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FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKSTORE & GALLERY “NOW SERVING CHEESECAKE.” THE CLASSIC ART OF CARTOON PIN-UP OPENS SATURDAY, JUNE 28

The post-war era in America gave rise to a remarkable number of
amazing cartoonists retuning from overseas. These members of our
“Greatest Generation” had their careers interrupted by World War II
and again when the comic book hysteria of the 1950s all but erased
this innocent pastime from the cultural landscape. When comic book
work could no longer provide their livelihood, many turned to racy
down-market digests, and in the process created a legacy of sensual
and seductive pin-up art that remains as appealing today as it did
when this distinctly American aesthetic emerged. A new exhibition at
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery opening June 28 highlights the work
of five of the most notorious pin-up cartoonists of this period.

“Now Serving Cheesecake: The Classic Art of Cartoon Pin-up,”
organized by Los Angeles author and archivist Alex Chun, highlights
stunning original artwork and artifacts by Jack Cole, Dan DeCarlo,
Don Flowers, Bill Ward and Bill Wenzel. Chun is the author of no
fewer than six books featuring the work of these artists and
examining their contributions to American popular culture. Many of
these artists enjoyed success in the field of mainstream comics,
creating memorable characters like Plastic Man, Josie & the
Pussycats, and Torchy Todd, working in newspaper syndication and
comics publishers including Archie and Timely Comics - the
predecessor to Marvel Comics. The publication of Dr. Fredric
Wertham’s sensational tirade Seduction of the Innocent, and
subsequent Senate hearings on Wertham’s suggestion that comic books
led to juvenile delinquency and social deviancy, forced these artists
onto the pages of men’s magazines. These popular digests, published
primarily by Humorama, featured photos of 50s icons like Bettie Page
and gag cartoons with scantily clad women. While mild by today’s
standards, these anachronistic depictions of blonde bombshells, silly
secretaries and gold-digging seductresses are emblematic of their era.

The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, June 28 and continues
through July 25 at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, located at 1201
S. Vale St. The opening reception from 6:00 to 9:00 PM features a
live pin-up cartooning demonstration and a performance of 50s torch
songs by the Fraus. Author Alex Chun will attend to sign his many pin-
up books, published by Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books. The opening
coincides with the colorful “Artopia” Georgetown arts festival
featuring art, music, dance, performance art, film, and the ever-
popular Hazard Factory power tool races throughout the neighborhood.
Admission is free.

A selection of imagery in a variety of formats is available for
publication. See brief biographies of exhibiting artists attached.
For additional information contact Larry Reid at numbers above.

Listing Information

NOW SERVING CHEESECAKE: The Classic Art of Cartoon Pin-up!
Original Art and Artifacts by Jack Cole, Dan DeCarlo, Don Flowers,
Bill Ward, and Bill Wenzel. Curated by Alex Chun.

Opening Reception Saturday, June 28, 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Live Pin-up Cartooning Demonstrations, music by the Fraus and more.

Exhibition continues through July 25, 2008

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street, Seattle
206.658.0110 www.fantagraphics.com
Open daily 11:30 – 8:00 PM. Sundays until 5:00 PM.

FEATURING THE WORK OF:

Jack Cole (1914 – 1958)

With his quirky line drawings and sensual watercolors, Jack Cole,
under Hugh Hefner’s guiding hand, catapulted to stardom in the 1950s
as Playboy’s marquis cartoonist, a position he held until his
untimely death at the age of 43. Unbeknownst to many, however, gag
cartooning didn’t come naturally to Cole. After finishing his
legendary 14-year run on Quality Comics’ Plastic Man, Cole plunged
blindly into cartooning and found himself honing his skills in the
pages of the Humorama line of down-market digest magazines. Though
he signed his cartoons “Jake,” Cole’s exquisite line drawings and
masterful use of ink-wash—a skill he carried over to Playboy—betrayed
his pseudonym.

Dan DeCarlo (1919 – 2001)

For nearly half a decade, Dan DeCarlo was the Archie artist.
DeCarlo’s rendition of Riverdale’s teenage populace entertained and
influenced generations of young people as he guided Archie and co.
through their often goofy trials and tribulations. Without a doubt,
however, DeCarlo is best known for defining the look of every
adolescent boy’s wet dream/fantasy, Betty and Veronica, with their
trademark upturned noses, tight sweaters and barely-there mini-
skirts. With the help of Stan Lee, and unbeknownst to most, Decarlo
also populated another world which he filled with cartoons featuring
girls in lingerie—and often less—bearing an uncanny resemblance to
his perennial blonde next door and spoiled brunette socialite. From
1956 to 1963, DeCarlo produced hundreds of pin-up cartoons for the
Humorama line of girly digests.

Don Flowers (1908 – 1968)

When the life of Don Flowers was cut short in 1968 by the ill effects
of emphysema, he left behind a career in newspaper cartooning that
spanned more than four decades as well as one of the most fluid lines
to grace the comics page. His cartoons evoked images of Russell
Patterson and Hank Ketcham, and no where was this more evident than
in his quintessential single-panel pin-up cartoon, the aptly named
Glamor Girls. Whether blondes or brunettes, showgirls or housewives,
Flowers rendered his comely protagonists with equal aplomb.
Reflecting on Flowers’ body of work, it quickly becomes evident that
he was really an illustrator playing cartoonist. He was equally
skilled with the brush as with the pen, and was also well regarded
for his spotting of blacks. While Flowers spent nearly a quarter of
a decade on Glamor Girls, it wasn’t until the 1960s that he finally
broke free of Patterson’s influence and establish a more modern style
that was uniquely his own.

Bill Ward (1919 – 1998)

While Bill Ward is perhaps best known for creating the Golden Age
comic book icon Torchy Todd during his tenure at Quality Comics in
the 1940s and 1950s, his blonde bombshell was a just a precursor of
things to come. For more than half a century, Ward made a career
capitalizing on his ability to render the female form, and his
exquisite stiletto-heeled vixens graced the pages of countless men’s
and humor magazines. What set Ward apart - and above - his talented
contemporaries was his use of a medium called the conte crayon. When
drawn on a simple newsprint stock paper, this potent combination
created a charcoal-like effect and color that gave Ward’s original
art an elegant sepia-tone quality. The conte crayon also allowed
Ward to produce the wonderful sheen on girls’ stockings that became
his trademark (along with his penchant for drawing extremely well-
endowed women).

Bill Wenzel (1918 – 1987)

For a 30-year period, no pin-up cartoon artist was as prolific or as
omnipresent as Bill Wenzel. Virtually every humor and men’s
magazine, ranging from Judge in the mid-‘40s to Sex to Sexty in the
‘60s and ‘70s, boasted two, if not a dozen, of Wenzel’s pin-up
cartoons. Quick with pen and ink, Wenzel was equally adept with the
brush, and nowhere was this more evident than in his work for the
Humorama line of girly digests. Though wasp-waisted long-legged
women were de rigueur in the digests, Wenzel set himself apart from
the rest of the best with his decidedly more Rubenesque rendering of
the female form. And whether they were aloof secretaries biding
their time waiting for their bosses to ditch their wives or
smoldering vixens preparing for a night on the town, Wenzel’s women
carried their weight well, the better to hold up their ample chests.

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