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 Shitao rated 2 months ago -
Bernard Kliban who signed his work B. Kliban because he hated his first name, studied at the Pratt Institute in New York. During the 1950s, he went to Europe and traveled and painted there for a few years. Back in America, he settled in Marin County, near San Francisco. Kliban held vario...
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3 Reviews
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- Shitao rated 2 months ago
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Bernard Kliban who signed his work B. Kliban because he hated his first name, studied at the Pratt Institute in New York. During the 1950s, he went to Europe and traveled and painted there for a few years. Back in America, he settled in Marin County, near San Francisco. Kliban held various jobs, at the same time drawing satirical cartoons. In 1962, he sent some of them to Playboy magazine and was instantly hired. In 1975, his book 'Cat', containing cat drawings, appeared. Several other cartoon books followed, with titles such as 'Never Eat Anything Larger Than Your Head', 'The Biggest Tongue in Tunisia', 'Two Guys Fooling Around with the Moon' and 'Tiny Footprints'. Kliban is quite possibly my favorite cartoonist, which is saying a lot, frankly. His ideosynchratic "drawings" (he didn't always call them cartoons, perhaps rightly so) are not everyone's idea of funny ha-ha cartoons.
Occasionally his work is immensely funny and hits you like a lightning bolt. At other times you will look at a Kliban drawing in complete bemusement... there's something there, something you can't put your finger on that's tickling you at the base of your brain, but it's not a "gag cartoon" in the usual sense. Some of his cartoons are obvious and just overtly silly, he loved to stoop to outrageously dumb puns (which I'll admit I'm a sucker for); but some of them are subtle and wonderful to the point of being sublime.
Like Saul Steinberg, who he apparently admired greatly, Kliban explored ideas in his drawings that make you stop and think and perhaps come away looking at the world just a little bit differently. Some of them are crass; Kliban was a regular contributor to Playboy for many years (and elevated the magazine's level of cartooning considerably) and was unafraid to "draw what he thought". He was also somewhat compelled by the marketplace to make sex a topic more often than he might have in another magazine.
- cirrostratus rated 21 months ago
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What an awesome metaphor.
- deehews rated 21 months ago
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To my shame, I'd never heard of B. Kliban before. What a great cartoonist (and an obvious influence on Gary Larsen). Thank you to Shitao for showing me the light.
Here's his eloquent description of Kliban's appeal.
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