Louis Riel is a 2003 historical biography in comics by Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown. It deals with the relationship of Métis rebel leader Louis Riel(pictured) with the newly established Canadian government. It begins shortly before the 1869 Red River Rebellion, and ends with Riel's 1885 hanging for high treason. The book explores the possibly schizophrenic aspect of Riel's personality—he believed God had named him Prophet of the New World, destined to lead the Métis people to freedom. The work is noted for its emotional disengagement, its intentionally flat dialogue, and a minimalist drawing style inspired by Harold Gray's comic strip Little Orphan Annie. The lengthy, hand-lettered appendix provides insight on Brown's creative process and biases, and highlights where he changed historical facts to create a more engaging story. It was the first comic book to receive a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. It was critically well received, and won three Harvey Awards. The original serialization (1999–2003) sold poorly, but the book version was a surprise bestseller. Its success played a major part in gaining shelf space for serious graphic novels in mainstream North American bookstores. (more...)
Laura Secord (1775–1868) was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812, who undertook a 20-mile (32 km) walk out of American-occupied territory to warn British forces of an impending American attack. Secord's husband James was wounded at the Battle of Queenston Heights in 1812, and was still recovering when the Americans invaded the Niagara Peninsula in 1813. During the occupation, Secord learned of a planned American attack, and stole away on the morning of 23 June to inform Lieutenant James FitzGibbon in the territory still controlled by the British. The information helped the British and their Mohawk warrior allies repel the invading Americans at the Battle of Beaver Dams. Her contribution to the war was little known during her lifetime, but since her death she has been frequently honoured by Canada. Honours bestowed on her include schools and a chocolate company named after her, as well as monuments, a museum, a memorial stamp, and a statue at the Valiants Memorial in the Canadian capital. Her story has taken on mythological overtones in her home country, with many embellished versions of the tale, and she is the subject of books, poetry, and plays. (Full article...)
George Herriman (1880–1944, seen in a self-portrait) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Krazy Kat (1913–44). He started as a newspaper cartoonist in 1897 and introduced Krazy Kat in the strip The Dingbat Family in 1910. A Krazy Kat strip began in 1913; in its main motif, Ignatz Mouse pelted Krazy with bricks, which the naïve Kat interpreted as symbols of love. The strip was noted for its poetic dialogue, fantastic backgrounds, and experimental page layouts. Herriman was drawn to the landscapes of Monument Valley and the Enchanted Mesa, and his artwork used Navajo and Mexican motifs against shifting desert backgrounds. More influential than popular, Krazy Kat had an appreciative audience among people in the arts. Gilbert Seldes' article "The Krazy Kat Who Walks by Himself" was the earliest example of a critic from the high arts giving serious attention to a comic strip. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst gave Herriman a lifetime contract with King Features Syndicate, guaranteeing him a comfortable living. The Comics Journal placed the strip first on its list of the greatest comics of the 20th century, and his work has been a primary influence on many cartoonists. (Full article...)
Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) is an animated short film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay (c. 1867–1934). He first used the film before live audiences as an interactive part of his vaudeville act: the frisky, childlike Gertie did tricks at the command of her master. His employer, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, later curtailed McCay's vaudeville activities, so McCay added a live-action introductory sequence to the film for its theatrical release. Gertie was the first film to use animation techniques such as keyframes, registration marks, tracing paper, the Mutoscope action viewer, and animation loops. Although Gertie is popularly thought to be the earliest animated film, it was McCay's third, and his earlier films were preceded by animation made at least as far back as J. Stuart Blackton's 1900 film The Enchanted Drawing. Gertie influenced the next generation of animators, including the Fleischer brothers, Otto Messmer, Paul Terry, and Walt Disney. McCay abandoned a sequel, Gertie on Tour (c. 1921), after producing about a minute of footage. Gertie is the best preserved of his films—others are lost or in fragments—and has been preserved in the US National Film Registry. (Full article...)
