Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a French film director. His feature films include Delicatessen (1991), The City of Lost Children (1995), Amélie (2001) and A Very Long Engagement (2004). Jeunet often uses wide camera angles and elaborate camera movements, and makes extensive use of color grading in order to give his movies the desired (often fantastic) ambiance. He was born on this day in 1953.
I have drawn 8-bit Jean-Pierre Jeunet wearing “the third eye,” which is a mechanical monocle from The City of Lost Children. These steampunk-style devices are worn by the Cyclops, a cult of blind religious zealots who kidnap children so that an aging scientist may steal their dreams. The City of Lost Children is one of my three favorite films of all time (the others being Lost Highway and Chungking Express).
Herbert Hoover was the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933). Born in Iowa, Hoover was an experienced engineer who had made a small fortune in mining. He was the first of two Presidents to redistribute their salaries (JFK was the other; he donated all his paychecks to charity). When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after Hoover took office, he tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with government-enforced efforts, public works projects such as the Hoover Dam, tariffs and tax increases. These initiatives did not produce economic recovery during his term, but served as the groundwork for various policies incorporated by Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman brought Hoover back to help make the federal bureaucracy more efficient through the Hoover Commission. Hoover was born on this day in 1874.
Italian explorer and colonizer Christopher Columbus is today’s pixel art character, in honor of his demise on May 20, 1506. If we were to apply ethical standards to his life’s work, Columbus should be wanted for grand theft of the lands populated by the indigenous peoples; for initiating the systematic genocide of 98% of the original Americans; and for crimes against humanity, including the rape, torture, mutilation and enslavement of American Indians.
I previously wrote about the great lie of Columbus when I posted my Sitting Bull pixel art on Columbus Day in 2011. Even though Columbus was a wretched human being and wrong about everything, he was lucky enough to survive his catastrophic miscalculations and find uncharted land before his crews starved to death. No portrait of Columbus drawn or painted from life is known to exist, but I prefer to imagine him with a stupid hat.
The Phillie Phanatic is the official mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball (MLB) team. He is a large, furry, green bipedal creature with an extendable tongue. According to his official biography, the Phanatic is originally from the Galápagos Islands and is the Phillies’ biggest fan. He entertains fans during baseball games and makes public appearances for the Phillies. The Phanatic is usually acknowledged as one of the best ballpark mascots.
Benny the Bull is the mascot of the Chicago Bulls, a role he has filled since 1969. He has become just as popular as some of the franchise’s most notable figures, such as players Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman and head coach Phil Jackson. Benny is one of the longest-tenured mascots in the NBA and in all of professional sports.
Ming the Merciless is a character who first appeared in the Flash Gordon comic strip in 1934. When the heroic Flash Gordon and his friends land on the planet Mongo, they find it ruled by the evil Emperor Ming, a despot who quickly becomes their enemy. Ming has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, television series and film adaptation.
Charlie Chaplin was a British comic actor and filmmaker who rose to fame in the silent era. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona “the Tramp.” A legendary figure in film history, Chaplin’s career spanned more than 75 years, from a child in the Victorian era to close to his death at the age of 88. Raised in London, his childhood was defined by poverty and hardship. At 19, Chaplin was signed to the prestigious Fred Karno company, which took him to America. By 1918, he was one of the most famous men in the world. In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists, giving him complete control over his films, which included The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940). He was born on this day in 1889.
Gabriel García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, he was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. García Márquez started as a journalist, but is best known for his novels, including One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), Autumn of the Patriarch (1975) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have helped popularize magic realism as a literary style. García Márquez was born on this day in 1927.
The nonlinear, multi-generational One Hundred Years of Solitude is my wife Heidi’s very favorite book and Gabriel García Márquez is her favorite author. I love magic realism and I agree that García Márquez is a pretty fantastic craftsman of richly detailed run-on sentences. But I was stunned that nearly every character in his famous century-spanning book is named José Arcadio or Aureliano. I am not exaggerating when I state that there are 22 characters named Aureliano in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Twenty-two. If you put this novel down for a few days, you too can share the farcical experience of having to cross-reference a family tree to remember which members of which generation are being talking about in a given chapter—even when you know that history repeating is the point and it almost doesn’t matter. I do like to experience how the world feels from García Márquez’s unique perspective.
Janis Joplin was an American singer-songwriter. She first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist. Joplin was a popular act at the Monterey Pop Festival and became one of the major attractions at Woodstock. Her fans referred to her stage presence as “electric.” At the height of her career, Joplin was known as “The Queen of Rock and Roll” as well as “The Queen of Psychedelic Soul.” She was born on January 19, 1943 and died of a drug overdose in 1970 (just 16 days after Jimi Hendrix died, also at age 27).
