This link from Mike Lynch has been getting a lot of deserved play: Ivan Brunetti’s account of how he almost took over drawing NANCY. The strips evince the sort of lethargic fatalism one might expect from Brunetti, and while it’s hard to imagine them bruising the knees of America with reflexive slapping, still…what might have been!
A less-seen tale from the vaults comes from Stephen DeStefano as he recalls a grunge remake of Popeye from the 90s.
Not a hoax or an imaginary concept, these are images from King Features’ “GRUNGE POPEYE” 1995 licensing push. At least I got to draw Bluto, instead of the insipid Brutus (see my post regarding this particular prejudice further into my blog.)
Considering that by 1995 grunge was as dead as Kurt Cobain, you can see why this is little remembered.
gunge popeye!?!??…hmmm…. :(
My God, I remember the whole Grunge Popeye thing. Ugh. Thanks a lot, Heidi.
Thanks for the kind words re: the Brunetti article. One of the best things I ever read and it’s surprising that no one else scanned the darn article before I did. I’m sure that seeing all the work that Brunetti did makes lesser cartoonists get the vapors. A staggering amount of work and sweat into a project the never saw the light of day. Sad, but he’s not the first!