Goodman Beaver is a comics character created by American cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman. Goodman was a naïve and optimistic Candide-like character, oblivious to the corruption and degeneration around him. The stories were vehicles for biting social satire and pop culture parody. Except for the character's first appearance, which Kurtzman did alone, the stories were written by Kurtzman and drawn by Will Elder. Goodman first appeared in a story in Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book in 1959, but the best-remembered strips were the five stories produced by the Kurtzman–Elder team in 1961–62 for the Kurtzman-edited magazine Help! They tended to be in the parodic style Kurtzman had developed when he wrote and edited Mad in the 1950s, but with more pointed, adult-oriented satire and much more refined and detailed artwork on Elder's part, crammed with countless visual gags. The best-known of the Goodman Beaver stories was "Goodman Goes Playboy" (1962). A satire on the hedonistic lifestyle of Hugh Hefner using parodies of Archie comics characters, the story led to a lawsuit from Archie 's publisher, although Hefner, the actual target of the strip, found it amusing. (Full article...)
The Blind Leading the Blind is a painting of 1568 by Flemish renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Executed in distemper on linen canvas, it measures 86 cm × 154 cm (34 in × 61 in). It depicts the Biblical parable of the blind leading the blind from Matthew 15:14. Considered a masterwork for its composition and accurate detail, the painting (detail pictured) reflects Bruegel's mastery of observation: each figure has a different recognizable eye affliction, including corneal leukoma, atrophy of globe and removed eyes. The diagonal composition reinforces the off-kilter motion of the six figures falling in progression. It was painted the year before Bruegel's death, and has a bitter, sorrowful tone. This may be related to the establishment of the Council of Troubles in 1567 by the government of the Spanish Netherlands, which ordered mass arrests and executions to enforce Spanish rule and suppress Protestantism, but it is not clear if the painting was meant as a political statement. The work has inspired poetry by Charles Baudelaire and William Carlos Williams, and a novel by Gert Hofmann. It is part of the collection of the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Italy. (Full article...)
Three Beauties of the Present Day is a nishiki-e colour woodblock print of c. 1792–93 by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Kitagawa Utamaro (c. 1753–1806). The triangular composition depicts the busts of three celebrity beauties of the time: geisha Tomimoto Toyohina (middle), and teahouse waitresses Takashima Hisa (left) and Naniwa Kita (right), each adorned with an identifying family crest. Subtle differences can be detected in the faces of the subjects—a level of individualized realism at the time unusual in ukiyo-e, and a contrast with the stereotyped beauties in earlier masters such as Harunobu and Kiyonaga. The triangular positioning became a vogue in the 1790s. Utamaro produced several other pictures with this arrangement of the same three beauties, and each appeared in numerous other portraits by Utamaro and other artists. Utamaro was the leading ukiyo-e artist in the 1790s in the bijin-ga genre of pictures of female beauties, and was known in particular for his ōkubi-e, which focus on the heads. The luxurious print was published by Tsutaya Jūzaburō and made with multiple woodblocks—one for each colour—and the background was dusted with muscovite to produce a glimmering effect. (Full article...)
The wordless novel uses captionless pictures to tell a story, most often using woodcut and other relief printing techniques. The genre flourished primarily in the 1920s and 1930s, especially in Germany. The typically socialist work drew inspiration from medieval woodcuts and used the awkward look of that medium to express angst and frustration at social injustice. The first such book was the Belgian Frans Masereel's 25 Images of a Man's Passion (illustrated), published in 1918. Other artists, such as the German Otto Nückel, followed Masereel's example. Lynd Ward brought the genre to the United States in 1929 when he produced Gods' Man, which inspired other American wordless novels and was parodied in 1930 by cartoonist Milt Gross in He Done Her Wrong. Following an early-1930s peak in production and popularity, the genre waned in the face of competition from sound films and anti-socialist censorship in Nazi Germany and the US. The graphic novels of cartoonists Will Eisner and Art Spiegelman and the wordless graphic novels of Eric Drooker and Peter Kuper were inspired by the wordless novel genre. (Full article...)
