfast at night!: Canon hosts an official Sacramento Bacon Fest event featuring bacon-centric breakfast cuisine served dim sum style + fun cocktails and drink specials on their late night happy hour menu! Canon. 9PM.

Holy FXXX Presents “Haus Party”: Yep. Adam Jay and Shaun Slaughter are throwing a special pop-up dance party this Saturday. Expect dance classics, future classics, booty bass, rap, whatever they feel! Holy Diver. 10PM. Free.

Sunday: 

Valentine’s Special: What is better than beer and chocolate? Treat yourself to an early Valentine's celebration as New Helvetia Brewing Co. pairs their delicious local brews with the luscious delights of Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates. New Helvetia Brewing Co. 12-8PM.

RiseUpAsOne Unity Ball: Join Sol Collective for a night of celebration, food, fun, and dance as we honor trans and queer communities of color, and the people who continue to fight every day for equality. Trans people of color experience some of the highest rates of exclusion, violence, and discrimination across the country. The#RiseUpAsOne Unity Ball is a celebration of the resilience and strength of those communities, and a declaration that we must #RiseUpAsOne for the health and happiness of all individuals - regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, religion, or background. Tsakopoulos Library Galleria. 6-10:30PM. Limited to 450 Guests, Free.

Red Museum Movie Night: A night of weird and wild animation. From the mind of Ralph Bakshi comes a post apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy epic of the psychedelic 70s. It's 3,000 years in the future and the ultimate battle of technology and magic is about to begin! WIZARDS (1977, 82min, Rated PG). Red Museum. 8PM. Free and BYOB.

[dare2draw]

RALPH BAKSI DIRECTOR - Ralph Bakshi - IMDb

Ralph Bakshi

ABOUT -

Bakshi made his name and living via animated films, comic strips, advertising and cartooning beginning from a young age - all in pursuit of supporting his insatiable drive for creating art. He was either going to be living on the street as an artist or be an artist with a paycheck. Luckily, he was able to marry both his artistic passions with a real job right out of Manhattan's School of Industrial Arts in NYC...

More about Ralph Bakshi

Official website