The American Comic Strip (1978)

A survey of American comic strip art with comments by well-known artists and scenes of them at work. Commentary by Mort Walker, comic artist ("Beetle Bailey", "Hi and Lois") and president of the Museum of Cartoon Art in Rye, New York. Scenes and interviews with Dean Young and Jim Raymond, Ralph Bakshi, Dik Browne, Ray Bradbury, George Lucas, Will Eisner, Milton Caniff, John Cullen Murphy, Sean Kelly, Johnny Romita. 1978. "Comics" has come to mean one-panel drawings, strips with daily continuity, whole books, and several other forms, whether "comic" or not. This footage illustrates the whole range, plus film animation as well. Artists visited include Dean Young and Jim Raymond ("Blondie", then the most widely seen comic strip in the world), Ralph Bakshi (the film "Wizards" and "Lord of the Rings"), Dik Browne ("Hagar the Horrible.") Also included are illustrations from the earliest days of comics ("The Yellow Kid") to "Doonesbury." Ideas, opinions, sacred cows (eg: there are only four comic themes: eating, sleeping, raising children, and making money--"things the whole world can relate to.") Hearst changed comics when he made them a whole section in newspapers. The language of comics: symbols that mean confusion, speed, sleep, etc. and accepted conventions like the dialogue balloon and the dream balloon.