Month: April 2007


Tyer’s Felix Comics!


dscn2707.JPGdscn2706.JPGdscn2704.JPGdscn2700.JPGThis post was inspired by Chris’s question on the “Tyer Felix” post. Here is an index of Jim Tyer’s Felix the Cat comics. He didn’t work on as many as I thought, he was there at the beginning, and in 1963 in the Dell 12cents era. Here’s the list:

Four-Color #119, Tyer and Messmer shared stories on these first few comics.

Four-Color #135

Four-Color #162

Felix the Cat #1

Felix the Cat #3, Tyer’s first complete story: “Solo Fright”.

Felix the Cat #2 (1963 series) Cover, Story: “Beaux and Arrows”, “You Must’ve Been A Beautiful Baby” and “Wreck Rider”

Felix the Cat #3: Cover, Story: “Fair Weather Edscn2699.JPGnemies”,”You Auto Be In Pictures”

Felix the Cat #4: Cover, Story: “Chairman of the Bored”, “The Vicious Cycle”, “Tale of a Fish”, “A Sample Assignment”, “There Auto Be A Law” and Rock and Rollo in “A Moving Story”. Entire Issue!

Felix the Cat #5: Cover, Story: “Some-Her”, “Modern Times”

Felix the Cat #6: Cover, Story: “Clothes Make the Cat”

Felix the Cat #7: Cover, Story: “A Biscuit A Basket”

Felix the Cat #8: Cover, Story: “Looks Are Deceiving”, Rock and Rollo in “Too Much Energy”. After this, Tyer disappears from Felix comics forever! (Sob!)

Pictures today are the covers of the 1963 Felix Comics, the Cover of #119, two pages from Tyer’s first complete story “Solo Fright” (I love that panel of Felix saying “Golly”, with the letters falling down), and Tyer’s first Felix page: “Ancient Egypt”.

Cinder


652c_3.jpge838_3.jpgI love this black cat from a 1920s children’s book. This little volume sold for big dollars on Ebay recently. I couldn’t get it, but saved a few illustrations from it. Hope you like them.

Tyer Felix!


tyer-felix-14.jpgtyer-felix-17.jpgtyer-felix-15.jpgThe Joe Oriolo Felix the Cat TV cartoons from the early 60s are pretty difficult to sit through. Slow, stiltled dialog, lots of stock actions, and Felix himself sounds and acts a lot like Mickey. The Professor and Rock Bottom are the real stars of the series. Jack Mercer’s vocal diversity is impressive, he sounds so different as each one of the characters, I like the Professor’s voice best. It’s gravelly and sounds a bit sophisticated and stuffy. The episodes that Jim Tyer drew are the most fun to watch today. It’s a hoot to look at the crazy eyes he drew on the Prof. and Rock, and the stretch inbetweens he used to shoot the characters across the backgrounds. Tyer did a lot of special tricks, for instance when a character like the Prof. is falling through the air and hits earth, Tyer animates about 24 frames of a shadow getting larger on the ground, then Tyer exposes one frame of the Prof. squashed down in the contact position and pops if off BEFORE the rest of the falling action happens! You would think this would confuse the viewer, but it works very well, sort of a pre-image that underscores the rest of the action. Here’s a few frame grabs of Tyer’s silly drawings for Felix. He also drew many of the Dell, Toby and  Harvey Felix comics in the 40s-60s.

Funny Cat pictures


jack-chases-bear-up-tree-in-new-jersey.jpgHere are two of my favorite cat pictures, tlittle-gray-eats-dinner.JPGhey are both very cartoony. One is of our outdoor tom cat: Little Gray, ignoring his “catch”, and chowing down on “Super Supper” (we always call it “stupid supper”). The other is a photo of either the bravest kitty who ever lived, or the most cowardly bear! The cat’s name is Jack and he is from New Jersey. Jersey cats must be the toughest! I can almost see a Barney Bear or Yogi gag here!

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