Scenes from a Dungeon

Another spectacular tableau of violence. I was probably frustrated by the way I just couldn't get the hanged man to work out, but I expect that I was pretty pleased with the spiderweb and the protruding ribs on the prisoner in chains. To contextualize this all for modern viewers, who might be aghast that an eight-year old would be drawing this stuff, both PLOP! and CRACKED regularly featured torture-chamber gag cartoons (as well as GHOSTLY GHASTLY CARTOONS, which seems to have been issued to every child in America got through the Xerox Book Club in that decade). And, even though I never liked it that much, THE WIZARD OF ID spent a fair amount of its time in the dungeon. Also, some very common toys of the era were a set of jiggly rubber prisoners ("Nutty Dungeon" figures, from the Brabo company) in a goofy cartoony style. Torture was just in the air in those days. Of course, it's also a popular theme now in the Gitmo era, but I suspect the protagonists in today's kid drawings aren't smiling like these guys.

Haunted Castle

From a typing paper pad filled mostly with stuff that's either too abstract or unfinished for me to decipher my original intent. This one's pretty clear, though. OWOW! Even at the age of four, I'd been reading Casper for long enough that I'm surprised that I didn't feature "BOO" instead.



This, on the other hand, I don't quite understand. The only Angela I can think of that I'd be drawing with was the little sister of a friend of my parents, but she was in her teens at that point, so I'm fairly sure this isn't her art. It's possible that she's writing the names of characters in a story that I made up, but the kooky spellings seem unlikely. It's also possible that it's a collaborative piece, and she just drew the pumpkin and ghost. I don't know. Anyway, these two are clearly related.