Don Rosa's Art vs. Jack Chick's (!) Art

[Anastasios]

Greetings, friends!

As I have mentioned in other posts, I am truly an amateur when it comes to evaluating art.

Don Rosa has often commented that his art style is "sub-par" and "overly-detailed." Even Carl Barks himself mentioned his opinion that it was overly-detailed in that 1994/5 interview, but I tend to take that with a grain of salt, since it was given during the period when he was being manipulated by that management company.

I've often read the (in)famous Jack Chick tracts. These are mini-comics produced by the late Jack Chick, for the purposes of converting people to his fundamentalist version of Christianity. I will note that I myself am religious, but I eschew the views and approach that Mr. Chick took. I believe his tracts were offensive, full stop.

Yet it is intriguing, insofar as a lot of the artwork that Mr. Chick produced has a similar style to Don Rosa's! I would imagine Don would not be impressed...I've met Don twice at the Baltimore Comicon, and when signing the artwork I had purchased, he would comment on the uniqueness of my name (Anastasios), and I would remark that I had changed my name to Anastasios due to my conversion to Orthodox Christianity--Don never batted an eyelid, seemed curious, or in any way indicated any interest in the subject. While he might have his private thoughts, I took it to be something he "is not in to." And that's fine! But I mention it because, while making the comparison, I hope I won't offend him, if he is reading this.

If anyone is not familiar with the "work" of Mr. Chick, here is one example; I scanned his website to try and find the least offensive example: www.chick.com/products/tract?stk=5005 (Disclaimer: I am posting to show the art style, not to proselytize, especially given that I am not a member of the sect or ideology to which Mr. Chick belonged).

I'm not saying that Mr. Chick and Don Rosa's art are exactly the same, but rather just posing the questions:

1. Do you, like me, see some similarity in style, especially in the "overly-detailed" sense?

2. If so, is there a technical name to this "style" of art?

Thanks!

Anastasios

(PS: Again, I promise that I am not trying to proselytize anyone, or offend anyone; I am only interested in an evaluation of the art style).

[Anastasios]

BTW, moreso than Rosa's Duck art, I am thinking of the art in The Pertwillaby Papers. Same style as the Duck art to some extent, but much more obvious resemblance to Chick art given the black-and-white and human characters.

[Spectrus]

I know that Don's art was often compared to (maybe even by himself) Robert Crumb and the term for that kind of style is "underground comics". Here's a page by Crumb that has some relatively human characters: comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/panel-pages/robert-crumb-original-art-panel-page-to-hup-comics-2-robert-crumb-1987-the-underground-master-robert-crumb-struts-h/a/803-6113.s

However, Chick seems to have been active before. I never heard of the guy; Lambiek Comiclopedia has quite the lengthy article about him (co-written by Bas Schuddeboom, a Disney writer): www.lambiek.net/artists/c/chick_jack-t.htm

It does point out that Crumb liked his stuff, so there is a connection!

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

I cannot see much resemblance between Don Rosa's art and the amateurish drawings of this guy mentioned here.

The storytelling and page composition style of Don Rosa comes directly from Mad Magazine humour stories written by Harvey Kurtzman in the early 50's. Especially those that were drawn by Will Elder, a cartoonist famous for his details on the background, just like Rosa. Those details were called 'chicken fat' at the Mad Magazine headquarters.





 

[AzureBlue]

On the note of fundie tracts, Disney artist Vic Lockman did that kind of stuff, as well as a pro-Apartheid comic. Unfortunate.

But yeah, I connect Rosa much more with Mad and Crumb.

[Anastasios]

Thanks for all of your comics. I was not interested in comparing the "plots" of the Chick tracts (I have a Master's degree in theology, believe it or not, so I find Chick's tracts to be...lacking...but did not a certain resemblance of style solely in terms of the art "style."

