Harry Tukus is a well known illustrator of magazines. His Evie graces every issue of Modern Nudist providing us all with gentle naturist humor, proving nudity is more than just being naked. It is with great pride we interview him for our Fall issue.
Q: How did you get started in cartooning?
HT: Same as anyone. I practiced drawing Betty and Veronica nude, as figure studies. I learned a lot that way. Most artists are schooled in the streets.
Q: The kid’s comic Archie?
HT: Sure. Those are standard cheesecake pin-up figures. Same as any other so-called risqué art in modern magazines. The same thing that interested artists thousands of years ago, the human figure rendered in two dimensions. Check it out, Betty and Veronica are no different than any other illustrative pin-up. No different than Hedy Lamarr28. Betty Boop. George of the Jungle. Betty was based on a real woman named Betty Jankovitch29. There were other comics of that type. Have been, still are. But Archie has staying power because of the allure of the perpetual love triangle. Good clean fun.
The comics page was instrumental. Popeye showed oddly sharped figures, fighting, squabbling amongst their own number. In poverty they fight over limited resources. Unlike Archie there is no pretense of a possible love triangle and few options. There is always the possibility that, like the comic foil Whimpy, they could be left behind by the social system. Unloved. In Blondie, Dagwood placates his powerlessness within the system by consuming sandwiches named for his plight. Ornate and impossible, he strives to fill the endless void with consumerist pleasures only sparking further misery. Who will one be: Whimpy or Dagwood? The binary choice of capital. This is exploitation, plain and simple. People motivated by fear whether by the carrot or the stick. They dream of being Richie Rich, but forget that his world is filled with lesser serfs. It is the dream being sold, social place. Fear. The Splendor of Majesty categorized as earned. Pity the rich man who cannot enter the kingdom of heaven and must make a pleasing hell on earth filled with consumerist pleasures, affordable or not. The underdog of the popular press.
Pin-ups were painted on the noses of warplanes. Incendiary bombs dropping from containers decorated with the hopes and dreams of the men who control both the flightpath and the Bomb bay doors. Their minds on their maps, their destinations. Their eyes on the horizon ever in the distance. Their hearts in limbo, neither here nor there. They are good men, following orders, dreaming of the good life after the war. But the war never ends. Who is the hero? The one who paints the desires of the heart. That is how one comes to art. Through struggle.
Q: You will be traveling to Washington to give testimony before the committee on decency.
HT: And we will prevail. The committee itself is indecent. This is the age old fight. One between desire and shame. And my testimony to them is that desire will always win. Freedom will always be the dream. Full freedom means every person enjoying themselves to the fullest extent. Without coercion. Without authoritarian oversight. Without false binary choices. Not without disappointment but with no need for regret. I will tell them it is time to let others be. In the end, that is how we free ourselves.