Post-Halloween Post
 I think the years are passing by with incredible rapidity, so let’s slow down just a little before we crash into Thanksgiving and remember Halloween! Cathy and I had fun on Halloween, and I’m not over it yet, so here’s a photo of our pumpkin and a pair of skeleton bikers. The pumpkin is a tribute to “The Scream”, the painting and the movie, and the bikers were among the street decorations on Alegria Street in Sierra Madre, Ca. I love how the wheels and the motors of the motorcycles are made entirely of carved pumpkins. The folks who put these up go all out every Halloween and even grow their own giant pumpkins in the back yard for carving. They put up a dragon on their front walk which was composed entirely of carved pumpkins tied together to form the long, segmented body. You can see why I’m still back there on Oct. 31st!
 It looks like Felix has finally escaped from Antarctica in the Sunday from 7-8-1934. The explorers put him out of the igloo for the night, but the nights are six months long in Antarctica, so Felix flags down a big fish and gets a ride out on the Arctic ocean. In the dailies from 7-2 to 7-7-1934, Mr. Yiminy gets a big reward for Felix’s capture of the scarecrow bandit, and ties up an IRS man when he shows up to collect the taxes on it. Mr. Yiminy is showing his country gentleman side, now that he can afford it. How much longer will Felix keep his new home, before the Yiminys decide that he isn’t “chic” enough for them with their newfound one-percent status?
 In Myrtle, from 4-5 to 4-11-1948, Dudley Fisher entertains us with the newly discovered prowess of Bingo, Myrtle’s dog, as a baseball pitcher. In the 4-8, Bingo learns to fetch and brings Papa the garbage, in the 4-9 and 4-10, the talented Dog is actually able to toss a ball with his front right leg just like a human. I like the 4-10, as Myrtle’s folks try to take all the credit for Bingo’s pitching, but all Bingo gets out of it is a sore leg! The Sunday page is here, too, with a wonderful Fisher 3/4 downshot of the Right Around Home gang finishing the repairs on their fishing boat.
 In Krazy from 7-13 to 7-18-1942, there isn’t much continuity. I like the 7-14 strip, composed of one word of dialog, “Hepp”, started by Kat and picked up by Pupp, ending with a disgruntled “Mice”. Hepp-Hepp was an oft-repeated swing era phrase, used in a popular song called the “Jumping Jive”, maybe Garge was reflecting it’s influence here. In the 7-15, there is a nice little exchange between Krazy and an “Ommy” worm, reflecting the military timeliness of 1942. There is a choice bit of Kat Langwitch in the third panel as Krazy says “Figgood Nitz sake, how did you get in the ommy?”, to which the worm replies “Nee”, meaning he was born into the “Ommy”. In this daily we also can see the little stage set footlight decorations that Garge favored, evolving into the edge of a pond. The cross-hatching in the first panel with Krazy emerging from it’s midst, conveys an ethereal existence for the Kat, he materializes out of ink lines! See you again very soon!
Charles Brubaker says:
Those pumpkins are great. The only exciting thing that happened on that day was that a kid across the street from me was TP’ing her own house. She said it was part of the decoration for a Halloween Party that was occurring there.
Jamie says:
Hello, I really enjoy your blog as well the reprint of Yogi, Felix & Krazi Kat with the occasional painting..maybe watercolor/oil don’t remember a bit sleepy@the moment :)) The new format of sticking dailies together is better for the old wrist, else lotsa clickings (o_^)to do. I found this blog via Yowp I’m also a fun of Hot Stuff (Lil’Devil comics), HB’s Flintstones, Yogi & co. & Lee Falks’ duo M&P. I also like Popeye, do you have any early dailies? All the best & thanks for your hard work, J.
PS: At moment not using email nomail= no mail a/c, if I get 1 will let you know.
Mark says:
Thanks Jamie! I’m glad you like the comics and the occasional paintings. Also the “new” format for the strips. I’m glad you like Hot Stuff, I have a small collection of “Devil Kids” and the regular Hot Stuff book. I love Warren Kremer’s art on the “Stumbo the Giant” feature. The only early dailies of Popeye I have are the Segar set that Fantagraphics published. I would like to read the early Sims and Zaboly stories, but they haven’t been collected yet.
Glad you’re reading Itza!
Mark