I’ve done easier things in life than attempt to reproduce Woodstock-era tie-dyed clothing as primitive pixel art.
Brian Hugh Warner, better known by his stage name Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician and former music journalist known for his controversial stage persona and image as the lead singer of the eponymous band Marilyn Manson. His stage name was formed from juxtaposing the names of two American cultural icons – actress Marilyn Monroe and murderer Charles Manson. Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor produced Marilyn Manson’s debut album in 1994. Manson, now with his own brand of absinthe, was born on January 5, 1969.
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character who originally appeared in the Talkartoons and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios. She has also been featured in comic strips and mass merchandising. Betty Boop was created as an anthropomorphic French poodle in 1930, but was transformed into a caricature of singer Helen Kane by 1932. In the mid-1930s, her carefree flapper persona was toned down to appear more demure.
Jabberjaw is an air-breathing, anthropomorphic great white shark whose voice and mannerisms are similar to Curly of The Three Stooges. He is a drummer for The Neptunes, a rock group made up of four teenagers, who live in an underwater civilization in the year 2076. Jabberjaw was the star of a Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera that aired from 1976 to 1978.
Ken Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962), and counterculture figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. “I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie,” Kesey said. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968) by Tom Wolfe tells the story of Kesey and his 1960s band of psychedelic drug-using Merry Pranksters. Kesey died of liver surgery complications on November 10, 2001.
At the time, it seemed ominous to me that the great Ken Kesey, an Oregon resident, died the weekend I moved to Oregon in 2001. As of today, I have lived in Oregon for exactly 11 years. I swear my presence didn’t kill him. Today is also the day that Heidi and I return home to Oregon after 40 days of backpacking and train-riding through 10 countries in Europe.
Harry Houdini was an Austrian-Hungarian-born American stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts in the early 1900s. For most of his career, Houdini was a headline act in vaudeville. His career began with handcuff-escape gimmicks and expanded to include shackles, chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers and underwater straitjackets. Houdini was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent magicians who gave practitioners a bad name. He was also quick to sue anyone who pirated his own escape stunts. He died, somewhat mysteriously, of a ruptured appendix on this day in 1926.
Stan Smyl is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He played 13 seasons as a winger for the Vancouver Canucks, from 1978 to 1991. Nicknamed “Steamer” for his relentless and hard-nosed style of play, he served as team captain for a record eight seasons. He led Vancouver to the 1982 Stanley Cup Finals and retired as the Canucks’ all-time leader in games played, goals, assists and points. Smyl’s number 12 was the first retired number in Canucks’ history.
Note: I chose to draw 8-bit Smyl because he was the best player to wear a Vancouver Canucks uniform during their famously ugly “flying V” uniform era (1978-1984). Terrible uniforms and clown costumes must be remembered!
Shel Silverstein was an American cartoonist, musician and, most famously, author of children’s books. He styled himself as Uncle Shelby in his children’s books. Most popular are The Giving Tree (1964) and Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974)—both childhood favorites of mine. Translated into more than 30 languages, Silverstein’s books have sold over 20 million copies. He was born on this day in 1930.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee is a retired American athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women’s heptathlon and the women’s long jump. She won three gold, one silver and two bronze Olympic medals at four different Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996). Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century.
Note: Jackie was the sister-in-law of the late Florence Griffith-Joyner, the “fastest woman of all time.” Flo-Jo married Jackie’s brother Al Joyner, an Olympic champion triple jumper.
The Pink Panther is the title character in the opening and closing credit sequences of almost every film in The Pink Panther series of comedies. First appearing in 1963, his popularity spawned 124 shorts, 10 television shows and three primetime TV specials. The Pink Panther Show aired on Saturday mornings from 1969 to 1979. The Pink Panther became the corporate mascot of Owens Corning in 1980 to promote its pink insulation.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet – No. 663
Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a French film director. His feature films include Delicatessen (1991), The City of Lost Children (1995), Amélie (2001) and A Very Long Engagement (2004). Jeunet often uses wide camera angles and elaborate camera movements, and makes extensive use of color grading in order to give his movies the desired (often fantastic) ambiance. He was born on this day in 1953.
I have drawn 8-bit Jean-Pierre Jeunet wearing “the third eye,” which is a mechanical monocle from The City of Lost Children. These steampunk-style devices are worn by the Cyclops, a cult of blind religious zealots who kidnap children so that an aging scientist may steal their dreams. The City of Lost Children is one of my three favorite films of all time (the others being Lost Highway and Chungking Express).