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Marilyn Fitschen's illustrations for St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies mark some of her first published artwork. She and her husband, Dale, met Bellairs in Chicago and were some of the first to hear to the riveting tales of tiny St. Fidgeta in 1963. The next year, some of her initial illustrations - along with a typed copy of the saint's story - were sent to the Catholic paper, the Critic where, in the summer of 1965, the rest of the world was introduced to patroness of nervous children. In 1966, Macmillan Press came calling and Fitschen began drawing bizarre bishops, confused cathedrals, and numerous naughty nuns to accompany Bellairs' newly completed chapters.
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The cherub preceding the first page - and on the cover - is St Fidgeta. She was not consciously modeled after John, but everyone who saw it swore it was. If you look carefully at the drawings throughout chapter one you will find my tiny MF scrawled in corners. They were put there as a picture before submitting the whole works to the Critic. When we learned that they were going into a book, I never thought to sign any others, nor remove the initials from the first chapter.
This book was my very first attempt at caricature and I didn't exactly know what I was doing, but Dale would make suggestions when I got too realistic. I found the hardest part was using the same character in different drawings and making it look like the same character. |
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If you look very closely at the structure of the Convent of Fobbio, you will realize that this building could not possibly exist, and could not possibly rest on the cliff. The cliff could probably not exist either - or not for long, at any rate. |
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I used coolies to represent forced labor for the farmers rather than the 'happy peasants' referred to in the text. Simply a more direct way to make a point. I never thought of peasants as happy and I don't think John did either. And it wasn't a reference to Vietnam either. |
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I believe I saw a picture of a hand on a helmet (or was it a fist?) somewhere for Saint Dragomira. I may have been thinking of Don Quixote when I drew the figure on the horse. I do remember thinking of her troops as Valkyries (from Wagner's Ring Cycle). They were, of course, Norse. |
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The only drawing specifically modeled after a painting was Ruben's The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, probably my favorite illustration of the chapter. |
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There were no models used except Fidgeta on the swing. There I used the idea suggested by John when he mentioned Fragonard in the text. When I think of Fragonard's paintings, I think 'French,' 'Baroque,' and a floofly woman in a swing. |
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The armor on the knight was probably from a design book I have and the little drawing may have been added by our editor. |
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The two-headed dove in the bottom center is, as you may have guessed, a representation of our perception of Johnson's two-faced handling of the peace in Viet Nam issue. |
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The large bird-like creature in the lower right is Lady Bird Johnson as seen from the rear directing her two daughters. The flower is actually a sort of bonnet. |
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John took such delight in my drawings that he didn't even notice that I inverted Johnson's initials. Yes, it should read LBJ, although Dale said I should lie and say I meant to represent "Long John Bellairs. Pretty weak. |
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On a scale of 1 to 10 ("1" being "Not even close, you dolt" and "10" being "This what I see in the mirror"), how much do you look like the Question Box Moderator?
Myers: Definitely a 1. Not like me at all. Fap, sirrah! But it sure looks like Bellairs, as do many other of Marilyn's illustrations in the book.
Bowen: Maybe 5 or 6. Possibly 7 if I shaved off the beard, but I've had it since 1965 and do not intend to part with it. Actually, though, I have always considered this picture to be a caricature of John, with the addition of long white hair. Although Marilyn has never seen or heard of me (to the best of my knowledge), she obviously had many opportunities to observe the author. |
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