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Ken Castelli / Annotated Bibliography
Ed. Armitage, Richard. Classic RAF Battles from World War One to the
Present. London: Arms and Armour Press. 1995
Collection of combat art dealing with the British Royal Air Force’s
history. While all the paintings are useful for compositional information,
only about the first three or four paintings deal with the time period
I’m working in. There are lots of good artists throughout, however,
and while I may not need any information pertaining to jet dogfights,
I can still use them for creating a sense of atmosphere.
Ed. Ashbery, John; Hess, Thomas B. Narrative Art. New York: The
Macmillan Company. 1970
An anthology of articles related to narrative art and its history, theories,
and future. All the articles are written by respected critics and artists,
including Fairfield Porter, Amy Goldin, and John Ashbery, and they provide
a treasure trove of information on the subject and its relevance to art.
Artists such as Saul Steinberg (who does weird, ‘abstract cartoons’),
the sculptors of the temple at Borobodur, and even Alex Katz and Francis
Bacon are included, and their theories as to why narrative art is important
are all extensively covered. Good source of research material.
Bairnsfather, Capt. Bruce. Fragments from France. New York: Knickerbocker
Press. 1917
A collection of the cartoonist/army captain’s cartoons about trench
life that was published as the First World War was still going on. The
cartoons are right up my alley, and they are especially pertinent to my
own work this semester. They are full of classical British dry wit, and
they also have a certain darkness that I find appealing. For instance,
in one cartoon an infantryman is comparing photographs of a fellow soldier,
and decides that he likes “the photo of you in your gas mask best.”
While it is a humorous joke, the specter of mass death by mustard gas
is presented quietly. In all of his images, Bairnsfather tried to reduce
the amount of anxiety at the front through the use of humor, which he
did so rather well (seeing as how he is the best-remembered cartoonist
of the conflict, much like Bill Mauldin in World War II), but there is
definitely a darker side to his humor, and I like that. He’s very
good at capturing the anxious jokes of the front lines, and I’d
like my own work this semester to have some amount of that graveside humor.
His book Bullets and Billets, including his illustrations, can
be seen here
in its entirety.
Ed. Blackbeard, Bill. Herriman, George. Krazy & Ignatz: 1925 –
1926, the Complete Full-Page Comic Strips. Seattle: Fantagraphics
Books. 2002
A catalogue of every Krazy Kat page from the years 1925 through 1926,
it is a great source of inspirational material. Herriman really knew how
to make each page work with a combination of good composition and concise
storylines. His backgrounds are always some sort of fantastic landscapes
that add a rich atmosphere to the whole thing, and I want my own work
to have the same sort of feeling (maybe not with the ‘American Southwest’
motif, but atmosphere all the same), and so I think that this book would
work great for that.
Brodie, Howard. Drawing Fire: A Combat Artist at War. Los Altos,
CA: Portolá Press. 1996
Extensive collection of combat artist Howard Brodie’s sketches and
finished drawings from World War II through the Vietnam War. He has a
very gestural line and can capture a wide range of emotion in what look
like simple on-the-spot sketches, and I’d like to be able to portray
what each character in the story is thinking and feeling with the same
amount of expertise that Brodie has. While I am doing more detailed drawings
than most of Brodie’s work, he is still a very good reference as
far as anatomy and posturing are concerned, and his portraits have a very
human feel about them.
Cornebise, Alfred Emile. Art From the Trenches: America’s Uniformed
Artists in World War I. College Station, TX: Texas A & M University
Press. 1991
This is probably one of the most useful books in my bibliography, as it
deals directly with the time period that my work takes place in (while
the story’s obviously fiction, all the machinery, uniforms, and
whatnot are all from the 1910 – 1927 era). It is basically an overview
of the work of US combat artists and what they saw and drew/painted while
stationed on the front lines. Harvey Dunn, G. M. Harding, and H. E. Townsend
are three artists included in the book that I will be using heavily as
sources of not only technical information but also for compositional decisions.