[Anastasios]

Aug 2, 2021 22:00:07 GMT Spectrus said:

I know that Don's art was often compared to (maybe even by himself) Robert Crumb and the term for that kind of style is "underground comics". Here's a page by Crumb that has some relatively human characters: comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/panel-pages/robert-crumb-original-art-panel-page-to-hup-comics-2-robert-crumb-1987-the-underground-master-robert-crumb-struts-h/a/803-6113.s

However, Chick seems to have been active before. I never heard of the guy; Lambiek Comiclopedia has quite the lengthy article about him (co-written by Bas Schuddeboom, a Disney writer): www.lambiek.net/artists/c/chick_jack-t.htm

It does point out that Crumb liked his stuff, so there is a connection!

Thank you for your post, and giving a definition of the "style" I noticed!

For the umpteenth time, I am not a Chick fan, and hope I don't offend anyone by the comparison, but it just kept popping in my head that there was "some" type of common school/style at play here.

Anastasios

[Anastasios]

Aug 2, 2021 22:11:48 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

I cannot see much resemblance between Don Rosa's art and the amateurish drawings of this guy mentioned here.

The storytelling and page composition style of Don Rosa comes directly from Mad Magazine humour stories written by Harvey Kurtzman in the early 50's. Especially those that were drawn by Will Elder, a cartoonist famous for his details on the background, just like Rosa. Those details were called 'chicken fat' at the Mad Magazine headquarters.

Thank you for your post! I was initially drawn to the similarity (at least in my mind) of the facial expressions. But thanks for teaching me the term "chicken fat." I really am here to learn.

Unfortunately, I would wager that Chick is much more (in)famous than Rosa, for the simple fact that his tracts were littered about America and dare I say the world (one of the "artists" working under him being a Spaniard named Alberto Rivera, allegedly an ex-Jesuit, but that lie being the subject of its own interesting story/mystery, full of contradictions); and even today, one occasionally finds them here and there. Back when we had telephone booths, they were generally there, and occasionally in bathroom stalls, although who really wants to pick something up to read in a public bathroom?

It would be great if, instead of letting religious fundamentalists dominate the "cartoon tract" genre, we had mini-comics from our favorites like Barks, Rosa, Van Horn, et al. and they were distributed all over the place in public...maybe that way, there would still be Disney comics published in the US

[deb]

Aug 3, 2021 1:04:17 GMT Anastasios said:

Aug 2, 2021 22:11:48 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

I cannot see much resemblance between Don Rosa's art and the amateurish drawings of this guy mentioned here.

The storytelling and page composition style of Don Rosa comes directly from Mad Magazine humour stories written by Harvey Kurtzman in the early 50's. Especially those that were drawn by Will Elder, a cartoonist famous for his details on the background, just like Rosa. Those details were called 'chicken fat' at the Mad Magazine headquarters.

Thank you for your post! I was initially drawn to the similarity (at least in my mind) of the facial expressions. But thanks for teaching me the term "chicken fat." I really am here to learn.

Unfortunately, I would wager that Chick is much more (in)famous than Rosa, for the simple fact that his tracts were littered about America and dare I say the world (one of the "artists" working under him being a Spaniard named Alberto Rivera, allegedly an ex-Jesuit, but that lie being the subject of its own interesting story/mystery, full of contradictions); and even today, one occasionally finds them here and there. Back when we had telephone booths, they were generally there, and occasionally in bathroom stalls, although who really wants to pick something up to read in a public bathroom?

It would be great if, instead of letting religious fundamentalists dominate the "cartoon tract" genre, we had mini-comics from our favorites like Barks, Rosa, Van Horn, et al. and they were distributed all over the place in public...maybe that way, there would still be Disney comics published in the US

In general, the monthly comic magazine form is in decline, not just Disney Comics. We still have the Fantagraphics volumes, so Donald and Mickey aren’t gone completely. Comics are popular, just not the same ones older generations enjoyed. Disney characters have been popular, look at the Mickey Mouse shorts by Paul Rudish and the DuckTales reboot. To revitalize these characters, Disney needs to do more than just reprint old Topolino issues in the US. They need to find fresh talent that speaks to the current generation.

