Mark Kausler’s CatBlog

Farewell Scout!

 Scout seems to have gone over pretty well with you readers, so here she is once more.  Scout looks out of the sliding glass doors as she waits for me to play leaf hockey with her. I love the friendly half closed eyes, she’s relaxed and comfortable with the routine. That’s a typical sycamore leaf in the foreground, Scout loves big leaves!  Here in marked contrast to the pose above, is Scout about to move to her new house! She doesn’t look too happy here. I held her against her will as her caregiver prepared the dreaded CAT CARRIER for transport. Poor little Scout struggled and kicked me with her back feet, but didn’t scratch or bite as she tried to escape. Cats don’t like travel, even in the most comfortable of cat carriers. I really miss my friend, but, the happy thing is, she’s alive, and will have a wonderful happy home with folks who love her. Don’t you wish all cats could have such a bright future ahead of them?

 Here’s a whole week’s worth of Krazy strips that have minstrelsy in them. In other words, Ignatz in black face. These are from 3-2 to 3-7-1942. The black mice start in the 3-4 daily, and the dialect that Ignatz speaks is spot-on, or should I say soot-on. Offissa Pupp finally has had enough in the 3-7 and tries to wash Ignatz’s face, only to discover an authentic black mouse named “Curfew”. His wife Ambrosia, lets Pupp have it with a broom and he “leloose”‘s Curfew. Note that the dialect becomes a lot more Joel Chandler Harris in the 3-7, when Ignatz speaks with a Southern black accent in the earlier strips, the wording is a little simpler. Herriman was of mixed heritage himself, but doesn’t shrink from the occasional black stereotype in his comics, that was the humor of Krazy Kat’s time.

 In Felix from 2-19 to 2-25-1934, Danny’s home is invaded by a burglar pretending to be Santa Claus. In “Bedtime Worries”, an Our Gang comedy of the early 1930’s, a burglar tried to use the same ruse to fool Spanky. Danny and his brother are easily fooled by the burglar’s friendly demeanor, but Felix remains skeptical. In the Sunday, Felix still controls the weather from the planet Jupiter, freezing a tramp who is after Danny. I love the large expressive hands and fingers that Messmer puts on his human characters, the burglar in the 2/22 is especially interesting. Messmer draws many of his characters bodies as big barrel shapes, and the heads as simple ovals or bean shapes. He was an early practitioner of creating cartoon characters based on round, friendly forms.

 Here’s Myrtle from 11-23 to 11-29-1947. In the 11-24, note how Dudley Fisher has a squirrel bopping Myrtle with a walnut. If this didn’t influence the nut boppin’ squirrels in “Mutts”, it should have. The 11-27 strip was scanned from my tear-sheet, because the strip was missing from Newspaper Archive. It’s a clearer looking image, but lacks the lower third of the drawing. I hope you enjoy all the comics!