Mark Kausler’s CatBlog

Junior Times Chase Craig and Fred Moore!

 Man, these blogs are just a lot of damned hard work sometimes! This thing is running away with itself, but I just love these old strips and the early work of famous animators, so here we go again with the L.A. Junior Times from 1926! There’s a cover up there from Feb. 28th, 1926, by the pioneering comics editor and cartoonist, Chase Craig! I like the collage he brings to the design, like no other cover designer I’ve seen so far. He received the grand total of ten dollars for his design, large money for a kid in 1926. There are two “Al Falfa” strips by Chase from Feb. 14th, 1926 and an “Archy Jr.” strip by Chase’s pal, Al Perez. Al puts Chase in his “Archy Jr.” strip and makes fun of the “Al Falfa” character. I wonder if Chase knew about FARMER Al Falfa? I love these strips not so much for the jokes, which are strictly Capt. Billy material, but for all the comaraderie and high energy in the Junior Times strips. Note also that Chase had his own fanzine he published from his home in Texas called “Cartoonist and Illustrator”. I have never seen an issue of that ‘zine, have you? For a real jolt of L.A. history, check out “Bobbie’s Clown” from March 7th, 1926 by Bobby Richards. The Clown and his pal visit the Chaplin studio over on La Brea as Charlie films “The Circus”. The first panel is quite authentic, that’s the way the entrance to the studio really looked. I’ve also posted three Fred Moore cartoons, two strips, from Feb. 28th and March 21st, and another 10 dollar cover design, from March 28th, 1926. I don’t quite know what Fred was trying to imply here, did the Times Junior Club eat up it’s members? Even at this early stage of his life, Fred Moore liked cute, appealing characters, and his little cat on the Jr. Times cover is very cute. Fred drew a lot of little kid gags in his comics, these two look like they were stolen from an old Gus Edwards stage routine. Weren’t these kid cartoonists lucky back in ’26 to have Aunt Dolly of the L.A. Times? She really cared about the kids and promoted their work every way that she could. She threw lavish parties for them downtown with guests like Hoot Gibson and Tom Mix, full jazz band orchestras and all the food the kids could eat! More about the Times Junior Club cartoonists next post.

Here’s Barker Bill, from 4/18 to 4/30/1955. The Hippo is in big trouble as she swallows a watch with a radium dial. The midget buys a Geiger counter from Col. Whetwhistle and finds that the Hippo is radioactive! A bunch of gangsters kidnap the Hippo to mine the uranium out of her (they think). Puddy and Barker Bill trail the Hippo to the gangsters’ hide-out. The strip from 4/28 is very blurry on the copy I have here (from the Boston Globe). Here’s the dialog: Gangster: “Another juvenile delinquent, disgustin–” Moll: “Leave the poor kid alone and get goin–” Gangster: “Here goes Moll with her mudderly instincts again–” Moll: (to midget) “Diddums baddums man hittums itty bitty darling–” Midget (thinking): “Humiliatin’–But I better play along–” Puddy (to Bill):”Hey–this gives me a hot idea, Bill–Bzzz–” Puddy figures out a pretty painful way for them to escape.

Felix from 7-15 to 7-21-1935 has Felix and Danny still on the Ape’s island trying to re-join the Captain’s company. But the Professor’s explorers are cut off from the Captain by a giant Armadillo, who does not suffer cartoon cats gladly. Felix flies up in the air on a giant bird to signal the Captain with cigar smoke sky writing (it’s fun to see Felix smoking), and then temporarily blinds the Armadillo with pepper bombs. Will the Professor cut Felix some slack for these brave deeds? In the Sunday, Felix reforms a robber by giving him a nightmare in which all his body parts are wanted by various dentists and doctors and Indians of Dreamland. The robber is scared straight.

 In Krazy, from 5-26 to 5-31-1941, there are two phony brick gags, two “chiggen” gags, featuring incubators and an aborted “tryst” turned into a “twist” ending by Ignatz. Herriman continues to suggest a stage setting for the Coconino Kast by popping floorboards and rugs into his foregrounds whenever he can. I especially like the 5-27, with it’s dirt path, cobblestones, floorboards and hedge that falls out of the last panel, while the big tree trunk remains stationary.

 Here’s Myrtle (Right Around Home) by Dudley Fisher, from 1-18 to 2-14-1947. Next post we will get into a more regular sequence with the dates, this time we skip a lot. Bingo the merry dog is featured in the 1-18, 1-31 and 2-8, and Myrtle’s mischievous traits are revealed in the 2-7 (she plays poker better than her Dad) and the 2-14, in which she tries to start a fight between the neighbor and her Dad just for her own amusement. I love the pose that Sampson takes in the second panel of the 2-10 as he gives out with a loud “Whoop”! Fisher’s strips are full of beautiful, flexible character poses and wonderful arrangements of his character groups, with great harmony of design. Most cartoonists today have no concept of a flexible spine in a character, mostly they stand stiff as flagpoles. Composition, character groups? Mostly the same arrangements over and over again.

 Readers, I’m gonna beat Yowp to the punch. Here’s the May, 1962, Yogi Bear Sunday pages. They are from 5-6 to 5-27. I’m sure he will have good notes on these soon over at his blog, so just keep clicking on “Yowp” over on the Blogroll, and keep tabs on him. I put one over on the old hound this time!

People, I’m exhausted, but you can catch more craziness on the Cat’s new Facebook page: www.facebook.com/someothercat . There, you will see drawings and a few cel set-ups from the short currently before the cameras, “There Must Be Some Other Cat”. Itza (the Cat’s name) would love to be “Friends” with you over there. Humph, I’ve been doing this blog for five years, where are all my “Friends”!?

Until the next time, Bullet your Heart and Hall Lugea!