Dimension X

The Holidays & New Years is always a time I get all sentimental, & start going through my files digging up various forms of my scatterbrained past. Having recently re-connected with people I went to high school with, & haven't seen or spoke to since, has invoked memories of how I then envisioned my future to be.

I had always wanted to be a cartoonist,...always. I even had grandparents who had an Art Supply Business & dealt with all the big Advertising Agencies, Architectural Firms, Publishers, & even DC, MARVEL, & MAD. Comic greats like JOHNNY CRAIG would tell me how, in the mid-1940's, how he would go to my family's store on 44th & B'way to get supplies for "Busy"Arnold's Art Studio, where he started out. In town shoppers included MILTON CANIFF, SERGIO ARAGONES, SALVADOR DALI, & many more famous illustraters. My mom, as a little girl, remembered her father bringing home "twine-bundled" stacks of DC Comics, & she would read SUPERMAN, & WONDER WOMAN. JACK ADLER was the Art Director at DC for over 30 years & gave my family most of the business until he retired. At MARVEL, it was SOL BRODSKY, & in the early 70's, IRV WANTANABE did most of the ordering for the Art Dept. When I was working for my dad after school, he would send me to meet art directors at different agencies, like I.M. PEI, BENTON & BOLES, SPERRY HUTCHINSON, etc., & they would give me a low down on what they did, & show me storyboards of television commercials they were producing. Always very crude & simply done with Designer Markers. I remember TONY DIMICELLI, the man who designed the famous ROLLING STONES "Lips & Tongue" Logo. He gave me a necklace charm of his logo, which I then lost somewhere running the streets of Queens, where I lived at the time. No one knows about Dimicelli, about his creations, or any of the others who worked behind the scenes creating logos or images still in the publics eye. I always had a feeling or knew that this was to be what I wanted to do as a career. But sometimes,...life just has other plans for you.

I went to the "High School Of Art & Design" on 57th St. & 2nd Ave. It was 3 blocks from my dad's store on 54th, & I would work for him after school, unless I had other plans with my knucklehead city friends. I never took school seriously & did not know that there were very exceptional teachers there I could have taken advantage of. The teachers never showed us their work, so I did not know they were professionals in the field & could have taught me important trade secrets or skills I could have used to hone myself. I was angry all the time & I just looked for anyway to be accepted by my peers, & ended up associating with the wrong peers, leading to my failure to achieve the right path for my art & dreams.

But looking back, I dug up some work from Art & Design, most likely 10th grade. I had 2 teachers I really liked most of all. Miss Stern, & a Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor told us he had worked for FAWCETT Publishing in the 1940's, popular for their CAPTAIN MARVEL series, which outsold SUPERMAN for many years. Here are 2 pieces I had done for either Mr. Taylor or Miss Stern's class, called "Bleep Bloop, The Baboon Hearted Baby". I know one of the inspirations was a news report around that time(1979-1980), of a Baboon heart transplanted into a child, told to me by my mom. Another inspiration was from my science class. I shared a table with a cartoonist who would have me pissing in my pants with his daily sketched installments of "Retardo, the Retarded Rhesus Monkey". Many times I just could not hold myself & had the teacher quieting me. The artist to blame was DANNY HELLMAN, & he had a wonderful imagination, capturing a trio of chinese siblings in our class called the "Chue Brothers", & placing them as antagonists for his "Retardo" character. Going to an "art" school at that age was wonderful when I appreciated it, but most of the time, I was running to Central Park to cause trouble. Hellman stuck to his guns becoming a successful Illustrater today(http://www.dannyhellman.com/), being one who achieved by staying on the right path & mindset...But "Bleep Bloop" seems to show that monkeys have always been on my mind, leading to my 1991 creation of "SPACE BANANAS".

"BLEEP BLOOP" from 1979/1980 at the "HS Of A&D", NYC. Copyright 2009 B. Krauz Prods.

"BLEEP BLOOP" © 2009 B. Krauz Prods. All Rights Reserved.

I also dug up a few pieces I did for HARVEY KURTZMAN's Class at the "School Of Visual Arts" on 23rd St. I notice that when you draw out of your head, the work may be crude, but it has a feeling of liveliness that does not exist when you use reference & think too much. As you get older, you try to achieve a certain look & your thinking gets in the way. Personally I see my early work has more feeling because I just went with it & did not try too hard.

Harvey would give us a theme to do for each assignment, & SARAH DOWNS, his assistant & co-worker, would grade our work. After awhile I decided to do my pieces, sort-of reminiscent of, Kurtzman's early Timely "HEY LOOK" work of the 1950's. I was only using Rapidograph Pens for Inking my work at this time. I was a slow bloomer when it came to brushes & quills, as I still did not question or ask my teachers what the proper equiptment to use were. Kurtzman did give us a class on what to use, & I will always remember his firmness on "FW" Inks. It was such a thrill when he would bring in & pass around his "Little Annie Fanny" layouts for Playboy Magazine. Each page was about 4 layers of tracing paper, each with a different color or line work, almost like color separations. Truly amazing & time consuming, highly disciplined work. Other teachers I studied under at SVA were WILL EISNER, ART SPIEGELMAN, JERRY MORIARTY, CARMINE INFANTINO, & JOE ORLANDO.

For HARVEY KURTZMAN's Class at SVA, NYC, Sept. 1985. The theme for this assignment was "Robot Sex". © 2009 B. Krauz Prods.

For KURTZMAN's Class, Oct. 1985. Started to do assignments fashioned to look like Harvey's "Hey Look" strips of the 1940's/50's. "DILLY DOLLY DO" © 2009 B. Krauz Prods.

"DILLY DOLLY DAY", Oct. 1985. © 2009 B. Krauz Prods.

"DILLY DOLLY DOOLY", Feb. 1986. © 2009 B. Krauz Prods. All Rights Reserved.

I also took 16mm Film Production classes. We shot our shorts on Bolex cameras & learned how to sync up soundtrack reels. Today everything is done on digital. Still, being able to handle film with your hands & to be able to see each frame when editing makes the art more exciting. Scriptwriting for FilmMaking definitely helped to develop my writing skills, especially for storytelling & how to edit your work properly. Something I recommend for any writer or artist.

"SPACE BANANAS" © & TM 2009 B. Krauz Prods. All Rights Reserved.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!