Mark Kausler’s CatBlog

Getting Tyer-ed

Hi Reader(s)! I have had some quality responses to the old blog from Dan Variano and Bob Jaques. Dan likes the Rock and Rollo story from Felix #8, the concluding page is north of this text. He points out that the wallpapering gag is very similar to the Heckle and Jeckle story that Tyer did called “The Misdirected Scarecrow”. If you want to compare the stories, head over to www.animationarchive.org/2006/06/media-jim-tyer-comic-books.html. There you can see several Tyer stories, including the Heckle and Jeckle. The wallpaper idea is much funnier and more fleshed-out in the H and J, but it seems to confirm that Jim wrote a lot of his own stories. I can’t tell if he wrote “Tippy Takes A Trip” from Coo-Coo Comics #16 above, but it is certainly one of his earlier epics. If any of you readers would like to see them, I can reprint his Felix Four-Color stories which he drew together with Joe Oriolo and Otto Messmer. I believe they are Tyer’s first comic book work. I would speculate that he did some newspaper cartooning in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but I’ve never seen any of it. Bob Jaques would like to see a Tyer index of all his comic book work, I don’t have it all, but for a real hard core collector like Milton Knight, or Marc Schirmeister that would be a slam. Thanks to you guys for reading this here tattered blog!

     The dailies this week are Marvelous Mike from November THIRD through Nov. 10, 1956.  I screwed up last week and left a strip out, please excuse the poor repro, I couldn’t get to the scanner and had to paste a copy together from the camera. Relaxo tonic has some amazing properties, as Mike is about to discover in this week’s strips. Now you can actually SEE Mr. Fencemetal packing up to leave “bag and baggage”. What a great era when all a crook had to do was LOOK at a letter from the Better Business Bureau to be scared out of town. Nobody cares about the BBB in our Super Robber Barons age. They aren’t scared of the League of Women Voters, either, more’s the pity.

Krazy Kat this week is from 3/27/1939 to 4/1.  Offissa Pupp actually arrests Ignatz’s brick, and the brick is represented by Lawyer Foxx Potts. Ignatz “springs’ the brick at the end of the sequence. Does anyone know what the reference to “Spaniola” means in the 3/28 strip? Write in and tell me, either post below or write to blogmolasses@att.net. Enjoy the strips!

Managing Comments, etc.

Hi Folk! I’m learning how to manage comments, now that WordPress is screening them for me. I’m getting the usual amount of “crank” emails, notably from Hotmail addresses. It seems that “sonic 3D”, “Vauen”, “Converse37”, “Butler Shrimp” and “Fosteria Glass Ware” are trying to jam all the comments with emails that seem to advertise something. Hotmail and Geocities seem to be the source of most of these attempts at jamming up my blog. SO you $$##((&& of b***%%%es, cut it out! The most recent allowed comments came from Thad and Paul Etcheverry, under the Jerry Lewis post, so if you want to read what they had to say, scroll on down there. Please feel free to comment on anything, I now know how to edit the comments. You can also write to me at blogmolasses@att.net.

The comics this week feature the start of a Jim Tyer story from Coo-Coo comics #16, from March, 1945. This story seems to have been influential on Milton Knight, especially that crazy planet Saturn in the first panel. Come join Tippy as he voyages among the solar system in the next few weeks.  MARVELOUS MIKE this week is from 10/29/1956 to 11/3, Cliff’s old friend Fencemetal, palms off his tonic formula, “Relaxo” on Crump’s boss, Mr. Kimball, then vanishes “bag and baggage”. Of course, Mike is on hand, quoting from Alexander Pope, and ready to help his “dad” out. KRAZY KAT this week is from 3/20 to 3/25/1939, and features Offissa Pupp wagering dimes on Ignatz’s well-worn behavior of tossing bricks, leaving poor Krazy weeping at the end of the sequence. We end with the next two pages of the “Rock and Rollo” story “Too Much Energy” from Felix #8 that we began last week. Rock really gets pepped up on the Professor’s formula and wall papers the whole house, including the TV screen! Exciting conclusion of this Tyer mini-story next week.

For Your Reading Pleasure

Hi Reader(s), in this crazy world it’s hard to tell if we will be with each other from one week to the next, so without further adieu, here are this week’s comics!

