Lefty Limbo

The latest addition from That ’70s Box, this one circa 1979. Definitely inspired by a National Geographic issue covering the Apollo 11 mission, and even more so, the infamous filmed footage of the Apollo 11 liftoff, as seen below on YouTube:

Rockets were simply awe-inspiring to me as a kid—from the real thing to the down-to-earth playground version—and to this day, it’s still amazing to me now how something so massive can generate enough thrust to push it all the way into space. Watch that footage yourself and you’ll see what I mean. See all that fire in the beginning of the clip? Can you imagine how much freakin’ propulsion power that is? Crazy.

In earlier renditions of this launch (circa 1976–77), I used to think that the rocket actually broke free from the tower, violently wresting itself from the various hoses and miscellaneous girder-wrapped connections that held onto it. You could see how I probably misinterpreted the images beginning at :34 onwards, especially around :48 when the ice chunks are seen falling—I thought those were pieces of metal and machinery.

Something I’ve rediscovered lately, thanks to Facebook (of all places), are Pee Chee folders, which were supremely iconic of my ’70s and ’80s childhood, not necessarily because of what they were, but because of what kids turned them into.

At first glance, they were innocent, simple folders, whose illustrations (by Francis Golden) hoped to motivate the average student with exciting images of athletes in game-winning action—from the female tennis player frozen in an ace serve, to a football player soaring in mid-air, crushing his adversary in a touchdown attempt, to a group of runners, with one man clearly in the lead, his face filled with confidence and determination.

Mead (the manufacturer of Pee Chee folders) probably had the same intent as any other school-supply manufacturer: Make the kids happy and proud to be in school.

Instead, however, in most cases the Pee Chee folder became an instant billboard to reflect the complete opposite—that school was, indeed, the furthest thought from a student’s mind.

I would dare say that anyone who grew up in Los Angeles in the ’70s and ’80s would regard the Pee Chee folder as a pure icon of their school daze, with fond recall of the hilarious, mischievous and often demented artistic expressions which young, bored and angst-ridden students subjected those poor athletes to.

I myself have started a Flickr group devoted to the preservation of this folk art, and have been scouring the web for surviving specimens. I’ll be highlighting my favorite finds here on Lefty Limbo, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I encourage all of you ’70s and ’80s kids to dig into your closet/basement/attic/trash/someone else’s trash for these long lost treasures, and post them up before they’re gone forever. Rock on.

(Circa 1976–’78, 6–8 yrs. old) Above is probably the best example of how I exploited the dot-matrix printer sheets that my mom would bring home from the UCLA library where she worked in the ’70s. Once again, courtesy of That ’70s Box which has been a seemingly bottomless pit of drawings from my childhood.

The virtually endless canvas allowed me to create detailed battle scenes such as this one, filled with all the horror and glory of warfare, seen through the eyes of a lad whose dad exposed him to epic WWII films at an early, early age. I can still recall making the various weapon and vehicle noises while I drew, from the chatter of machine gun fire to the droning prop engines of the bombers flying overhead, peppered with the “BOOOZZHHHH!!” of tank turret rounds. It was great fun.

It’s too bad Flickr wouldn’t let me maintain a large size which would allow one to scroll through the scenery. So instead, I had to rescan highlights of the vista for your viewing pleasure. Do enjoy, nevertheless.

Yup, it’s typically no contest between a jeep and a tank. What strikes me most about this scene though is the meticulous detail I put into the soldier’s skeleton. It’s one thing to show the vehicle’s destruction, but the skeletal remains of its driver, stripped completely of its flesh? I was more macabre than I thought.

Wow, I even drew his teeth? I really did want to expose the grim reality of war after all. Funny, to this day I find the topic of our death and mortality the most fascinating of all.

One distinct detail I found myself drawn to in the WWII movies was the swastika, whose emblem became synonymous with “the bad guys”…and in this battle, they clearly weren’t winning…note below though, on the plane’s left wing, it looks as though I’d originally planned to make it an American aircraft (see the beginning of a USAF symbol).

Still wonder how I could spend so much time drawing that skeleton, then only put in half the effort on these “living” soldiers. Hmm. Shouldn’t have turned your back on that approaching bomber there, mister.

Man, this guy really bit it, bigtime. Getting hit by both a bomber and a tank at the same time? That had to hurt, even if for a fraction of a second. I laugh when I imagine that huge bomber going in at an extremely low level just to get that dood. “Take that!” The ghosted image of Darth Vader (drawn on the other side of the sheet) appears to look on with approval.

Last but not least, don’t forget to pull the pin before throwing the grenade.