I was very pleased to see that Easily Mused passed 50,000 hits this morning. For almost a year now, visitors from literally all over the globe have been stopping by to share in my love for pop culture and it has been a richly satisfying experience. Believe it or not, 30,000 of those hits were related to a single entry, the apparently nerve-hitting exhibit Why Chicks Cry. The comments on this little piece have been almost universally positive, and one person in the publishing industry even suggested that it might have potential as a book, which seems a little surreal to me, but I guess stranger things have happened, so who knows?
It's fair to say that among the blogs I enjoy, Mark Evanier's News From Me
is a perennial favorite. Yesterday, Mark honored my little blog with his presence, to correct the artist credit for the Rocky & Bullwinkle comic book story I had posted. Al Kilgore was definitely not the artist of this piece, and if I knew anyhing of Al Kilgore's work, I would have spotted that immediately, since his style is as unique as it is engaging. Unfortunately, I relied on information obtained from The Grand Comic Book Database. I realize the GCBD is a massive undertaking, and mistakes will crop up from time to time, but I think the rule for posting credits there should be "Never guess at credits ever ever ever." And my new rule is "Never take GCBD as The Last Word ever ever ever."
I feel I have done an injustice to the late Mr. Kilgore, so I am presenting here a few links of interest concerning a very talented man who left us far too soon.
His Wikipedia entry is here and his lambiek.net entry is here.
Kilgore's beautiful giant drawing depicting stars of "Comic Strips & The Cinema" can be viewed here at Mike Lynch Cartoons and the key to all the caricatures in that drawing is here.
In 1966, Al took a turn as an actor in an independently produced serial parody called "Captain Celluloid & The Film Pirates." You can download the torrent file here. I previewed this a short while ago, and it looks like a lot of fun.
Harry McCracken shares an appreciation of Mr. Kilgore and a fine example of his work on the short-lived Rocky & Bullwinkle newspaper comic strip
here.
Al Kilgore assisted in the creation of Sons of the Desert, The International Laurel & Hardy Society and you can visit them and see the lovely escutcheon Al designed for the organization here.
If you have any more links concerning the life and work of Al Kilgore, please post them in the comments section. As soon as I have time, I intend to post an actual Al Kilgore comic, so stay tuned for that.
And thanks again for 50,000 hits!
(Programming note: I will be out of town Sunday through Tuesday.)
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