I looked up the article and read it. Nadel not only gives some of the history behind the drawings but also goes into detail about Johnson's passion for record collecting. It's an interesting read, and it seems to prove that this is not a hoax.
Well done guys, I’ve been pouring over this book the last few days, and it is indeed a major find in the history of comics! Let’s hope there are future volumes of this important work.
This doesn't pass the sniff test, imo. "Johnson" is already using the language of comics in the 1920's, well before it was firmly established, without any uncanny or out-there elements. Like Jim said, though, this is still really cool if it's a meta project. I hope we get to learn more about its origins soon!
Some skepticism from me as well. While a lot of the comics language shown here already did exist in the 1920s, the collective style seems quite "refined" without much of any out-of-ordinary iconography. There's also a lack of sketchbook mistakes in the pencils and inking for sequential pages in a notebook. Not impossible to be authentic, I guess, since it seems like only some of the notebooks were supposedly from the 1920s. "...first discovered book (91), dated 1928, and concludes in 1978 with 126." "...109 through 120 were completed from 1939 to 1948." There's also a "Frank Johnson Publications" an Australian comic book publisher in the 1940s and 1950s, probably coincidence?
I had to look it up as I was skeptical as well. It's not too out of the realm of possibility. There are Katzenjammer Kids comic strips dated as early as 1915 which seem to have a clearly established use of word balloons and sequential storytelling. If Johnson was a 16 at the earliest and was looking at these strips it's not too much of a stretch to have been influenced. One thing that does stand out is the use of the lone question mark in the ballon to communicate confusion. Anyone know the earliest use of that device?
The stiff posing of the characters reminds me a lot of the Australian comic strip Boofhead by R. B. Clark. A strip that has a similar outsider feel coming from a cartoonist who's only previous training was as a sign writer
You cats would probably love what we call in Australia ‘The Ern Malley Affair’. It’s our greatest literary hoax and punk as funk. A couple of young artistic outlaws posed as a surrealist poet prodigy and immediately garnered praise, Ern Malley was in fact regarded as a bone fide genius until the truth came out, which is that the poems were kayfabe and making fun of modernism. It’s a great story, I still want to do a comic about it.
I forgot about the wall-mounted crank pencil sharpeners! I was born in 1978, we still had those sharpeners in 1996. I got rid of most of my early drawings from my first 22 years of life, most of it was derivative, I kept some samples of those years. I have everything from the following 24 years; this is where I was creating a lot more content that is valuable to me. Additionally, I like the end of book 114 at 18:02.
I also forget about those even though I had one in my grandfathers basement on his work table until I was about 20. That was the most reliable sharpener I ever used.
What strikes me is how straightforward and wholesome the content of the story seems to be. Darger's stuff seemed very darkly like a man trying to hold in his terrible fetishes, whereas this dude seemed to have no reason to keep this stuff hidden from everyone, even his family! It's like Blondie and Dagwood!
7:36 -"What is he welding??" I'm not sure if you were intentionally referencing Tom Waits' song "What's He Building?" or not? th-cam.com/video/04qPdGNA_KM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZjzvaTd39cFsAkXC
This looks like an amazing piece of history, but I'm kinda not sure I'm going to actually enjoy reading a whole book like that. It's something that's cool to have in a library though. Something I'd probably read once
This looks great. I would be very interested to see you guys talk about Godhead by Ho Che Anderson or Sunday by Olivier Scrauwen, if you haven’t already
I read the whole book. It is very hard for me to believe it’d be fake. It never even occurred to me as a possibility. It’s so specific to that time period that i don’t know if there’s any one alive today that could pull this off.
Love that you guys brought Darger into the outsider artist convo, I was working at the Warhol when they had the special exhibit for his work, it was epic!
Really recommended is The Vivian Girls book , poetry, but wait! Listen, t author was as frustrated as t rest of us at not having a full story from Darger's and went ahead and made one. Girls on the Run book John Ashberry.
Another conspiracy could be the artist and artwork are real, the journals are the right age but he just as a lark decided to date everything 2 decades earlier and start at vol 91 HaHa
In case anyone is interested, Dan Nadel wrote an article about this in Folk Art magazine in the Summer of 2005
the fact that Nadel wrote about this 20 years ago makes it unlikely that this is a hoax then, just another example of cool outsider art
I looked up the article and read it. Nadel not only gives some of the history behind the drawings but also goes into detail about Johnson's passion for record collecting. It's an interesting read, and it seems to prove that this is not a hoax.
Yes Google the Model article. Great stuff!
This is amazing,
And to hear commentary from two knowledgeable comic artists is really the cherry on top. Thank you both!
lil' Snuffy Smith vibe!
