Judy : the London Serio-comic Paper Doll : Volume 26, 1880

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In an effort to collect my work here, I am reposting some dolls from from my previous sites. I want all my Judys in one place, so this is the first from that series. I’ll post the second one next week (probably on Tuesday), and I have an all-new series coming that should be ready around Thanksgiving.

And don’t worry: I’ll still post an all-new doll tomorrow, as per the schedule.

About Judy: Judy; or the London Serio-comic Journal was a weekly periodical published from 1867 to 1907 as a competitor to the much more popular Punch. One of its regular artists was A. Chasemore (possibly a pseudonym), who drew the “Fashion for the week”. These illustrations were fantasy concoctions; nothing anyone would have worn except in a theatrical or masquerade ball. The costumes were allegorical, sometimes political, and mostly whimsical. And since they were published in black & white, the sky’s the limit on as far as color interpretations!

The model for the outfits was a nameless and idealized “everywoman” but I have taken the liberty of calling her Judy after the publication. There actually was a character named Judy associated in the paper, but she was a comical, unglamorous frau.

These costumes are from Volume 26 of the series, published in 1880.

[Click to download a complete printable .pdf of this doll (6 pages)]

My Quixotic Relationship with The Walking Dead

twd_templateLast night’s episode of The Walking Dead is an excellent example of why I continue to ask myself what is the point of watching this show? S6E4 “Here’s Not Here” was 90 minutes of wind-blowing-through-the-trees zen psychobabble about man’s humanity with a character who, while interesting, isn’t all that compelling to me personally. So I sat and watched and rooted for Tabitha the goat and of course it was just one long slog of bleakness interspersed with 9th grade philosophical blithering. Reactions around the web are polarized on this episode, so I know I’m not just being harsh.

I’ve never been much into zombies, but I am a ghoul at heart, so by all accounts I should love this show. And yet it passed three seasons without me giving it more than a cursory thought. Then people started telling me to watch it, and by that time it had become such a phenomenon, I felt compelled to resist.

But I didn’t. I watch the first two seasons and decided it just wasn’t for me. I liked Glenn and Daryl (and even Rick sometimes when he wasn’t being insufferable), but I could barely name anyone else in the cast and I wasn’t moved when they started dying off. Also, I dreaded every moment Lori appeared on the screen with the passion of a thousand suns.

I was begged by my friends to persevere, I was promised grisliness and the death of the monstrous Lori. I trudged onward, but once Carl put his momma down, I’d had enough.

Two more seasons passed. A new set of people began nagging me to watch the show. A spinoff (Fear the Walking Dead) was coming and I decided to get in on the first season of that thinking maybe the problem with how I felt about the flagship show was binge-fatigue. It’s a lot easier to wear yourself out on the redundancy of a program when you try to cram multiple seasons into a couple of weeks’ worth of watching.

So I tried picking up where I left off with The Walking Dead in season 4. I was promised it got better (“There’s cannibals! You like cannibals!” ~ well, yeah, that’s true). Half-heartedly I managed to get through about half of season four (the back half), and random episodes throughout season 5. As far as I’m concerned, I’m as caught up as I’m ever going to get and Season 6 is quickly losing me.

stuff_thangsSo why am I telling you this? And why am I making paper dolls for a series about which I feel so ambivolent?

The Walking Dead has a very loyal and very vocal fanbase. They also generally have a good sense of humor about what’s absurd in the program. Not only that, but the people associated with producing the show have a love for it (the actors seem to enjoy themselves) and that’s evident as well. In response to those things, I can appreciate the series on a lot of levels even if I don’t share the intensity of adoration toward it. So I’ve made a handful of paper dolls for those fans (including my friends) to contribute to the goodwill of the phenomenon. It is, after all, a fairy tale success: skyrocketing from the obscurity of what began as a little creator-owned black and white comic book (now surpassing 145 issues and outselling many of the major superhero books).

There are a handful of paper dolls of The Walking Dead characters out there already. You can find them here:

Don’t expect anything too fancy from me with these. I’ll likely only make Rick, Daryl, and Michonne (they’re the ones I’ve drawn so far), with a couple of plates for costumes and a zombie or two. Yeah, I know I’m not supposed to call them zombies, but whatever.

Expect to start seeing plates for this series this coming Thursday. I’m having a devil of a time drawing Daryl’s silly crossbow, but I should be able to post Rick while I figure it out.

Halloween Masquerade Paper Doll Collaboration

halloween_rr_masqueHappy Halloween!

Some years ago, we did a Halloween Paper Doll Round Robin that was so much fun that Rachel decided to throw another one ~ and this time open it up to the readers as well.

This year Julie from Paper Doll School created the doll and Rachel from Paper Thin Personas did the heavy lifting on the wrangling and organizing.

We had so many great submissions that it was decided to split them into three pdfs. Thank you to everyone who participated. It’s so awesome to see this level of engagement!

