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Review: The Glamor Girls of Don Flowers
The Glamor Girls of Don Flowers
Edited by Alex Chun & Jacob Covey
Fantagraphics. $19.95
This books wasn't give the large-format, hardcover presentation afforded the pin-up art books Chun previously edited for Fantagraphics. I don't know if it's because Flowers is more of a one-panel gag cartoonist or if it indicates a lack of confidence in the material on Fantagraphics' part. I did find it interesting that Sergio Aragones wrote the Introduction and cited Flowers' depiction of beautiful women a big influence on his own work, and it's true, Flowers' women are beautiful and sexy in that '50s and '60s va-va-voom way. And he has a nice line, a lot like Hank Ketcham if he'd done a strip on the Mitchells without Dennis--the men are very Ketchamesque with dot eyes and no chin, the head tapering down to a neck with no bumps or harsh angles at all. But as a gag cartoonist, I just don't think the gags hold up well, for the most part. The guys are horn dogs and suffer the whims of women and the women are irrational, jealous, spend their husband's money, and suffer the wandering eyes of their men. Certainly ripe subjects for humor and it's inoffensive stuff even at its broadest, but I just wasn't laughing. Flowers also veers into fantasy (gags about genies, crystal balls, mermaids) but it feels more grasping than creative. As a time capsule of white, martini-chugging America of this period of time, it's valuable, but the work is pretty shallow.
Edited by Alex Chun & Jacob Covey
Fantagraphics. $19.95
This books wasn't give the large-format, hardcover presentation afforded the pin-up art books Chun previously edited for Fantagraphics. I don't know if it's because Flowers is more of a one-panel gag cartoonist or if it indicates a lack of confidence in the material on Fantagraphics' part. I did find it interesting that Sergio Aragones wrote the Introduction and cited Flowers' depiction of beautiful women a big influence on his own work, and it's true, Flowers' women are beautiful and sexy in that '50s and '60s va-va-voom way. And he has a nice line, a lot like Hank Ketcham if he'd done a strip on the Mitchells without Dennis--the men are very Ketchamesque with dot eyes and no chin, the head tapering down to a neck with no bumps or harsh angles at all. But as a gag cartoonist, I just don't think the gags hold up well, for the most part. The guys are horn dogs and suffer the whims of women and the women are irrational, jealous, spend their husband's money, and suffer the wandering eyes of their men. Certainly ripe subjects for humor and it's inoffensive stuff even at its broadest, but I just wasn't laughing. Flowers also veers into fantasy (gags about genies, crystal balls, mermaids) but it feels more grasping than creative. As a time capsule of white, martini-chugging America of this period of time, it's valuable, but the work is pretty shallow.
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