Kim Jong Il takes a test drive of an amusement park combat plane ride in Taesong amusement park, in Pyongyang, North Korea on October 2, 1977. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images)
[Found here.]
Archive for the ‘Obituaries’ Category
Steamboat McGoo says “Adios Amoebas.”
Thursday, 3 March 2011
It’s a quiet day in the blogosphere when one of my favorite bloggers decides to call it quits. Steamboat McGoo has already poured acetone on Aardvarks & Asshats and melted all threads prior to January 2011. (A&A was always my first stop after Drudge. Go figger.)
Here’s to you, McGoo. May you continue to piss fire on whatever is in your way. –Bunk
[Update 4 March 2011: A big fat birdy just told me that the site may be changing hands. Film at 11.]
Frank Frazetta 1928-2010
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
By MARYCLAIRE DALE (AP)
PHILADELPHIA — Pioneering fantasy artist Frank Frazetta died Monday in a Fort Myers, Fla., hospital, a manager said. He was 82.
Frazetta had been out to dinner with his daughters Sunday but suffered a stroke at his Boca Grande home later that night and was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital, manager Rob Pistella said. A hospital spokeswoman confirmed the death, as did his daughter Heidi Frazetta Grabin.
“He’s going to be remembered as the most renowned fantasy illustrator of the 20th Century,” Pistella said.
Frazetta created covers and illustrations for more than 150 books and comic books, along with album covers, movie posters and original paintings. His illustrations of Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan, Vampirella and other characters influenced many later artists.
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Frazetta had many imitators, but there was only one Frazetta.
The image above was one of my favorites in the 1970s, but my girlfriend wasn’t impressed when I projected it and copied it onto my dorm room wall with water-color marker, so I broke up with her. I was like that back then.
[Image from here, news blurb from here. Crossposted here and here.]
My Opinion.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Popeye Dead at 108
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Santa Monica, CA (Strutts News Services) – Legendary mariner and celebrity, popularly known as “Popeye” passed away at 2:30AM PST Thursday at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. Leaving behind no documents to prove his full name, Popeye suffered quietly for years from complications caused by hypertension due to a lifetime of sea salt inhalation.
Popeye’s last words were reported to be, “That’s all’s I can stands, and I can’t stands no more!” before he drifted off.
Johann Tetris – 1928-2009
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Cartersville, GA (Strutts News Services) – Even in an economic downturn, many businesses flourish. Tetris Constructions is one of them. Regardless, Johann “Joe” Tetris died yesterday afternoon of natural causes, succumbing to HSB. HSB is known to laymen as “He Stopped Breathing.”
Johann Tetris at 1993 TED Conference (Strutts News Services Archive Photo)
TC founder Tetris was born into poverty but not by choice. He’d intended to be born into wealth, but those dreams were squelched by economic forces beyond his control. Ever since birth, Tetris fought to rise above the dirt-floor/waxed-paper windows of his childhood to create one of the most lasting icons of the “Information Age.” That icon would be Tetris Constructions.
Tetris’ work is recobanized throughout the civilized world as cutting edge modular construction: fast paced, low cost, rarely finished, but in Tetris’ own inimitable iconic style.
Some call it brutal. Others are both alarmed and enthralled at the possibilities and potentials of the breakneck speed of real-time design, combined with the willy-nilly construction system that Tetris Constructions promotes.
The TC motto sums it up: “We Build Faster than an Honest European Lunchbreak.” Johann Tetris will be missed by many, but his legacy endures.
- Janessa Vapors (Strutts News Services)
[Found here.]
Tweety Bird Dead at 67
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Palm Springs, California (Strutts News Services) – Long admired yet not forgotten, Robert “Tweety Bird” Balderstien passed away at the age of 67 at his ranch home in Palm Desert, Southern California.
Robert Svenson Balderstien, hatched in 1942 in Suffolk, Massachusetts, by immigrant parents, adapted to the stage early, despite his hydrocephelitic condition. Contrary to popular belief, his medical condition did not cause his speech impediment, and for years he battled the stereotype.
Balderstien also rejected the contention that he was female, and fought the resulting insinuations and innuendos all his life before retiring in seclusion in Palm Desert, California.
“I never said, ‘I tawt I taw a puddy tat.’ I have perfect enunciation, but Warner Brothers chose to overdub my voice, and I was stuck with it ever since.”
Longtime friend and companion, Sylvester The Cat, also of Palm Desert, gave a touching eulogy that ended with, “Yeah. I’ll mith him the motht. He alwayth thought he thaw me, and motht timeth he motht thertainly did.”
ZIGGY DEAD AT 36
Saturday, 25 August 2007
Ft. Lauderdale, FL – (Strutts News Services)
Beloved cartoon character “Ziggy” succumbed to a heat stroke on Thursday, when record temperatures caused an overload in the local power grid, shutting down the air conditioning in Mr. Z’s beach front condo. He was found unconscious and unresponsive by Lt. Commander Lannie Foosers of the Ft. Lauderdale Health and Rescue Division, and was pronounced dead on arrival at Holy Cross Hospital.
“Ziggy was a good guy, a guy you could trust,” sobbed neighbor and close friend, Ms. Janessa Vapors. “He wouldn’t not do nothin’ to not harm a flea, and now he’s gone. He’d trip over my sprinkler hose and get soaked at least once a week.”
“He always looked kinda waxy,” commented Mr. Bob Bieber, Ziggy’s groundskeeper. “He never looked like he had pants on, but his dog was okay.”
From Toonopedia: “His supporting cast includes a dog, Fuzz, whose main function is to echo and amplify Ziggy’s actions; a cat, Sid, who is afraid of mice; a parrot, Josh, who seldom has anything encouraging to say; a duck, Wack; and a fish, Goldie. These are augmented by an endless stream of auto mechanics, department store clerks, fortune tellers, psychoanalists, waitresses, etc., none of whom do much to brighten his life. He does not have a girlfriend.”
(Photo: Ziggy and Fuzz in happier days)
Rest in Peace, Zigman. We’ll miss you.