The final page of the final published Mangy story: “Mangy’s Stormy Night”, from Mad Raccoons #7 leads off. Mangy was only trying to warn Virgil about his leaky roof. I love Cathy’s drawings of Mangy, especially the sleeping pose on the bed in the last panel. This will be the last appearance of Mangy in this blog, unless I can talk Cathy into doing more.

Marvelous Mike this week is from 10/22-10/29/1956 and features Cliff Crump’s old school chum, Edgar Fencemetal. I wonder if Bob Kuwahara came up with all the names for his characters himself? Fencemetal has a product for Mr. Kimball, Cliff’s boss, to market, and Edgar moves right in on the Crump’s, much to Liz’s disgust.

Krazy Kat (from 3/13-3/18/1939) is a story based on the old saying: “A Cat May Look At A King”, except in this case it’s a Queen Bee that’s the recipient of all the ogling. 3-16 is especially interesting, as Krazy’s gender is called into question by Ignatz.

From Dell Felix #8 we have the final page of “Looks Are Deceiving” by Jim Tyer. Felix slammed Pussyfoot with a Judo manoeuver. This is the last Felix page that Jim Tyer ever drew, as far as I know, by Felix #9, he was out of the book, never to return. Tyer did do one last story in #8, however, featuring Rock and Rollo. It’s called “Too Much Energy”, and is a drug story featuring a new character called “Professor Sauerkraut”, a funny design drawn in Tyer’s “modern but ancient” style. See more of Rock’s antics next week!

Comments may be made right below, or write to me at blogmolasses@att.net.

Not Much

Hi Reader (s). Sorry it’s been a long time since my last post, but I needed to scan some more material and the scanner is far away. Now at last I have more comics to entertain you with. A lot of scary stuff going on with the nation and the ecomomy. I believe it’s compounded by having a Presidential election at the same time as the Stock Market and Credit problems. It’s really hard to know who or what to believe. I have my own theory of economics, I call it the “cat food” theory. A few years ago, some poison meat crept into the pet food industry by way of China and Canada, then came across the border into the U.S. market. A lot of compromised cat food and dog food disappeared from store shelves, and when the kibble settled, what had been a fairly competitive market, with at least five manufacturers of pet food, shrunk to three, two national brands and one store brand. The two pet food makers, and others, who had trouble with their products, never returned. Cat food used to be 25 to 35 cents before the big shakeout, now it’s 50 cents a can and up, why? Reduced competition. The current economic crisis is shaking down the bank industry with the “poison” of bad mortgage loans made during an artificially created housing “boom”. This poison is now spreading through the banking industry and economy, felling one big bank after another. When the gold dust settles, it looks like we will have a lot fewer (and bigger) banks making a lot fewer loans. It will be harder to qualify for a loan and the interest rates will be higher. Why? Reduced competition.  Was this whole crisis engineered? You be the judge as you buy your 50 cent can of cat food made by either Purina or Friskies (no other choice around here), and try to get a small loan from an institution “too big to fail”.

        In this week’s comics, we have the last Mangy story to see print, originally in MAD RACCOONS #7, I call it “Mangy’s Stormy Night”. It’s a charming and beautifully inked comic story by Cathy Hill. I especially love the beautiful use of black in the first page as Mangy is awakened by the lightning flash. Page two is fun to look at as well, as Mangy leans over Virgil with her food bowl in the first panel. I like the distortion Cathy put into that drawing, as Mangy’s head moves toward Virgil’s nose. The conclusion of this story will be in the next post. Marvelous Mike this week is from 10/15 to 10/20/1956. I think this is the windup to the “Big Donation” story. Mike solves Cliff’s amnesia with the old cartoon cure, a hammer blow to Cliff’s head. When he awakens, Cliff finds that Mike has won the contest for him but he still doesn’t believe it. Krazy Kat is from 3/6 to 3/11/1939 and involves Ignatz’s two pals, Church and Door Mouse. They make things very confusing for Offissa Pupp. “Looks Are Deceiving” continues from Felix #8 by Jim Tyer. The drawing and staging are up with Tyer’s best stuff here, Pussyfoot’s laughing poses are amusing to look at and the inking is really dynamic. I like the comic action of Felix spinning the cocky Pussyfoot around by his tail in the second page, so typical of Tyer’s animation. I hope you enjoy the comics, there will be some more vintage Tyer to come after Felix #8. Please come back and see. If anybody asks you what you’re doing when reading this humble blog, just say “Not Much”. Any comments, either click the link below or write me at blogmolasses@att.net.