June 12, 2004

B. Kliban : A brief gallery of Kliban's work, arranged by "difficulty."

B. Kliban has been cited by both Gary Larson (unfortunately, no authorized Far Side cartoons appear on the intarweb) and, surprisingly Jon Davis as the inspiration for their cartoons. Best known for his Cats, Kliban had one of the finest tuned senses of one-panel visual storytelling ever. Here are some more galleries: Kliban, and more Kliban (By the way, first post. Go easy.)

posted by js 20 years ago
  • Ha. Managed to confuse Jon Arbuckle with Jim Davis. Ah well. Here's where you can see the Kliban influence more easily First Garfield.
  • This one seems particularly a propos around here. Cool link plus, you know, 2-4-1 in your stats!
  • A fine post, js, of foolish things. Thanks.
  • Your post brings me back to my Freshman year; my saintly, psychotic mom, just trying to help out, sent me a care package full of Kliban sheets, towels, stationery, desk set, coffee mugs, calendar and underwear. My dorm-mates made fun for an entire semester. i still have the coffee mugs and some note-pads. e-Bay, here I come! Thanks, Mom!
  • One Hell of a nice animal, frequently mistaken for a meatloaf.
  • I want that on my gravestone.
  • Fantastic link, js! Welkome to the Monkey Haus Love to eat them mousies, Mousies what I love to eat, Bite they little heads off, Nibble on they tiny feet If you like cats, here's more cats Dizzy: I AM SO JEALOUS RIGHT NOW!! (I'm sure everyone was then, too) I hope you flaunted your underwear. If you like Kliban's stranger stuff, another weird and off-the-wall guy is S. Gross. (Steven, Stefan, Stephen?) example (Nostalgiafilter:
  • Blue; I too LOVE ol 'Sam Gross and can't get enough of him in the New Yorker. Older and wiser, I can now appreciate my mother's motives, forgive my youthful insouciance, and cherish the cash I'll make if I can find the desk set and other stuff...
  • This rocks. {the famous monkey in the banana)
  • SAM Gross! That's the guy! For years I snickered over a cartoon he did of a little girl about 10 years old sitting at the table eating cereal with two slum-pig looking adults leaning over her gloating. The caption was: "Yes, it's true. You really are a princess abandoned here with us." Thinking about that cartoon at strategic moments was one of the few things that kept me sane when my two daughters were flouncing snotty teenagers. (I never showed it to them till they were in their mid-twenties--they cracked up) Ah, one more I'd forgotten about--remember Gahan Wilson? One BIZZARE dood. Edwina's decomposing Here's a little sample of his writing with some illustrations.
  • Awesome link, js. I am seriously considering adding one or two of these to my syllabus next semester: they're just too surreal to ignore.
  • ACK! This is just TOO good not to share. A ton of strange ones--many by cartoonists I've not heard of before. Gross' famous "frog's legs" cartoon is here.
  • You guys know your stuff--so here is my MINI CURIOUS GEORGE: Anyone remember a New Yorker cartoon from the mid to late 80's that shows a dog standing in the front doorway of a house with a mixing spoon and chef's hat on, and two adults returning home, and the caption is ,"Oh, Tippy, Tippy, Tippy, if only you didn't cook with water from the toilet!"? If you find it, I'll send you 2 boxes of Pop-Tarts. With Sprinkles. Promise!
  • Blue-- I love Gahan Wilson's stuff-- I've three of his kids books-- "Mathew Looney" was a little boy who lived with his folks and had mild adventures on the moon--and later enjoyed Wilson's more ribald stuff in Playboy in college. Is he still working?
  • Love to eat them monkeys, Monkeys what I love to eat, Bite they little heads off, Nibble on they tiny feet Seinfeld flashback: "That's a genuine Ziggy!" - Mr. Peterman
  • There once was a cannibal monkey who liked his own kind chunky. He'd bite off their heads, make sure they were dead, and stew them in soup that smelt funky.
  • Dizzy, this looks like the 'toon you seek! Tippy Oh, and make those chocolate Pop Tarts!