Help Yourself to Last of the Christmas Pan!
Smee blows up real good in the next to the last strip in the 4 week continuity, Peter Pan’s Christmas Story, originally published 12-19 to 12-24-1960, written by Frank Reilly and Drawn and Inked by Manuel Gonzales. I hope all my readers have just as delightful a Christmas as Santa, Peter Pan and Walt Disney wished you 53 years ago!
 Felix ran originally from 2-5 to 2-11-1934. Felix gets one of his rare “Thank You”s in the 2-5, as Danny’s Mom proffers him a huge feed. There are gags about streamline car chassis, silly goats, little pups with Mickey Mouse ears and how not to mess up a newly painted floor. The Sunday page really gets cosmic as Felix’s balloon floats higher and higher, until he is hit by a comet and ricochets to Jupiter! I wonder if the 1938 Paul Terry cartoon, “Just Ask Jupiter” may have been inspired by this Felix page?
 Krazy Kat is from 2-16 to 2-21-1942, and has some solid “hoomerous kontinooittee” throughout the week. Ignatz has been thrown in Jail so often that he thinks of it as home, much to Pupp’s disgust. Not even a visit from the Kounty Tax Collector can force the “mice” out, Ig’s wife sets up “micekeeping” and Offissa Pupp gets thrown out on his back in the 2-21. Garge’s art on the 2-21 is especially beautiful, I love panel 3, as Krazy looks around the corner of the building, and panel 4 looks like it was one of Herriman’s famous “scratched out” originals, in which he used the Bristol board like scratch board to indicate the speed lines as Ig throws Pupp down the path. Folks, I hope I’ll be back for a New Year’s post, until then, stay out of the Egg Nog! Have a hot Tom and Jerry instead.
Roberto Severino says:
Happy holidays, sir. I’m so happy that you still are able to post all this great stuff. A lot of the animation blogs that I read regularly barely post anymore and I’ve been trying to figure out what happened to Michael Barrier’s blog. Perhaps you might have more insight. When I try to go there, it keeps saying that the domain expired.
I also liked your Get a Horse review. I saw bits of it online and thought it was alright but your points were completely valid and I don’t know why anyone took offense to what you said.
Mark says:
Thanks, Roberto! Happy Holidays to you as well. Blog posting is going out of fashion on the Internet, due to the rising popularity of social media. I really don’t have time for Twitter or Facebook, since I spend maybe 2 to 3 hours a day on the ‘Net already. This Blog and the Itza Cat Facebook page are all I do, and the Facebook page is suffering due to lack of time for it. Mike Barrier’s Blog is really excellent when he has time for it, but he’s a busy person and is writing a new book on the Dell comics line called FUNNYBOOKS. Watch for it, as it may be the last book he writes. As far as I know, the Domain has NOT expired for his Blog, just keep checking on it from time to time. I’m glad you liked the “Get A Horse!” review, it looks like it’s going to snag an Academy nomination for sure. You already know my opinion.
Anthony says:
I only discovered your blogsite today and was looking through it for Christmas related strips when I came across your Pan’s Christmas post. Out of all the different comic strips I’ve seen over the years, I still remember the 1990s Disney holiday strips and am very surprised that there aren’t more of them around.
Thank-you and Happy Holidays,
Anthony