They were all accomplished draftsmen, and some of their work shows signs
of the coming abstraction movements of the 20s through the 50s, so it
is interesting to look at from an art history perspective as well. The
work of several AEF combat artists can be seen here.
Ellis, Warren; Robertson, Derik. Transmetropolitan: Lust for Life.
New York: DC Comics. 1998
Collection of short stories about a nihilistic journalist living in a
post-apocalyptic nightmare of a city. It is very well-drawn (though it’s
in a traditional comic book style, which I don’t really want to
emulate too much) and the page layouts are always interesting to look
at. Plus the stories can be very funny too, despite the ridiculous amount
of violence and blatant disregard for authority figures (in one story,
the main character shot a ‘prolapse’ gun at the President,
thus forcing him to become incontinent and miss a very important press
conference). A pretty good source of compositional information, overall.
United States Navy Camouflage of the WW2 Era. Pub. The Floating
Drydock; Philadelphia.
This is actually just a hobbyist’s handbook for painting models
of battleships and destroyers and the like in accurate maritime camouflage,
but it is very useful for technical information and patterns used on navy
ships (which I can use for two or three pieces of my own). Other than
that there isn’t really any artistic value, but I’m a big
military history dork and enjoy reading books like this (I have a book
at home about the Soviet army and it has pictures of every tank and weapon
they ever used, and I used to read that thing for hours when I was six
or seven).
Löffler, Fritz. Otto Dix: Life and Work. New York: Holmes
& Meier Publishers, Inc. 1982
Catalogue and history of German Expressionist Otto Dix’s work and
life. As an artist who was in the trenches in World War One (and had a
serious mental breakdown as a result), his work is a big influence on
me. His Futurist-tinged images of exploding shells and his almost Steadman-like
drawings of no man’s land and dead and dying soldiers offer plenty
of source material, and the work he did about the war’s aftermath
and its effect on people is of great use. (Some of Otto Dix's, as well
as many other artists', artwork relating to WWI can be seen here)
Macksey, Kenneth (Illus. John H. Batchelor). Tank: A History of the
Armoured Fighting Vehicle. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
1970
This is easily one of the best books written about the topic of armored
war machines, and covers the entire history of the tank, from conceptions
by Leonardo da Vinci and early English inventors, through its first real
use in WWI, and all the way up to today. Large technical drawings and
photographs are found throughout the book, and while this is definitely
not a reference for composition, it is a gold mine for information on
tanks of the 1910 – 1927 era, which is what I am focusing on. They
may not be illustrations that one would want to put in a frame and call
‘fine art’ but they are very competently executed, and serve
as a great source of information as to what the machines of the age looked
like.
Malvern, Sue. Modern Art, Britain and the Great War: witnessing, testimony,
and remembrance. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2004
Book dealing
with art during the First World War, and how the artists portrayed what
they saw and felt after living in the midst of the horrors of it. It only
contains British artists of the period, which offers an interesting viewpoint
(seeing as how other books on the subject cover combat art from all nations
involved), though it does not deal with everyday life so much as portraying
landscapes and major events. Good artists such as Paul Nash are included,
and the book is a good source for compositional ideas and things like
that.
Redifer, Rea
A. Once Upon a Canvas Sky. York, PA: York Graphic Services, Inc.
1984
A short, informative history book about the flying aces for both sides
in World War I. It is illustrated entirely by sketches and watercolors
of the flying machines and actions they were involved in, and they are
of great use for both historical information and for aesthetic judgments
on my part. Redifer manages to make the viewer feel as if he or she is
in the air alongside the aircraft, not just looking at a painting of them,
and I’d like that same kind of atmosphere for parts of my work.
Plus, they’re really good paintings to begin with, so looking through
the book is good inspiration.
Spiegelman, Art.