Articles that I've already put considerable work into and I think I have a chance of bringing up to Good Article standard. There are many other articles I've been working on, but I don't always have sufficient sources to give me confidence that I'll get them to GA quality. I hope to bring most of my GAs to FA.
I have an enormous interest in the works of Chester Brown, Jim Woodring, and Dave Sim, and have been frustrated at the lack of sufficient quantity and quality of sources to do justice to their articles and those of their works.
I'm a middle-aged Canadian male, and I've lived in Shizuoka City in Japan since 1998. My mortgage will likely keep me here, assuming the inevitable and long-overdue Tōkai earthquake doesn't eat it first.
In mid-2011 I dropped the username Acidtoyman I had used since December 2005, so it wouldn't be associated with the "obvious" implications (I don't use drugs, and I don't want people to assume I do). Until shortly before the name change I wasn't very active and usually didn't bother signing in when I did edit. The poor quality of comics articles always got to me, and in early 2011 I got fed up enough to motivate myself to do something about it. Over the winter break of 2011–2012 I rewrote the Canadian comics article from scratch, and on 15 April 2012 it became my first promoted Good Article. During a Peer Review of Louis Riel (comics), Nikkimaria put the idea in my head that the article could become a Featured Article—I didn't understand the selection process, and had assumed the article was too obscure. It was promoted on 26 August 2012 and hit the Main Page on 27 October 2012. This gave me confidence, and I've since worked mainly on articles I intend to submit as Featured Article Candidates. Though I frequently stray, I consider comics my primary editing focus.
Editors tend to shorten my handle to "CT" or "Curly". Not that it matters to me, but the friend who gave me the nickname in real life always shortened it to "Turkey". I swear a lot, and I do not intend to modify my pottymouth for the sake of those who work themselves up over it. I've been taking correspondence courses to get a degree in French for the last while; this and my family responsibilities have put a damper on my editing, and when I have been editing, I probably shouldn't've.
Amongst my pet peeves:
the removal of whitespace from articles I tend—for ease in navigating the source I leave two spaces between sentences and spaces after headers and images. Nothing is improved by removing these visual markers, and they have no effect on the output markup of the article.
parameters in infoboxes such as Dewey decimal numbers, and especially "Influenced by" and "Influenced".
titling articles in the plural based on vague gut feelings that they somehow, kinda, sorta belong there (English verbs, Chinese characters). Article titles in the singular are predictable and link-friendly; exceptions should be truly exceptional (scissors, the Beatles).
markup that ignores semantics—such as using colons and semicolons to make lists (say, of references) that are not definition lists, or using '''bolding''' to create section "headers".
Want to help out a productive editor? Sending money or presents may be frowned upon, but who could object if you bought me an e-book? I'd put it immediately to use in my editing. I have a Kobo, so I'd prefer EPUB files, but I can easily make do with PDFs, and I can read Kindle files on Kindle software on my phone or laptop. Mail me or leave a message on my talk page and we can work out how you can get it to me.
Beaty, Bart. Comics Versus Art. 2013
Bukatman, Scott. The Poetics of Slumberland - Animated Spirits and the Animating Spirit. 2012
Dunn, David (ed.). Harry Partch: An Anthology of Critical Perspectives. 2013
Gabilliet, Jean-Paul (transl. Beaty & Nguyen). Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books. 2013
Grace, Dominick & Hoffman, Eric (eds.). Chester Brown - Conversations, 2013
Granade, S. Andrew. Harry Partch, Hobo Composer. 2014
Hatfield, Charles. Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. 2005
Hoffman, Eric (ed.). Cerebus the Barbarian Messiah - Essays on the Epic Graphic Satire of Dave Sim and Gerhard. 2012
Hoffman, Eric (ed.). Dave Sim: Conversations. 2013
Merkl, Ulrich. Dinomania: The Lost Art of Winsor Mccay, the Secret Origins of King Kong, and the Urge to Destroy New York. 2015
Roeder, Katherine. Wide Awake in Slumberland - Fantasy, Mass Culture, and Modernism in the Art of Winsor McCay. 2013.
