Author: Mark


Felix Loses A Million Dollar Baby


Here’s the next chapter of Felix from 1932, 19320605 to 19320618. Felix’s new home in the Curio Shop provides some scientific laughs as a Dad thinks that radio kilocycles are like bicycles to be ridden in the 6-7, and check out the Gags about X-Ray cameras in the 6-9 and 6-10. A quaint notion about X-Rays, yes? In the 6-11, the Magic Ring of Allah Gazam appears and opens a mysterious storyline. A Hindi seeks the ring (it is worth a great deal to his mystic cult) and has a million dollars to pay the owner of the Curio Shop if he will turn over the ring. Alas, Felix has given the Ring to his girl friend Phyllis, and has to pretend to break their engagement to get it back. Felix is very sad as he thinks he has lost his “Million Dollar Baby”, Phyllis. More to the story very soon. Thanks for reading Felix from 1932 on the Catblog!

Felix Homeless Again


    

Hi Folks, Things are getting heavy, so I better update the blog with the next episode of Felix the Cat from 1932! Here are the strips from 19320522 to 19320604. Felix winds up his battle with the Army of Brigandia, with the Professor’s rocket attacking them and going haywire, thanks to Felix’s re-working of the capacitors in the rocket’s control panel. The Professor, being the idealist that he is, rejects a 10 million dollar offer for his rocket designs and once again Felix is homeless. After many attempts at finding a home, he holes up with a Curio and Pet Shop owner. Felix’s luck starts to work in the 6-4, as he uses a rabbit for a pen pad and the lady customer takes the lapin for a rare spotted variety. In the Comic Stamps featured in the Laura topper for the 5-29 Sunday, look at that “Blinky the Owl” stamp. It looks like Felix got cross-bred with an owl! I love that design. Sorry I’m so far behind on the Catblog posts, I’ll try harder. See you very soon, I’m hopeful. Mark

 

Mabel Can Only Be A Sister To Jimmy


Here, dear readers, is the return of George Herriman’s “Now Listen, Mabel” from 6-9 to 6-21-1919. The strip started April 23, 1919 according to comic strips historian Allan Holtz. A good friend has found some of the earlier episodes of Mabel and is sharing them with us. In the 6-10 strip, the phrase “Now Listen, Mabel” is uttered by a handsome stranger who takes Mabel away from Jimmie and his rival. There might be more such uses of the strip’s catchphrase if we ever find the first month and a half or so of Mabel. Jimmie Doozinberry, as in the rest of the Mabel dailies, is constantly frustrated by Mabel’s seeking safety in numbers and relentlessly playing the field with many rivals for Jimmie’s affections. Mabel just wants to be a “sister” to Jimmie and a parade of other men. Jimmie in desperation talks Mabel’s brother Tom in to adopting him as his brother, thereby becoming a brother to Mabel as well with full visitation rights. We’ll see how that turns out in time. If you seek out the post, “An End and A Beginning”, you can see the earliest “Now Listen, Mabel” dailies published by the San Francisco Examiner, starting 7-28-1919. The Catblog will try to fill in the gap in Mabels from 6-23 to 7-26-1919 very soon. A Happy New Year to you all.

Felix Fakes the Rocket Plans and Happy Holidays!


    

Hi Folks, Here are the Felix strips from 19320508 to 19320521 with the next chapter of the Spy story. Felix ingeniously fakes the rocket plans and slips them to the spy masquerading as the Professor. Also I’ve included our Happy Holidays card from my wife Cathy and myself. She worked out the color with Prismacolor pencils, and I did the layout and Gag. It’s a tribute in a way to Rube Grossman, a Fleischer animator who drew Rudolf for D.C. Comics in 1950. Happy Holidays to all my readers!

So Long Mabel


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Here, as an early Christmas present, are the remaining “Now Listen Mabel” strips by George Herriman from 19191222 to 19200110. The parallels with “Krazy Kat” are even more prominent here, as Jimmie Doozinberry pursues the lovely Mabel, as hopeless a lover as Offissa Pupp with Krazy Kat. Jimmie has to constantly compete with large groups of men in these strips, such as the Police and Fire departments. Mabel just doesn’t feel comfortable with Jimmie by himself, she feels safer, and more romantic, in a crowd of guys. I wonder if “Now Listen Mabel” continued beyond 19200110 in any other papers? Allan Holtz gives the final publication date as 19191218, so now that goes down as another mistake in Allan’s wonderful “American Newspaper Comics” reference book. I can’t help but be curious about Garge’s wife, Mabel herself. Did her husband base any of the comic strip character Mabel on his wife or his daughter (both named Mabel)? Were they as big mercurial flirts and two-timers as they appear in the comics? I guess we’ll never know. So this is “so long” to the “complete” reprint of “Now Listen Mabel”, which I started back in 2021 in a post called “An End and A Beginning”. The date was 20210227.  My Krazy Kat reprints stopped then, and also my blog was hacked again around that time. I hope you have enjoyed the Mabels. If any of you readers and great “strippers” find any of the early “Now Listen Mabels” that the San Francisco Examiner didn’t use, from 19190423 to 19190728, please let me know! I would love to post the missing three months. If you want to see them larger, just right-click them and open them in a new window, then enlarge them to your heart’s content. If I can’t do another post soon, then Happy Christmas to all! from Mark Kausler.

