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Friday, September 3, 2010
The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo
Hey! That looks like Veronica
Dan DeCarlo (1919-2001) was certainly the artist most responsible for the "Archie style" on some of the biggest selling comics in North America. Like Carl Barks on the Duck comics, De Carlo did more than pencil; he set the standard for other artists to follow on the titles he touched. He was not only the definitive "Archie artist," but also the creator of the popular character Josie and co-creator of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Many readers familiar with DeCarlo's Archie Comics output are unaware that DeCarlo also worked at Marvel (known as Timely Comics at the time) with Stan Lee, and even fewer readers are aware of DeCarlo’s pin-up work for Humorama. After a stint in the armed forces, DeCarlo landed at Timely working on titles like Mille the Model, Sherry the Showgirl and My Girl Pearl. Timely owner Goodman also owned Humorama, which published a line of throwaway digests featuring one-line gags under risqué pin-ups. There was nothing throwaway about DeCarlo's Humorama work, however. 
DeCarlo's pin-up output may have been relegated to the dustbin of history, if Alex Chun and Fantagraphics hadn't decided to pay homage to this period of DeCarlo's life with the fabulous The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo. This six-inch by eight-inch softcover collects over 200 classic pin-ups by DeCarlo and features an informative foreword by Bill Morrison that sets up the timeline for DeCarlo's artistic life. As editor, Chun includes a two-page note that briefly describes the lifespan of the Humorama digests. 
After the text pieces by Morrison and Chun, you have over 200 uninterrupted pages of glorious pin-ups by DeCarlo. These range from the slightly risqué to the bawdy as swinging secretaries, flirty wives and sexy co-eds frolic with men of all shapes and temperament. These pages reflect a sexuality not usually linked to an era immortalized on television by the separate twin beds of sitcom couples. Looking at these pages, you're stunned not only by DeCarlo's ability to capture the female form in such an appealing way, but how he is able to individualize the women he draws. The upturned noses and wide playful smiles that scream "Betty and Veronica" pop up in these pages, but there are also a wide variety of expressions and situations represented in this collection. There are cheating wives, demure socialites, stunned secretaries, cunning gold diggers and the list goes on. This book is a tribute to both the sexy and the silly. The sexuality represented by these pin-ups is playful and appealing. There’s a spirited sense of fun and the absurd as men and women find themselves on both sides of the joke. 
DeCarlo deftly illustrates what makes the female form so alluring. These aren't the spindly, but muscled, supermodel shapes of what passes for pin-ups in most of today's comic art. DeCarlo's women are softer; the line ebbs and flows as it traces the contours of the figures. The rounded lines that capture the curve of a shoulder, waist or hip are noticeably thicker than the ones that define a forearm or shin. This gives DeCarlo's line a lively and vibrant feel to it, a feeling that's sadly lacking in the static vacant eyed pin-ups gracing the covers that fill up today’s comic shops. Face it, you can dress up a tracing of a Sports Illustrated (or worse Hustler) model, but it's still a tracing. It's telling how someone like DeCarlo can draw a cartoonish pin-up that appears full of energy, while lesser artists can obliterate any sense of life by copying a photo. A lot of the gags are corny (DeCarlo drew the situations and the editors inserted the one-liners) and often groan inducing; this was the 1950's after all. But really, the gags are only there to give the pin-ups a reason to exist. Every once in awhile though, a gag and a pin-up mesh so perfectly that you have to chuckle. My favorite has a gorgeous young wife slipping out of her marital bed. Her arms are outstretched as she feigns sleepwalking, but one eye is open surreptitiously eyeing her sleeping, and much older, husband. The husband delivers the gag without even opening his eyes: "You can get back in bed, Dear – I fired the chauffeur this morning!" A final note, these pin-ups were done in black and white and often treated with an accent color to give them more punch in the digests. In this collection, Jacob Covey does an excellent job with essentially one color – or actually multiple shades of one color – orange. Covey's coloring job ties this volume together perfectly and enhances the personality of the book. 
The Pin-Up Art of Dan Decarlo is the latest in a series of books from Fantagraphics and editor Alex Chun. Both the Jack Cole and Bill Ward books published before this one are thin hardcover books with elegant dust jackets. They confer a certain respectability to an art form often thought of as disposable. When the DeCarlo book arrived, wrapped up and piggybacking the Ward book, I thought that Fantagraphics had sent out the wrong book. This volume was short and thick and as I opened it up, I noticed its burnt orange softcover. There was also no tasteful dust jacket. But as I acquainted myself with the DeCarlo book, the genius of the packaging hit me. DeCarlo's pin-ups are different than those of Jack Cole or Bill Ward. While the Cole and Ward books are stylish, slender volumes bursting with ethereal goddesses, DeCarlo's book is like the beautiful but more realistic girl next door. Suddenly, the packaging and the design decision made sense to me. Instead of overwhelming you with grace, this book slays you with it's charm. The Pin-Up Art of Dan Decarlo is $18.95, which is a steal for such a well-designed slice of history. Buy this book and fall in love with the art of the pin-up. And I promise you, you'll never look at Betty and Veronica the same way again... ************************************************ Since David and several bloggers have beat me to the punch, I won't mention the beating that manga is laying on all comics challengers in the bookstore market. Whoops, I guess I did mention it. Sorry, it's just fun to think of the men in tights getting spanked by the doe-eyed newcomers. An analysis is available from Brian Hibbs. I also wanted to point out that Marvel scribe Brian Michael Bendis is interviewed in next week's issue of The Comic Journal. Not kidding. I won't go into my song and dance about TCJ being the best comics publication on the stands (it is dammit!), but I wanted to mention this and extend an offer to those readers who haven't yet given The Journal a try. If you email me (shawnhoke@gmail.com) your reason for not trying TCJ yet in 500 words or less, I'll enter your name in a drawing (I'll pick the entry that entertains me the most) for my copy of the Bendis issue. That's right, I'm giving away my copy of this issue, and creating a gaping hole in my Journal run, just so you, Mr. or Mrs. Non Journal Reader, can be exposed to the magic for free. Rules and Regulations: -Those affiliated with Comic World News are not eligible. -Deadline for entry is March 23rd. Give me time to read the issue first. -I'll post some entries in the Past the Front Racks forum, so entering the drawing gives me permission to do so. -You must be 18 or older, cause sometimes there's boobies (I'm not promising Bendis boobies, mind you) and stuff and I don't wanna get in trouble for sending out "filth" in the mail. -Please don't enter if you're an avid Journal reader just wanting to score a free copy from a struggling columnist. This is all about getting this book in someone's hands who has never read the magazine. -Keep it to 500 words or less.
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
