Unsigned comic musician Joe Pop's music is about to get a little more ethereal with the introduction of a theremin into the strip. Joe is the creation of artist Dave Laplante, who has been drawing the weekly strip since 2006. Dave promises the theremin will feature prominently in upcoming editions, and there may even be a clever surprise thrown in as well. We'll let you know as new strips are posted each week so you can follow along as Joe and his bass player get their theremin on!
An interesting take on some theremin history. Samuel Hoffman was given his RCA theremin in the 1930's in payment for some session work he had done for band leader Jolly Coburn.
Hoffman later went on to define the sound and the role of the theremin in popular culture throughout the late 1940's and 1950's through his highly successful 78 rpm theremin recordings and the many film soundtracks on which he played.
Something you may not be aware of, artist Dave Laplante, the creator of Joe Pop, is an electronics wiz and an accomplished restorer of vintage and antique tube devices (amps, radios, etc.). A genuine modern "renaissance man".
What model theremin is this? It looks like a vintage Moog tube device, but I don't think he was using a loop antenna at that time. There is more than a passing resemblance to the device on the 'Spellbound' graphic on the Thereminworld homepage. More detail is hoped for, World Thereminization demands it!
