Playin’ Felix the Cat-chup
I’m playing Cat-Chup this week with the Felix strips. Here are the missing dailies: 5/23, 5/30, 6/19, 6/25, 6/29 and 7/2/36. As a bonus, here are the four missing Sunday pages that fit into our dates: 5/24, 5/31, 6/7 and 6/14/36. These fill in the missing Socky and magic wand episodes and the Sundays are the start of the circus story line. Enjoy! I’ll try to resume continuity next week. Thanks to David Gerstein for the plug and the link from his Prehistoric Pop Culture site. You’ll find a link over to him on the right side of this screen. David put together a nice Felix video compilation in honor of the cat’s 90th birthday. If only REAL cats could live that long. Kudos to Felix!
Here’s Krazy from 12/25 to 12/30/1939, finishing the 1939 dailies! In this week’s strips, Garge does “Town Crier” gags, Ostrich gags and a great snapping turtle gag on 12/28. I love the pose of Krazy looking into the turtle’s shell, very feline. Krazy finishes off the 12/30 with a terse line of dialog: “Smudda Time”.
Marvelous Mike is from 8/5 to 8/10/1957 this time. Bill Bell’s “Madeline” strip is saved by Mike and the kid contributors! Bill’s boss gives him a vacation, and Bill gives Mike a real little gasoline two-seater car! Next time we will start the last Mike story line as the strip winds up. Don’t miss it, it’s a real three hankie weeper!
For those who have trouble reading the 8-5 Mike strip due to the microfilm scan, here’s the dialog in the strip submitted by Sally Keene, Age 8 in the last panel: Little Girl: “Hi, Johnnie…I Like You…” Johnnie: “If you like me why did you hit me yesterday?” Little Girl: “I always hit peepul I like!” Johnnie: “If I like somebody I don’t hit him..” Little Girl: “Well, we can’t all be ALIKE!”
I guess nobody thought very much of my Soupy Sales tribute. Nevertheless it was heartfelt, I really loved his comedy. I find myself using a lot of his old jokes in everyday conversation, such as when somebody says “Go ahead”, I can’t resist saying “Who are you calling a gourd head?” Don’t throw that pie!
Thanks again to all those who wrote sympathy messages about my mother. It’s great to be remembered at a sad time like this. And now, to steal from Mark Evanier, “Goodnight, Internet.”
David Gerstein says:
Hey Mark,
Thanks for the plug and the wonderful words of praise—but are you sure you don’t have your feline stars crossed? You’ve referred to Felix’s 99th birthday above, but it’s really Krazy who’s 99 this year—Felix is “only” 90. (-:
(Try throwing a brick at each of them… the one who follows you smitten is Krazy; the one who vengefully eats all your food and sics a gang of mice on your furniture is Felix.)
Mark says:
Thanks for the correction, M’sieu David. I mis-remembered the date of Felix’s birth from your blog. It’s interesting news that Krazy is 99 now. How old is Peter the Puss?
David Gerstein says:
89—though it’s really only 80 since he took on that pseudonym!
charlie says:
thanks for these. I do look forward to them–charlie
Mark says:
My pleasure Charlie, and thanks for all the Barney Google strips over at the Google Gang! Are you a member of the Thimble Theater Before Popeye group? If so, how do you join it?
All best, Mark