Mabel Doesn’t Care


Mabel is from 19191208 to 19191220.  If you can find my former comment on this post’s strips, please look them up. My blog was hacked and this post disappeared. Good Hunting!

Felix Vs. A Spy From Brigandia


In these Felix strips from 4-24 to 5-7-32, Felix returns from the Moon, only to encounter a spy from the kingdom of Brigandia, who wants to steal all the professor’s secrets. Due to the recent attack on my blog, this post had to be rescued and done over. I hope you will enjoy reading it.

Felix On the Moon


 

The Catblog presents Felix from 4-10 to 4-23-1932. Felix meets a kindly old scientist in the 4-11, who tricks Felix aboard his one-cat rocket to the Moon! Felix spends his time on the Moon pining for his girlfriend Trixie, much to the scientist’s disgust. Felix wins a race with comets and foils a spy’s attempt to steal the Old Scientist’s secret rocket invention in the 4-23. In the Sundays, Felix uses an Octopus he caught undersea to feed his animal friends and win a boxing match against one-round Gorilla! Make sure you clip and save the Felix Comic Stamps for your album! See you soon, Mark and Itza

Mabel’s Cops


This time out the “Now Listen, Mabel” strips are from 11-24 to 12-6-1919. Jimmie Doozinberry is jealous of Policeman Tom Walsh who turns out to be Mabel’s cousin and is married. The boys from the Police station gather around the piano and sing “Ohh, Listen Mabel” to her in the 11-26. I’m not sure if “Ohh, Listen Mabel” was an actual, or Herriman-created popular song? Do any of my readers know the answer? Jimmie solves his Police problem in the 11-29 by joining the Force! Prohibition was still a joking matter in 1919 as the two dads concoct a Near Beer formula. I like the way Garge constructs the graphics on these dailies, every other panel is a floating insert, hovering over the backgrounds. Mabel and Krazy Kat both seem indifferent to their suitors at times–Jimmie Doozinberry, like Offisa Pupp, is in love with a creature who seems constantly infatuated with somebody else–Garge is using some of his Triangular Titillation in his non-Kat strips. Remember to display the strips in a new window, so that you can enlarge them for easier reading. Thanks, Mark and Itza

Felix Gets a Tail Implant


 

Here’s our Felix from 3-27 to 4-9-1932. Felix’s Police Cat adventures continue in the dailies as Felix trails a mysterious scientist to his weird old house in the country. The little black cat is almost fooled in to thinking that a movie of a gorilla is the real thing, then succumbs to gas. The scientist places a metallic ring on Felix’s tail which acts as a receptor for the “Mystic Waves”, which influence the cat’s emotions and enable the scientist to magnetically control Felix’s body. In July of 1932, the comedian Charley Chase made a two-reel comedy called “Now We’ll Tell One”, about a scientist who invents a belt that can transmit a person’s personality to another one wearing the same kind of belt, ten miles away. In 1934, Chase made a second two-reeler, “Another Wild Idea” featuring a scientist who invented a ray gun that had the power to transform any person into one without inhibition. So Charley Chase picked up on an idea from the Felix strip, and formulated two film comedies out of it. This idea of the tail implant, and the impact it had on Felix’s personality, was used a few times in the Felix comic books of the 40s through the 1960s. I think, though, that this was the earliest appearance of the basic idea of mechanical alteration of the personality in the Felix comic strip. Today, the descendants of Otto Messmer might be tempted to plant A.I. in Felix’s body, and use it for the same type of gags. The Sunday pages continue Felix’s adventures with the Noah’s Ark animals on a tropical island. Enjoy these, the best drawn and designed Felix strips of the Golden Age! Mark

 

Mabel Listens Again


In the words of Bill Hay, “Here they ah!” The “Now Listen Mabel” dailies from 11-8 to 11-22-1919. In the 11-8 there are human figures in the first two panels that anticipate the characters in the illustrations to “archy and mehitabel” which Garge produced in 1931 for Don Marquis’ epic poetic volume about his New York Sun characters archy the cockroach and mehitabel the cat. Starting in the 11-10 strip, Garge writes about an epidemic of Mumps which manages to infect almost everyone in the cast of the strip, starting with Jimmie Doozinberry. I can’t find any record of a Mumps surge in 1919, but the disease goes back to the 5th Century BC at the time of Hippocrates. The virus was not isolated until 1945 and the first vaccine didn’t appear until 1967. So Jimmie and Company got Mumps before very much was known about it. Seems like nobody panicked, they just put up with the swelling until it went away. There was an early link between Mumps and deafness. Garge just used it for comedy.

