Todd Klein's Blog, page 221

Glass-blowing at Wheaton Arts

My mom is visiting us for a few days, and yesterday afternoon we went to Wheaton Arts in Millville, NJ where we enjoyed a demonstration of the art of glass-blowing the area is famous for. Here’s the set-up in the glass-blowing center, with the large gas-driven furnace at right, the work area for the glass artisans in the center, and seats for viewing on the left.

First we watched a young artisan working on a drinking glass. He began with a large dollop of molten glass on the end of a blowpipe.

After some shaping with tools, he had to return it to the furnace to get it soft again.

These openings to the blazing hot furnace are called “glory holes.”

Then he shaped the bubble he had blown into the center through the blow pipe, opening the end of the glass with one of their many tools, while spinning the rod with the glass on it to create an even and symmetrical design.

Here’s the nearly finished glass almost ready to be removed from the pipe and finished at the bottom. Next we watched a pair of artisans, one older and one younger, create a bowl with a striped pattern. Here’s the older guy getting the glass hot.

Getting the glass shaped as he wanted it by rolling it on a steel bench.

The younger artisan had prepared long strips of colored glass that were rolled onto the large piece to create stripes. Here the older artisan is forming and shaping the opening. (I missed some of the steps, like the actual glass-blowing to create the air bubble inside, couldn’t always get a good picture.)

The bowl is further along, and is about to go back into the furnace to soften again.

Once soft, the older artisan spun the piece to open up the end with centrifugal force.

Doing the final shaping of the top edge, and here you can see the colored stripes. It was a fascinating process.

After the demonstration we enjoyed seeing other parts of Wheaton Arts like the large glass museum (everything from the first American glass bottles through art glass like Tiffany to modern glass sculpture), the museum shop and the workshop exhibits by current artists. We’d been there many years before, and it was fun to see it again. We all enjoyed it. I recommend Wheaton Arts (formerly Wheaton Village) if you’re in southern New Jersey. Here’s a LINK to their site.

 

 

The 2015 World Series of Birding, help needed!

Two weeks from tomorrow, Saturday May 9th, is the annual outdoor escapade and fundraiser known as The World Series of Birding. I’ve signed up with the Cape May Bird Observatory Century Run team as I have many times in the past. It’s the only fundraiser I participate in. Along with lots of other teams we will attempt to spot as many bird species as possible on that day. The top teams will go from midnight to midnight, and cover the entire state of New Jersey. Our Century Run team’s goals are a little more relaxed: we go from 5 AM to about 9 PM and stay within Cape May County. It’s still an exhausting marathon to test one’s determination and stamina, but usually a lot of fun, too. Each participant pledges a minimum of $1 per species seen, which one can supplement with pledges from friends and family. And that, gentle readers, is where you can participate!

As in the past, I’m encouraging you to make a pledge for my WSB big day, to help me raise funds for the Cape May Bird Observatory, part of the New Jersey Audubon Society, and their valuable mission of conservation, education and research. You can pledge any amount, but the usual method is to pledge per species seen. Last year our total was 139 species, not our best effort, but not bad. A more typical total is 140 species. If we tally 140 species, a pledge of 50 cents per would result in a monetary gift of $70. A pledge of $1 per species would mean a gift of $140. As a bonus, I’m offering any of my Signed Prints as incentives: for a pledge of 50 cents per species, the print of your choice, for $1 per species, any two! Higher pledges are welcome and will garner more prints in the same ratio. Pledges lower than 50 cents will get you a signed comic or two that I lettered, my choice, if you would like that. Pledges of any amount down to 10 cents per species are welcome, or if you’d rather make a flat rate donation, that’s fine, too. All pledges will support education about and preservation of New Jersey wildlife and natural resources, as well as garner my enduring gratitude!

Here’s a LINK to my blog about last year’s WSB Century Run, if you’d care to read it. And if you’d like to pledge, click the CONTACT ME link here or in the right column of this page and let me know by email. I’ll be collecting pledges until May 8th. Our team will be out there tallying on the 9th, rain or shine, hoping for good weather and lots of migrating birds. Who knows, maybe this year we’ll hit the elusive goal of 150 species. That would be fabulous!

