Jules Feiffer: 'Television'

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By way of explanation, I recently bought and was reading Explainers (1956-66) - the first of four scheduled volumes of the collected works of legendary cartoonist Jules Feiffer, published by the darling folks at Fantagraphics Books - when I came across this little gem of insight. It occurred to me that a) to my cynical eye, at least, not much has changed in television over the exactly fifty years since this was first printed*, at least not from an executive standpoint anyway, and b) since I was so taken by its form and content what better an example to publish here and thereby justify the cost of the book? I mean, it's not even his birthday or anything!

Wondering if there was possibly some way to translate a strip which was initially horizontal in two lines into one which is vertical in one, I set up my scanner to work with my laptop, then set out with the aid of a photocopier and scanner to attempt just that... This is the result.

Aside from a slight lopsidedness near the top (owing entirely to my lack of technical acuity**) I think it translates well. I may, in fact, return to it at a later date and repair my own error. Then again, I probably won't; two years ago I published a Peanuts cartoon with a scan warp that I have yet to fix. One thing is for certain - I will be posting more items like this as I come across them... I had completely forgotten how much fun one can have with a scanner!

*In New York City's pioneering alternative weekly The Village Voice.
**Either that or one of my eyes is in crooked!
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Blast From The Past: The Queen Mother At Work

It was fifty years ago today Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother took a tour of the Heinz factory at Kitt Green near Wigan in Lancashire, as this excellent bit of video from YouTube's The Royal Channel so amply demonstrates; then in operation just five weeks, the plant was turning out some half a million tins of pork and beans a day.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the factory this past May 21st in order to mark the 50th anniversary of the facility.
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