Monster-of-the-Week: Have you noticed how mimsy all the borogroves have been lately? I’d guess that these conditions are at least partly related to the opening tomorrow of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
In observance, this week let’s pay homage to one of the all-time greats, The Jabberwock, the terrible beast whose defeat is celebrated in “Jabberwocky,” Lewis Carroll’s epic nonsense poem which appears in 1872's Through the Looking Glass. The creature plays an expanded role in Burton’s film, irksomely referred to there as “The Jabberwocky”—not to be pedantic, but isn’t that the name of the poem, not the monster?—& given powerful voice by none other than Christopher Lee. Here’s the movie’s impressive rendering…
…which nonetheless isn’t as awesome as the incomparable original drawing by John Tenniel from the book, one of the few visual realizations of a literary monster that satisfies the curiousity conjured up by our imaginations…
I gaped at that picture for years as a kid before observing that Tenniel’s Jabberwock wears a waistcoat.
Jack Palance played the Jabberwock in a 1966 TV production…
…& Terry Gilliam dramatized the poem in his splendid 1977 film Jabberwocky, which featured a cool showdown between hero Michael Palin & the beast…
Talking of Lewis Carroll adaptations, you might mention the great comic artist Wallace Woods' silly, sleazy Malice In Wonderland. The art isn't Wood's best, but I recall the revised lyrics to some of the poems are pretty clever.
ReplyDeleteYou would recognize Wood's art from EC Comics through the 1970's. Especially of note is his Disneyland Memorial Orgy. Never having been a Disney fan, I appreciate his "behind the scenes" vision. The clearest copy I could find is at: http://www.ep.tc/realist/74/12.html
And Tenniel's art, for me, is the definitive Alice imagery, especially the iconic 'Alice stretches at the neck' picture, which bothered me since childhood. Just as Shepard's Winnie the Pooh illustrations gave me so much more satisfaction than the Disney art, even though I was exposed to the Pooh cartoons first. The sketchiness and uncompleted nature of Shepard's Pooh offers a transcience that makes me nostalgic for something I never experienced.
Thanx for the tip; I wasn't familiar w/"Malice"! (Love the Omnilingus!) I love Wally Wood's work; I always liked a horror comic story he wrote called "The Curse," which I always thought would make a kickass movie. I also agree with you about Shepard's Pooh art, which I actually knew long before I ever saw the Disney stuff, which somehow never seemed right to me as a kid...
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