Racc-it Ship, si, Space-X, no!
The Catblog presents an unpublished comic adventure of my wife Cathy Hill’s “Mad Raccoons”. It’s called “Raccoons On The Moon” and runs twenty pages. We’re running them four at a time off the pen and ink originals. Cathy liked to do these sitting on the floor bending over the large pages of Strathmore paper. I love the beautiful ink lines she did and her rascally and adventurous Raccoon characters. She pencilled the stories lightly, in graphite or blue pencil, then inked right over them. The “Mad Raccoons” comic book ran seven regular issues, plus a trade paperback collection of the first four. Mu Press put them out originally. If you search on Ebay, or better yet, at your local comics emporium, you will find them. Who needs Elon Musk when you’ve got Virgil Raccoon and his friends to take you to the moon and beyond!
In the Felix strips from 6-12 to 6-18-1933, Felix saves Pop’s pants, but confidentially, they shrink! Danny thinks he has total freedom when school is out for the summer, until Mom needs help cleaning house, and Felix poisons himself with bug spray. In the Sunday, Felix is homeless again, until an errant baseball strikes a big bully in the head. The little boy playing baseball runs home to Dad, but the big bully pursues him and bangs on Dad’s door until his hands are a bloody pulp. Dad, who is a Doctor, fixes the bully up and Felix has a new home!
Here’s Myrtle from 3-14 to 3-20-1949. A character with an unlikely name is off stage in the first two dailies. His handle? Lemme Kissue. Susie, Myrtle’s mom, soon puts a stop to the antics of this errant kid. The 3-18 is funny, as Myrtle’s doll receives a flea-ectomy from Sampson. The Sunday page is the usual delectable Dudley Fisher layout, as Freddie is drafted into the presidency of the Garden Club. Hyacinth is no where in sight this time.
Food gags abound in Krazy Kat from 7-26 to 7-31-1943. Krazy’s Kat Lang-witch is truly delicious, just read these aloud to get the true feeling in the dialog. I love them all, but the 7-28 is really charming as a cottage cheese gets “uppiddy all from a suddin” and becomes a “castle” cheese.
Again, most of the gags in Krazy Kat from 8-2 to 8-7, 1943 are food related. I love Krazy’s words, “Neg-tureen”, “Werra Jootzy” and “Potta Tib”. Is Krazy from Brooklyn or the Bronx? Tell me, New York readers! Sorry it’s been so long since the last post, maybe we’ll be more regular now that we have real, unpublished Raccoon comics to see.
Edd Vick says:
It’s so lovely to see more Mad Raccoons! It makes me wish I were still publishing! (but then, I am the editor these days of Rowrbrazzle…)
Charles Brubaker says:
Oooh, I’ve heard about Cathy’s “Mad Raccoons” for years, but it’s nice to finally see them! They’re a fun read.
Thanks for your blog post, Mark. I enjoy them very much.
Mark says:
Hi Charles,
Thanks for your comment about Cathy Hill’s “Raccoons On The Moon”, to be continued! I enjoy “Ask A Cat” each week on Go Comics!
Mark and Itza