Smolderen, Thierry (transl. Beaty & Nguyen). The Origins of Comics. 2014
Wolk, Douglas. Reading Comics - How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. 2008
Great work on comic articles! Regards. Kürbis (✔) 09:09, 3 September 2012 (UTC)
Comics
Thank you for quality articles on comics, such as Louis Riel, and on Canadian-Japanese relations, - you are an awesome Wikipedian! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 23:09, 27 October 2012 (UTC)
The Expert Barnstar
I hereby award you the Expert Barnstar for your outstanding contributions to comics-related topics. This award is given to a few people who are regarded experts in one or several particular fields. Congrats and keep up your excellent work :)!--Tomcat(7) 12:21, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
For the your thorough and engaging review of Manuel Buendía, I hereby award you this Reviewer Barnstar. It was a pleasure to work with you. Best luck in your future projects, and thanks for the review. All the best, ComputerJA (☎ • ✎) 01:12, 13 November 2013 (UTC)
Congratulations on a much-deserved FA star for Gods' Man and for all you do on the subject of graphic novels and wordless novels. It has been an immense pleasure and learning experience reading your work. --ColonelHenry (talk) 00:29, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
The Teamwork Barnstar
With thanks for being an important part of the team at Ezra Pound, especially at peer review, and for helping to make it happen. SlimVirgin(talk) 15:22, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
I wasn't sure whether to award you with this or the copyedtor barnstar, but since your input in Megadeth's FAC has also been really constructive, I'll go with this one. Thanks for all the edits (and time spent) on the topic, and I hope we'll get this to FA some day. One thing I've learnt from you for sure is that the prose in good articles has to be as clearest as possible (previously I though that it should be written in a "sophisticated" way). Good luck with your nominations and if I can help you somehow, don't hesitate to call me. Everything the best. Вик Ретлхед (talk) 11:07, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
Valued Picture Barnstar
Thank you for uploading the Murasaki Shikibu portrait by Kanō Takanobu. Oda Mari (talk) 08:41, 19 June 2014 (UTC)
A Swordsman for You
Thank you, Curly, for bringing Ukiyo-e to FA status. Congratulations! In recognition of this achievement, I grant you a swordsman (slightly worn), who will dice your teacher's answer key next Friday if you feel it necessary.
(BTW, I'm thinking Departures for FAC next week; thoughts?) — Crisco 1492 (talk) 14:08, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
Great work on getting Megadeth to FA status. This is the first heavy metal-related article to be promoted in five years. This accomplishment wouldn't have been possible without your assistance. Retrohead (talk) 08:41, 10 August 2014 (UTC)
The Half Barnstar
I re-read Tintin in Tibet today; I have to admit: It's a great read. That's because everyone who contributed to it did an outstanding job. This includes your contributions, Curly Turkey, together with User:Midnightblueowl! I'm glad to have the advice of both of you (even if you both bail on me sometimes). But what an honour it was to work on this particular article, right? I hope all readers enjoy it. Thanks again for your uniquely direct and experienced contributions; keep them coming. :-) Cheers. Prhartcom (talk) 15:39, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
The Teamwork Barnstar
My heartfelt thanks for your help in improving Bonshō to FA status - your advice and extra sources were invaluable. Yunshui雲水 09:15, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
The Poland Barnstar of National Merit
Please accept this barnstar as a token of my gratitude for your help with the article on Warsaw Uprising (1794). Instead of wasting your time on describing what's wrong with the article, you simply stepped forward and fixed it. Such good work should not go unnoticed. //Halibutt 19:31, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
The Guidance Barnstar
Thanks for your invaluable help with finding and translating sources. Yunshui雲水 09:17, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated, and that the user this page belongs to may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia itself. The original page is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Curly_Turkey.
Lousi Riel (comics) — 27 October 2012
Goodman Beaver — 9 April 2014..jpg)
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From_Bijin-ga_(Pictures_of_Beautiful_Women),_published_by_Tsutaya_Juzaburo_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend
Love It to Death (current Featured Article candidate—participate in the review!)
Canadian comics