Well done guys, I’ve been pouring over this book the last few days, and it is indeed a major find in the history of comics! Let’s hope there are future volumes of this important work.
This doesn't pass the sniff test, imo. "Johnson" is already using the language of comics in the 1920's, well before it was firmly established, without any uncanny or out-there elements. Like Jim said, though, this is still really cool if it's a meta project. I hope we get to learn more about its origins soon!
Some skepticism from me as well. While a lot of the comics language shown here already did exist in the 1920s, the collective style seems quite "refined" without much of any out-of-ordinary iconography.
There's also a lack of sketchbook mistakes in the pencils and inking for sequential pages in a notebook.
Not impossible to be authentic, I guess, since it seems like only some of the notebooks were supposedly from the 1920s.
"...first discovered book (91), dated 1928, and concludes in 1978 with 126."
"...109 through 120 were completed from 1939 to 1948."
There's also a "Frank Johnson Publications" an Australian comic book publisher in the 1940s and 1950s, probably coincidence?
I had to look it up as I was skeptical as well. It's not too out of the realm of possibility. There are Katzenjammer Kids comic strips dated as early as 1915 which seem to have a clearly established use of word balloons and sequential storytelling. If Johnson was a 16 at the earliest and was looking at these strips it's not too much of a stretch to have been influenced. One thing that does stand out is the use of the lone question mark in the ballon to communicate confusion. Anyone know the earliest use of that device?
@@williamibanez394 Not sure the earliest use, but I found an example of it used in 1920 by E.C. Segar
Sad to hear Ed speak about being a “compulsive person” in this video. 😢
The stiff posing of the characters reminds me a lot of the Australian comic strip Boofhead by R. B. Clark. A strip that has a similar outsider feel coming from a cartoonist who's only previous training was as a sign writer
You cats would probably love what we call in Australia ‘The Ern Malley Affair’. It’s our greatest literary hoax and punk as funk. A couple of young artistic outlaws posed as a surrealist poet prodigy and immediately garnered praise, Ern Malley was in fact regarded as a bone fide genius until the truth came out, which is that the poems were kayfabe and making fun of modernism. It’s a great story, I still want to do a comic about it.
Do it. Sounds very interesting
I forgot about the wall-mounted crank pencil sharpeners! I was born in 1978, we still had those sharpeners in 1996.
I got rid of most of my early drawings from my first 22 years of life, most of it was derivative, I kept some samples of those years. I have everything from the following 24 years; this is where I was creating a lot more content that is valuable to me.
Additionally, I like the end of book 114 at 18:02.
I also forget about those even though I had one in my grandfathers basement on his work table until I was about 20. That was the most reliable sharpener I ever used.
This is an incredible artifact. A gem for the comics community for sure! Thanks for making this, I'll have to track down a copy.
What strikes me is how straightforward and wholesome the content of the story seems to be. Darger's stuff seemed very darkly like a man trying to hold in his terrible fetishes, whereas this dude seemed to have no reason to keep this stuff hidden from everyone, even his family! It's like Blondie and Dagwood!
7:36 -"What is he welding??" I'm not sure if you were intentionally referencing Tom Waits' song "What's He Building?" or not? th-cam.com/video/04qPdGNA_KM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZjzvaTd39cFsAkXC
This is as real as the introduction to the Sentry
This looks like an amazing piece of history, but I'm kinda not sure I'm going to actually enjoy reading a whole book like that. It's something that's cool to have in a library though. Something I'd probably read once
“Can’t disable the power of my label.” BARS.
This looks great. I would be very interested to see you guys talk about Godhead by Ho Che Anderson or Sunday by Olivier Scrauwen, if you haven’t already
Getting some Al Jaffee vibes from the earlier stuff. Amazing collection.
Book 91 at 16 years old! So 90 books before 16. Wow.
I read the whole book. It is very hard for me to believe it’d be fake. It never even occurred to me as a possibility. It’s so specific to that time period that i don’t know if there’s any one alive today that could pull this off.
Love that you guys brought Darger into the outsider artist convo, I was working at the Warhol when they had the special exhibit for his work, it was epic!
He’s mentioned in the books intro as well.
Really recommended is The Vivian Girls book , poetry, but wait! Listen, t author was as frustrated as t rest of us at not having a full story from Darger's and went ahead and made one. Girls on the Run book John Ashberry.
Great vid
You guy found part of the ONE PIECE LOL Finding book one is definitely the true treasure LOL
It's intriguing how the male figures are relatively simplistic but the females have an almost Richard Sala feeling from the off
Another conspiracy could be the artist and artwork are real, the journals are the right age but he just as a lark decided to date everything 2 decades earlier and start at vol 91 HaHa