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN CORPS 40

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

Another of those issues that must present some kind of resolution without changing too much. In this case, John Stewart and his small group of newbie Lanterns are finally face to face with the dark force that has been destroying the planet Zarox, and it turns out to be one that John knows all too well, it was behind a previous tragedy he’s long felt guilty about. The story is okay, but the best thing about the issue is the fine art by Bernard Chang with its unique stylized coloring in some panels. The conflict has some fine action sequences, but mostly it’s a mental contest for Stewart. On the last page there’s a large THE END, but I expect both Stewart and the Corps will go on in the near future.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY 1

Image © estate of Robert A. Heinlein and IDW.

Adaptations of stories by Robert Heinlein, one of my favorite writers, are rare, and I’m not sure why, other than perhaps the price of rights to do so. The novels he wrote for younger readers are works I always thought would make good comics, if a little on the talky side. This is one of those novels, and so far I like the adaptation pretty well. I haven’t read the book for some years, so I can’t say how close the adaptation is to it, but it feels like Heinlein, even reads like him in places. The art by Steve Erwin is kind of loose, but that works well on this tale of Jubbul, a planet full of thieves and beggars, sort of the space version of the film “The Thief of Baghdad.” It follows the life of a slave boy, Thorby, who is brought to the slave market on Jubbul and bought by a beggar who, as it turns out, is much more than that. He has seen something in this boy, and decides to take him in and help him. Thorby is suspicious at first, but in time the two grow close. When the beggar’s real work threatens both their lives, Thorby has to learn some hard lessons to escape death, and Jubbul.

Nicely done, looking forward to more. Recommended.

Pulled From My Files #28: DRACULA

Images © Marvel.

Some time in 1992 I did this for Marvel editor Terry Kavanaugh who was planning a series reprinting some of the Marv Wolfman/Gene Colan TOMB OF DRACULA stories. It’s done with markers over pencil, and DRACULA seems intended for the logo with the other lettering as top lines above, three different ones.

At the time I don’t think I found out how or where it was used, but apparently only one issue was published, above, dated January 1993. DRACULA is mine, someone else has done the rest. Perhaps Marvel felt my top line wasn’t readable enough, or just too big. The cover lettering below the logo looks like a font to me. In all, not a good combination of elements to my eyes. Too bad they didn’t use what I gave them, I think it would have looked better!

And Then I Read: AUTUMNLANDS 3

Image © Kurt Busiek & Benjamin Dewey.

The human-like animals of the fallen city have, through magic, pulled a human warrior from the distant past, a man they hope will be their champion, able to protect and lead them against their enemies. The man, Steven Learoyd, after helping them out of immediate danger, now seems unwilling or unable to take on the role they have planned for him. Reluctantly, he offers advice, does some scouting, and even takes up a sword, but he’s hardly the godlike being they were expecting.

Meanwhile, a new character appears on the scene (and the cover), Goodfoot the Trader. She’s delightful, but tricksy. Whose side is she really on, other than her own? This series continues to gain depth, with hints of a long history for the world, and elements of sword and sorcery, the Old West, and classic animal fables. I’m loving it. The writing and art are excellent, as are the coloring and lettering. The characters are fascinating, and the storyline keeps surprising me. Nothing here to complain about!

Highly recommended.

And Then I Read: POGO VOLUME 3

Images © Okefenokee Glee & Perloo Inc.

I’ve been gradually reading this handsome third volume of the complete Pogo comic strips over the last month or so. It takes me a while because, unlike some strip collections such as those for “Peanuts,” I can’t read very many pages of Pogo at a time. They’re so dense with things to look at, enjoy and understand — clever dialogue, jokes, satire, physical humor, amazing cartooning, lush inking, incredible lettering and more — that after a few pages my brain begins to feel overloaded and I start missing things. This time I decided to only read one month’s worth of dailies or three months worth of Sundays at a time. As the book covers two full years, 1953 and 1954, it took a while, but I feel I got more out of the reading experience this time.

Here’s an example of what I mean. Just to read the dialogue on this daily strip takes a minute, to understand and appreciate the humor and satire a few more, and then I could study the figures, inking and lettering for an hour. It’s all so perfectly done, seemingly effortless and simple, but actually the product of a rare talent.

Just to consider one small part of the whole: look at the logos on the Sunday pages. They’re all different, no copy and paste for Walt Kelly. The designs are fabulous, and so many variations. Pogo is not the only strip to have new logos every time, other examples that come to mind are Winsor McCay’s “Little Nemo in Slumberland,” Gus Arriola’s “Gordo,” and today’s “Mutts” by Patrick McDonnell, but I don’t think anyone has ever done it so artfully as Walt Kelly.

