With the media blitz surrounding the return of Mother Monster after her agonizing six-month absence from the public eye, recuperating from a broken hip (Granny Gaga?), I simply had to weigh in with my two cents. Although quite a Gaga fan, I hardly consider myself one of her “Little Monsters” and see myself more as one of her peers. A bold statement? I’ll explain.
Lady Gaga considers herself a living piece of art, constantly displaying her expression through her various looks and whatnot. As an artist, I describe myself as a pop culture cartoonist. What the hell is a “pop culture cartoonist?” How the hell should I know? It just seemed a convenient shorthand to describe what I do. I write and I draw, but I’m not conceited enough to call myself writer/artist so I opted for a more pretentious sounding route. What? In the age of entitlement and unending “selfies” on social media, I consider it rather humble. Ahem.
So, Lady Gaga’s much anticipated (I presume) forthcoming new record (See? Isn’t that pretentious to outrage you by using such an antiquated term to describe an album?) is titled ARTPOP, all caps. A clever play on words or a lazy, dyslexic interpretation of the “Pop Art” movement?
The pop art movement having started in Britain in the mid 1950s and spread like syphilis to the States later that same decade. Pop Art consists of anti-elitist, often garish images that incorporate art with iconic pop culture images. The most popular artist associated with Pop Art, of course, being Andy Warhol. Gaga has a prevalent Warhol influence, and I am often accused of “thinking I am Andy Warhol.” I suppose there are worse things people could say like thinking I’m Rob Liefeld or something. Not that there’s anything with ridiculous anatomy and nonexistent cohesion in storytelling, if you own it, that is.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Pop Art was lamented in its infamy as not really art. I mean who silk screens a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup. A genius, no? I mean, you did know exactly what I was talking about, right? Pop Art is more prevalent than ever, using iconic images in ironic fashions. All you need do is Google “Pop Art” to find an image of Snow White smoking a cigarette. Isn’t it ironic? Don’tcha think? How? “Irony is in the eye of the beholder,” Grandma Troy always used to say. So, in my pop art quest I often draw my obsession of Wonder Woman in different incarnations which usually ticks people off, but I think that is another purpose of pop art. It’s not fun unless someone’s pissed. I’ve drawn Snooki as Wonder Woman, I’ve drawn Ellen as Wonder Woman, and my Lady Gaga tribute comic book, Going Gaga!, has a cover homage to George Perez’s post-crisis Wonder Woman #1. And, Lady Gaga tweeted about my book. Now, would she do that for any Little Monster? Not to be reductive or repetitive, I was inspired once again to homage Wonder Woman and Gaga based on some of the promo art for Gaga’s new ARTPOP album. So, I give you a pop culture cartoonist’s vision of two iconic characters in one compelling image: WonderPOP! Pretentious? Pedantic? Pshaw!
Get a T-shirt of this pop art image here.
ABOUT MICHAEL FITZGERALD TROY:
Michael Troy is a deeply superficial person. Born in the midwest in the ’70s, Michael came to Los Angeles to pursue his bi-polar career path as an actor and artist. 2005 saw the release of Michael’s first published book, Homo-Hero’s Big Book of Fun and Adventure (www.greencandypress.com). Michael has contributed to the Lady Gaga comic book from Bluewater Productions and has his hand in various other upcoming projects. Michael has performed stand-up comedy at all of the major comedy clubs in Los Angeles and is making his triumphant return to the main stage of The Comedy Store in September. Michael offers an off-beat sense of humor as the star of such youtube cult classics As The Gays on Film (www.youtube.com/fullfrontaltv), A Minute With Margot, a loving tribute to Superman legend Margot Kidder (http://www.youtube.com/user/rktcommander), and currently hosts a vlog style series Lethally Blonde over at www.monsterburg.com. Sitting alongside industry heavyweight Phil Jimenez at the “Divas and Lassoes” panel for the 2010 San Diego comic-con, Michael maintains and cherishes his “underground” status. A staunch believer in Blonde Ambition, Michael hopes his new comic about shallow blonde super heroes in Los Angeles, The Blonde Squad, will set the world on fire (or at least brighten it a bit). Check out Michael Troy and Lethally Blonde updates here!!!