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. New York: Pantheon Books. 1986
Two volumes make up this true story of the underground cartoonist’s
father’s hellish ordeal during the Nazi extermination campaign of
the 1940s. It follows him through his life in Poland before the war, in
the ghetto during the roundups of Jews, and finally in the Auschwitz concentration
camp. The whole thing is rendered spectacularly in comic-book form, and
the book is a very interesting read. I want my own work, while not having
anything to do with genocide or flashbacks to the Holocaust, to still
be as good a read as Maus is, and I think by studying Spiegelman’s
style, I can give my work some of the same feel that his has.
Taylor, A.J.P.
Illustrated History of the First World War. New York: G.P. Putnam’s
Sons. 1964
A profusely illustrated history of the war, with tons of photographs of
materiel, soldiers, and other aspects of trench life. It doesn’t
have any drawings, sadly, though the hundreds of photos more than make
up for it, and I’m only really using this for technical reference.
It is an interesting read though, full of sarcasm and dry humor (one picture
of several fat French generals is captioned ‘French officers suffering
from undernourishment’).
Ware, Chris.
The Acme Novelty Library. New York: Pantheon Books. 2005
A collection of contemporary cartoonist/graphic novelist Chris Ware’s
cartoons dealing with isolation, depression, etc. in a fun, lighthearted
medium such as the comic strip. Various one-page stories featuring ‘Big
Tex’ (who is little more than a depressed man-child), ‘Rusty
Brown’ (a pathetic collector of action figures), and ‘Frank
Phosphate: Man of the Air’ (an airship pilot who is doomed to fail
in every installment). I like Ware’s work because it has a real
sense of place and atmosphere. His tales of loneliness can be too much
to take sometimes though, so he spliced in several dozen fake classified
ads (including one for ‘miniature exploding dogs’ which makes
me laugh every time I see it) and made a few editions of a newspaper that
never existed. All of Ware’s work has the feel of a Depression Era
book, which is interesting because most contemporary cartoonists prefer
modern styles. Ware favors the radio era (as do I, for some things), and
it shows immensely. A short bio of Ware and some examples of his work
can be found here.
Ware, Chris.
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. New York: Pantheon
Books 2003
Easily one of the most depressing stories I’ve ever read. Deals
with loneliness, alienation, and growing old and all the problems brought
with it. Not exactly the sunniest of topics, and I’m not really
going to touch on most of those in my work. What I am using Ware as a
good source of is his sense of cinematic composition and also his showing
the passage of time (which is something he excels at). He really knows
how to put a page together in just the right way to portray any situation,
and his use of color is interesting (often bland, dull colors that one
would see on old cleaning products, as one critic put it, or faded comic
books).
Ware, Chris.
Quimby the Mouse. New York: Pantheon Books. 2003
More tales of isolation, loss, and other depressing subjects, all starring
Quimby the Mouse, who at times has a Siamese twin that can represent relationships,
split personalities, or divergent philosophies. The book is a compilation
of all Ware’s Quimby the Mouse cartoons from 1990 through 1993,
and they are a good selection of pages of the kind he used to draw: visually
complex, often dealing with simultaneous storylines and flashbacks, and
usually surrounded by various decorative borders of intricate linework.
Again, I won’t be using stories which parallel his, I just really
like the way he draws and sets up a page to pull the reader in, no matter
how mundane or depressing the cartoon actually is. It’s an interesting
approach, to say the least.
Ed. Wilson, H.W.
The Great War: The Standard History of the All-Europe Conflict
Parts 12 (November 7, 1914), 17 (December 19, 1914), 62 (October 23, 1915),
63 (October 30, 1915), and 131 (February 17, 1917).
These are 5 magazines out of the series “The Great War” which
were produced as the war was being fought, and are great time capsules
for what people were thinking while they were “cowering in terror
as a zeppelin passed overhead,” and also for their plentiful photographs
and paintings commissioned by the magazine (how often is it now that you’d
find an entire issue of Time magazine completely illustrated with oils?).
Lots of useful information, of both the historical and the artistic kind.
I’ll reference these constantly.
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