Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

Back here I wrote a blogposting about "Pulp Fiction Art," a documentary that I'd watched on DVD. I enjoyed the film but also expressed some quibbles with it. Jamie McDonald, who directed the film, sent me an email about my posting:

Now for my review of the review. As the filmmaker of this documentary, I take exception to a few things. You say there is a lack of attention put on the illustrators themselves. I don't see how you could come to that conclusion considering that an artist is profiled an average every 6 minutes in the film. Also, all experts who worked on this film agree that I have included all the major artists of the genre in this film.

As for your comment that there was not enough info or footage of the artists. That was one of the main points of the whole documentary: First, only a handful are still living. Out of the four I found, only two wanted to talk. Which is the other point of the film. They didn't want to be known for this art, thus many are unknown.

You also called the film zig-zaggy and disorganized. Others have commented just the opposite -- telling me I have given a linear quality to a art form/business that is hard to catagorize. The very nature of the art form, its history and definition, is by its nature very unorganized. Many of the conventional facts about the genre are still argued by many of the experts in the field. I'm proud to say no one has argued with the facts as I have put them down on the film.

As for the length of the film. Two things; it was made for television. Second, most art history films are 60 minutes because of the subject matter.

Though I think Jamie may have overlooked the part of my posting where I urged visitors to put his film near the top of their Netflix queues, I'm glad he took the time to send me his thoughts. In the pre-web days, it used to be massively frustrating for artists that they almost never got a chance to respond to critiques of their work. I think it's a great development that, where discussing art goes, electronics allow for a much more freewheeling to-and-fro.

Do be sure to give Jamie's film a watch. Whatever my quibbles with it were, I got a lot out of it, and you'll almost certainly get a lot out of it too. You can buy a copy of "Pulp Fiction Art" here. Jamie's website for the film is here.

Best,

Michael