[Anastasios]

One thing that bothered me when I went to Orlando, Florida in 2018 was at Universal Studios, in the Simpsons area, they had the Simpsons comics for sale.

At Disney World, you'd never know Disney Comics even exist

[mousemaestro]

Aug 3, 2021 20:50:45 GMT Anastasios said:

One thing that bothered me when I went to Orlando, Florida in 2018 was at Universal Studios, in the Simpsons area, they had the Simpsons comics for sale.

At Disney World, you'd never know Disney Comics even exist

I have attended dozens of times over the past two decades (well, currently on a five year hiatus) and the only comic I ever saw was a Big Thunder Mountain trade in a gift store tucked away in Frontierland. 

Tragic. 

[The KKM]

I'll add that I honestly disagree with the view of Jack Chick as mediocre, art-wise. The man's career showed a remarkable range of art styles and adaptability, and some really good skill in cartooning, posing, expressions, etc while not losing track of realism if needed either- he could as easily draw a realistic coddling image of Jesus as he could draw a cartoonish Quino-esque kid with glowering eyes in the famous "what's to stop me from being anything, even god" panel. Wouldn't mind seeing a Fantagraphics collection of all the Tracts on pure aesthetic and scholar value.

[Anastasios]

Aug 3, 2021 23:04:47 GMT The KKM said:

I'll add that I honestly disagree with the view of Jack Chick as mediocre, art-wise. The man's career showed a remarkable range of art styles and adaptability, and some really good skill in cartooning, posing, expressions, etc while not losing track of realism if needed either- he could as easily draw a realistic coddling image of Jesus as he could draw a cartoonish Quino-esque kid with glowering eyes in the famous "what's to stop me from being anything, even god" panel. Wouldn't mind seeing a Fantagraphics collection of all the Tracts on pure aesthetic and scholar value.

While I have been overly cautious to not show any sympathy with Chick for theological reasons (both because my religious views conflict with his, and because his views are so over-the-top offensive to non-religious people, and because I don't want anyone thinking I am trying to proselytize on a non-religious forum), I didn't really agree with the poster above who said his art was amateurish. I'm with you on this one. Chick drew for like 50 years, and had developed a pretty detailed style.

If Chick had stuck to illustrating Children's Bibles and stuff like that, his artwork would probably be more recognized; his over-the-top polemicism really causes people to dismiss his artistic talent.

[AzureBlue]

Aug 3, 2021 21:41:16 GMT mousemaestro said:

Aug 3, 2021 20:50:45 GMT Anastasios said:

One thing that bothered me when I went to Orlando, Florida in 2018 was at Universal Studios, in the Simpsons area, they had the Simpsons comics for sale.

At Disney World, you'd never know Disney Comics even exist

I have attended dozens of times over the past two decades (well, currently on a five year hiatus) and the only comic I ever saw was a Big Thunder Mountain trade in a gift store tucked away in Frontierland. 

Tragic. 

I bought Boom's TPB of the Around the World in 80 Days Scrooge storyline they were printing at the time. I think they had a few Boom books in Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs) then.

They've pretty much cleaned out books of any sort from Disney Springs now though, besides maybe a few coffee tables, which makes me sad.

I think I saw Figment stuff somewhere around Disney before, but yeah, the actual monthlies have always been completely neglected from what I've seen. Particularly sad when they have (or at least had, not sure if they're still there) a place or two where you could buy Star Wars and maybe Marvel issues. You would have thought that they would have put some IDW trades out at least-- particularly for Ducktales.

On the other hand, Disney's general indifference to the comics is largely what has let them continue to publish much more interesting and off-the-wall stories than anything Disney proper tends to do with their main character cast themselves. I think they've finally cracked down in oversight in the US, considering Fantagraphics now having some censorship and the overhaul of the IDW staff a few years ago that didn't make any sense from an internal perspective. Unfortunate. At least we have Disney Masters.