Kim Dietch's The Ship That Never Came In

October 15, 2005 9:16 PM

Hey, kids, let's watch a cartoon! May I present The Ship That Never Came In by Kim Deitch, comix genius. It's a piece with his magnum opus Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Both, as Time magazine's comix critic Andrew Arnold notes, focuses on Ted Mishkin, a talented animator whose gifts can never quite overcome his curse. His curse is Waldo, a mischievous cat who walks on his hind legs. Waldo may be a delusion or he may be real, but only Ted can see him. Wotta concept!  More inside ? Fuckin' A !
posted by y2karl (15 comments total)

Here's the rough draft for the The Waldo Lowdown, on sale at the Cartoon Collective's Kim Deitch page. Here's Lambiek's Kim Deitch page. Here's an interview. Here's his lecture notes for the 'Undergound(s)': 2003 University of Florida Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels.. Sign the release and look at the pictures.
The animation for The Ship That Never Came In was done by Flash master John Kuramoto, who was responsible for, among others, Tim Dougan's webpage and the original Ghost World site. Sadly, neither of those appear to be online in anything close to their original form--and Dougan's not all. Boy, you missed a couple of masterpieces there.
posted by y2karl at 9:16 PM on October 15, 2005

Very cool - thanks for the links.

I cannot recommend Boulevard of Broken Dreams highly enough. A genuine masterpiece.
posted by Dr. Wu at 9:31 PM on October 15, 2005

thanks. wonderful.
posted by longsleeves at 10:28 PM on October 15, 2005

Thanks for this, I love Kim Deitch.
posted by interrobang at 10:43 PM on October 15, 2005

Thanks, y2karl. Boulevard is one of my favorite graphic novels.
Gene Deitch has a website, where I found this link to a radio interview with both Gene & Kim. Haven't listened yet, but it should be interesting.
posted by maryh at 11:50 PM on October 15, 2005

Those cartoon cels remind me of the cartoon sequence in the third segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie.
posted by alumshubby at 5:45 AM on October 16, 2005

Waldo may be a delusion or he may be real, but only Ted can see him. Wotta concept!

I can't tell if this is supposed to be sarcasm or not, but in case it wasn't, I would kindly like to point this out.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:24 AM on October 16, 2005

Sarcastic ? Moi ?

It's an interesting question. Invisible characters seen and heard only by the protagonist go back as far in literature with the gods speaking to and directing Achilles in the Iliad. In the recent past, Mary Chases's Harvey comes to mind.

I think Deitch began drawing Waldo long before Waterson started Calvin and Hobbes. It's a recurrent theme, that's for sure--Shary Flenniken's Trots and Bonnie is a variation in that Trots was visible to all concerned but only talked to Bonnie when they were alone. As that predates Calvin and Hobbes as well, I thought for a while that there was a direct connection there. Then I remembered Harvey. It's a universal theme and I suspect that whoever was first to use it in comics predates all of the aforementioned. I'll bet it's been around since the beginning of the medium.

Considering the Illiad, I suppose this means Trots, Waldo and Hobbes are all minor gods. Well, that makes sense to me.
posted by y2karl at 7:41 AM on October 16, 2005

Really good response, y2karl.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:07 AM on October 16, 2005

Retro-psyche-tragi-delic!
posted by sfslim at 9:33 AM on October 16, 2005

It is interesting that so many great comix artists write and draw such unbearably sad stories. Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman and Daniel Clowes come to mind. Or consider the story of Charles Crumb in Crumb. It's a medium that seems, sometimes, to be almost exclusively written and drawn by, about and for misfits, outcasts and loners.
posted by y2karl at 10:36 AM on October 16, 2005

Gene Deitch has a website...

Wow, maryh, thank yo so much.

John Lee Hooker: My Amazing Story Of The Year really was amazing. I had never heard about that. I am so glad I made this post.
posted by y2karl at 11:15 AM on October 16, 2005

Magnifique. Thanks, y2karl. Made my day.
posted by languagehat at 2:33 PM on October 16, 2005

Very cool, thanks y2karl.
posted by njm at 2:52 PM on October 16, 2005

It's a medium that seems, sometimes, to be almost exclusively written and drawn by, about and for misfits, outcasts and loners.

I have interviewed a comics artist or two in my day, and based on my discussions and readinga in the field I hazard that the root of this appears to be the medium's requirement for intensive, often solitary, labor. Shy people are at first drawn to the solitariness, and then, if they find themselves able to make a living, trapped by it, with depression sometimes associated.

I'm a huge Deitch fan. Shoulda known you would be too, y2k.
posted by mwhybark at 10:50 PM on October 16, 2005