There are many contenders for the crown Queen of Pre-Code – Jean Harlow, Miriam Hopkins, Barbara Stanwyck, Mae West, and a slew of other dames – but there’s only one Joan Blondell! Rose Joan Blondell was “born in a trunk” (as they say) to vaudevillian parents on August 30, 1906, and made her stage debut at the tender age of four months. Little Joanie took to show biz like a duck to water, and worked her way up to Broadway, costarring with a young actor named James Cagney in 1930’s PENNY ARCADE; the pair went to Hollywood for the film version, retitled SINNERS’ HOLIDAY, their first of seven screen teamings.
Our Girl Joanie struck a chord with Depression Era audiences: she was a tough, wisecracking, fast-talking, been-around-the-block tomato whose tough-as-leather veneer cloaked a heart of gold. Joan and Glenda Farrell had ’em rolling in the aisles as a pair…
Fieldmouse Press Board of Directors For Immediate Release Field Mouse Press 9/3/2019 info@fieldmouse.press
Small Press Comics Critics Announce Formation Of Nonprofit Publishing House Fieldmouse Press
Grass Valley, CA: Today, veteran comics critics Daniel Elkin, Alex Hoffman, Rob Clough, and Ryan Carey announced the formation of a new, non-profit publishing company, Fieldmouse Press, establishing a visionary, ambitious, and dedicated multi-venue publishing initiative within the burgeoning small press comics community. The company’s first publishing project, SOLRAD (www.solrad.co), will publish comics criticism, essays, interviews, and new comics as a part of a larger effort to serve the public good. SOLRAD will launch at the beginning of January 2020.
Fieldmouse Press will be operated by President Daniel Elkin, long-time publisher and editor at Your Chicken Enemy, with Alex Hoffman, publisher of Sequential State serving as Secretary/Treasurer. Rob Clough of High-Low Comics and Ryan Carey of Four Color Apocalypse round out the company’s initial board…
A heady mix of hand-made collage, lucid channeling, stream-of-consciousness scribbles, and verbal/visual poetry, the ever-unpredictable Devon Marinac’s self-published comics ‘zine Restaurant A.A. is, if nothing else, an exercise in pushing, perhaps even demolishing, boundaries that probably never really existed in any appreciable way apart from as assumptions in our own mind.
Which makes it a worthy enough creative endeavor right there, but in truth I think there’s more going on here than that — narrative isn’t he backbone of this work, but it’s not an afterthought, either, and if you put in the work required to decipher its meaning and message, you’ll find a smart piece of commentary on excess as it relates to both the creative impulse and the practicalities of everyday existence, a mixed-media declaration of intent in regards to the inherently limiting nature of classification, and maybe even, dare I say it, a few laughs.
(Though you do have to wonder why there’s a guy wearing a Burger King hat at Britney’s press conference. Did he just sneak in or is he a reporter who was having lunch when he got an emergency text telling him that he needed to get across town immediately? Either way, that crown saves him from the wrath of Britney.)
With this song and this video, Britney Spears tells the paparazzi and the haters and the exploiters and the judgers to all go to Hell and it’s totally awesome. Britney also pokes fun at her own image in this video, which is something that she never gets enough credit for.
The opening of this video also pays tribute to the press conference in Fellini’s 8 1/2. Fellini, I think, is a filmmaker who would have appreciated Britney Spears. Perhaps he also would have appreciated actor Guillermo Diaz, who appears as the driver of a convertible.
Be sure to keep an eye out for Crossroads 2: Cross Harder.
If you’re gonna call your movie American Scumbags, you’ve put yourself in a position where you’ve got to live up (or should that be down?) to that name. Fortunately, Denver underground filmmaker Dakota Bailey — who not only wrote and directed the 2016 production he put that title on, but stars in it under the pseudonym of Dakota Ray — seems to know of which he speaks, and has his finger firmly on the pulse of the world of sleazoids and sickos. In other words, he’s our kind of guy.
Filmed — okay, shot on cam — for the princely sum of $1,000 and recently made available for streaming on Amazon Prime (don’t ask me about its availability on Blu-ray or DVD, I honestly have no idea), this thing feels pretty grimy and follows the lives of three pretty grimy figures whose stories are interlinked in ways obvious and…
I’m not really sure what this day is supposed to be celebrating. I mean, I assume that it’s the day in which the workers are all supposed to unite or join a union or whatever but I’m not sure how that links to a few people getting the day off and no trash being picked up. Personally, I’m just happy for the long weekend and I’m going to hope that none of my neighbors accidentally put their trash out tomorrow because then it’ll end up sitting out in the alley for three days and a 3 day-old trash bag is not something that anyone needs to see.
Anyway, it’s a part of the Bowman family tradition that, for the entirety of Labor Day weekend, I only listen to Britney Spears. Usually but not always, I not only listen but I also sing along. For the most part, it depends on the air quality. As important as it is to sing along with Britney, that part of the observance can be ignored if you were running the danger of losing your voice before the holiday began. The important thing is that you have to make your decision whether or not to sing along before Labor Day actually begins and, once you make the choice, you have to stick with it. This year, due to some seasonal allergies, my voice was already a little bit hoarse before the holiday weekend began so I’ve chosen only to sing along to a few of Britney’s songs.
Anyway, this being Labor Day and all, it only makes sense that today’s music video of the day should be Work Bitch. Now, I already shared the first video for Work Bitch. The version that I’m sharing today is the live version, which was filmed during Britney’s performance at the 2016 Apple Music Festival.
Work Bitch is probably my favorite Britney song. If nothing else, it’s the one that my sister Erin and I seem to quote from the most. “You better work, bitch,” is a phrase that has many different meanings in Lisa-and-Erin speak. To understand the phrase’s meaning at any particular time, it’s important to listen for which word gets the most emphasis. “You better work, BITCH,” is actually the most affectionate use of the phrase. On the other hand, “You BETTER work, bitch,” means that someone’s in trouble.
Britney’s been going through a lot recently and, as always, she’s had to do it all in the glare of the public spotlight. (Just imagine how any of us would come across if our every personal difficulty and/or emotional moment was displayed on TMZ?) On this Labor Day, keep her in your thoughts.
I spent the previous week making plans for October. We really are coming up on the best Horrorthon ever. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch as many movies as I would have liked but it happens. I’ll make up for it over the upcoming few weeks.
Here’s what I did manage to watch, read, and listen to.
For the past few years, George Wylesol has been one of the most unique and intriguing cartoonists working in the small press and self-publishing scene. His prior works such as Porn and Ghosts, Etc. had the feeling of building up to some kind of subtle-yet-grand statement on the emptiness at the core of today’s socio-economic zeitgeist, and with the imminent release of his latest full-length graphic novel, Internet Crusader, published by Avery Hill, the full scope of Wylesol’s artistic project may be on the cusp of coming into view. He was recently kind enough to answer some questions about the new book, his previous comics, and his process and intentions, so without any further ado, and with apologies for the occasional wonky font —
Four Color Apocalypse : What is your background in the arts, and how did that lead you to comics? Was it a medium you…
Through the Shattered Lens 