Making a Monkey Outta Me!!

So we are ALL familiar with superheroes and villains and normally we would say they were human… but for regular readers of comix you cannot ignore the fact that APES and MONKEYS play a rather large role in their history.

We have seen the rise and fall of simian heroes and villains, masterminds and monsters!! Touching every decade of the comic world with the famous names of Grodd, Beppo, Titano, Solovar, Detective Chimp, Ape (as in Angel &) and of course King Kong.

Then we can come to the not as famous or straightforward names as Giganta, Gorilla Man,  Sky Ape, Braini Ape, Go-Go (the cutest of all comix apes) and the list could go on making for an awfully long read…

Believe me, I set out to try and collect all major ape stories… I was paying out BIG £££ for some of the golden and silver age issues and soon began to realise that there were so many... unless I was intending to collect every comic published it really was not a viable option so instead I did hold a library of some of the greatest ape covers published; but as times change and money has other priorities most have now been sold on.

It was fun… really... who can object to the Gorilla Witch or Hawkman as a gorilla?? *sigh* to the folk who do!!

We have seen a kind of evolution of knowledge on these animals and even when a time when people thought of the gorilla as a ferocious violent killer of an animal, in many ways comix were producing some very positive messages about them and we saw early Kamandi making a stand against the use of primates in science.

Gorilla Grodd in many ways apart from his little world domination thing he has going on is a very well perceived character when it comes down to not being rude and insulting him!!

Granted I do take issue on some of the more recent interpretations of him but others hit the contrast of intelligence gone badly with this ape very well.

We mustn’t forget that in the last 15 years Denny O’ Neil wrote a fantastic pro-ape book and Grant Morrison also holds the bar high.

But rather try to touch upon all the various milestones there is one book out there which gives a great rundown to the highest points and history of our love for our hairier brothers… and this book is:

Comics Gone Ape! By Michael Eury published in 2007 by TwoMorrows.

I would safely say this book holds what most would be contented with knowing about this subject.

It is packed full of rare art and sketches of our most beloved of monkeys and has many interviews with the greats like Carmine Infantino, Joe Kubert, Arthur Adams, Bob Oksner, Nick Cardy and many others.

It is comprised of 140 pages of in depth research from the 1950s horror comix to the likes of Tony Millionaires Sock Monkey.

If anyone did want to take this subject a little further it would serve as a great guide as to where to start and it comes with the most awesome Avengers cover by Arthur Adams…

I have never seen Cap looks so dashing!!

But behind every great comic, written, drawn, coloured and printed there has to be a great man or woman to give the nod and I believe we got all these monkeys and apes thanks to Julius Schwartz bringing back the genre that kids and adults have had a fascination with for years and years and the more we learn and love about these magnificent creatures I hope to see apes and monkeys in comix for years to come.

The Albums The 'Hip' Forgot...

Harold Eugene Clark born November 17, 1944 was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrd’s, he is better known as Gene Clark.


During 1964 and early 1966 he was the song writer for the band and he created a large catalogue of music in several genres but failed to achieve solo commercial success.

This is just a damn shame as I feel two of his solo albums deserved to be heard!!

1971 saw the album titled White Light the fact that the name was not included on the cover sleeve led some later reviewers to assume that it was titled 'Gene Clark'.

The record was produced by the much sought after Native American guitarist Jesse Ed Davis with whom Clark developed great rapport, partly due to their common Indian ancestry.

It is mainly an acoustic album with slide guitar work by Jesse Ed Davis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT8zT6Jz9lU&feature=related

All of the material was written by Clark, with the exception of the Dylan and Richard Manuel song "Tears of Rage".

This album gained considerable critical acclaim, but failed to get commercial success, except in the Netherlands where it was also voted album of the year by rock music critics.

What we saw in the 60s with Clark’s refusal to tour or undertake any kind of promotional work also affected sales.

This album holds the track Spanish Guitar which Bob Dylan had said he would have been proud to write… for me, this is probably one of my all-time favourite songs.

1974 saw Gene Clark signed to Asylum records by David Geffen and the release of No Other just on the basis of the quality of Clark's Byrd’s contributions.

Asylum was the home of the most prominent singer-songwriter movement of that era and carried the kinda hip cachet that Clark hadn't experienced since he was a Byrd.

He headed for Mendocino with his friend (and future co-writer and drummer) Andy Kandanes' cliff-top home.

It is known Clark was deeply affected by his visions, and this is where he wrote numerous songs which were the basis for No Other.

No Other has a very different feel to it than White Light, we are firmly set in the 70s it has a vast array of session musicians and backing singers, and is an amalgam of country rock, folk, gospel, soul and choral music with poetic, mystical lyrics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YULwbhga18&feature=related

The fact that No Other wasn't a conventional pop/rock opus meant that its chances of success were pretty low and by Clark's relative obscurity at that time it was going to be a struggle to make this a commercial success.