Both the daily and Sunday strips had their own continuity. I’ve been a huge fan of Pogo since childhood, but it never ran in a paper I saw regularly. My exposure was through the series of paperback books authored by Kelly that often contain long runs of the strip along with new material, but those were all in black and white, so it’s a treat to see these Sunday strips in color, and I think all the ones in this collection are new to me, I don’t remember any of them from the books.

Fantagraphics, Walt’s daughter Carolyn, and Mark Evanier are doing a terrific job on this series, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

And Then I Read: SWAMP THING 40

Image © DC Comics.

The final issue of SWAMP THING, at least for now, is a little sad for me, as I’ve been enjoying writer Charles Soule and artist Jesus Saiz’ run on the book a great deal. Having to wrap up a complicated storyline, this one feels a bit rushed, and it’s overlaid with a meta-fictional narration pointing out repeatedly that it’s just a story. While an interesting idea (especially when Swamp Thing finds himself literally a book), that distances the reader from events, making them seem less important, and thereby weakening the finale, in my opinion. I still enjoyed it, but not as much as I might have. Oh, and that great wide-screen cover made me think perhaps the entire issue was going to go that way. It doesn’t. Too bad. Have to give the entire series a big thumbs up, though, it’s been a great ride with lots of fresh ideas and excellent characters.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN 40

Image © DC Comics.

Writer Robert Venditti had a difficult assignment here. This run of GREEN LANTERN is ending, but the main character Hal Jordan is not, nor is the Green Lantern Corps. Any closure will be brief and fleeting. What happens is, he quits as Corps leader, intending to let the Corps’ recent bad name fall on his leadership,  and attempts to take a kind of all-access power battery and leave with it. To do that he has to go through Kilowog, and much of the story is about that battle, and their friendship. Not a bad solution to this story problem. The art by Billy Tan and Mark Irwin is generally good, but they aren’t as convincing with civilian Hal as they are with Green Lantern Hal. In all, a pretty good read.

Recommended.

Rereading: TWO BY GEORGE MacDONALD

The first of these books, “The Princess and the Goblin,” was a favorite of my childhood nearly 60 years ago, when fantasy books were much less common, and always something I was looking for. It was written in 1872, and has a Victorian style that might deter readers today, often very sentimental and “soft,” but the fantasy elements are enchanting (in the case of the magical grandmother) and scary (the goblins), and the writing is always heartfelt and honest. Princess Irene lives in a large royal house in the mountains with a governess, a staff of servants and guards, but no family. Her mother is dead, her father is far away running the kingdom in the capital, only visiting Irene occasionally. The area is one where mining is the main job for both humans and an underground population of goblins. Irene knows nothing of the goblins, which only come out at night, but one late afternoon on a walk with her governess, they get lost, and are menaced by a goblin. To the rescue comes a miner boy, Curdie, who scares off the goblin and returns them to the royal house. Thereafter, Irene and Curdie’s lives are intertwined. Irene finds her way to hidden attic rooms where her magical grandmother lives, watching over the house in secret, and Irene is shown wonderful things, but also given difficult tasks. Curdie, in the mines with his father and others, discovers a way into the goblin tunnels where he overhears a plot to steal the princess and destroy the human mines. It’s a great story, and though I’ve read it many times, I always enjoy reading it again.

“The Princess and Curdie” is a sequel which I never liked as well, and have only read two or maybe three times before, and not for decades. This time I found it more appealing than I remembered, but it’s  a political story with much less magic, and I can see why I didn’t care for it as a child. Curdie is sent by the grandmother to the royal capital, where Irene and her ailing father now both live, with a mission to set the kingdom on a better path. It’s fallen prey to evil men in high places who have taken most of the king’s power and are exploiting for their own gain. To help him, Curdie has a companion, a very strange Goblin beast, sort of a Goblin pet, but one that’s much smarter than the Goblins, and not evil. Curdie finds loads of trouble when he arrives in the capital, and his work is cut out for him even to reach Irene.

Both books are well worth reading, in my opinion, and George MacDonald’s own life story is a fascinating one, too. Friends with Lewis Carroll and other leading writers of his time, subject to many personal tragedies, and yet a loving husband and father, and a fine writer.