Visit each site below to get the complete set (it’s just like trick-or-treating, but on the internet!)

 

halloween_rr_masqueradeIn the batch you download from this site, you will find: the Masque of the Red Death (my own contribution, shown above), a gown from Corpse Bride by Gena, Spider Queen from Irma at Papernukublogi, Cat and Pumpkin costumes from Melinda (in color!), a Vampire by Melissa Smith at Miss Missy Paper Dolls, and a Sun/Moon gown from Liana at Liana’s Paper Dolls.

If you’re staying in this evening and want to watch a scary movie, I recommend you pick up The Changeling (1980) with George C. Scott, or The Innocents (1961), with Deborah Kerr. Both are classics. If you want something a little more modern, get yourself An American Werewolf in London, or The Thing (1981 & 1982 respectively ~ and classics in their own rights). Something more obscure? Try the underrated Dolls (1987).  If you can’t bear to watch anything made prior to the turn of the last century, then pick up Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Orphanage (2007), or the excellently terrifying [Rec] (also 2007 ~ the Spanish version, not that silly American remake). These are all movies that prioritize story over gore and are full of genuine frights. Not for the kiddies, though. Best to stick with the old standbys like The Great Pumpkin.

Enjoy all of your Halloween treats! And the tricks too, if they are good and fun!

 

Paper Doll Preview

harley_previewWhat’s Coming?

Part of the reason I created this new blog is because I found myself branching out from 19th century topics and comic books into other popular media. Also,  I just like ruminating on film and books and whatnot.

While I still intend to work on some historical paper dolls, you can see from the photo below that we’ll be wandering into uncharted territory. I watched a lot of TV this summer as I was on sabbatical, and so in addition to more comic book heroes and villains, I started futzing with television characters. I don’t know how many I will do, but for now expect to see Empire, The Walking Dead, and possibly the X-Files.

Hopefully something for everybody!

Black & White vs. Color

In the past, I used to paint all my paper dolls. The thought of working in anything but full color was anathema! Maybe if I had all the time in the world it would make sense to continue in that vein, but painting is an intense endeavor and it causes more frustration than delight sometimes, which is antithetical to the philosophy of the playground.

So while I absolutely love the look of painted paper dolls, line art is just a lot quicker and that’s what you’re going to get here, by and large.

It can take me 2 or more hours to paint the outfit that I can render in ink in under an hour. Black and white just makes more sense. I can produce work faster, fix calamities more easily, and let’s face it: it saves wear, tear, and expense for the printing on your end–and you get to color the finished product to your liking!

I might still post colored versions of some dolls and work in color now and then, but you can expect that most of what you’ll find here as far as printable paper dolls will be black and white.

The Posting Schedule

I have a small backlog of dolls that assures a regular posting schedule for at least through the end of the year. But I want to stay well ahead of things for when we hit the holidays and whatnot, so:

  • Thursday: at least 1 new paper doll plate.
  • Sunday: a review of some kind.

I might additionally throw out a process post or other rambling, but these two days I’ll hold sacred. A couple of days a week is plenty for updates, right? The choice of Thursdays for the paper dolls is a nod to Kathleen Taylor’s “Thursday Tabs”, by the way.

Welcome to the Playground

welcome2I didn’t want to write a big long introductory post, but I thought it might not hurt to try to set some expectations for this website right out of the gate.

Most importantly, I call this site a playground in the title because that’s what it is for me. If you’re expecting a carefully organized and curated site with a coherent focus, you’re likely going to be baffled (and probably disappointed). I used to keep multiple blogs/sites for my various interests, but updating all that regularly was a nuisance so I have kitchen-sinked it all here.

I’ll be porting over some content (manually–argh!) from those previous blogs, so if you knew me from somewhere else, you’ll probably see some redundancy out of the gate. I’ll try to keep it to a minimum, though.

This title Pop Culture & Paper Dolls was the best I could come up with for an over-arching theme. I like talking about things in pop culture and I like paper dolls. Occasionally I enjoy marrying the two.

But consider yourself forewarned: my tastes are occasionally on the strange side. What I like in pop culture isn’t always that popular, and some of it may be pretty obscure. Nevertheless, I think I can at least guarantee that what you’ll find here won’t be found anywhere else on the web.welcome1

What you will find here is a lot of random, semi-related (and sometimes-not-so-much) content, including:

  • Reviews and Ruminations on:
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Movies
    • TV Episodes/Shows
  • Paper Dolls:
    • Shared items from the web
    • Original creations to download
  • Wibbling and Warbling:
    • About art
    • The creative process
    • Inspirational pictures and quotes

Whatever your particular tastes, I hope you like what you see. Feel free to subscribe and share. The site is Disqus friendly, so if you already have an account, you’re all set to comment. If you don’t have an account, they are free and easy to set up.