The Owen Arts Center, Algur. H. Meadows School of the Arts, SMU

George L. Dahl

George L. Dahl

George L. Dahl

George L. Dahl

The Owen Arts Center in the Algur H. Meadows School of the Arts was designed by celebrated Dallas architect, George L. Dahl, and it opened in 1965. Dahl reportedly never submitted a bill for the project. 

Late in his life, around the time I arrived in Dallas (the late 1970s), Dahl was embroiled in a series of bitter legal battles with his daughter (and her family) over a trust that had been set up by his late first wife. 

In order to secure her money, Dahl's daughter tried to have him declared mentally incompetent, just as he was about to remarry -- and it led to many other legal cases. Dahl won his competency trial, but more lawsuits over the money ensued. D Magazine covered it in a wrenching in-depth article...

George L. Dahl

George L. Dahl

George L. Dahl

George L. Dahl

George L. Dahl

Al Mangus in the lobby of the Owen Arts Center, standing next to a Auguste Rodin sculpture.

Memories of the Virginia Meadows Museum, 1965

Virginia Meadows Museum, SMU

Opening of the Virginia Meadows Museum, SMU

Dr. William B. Jordan and Algur H. Meadows

Virginia Meadows Museum, SMU

Formerly the Virginia Meadows Museum, now studio space, SMU

"The Meadows Museum is the leading US institution focused on the study and presentation of the art of Spain. In 1962, Dallas businessman and philanthropist Algur H. Meadows donated his private collection of Spanish paintings, as well as funds to start a museum, to Southern Methodist University. The museum opened to the public in 1965, marking the first step in fulfilling Meadows’ vision to create a 'Prado on the Prairie.'"

That was then. Now that the museum has been relocated to its own massive building, the original space that I "grew up with" has been converted to studio space and it's a heretical shock to my system to see how it's used now. Personally, as an exhibition space, I still prefer the original, more intimate space to the its newer super-sized one...

RIP Stan Lee

Thank you for all the years of fun, Stan Lee. 

You and the Marvel Bullpen (and "Brand Echh" too) added a tremendous joy to the long, dark, and cold winter nights I had growing up in Anchorage, Alaska. 

Here I am sorting my "lesser" comics, c. 1977. I had been collecting for 15 years by that point. What fun it was to be a fan. I loved sorting and playing with my stacks of "raw" comics. I read them all!

Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, c. 1985

This signed copy of Silver Surfer #4 just sold at auction for over $28,000!

View-Master Master Artist: Florence Thomas

Florence Thomas

Florence Thomas

Florence Thomas

Florence Thomas

Florence Thomas

Florence Thomas

By BK Munn

Most fans of the tiny fantasy worlds glimpsed through the lens of a View-Master viewer are probably unaware of the name Florence Thomas. Thomas was the Portland, Oregon sculptor employed by the makers of the 3-D viewer to create miniature dioramas of fairy tales and pop culture scenes which she then photographed for reproduction into the iconic circular white reels that have delighted children and adult collectors for decades.

Thomas produced her first reels for View-Master in 1946 -- a series of Fairy Tales and Mother Goose rhymes that are still in circulation. 

According to one source, Thomas "developed special methods of close-up stereo photography and modeling which is now in common use by major motion picture studios" (John Waldsmith, Stereo Views, 1991). 

She created scenes of such detail and attractiveness that you feel you could step inside and look around a corner at a complete world. 

Besides the Fairy Tales, these worlds included versions of the Frankenstein and Dracula stories, scenes from the comic strip Peanuts, and 3-D versions of animated cartoons like The Flintstones. 

Amazingly, all of the puppet-like figures were sculpted from clay and the scenes were shot using a single-lens camera (not a stereo camera) that was moved on a track to get the stereo shot. 

Sometimes the models were moved slightly between shots to enhance the 3-D effect. 

During her heyday, Thomas appeared on television and radio to satisfy the curiosity of the children who consumed View-Masters by the millions in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, she is largely forgotten except by a few collectors.

Florence Thomas

Florence Thomas

Florence Thomas

Florence Thomas

RIP: Steve Ditko

Steve Ditko

Steve Ditko

Steve Ditko

Deja Vu, All Over Again

The Magic Realism of Illustrators Frank Frazetta and Russ Heath

Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta

Russ Heath

Russ Heath

Three "magic realism" magazine/paperback book/comic book covers that totally blew my mind, back in the day when I first saw them on the magazine racks (and even now) -- two by Frank Frazetta and one by Russ Heath (plus a bonus, modern, re-created Heath version)...

More of the Early Comic Book Issues That I Collected in My Youth