In the 11-17 through 11-22 strips, “Mabel” feels like a precursor to “Blondie” situations. Floods, vicious dogs, smelly pipes and one of Garge’s  favorite comedy crutches, “Twins” and the damage they do, along with mistaken identity jokes. I like Jimmie’s reaction to his pal Sam’s luck in babysitting Mabel’s Aunt Ruby’s twins. They turn out to be attractive teenagers!

Enjoy these, I hope I can post more soon. The strip only ran another two months in the San Francisco Examiner.

 

 

Felix Foils an Umbrella Thief


Welcome back readers, as we present the Felix the Cat strips from 3-13-1932 to 3-26-1932. Felix is still a Police Cat Detective in these, trying to locate a sniper who is actually an umbrella thief who is using the umbrellas for golf clubs. In the 3-21 through 3-26 strips, Felix solves a cheese theft as Skidoo and his friend steal a whole wheel of cheese from a Nordic accented proprietor. It doesn’t pay to use guns, as Detective Felix shoots at Skidoo so many times that his shots penetrate the cheese wheel. The bullet holes leave the wheel looking like Swiss cheese, much to Detective Felix’s chagrin. I love the art all the way through these, but my favorite panel would have to be the last one of the 3-22 daily. There’s something very comical and appealing about Felix drinking milk from a punctured pail (Otto’s cow isn’t too tragic either). The old Catblog has been shut a long time, I hope it will be back in action before too long. See you then, Mark

Now Listen, Mabel: The value of a Quarter


Here’s “Now Listen, Mabel” from 10-27 to 11-6-1919. The theme is Office Rivalry for Mabel Millarky’s affections between Jimmie Doozinberry and his best pal, “Sam”. A Quarter was really a coin of value in those days, often the love struck swains would have to decide whether calling Mabel long distance in Prune Beach or being able to afford lunch was of the greater importance. “Sam” seems to always know his way around Mabel’s schedule and things like being kind to Mabel’s mother in the 11-6. Garge again anticipates Dagwood Bumstead’s early troubles with his rivals for Blondie’s affections in Chic Young’s “Blondie” in 1930. It’s been a long time since the old Catblog had a new post, I hope you enjoy it, readers. Remember to right-click the strips above and select, “Open image in new tab”. The strips will appear in a new window, open it, click on the strips displayed and you should see them larger. Remember that the daily comics of 1919 were displayed across the top of a very wide newspaper page, and took up 10 columns. That’s why there is so much more to read and look at then our contemporary comics, which are seldom more than three columns wide and are all crowded together on one page.

Felix, Holiday Cat Gets a Clue


 

Here’s a special treat for the Holidays, my wife Cathy has done a special color drawing for the Catblog, featuring special ornaments of a steam engine and Laurel and Hardy. Laurel is an icicle design and Hardy is a nice round glass ornament. If you look a little further under the tree, Felix is here from 2-28 to 3-12-1932. I love how Messmer uses shadows in the 2-29 and 3-1. The 3-3 strip is highlighted by the “Saved by a Shiver” line in the last panel, as Felix narrowly escapes being “plugged” by a gangster. In the 3-9, a “depression in crime” robs Felix of his feast which he earned by capturing the whole bunch of criminals. Felix is mysteriously shot by large white pellets in the 3-10 to 3-12 strips. All the farm animals are knocked out in the 3-12 by the same pellets. I love the little house and the fence in the background of the last panel in the 3-12, just pure pen and ink magic!  The Catblog wishes you the best for the Holidays, be they Christmas, Chanukah or Kwanzaa. Thanks for reading and don’t forget the Catblog in 2023.

Mabel Returns


Here’s “Now Listen Mabel” from 10-19 to 10-25-1919. They come from the pages of the San Francisco Examiner. Here Mr. Herriman is dealing in silent comedy slapstick, as Jimmie Doozinberry’s rivals for the attentions of Mabel Millarkey (including Jimmie) get tossed out of her front door repeatedly. In the 10-19, Herriman says “We who have ever dealt in gentle humor..”, a well placed caption introducing this knockabout comedy sequence.  I love the crazy poses the suitors take as they go sailing through the effulgent ether. “Mr. Bibbles” in the 10-24, wearing the striped coat, is a ringer for Charlie Chaplin, out of his tramp costume. I wonder if George Herriman ever played tennis at the Hearst San Simeon estate with Charlie Chaplin? Make sure and blow these up as large as you can, so you can appreciate the lettering and the pen work of Garge. You know how to do it, don’t you? If not, just click on the image with your mouse and select “Open Image In New Tab”. This should open the selected strips in a separate tab. Within that tab, just click on the image and they will be displayed larger. Nearly as large as the S F Examiner used to run them, which was clear across the page (more than 10 columns wide). Please enjoy the strips and Happy Holidays to you all.

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