Production costs for this album were around $100,000 for only eight tracks which rubbed Geffen up the wrong way to begin with.

The album then stalled in the charts at #144.

After the release of this album Clark returned to Los Angeles and resorted back to a hedonistic lifestyle which broke up his marriage and lost many friends…

He did agree to do his first solo tour (by road), playing colleges and clubs with backing group, the Silverado’s.

Though both albums are very different I think it is a real shame that they have been over looked as in my opinion neither album holds a bum track and equals if not betters much of the Byrd’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjKnmThuKTY

Dignity Sold Seperately

A couple of events in the news led me to write this blog and I am going to try and tie them together in a roundabout sort of way.  First off is Hugh Hefner being a guest in London this week to open his new Playboy club… The last closing its doors in the UK in the early 80’s alongside the likes of The Black and White Minstrel Show etc. being taken off air... as times were changing and things were no longer seen as apropiate and were considered offensive.

In this link you can check out how a bunny should behave and what perks you get from being a bunny in 1968! kinda interesting!

http://www.explayboybunnies.com/history/bunnymanual/bunnymanual1.html

So in 2011 have our attitudes changed?

Have we regressed? Have we progressed with our understanding of what could be considered exploitation? Or have we females of our species become desensitised as sexuality and provocative behaviour and fashion is pushed in every type of media from what seems like an earlier age.

The answer to the first and last question is most certainly YES… but the answer to the other two is not quite so evenly decided and I’m not going to tell you either, you can come to your own decision, as of course, this is a one female person blog, I can only comment from my point of view, not as a spokesperson for womankind... so what do I think is going on?

Well… first off, I am by far not a prude and do get offended by any naked body be it male, female, large or small, young or old, we are all human and we are all naked at some point, though we are all different we should all have the same bits that make us a male or female human being and there is nothing about this to be ashamed or embarrased about.

The female nude has been celebrated in art over centuries… we are naturally curvy, soft and easy on the eye we suggest sensuality and I see no harm in enjoying the beauty of this, but there is a fine line where it can/could cross into vulgarity where most undoubtedly some of Playboys successors have stepped over into that boundary, but that is not what I’m getting at.

Personally I feel it is some very clever marketing from the direction of the Hefner corner…

The playboy bunny icon has become a symbol of ‘class’ to some.

To the men who buy into it, you get a better class of scantily clad young lady and in some way I think women have bought into this as well. Yet what we see as the Playboy franchise holds the aces in all types of fashion, from lingerie to sportswear, perfume, make up and jewellery and come in the form of a cute silhouetted bunny with a bow tie. How kitsch and adorable right? 

But not when it’s marketed at 5yo girls!! Ick…

But is this coming from the parents?  I’m sure as hell if I was a parent of a little girl there would be NO WAY I would let her wear anything with that rabbit on it… but if mum does??

What example are we setting for the future when there is an understanding behind these things?

Also, Hefner and his crew have seemingly got us on board of his enterprise since the early 80s by marketing things which typically attract the female eye. So what was once seen as something as a male dominated past time it has become more… shall we say a family event in some circumstances?

I personally look upon the whole Playboy enterprise as bit of a very clever joke, Hef sure knows what side his breads buttered on and I think every one of those girls at his mansion do too…

 Personally you would never catch me wearing that rabbit… but then again, I have realised a long time ago that I rarely like what a real girly girl likes… I’m too pragmatic is my problem.

I don’t find anything offensive about it…  They do produce a magazine which in all fairness does sometimes have some interesting articles and it is only fair to say you can also buy Playgirl and it suffers from the same problems as Playboy…

All the woman/men come from the same line off the conveyer belt, have the same poisons injected and implanted to give the same overall appearance, sprayed the same shade of orange with a choice of hair colours which are is only seen on the head, as eyebrows have become tattooed and pubic hair a no no in this modern society, resembling the somewhat well-known and well-loved Barbie doll!

Maybe this is the connection young woman have today? We resemble one of our most well-loved toys, pull a guy with plenty of £££££ (Ken) and live the life of riley… Who can blame the girls who can do this? If they are happy and they feel good about it? What’s the harm?

The harm comes from when the media lose all sense of reality… This advertisement by body shop was banned as it was offensive and Barbie Inc. put the stop on it…

So what I’m saying is, we don’t find being told how to behave in a manner a man would like to see and how to answer to  his needs offensive, but a plastic doll which depicts a somewhat Junoesque realistic female body becomes an eyesore… with the slogan ‘Love Your Mind, Love Your Body’  HOW? WHEN? BY WHOM?

In a world where eating disorders are on the increase and you can buy bras for three year olds and advert basically saying ‘Love Who You Are’… is wrong I find slightly sinister.  

But as with everything in this modern world…

‘Money Makes The World Go Round’…  regardless of dignity and proposed progression.