Author: Mark
Your Comics Page-Herb Gardner Tribute Continues
 Here are the next two weeks of “The Nebbishes” by Herb Gardner (called “Hy” or “H” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Herb tends to go for big emotional displays followed by a sarcastic understatement that renders those displays moot. I love the Devil’s big show of confidence as he tries to barter for Seymour and Irving’s souls in the 1-18-59 strip and how Irving goes on a binge of artistic blather in the 1-25-59 as Seymour paints his house (“..creating truth, beauty and other nice things.”) There is a bit of parallel with Max Shulman’s writing on “Dobie Gillis” (just starting on TV in 1959), as Dobie often waxes poetic and seeks truth and beauty. Maybe Gardner and Shulman knew each other or drew from the same wellspring of comedy. I’ll look around for more of these old “Nebbishes”. When I was a kid I didn’t know from Jewish comedians or Yiddish expressions or anything of the kind, but somehow I really dug the comedy of Herb Gardner. The 1-18 page had to be pieced together for this blog, it’s pretty fragile, but well loved.
 There are two “echo” gags and two gags using the word “solo” in the Krazy Kat week of 10-27 to 11-1-1941. I especially favor the 10-31 strip as Offissa Pupp and Ignatz Mice shake hands as they realize that their animosity is a main driver of the strip in which they live. This idea takes a little of the sting out of all the Jail time that the Mice has had to put up with “for a number of years”.
 Felix, this time from 12-16 to 12-22-1935, has the Cat in hot pursuit of Fooy Tu Yu. Felix obviously disposed of all that water he swallowed in the previous week’s strips. Fooy Tu Yu is blackjacked by another Chinese who takes the diamond away and gives it to Okey Joe who hides it on a “junk”. See the next post for the conclusion of the 1935 dailies. The Sunday page continues the science fiction aspect of Felix as he experiments with a pair of glasses that enable him to see into the future.
 In Myrtle this time from 7-21 to 7-26-1947, Fisher shows a mastery of comic strip timing. The strip for 7-22 has a terrific “all you can drink” lemonade gag that dispenses with Pop’s reaction to tasting Myrtle and Sampson’s citrus quencher and just skips to the last panel. Fisher also uses timing to advantage as Sampson goes to his mother’s house to wash his neck and just leaves Myrtle hanging on a tree. In the last panel we find that Sampson used a guest towel to wipe his neck and is banished to a corner. The 7-26 continues the idea that Bingo the dog is good at opening doors; this time he gets a lump on the head for opening the wrong one. We are now into the spate of Myrtle strips culled from Newspaper Archive.com so the quality is only fair.
    The cartoon short that Greg Ford and I made called “There Must Be Some Other Cat” has been selected by a film festival to screen in September. I can’t say which one, but we are thrilled to be accepted.
    I recently read “Al Capp, A Life the the Contrary” by Denis Kitchen and Michael Schumacher” a new biography of one of the USA’s greatest comic strip creators. Elsewhere in this blog, you can find a few “L’il Abner” strip continuities reprinted, including the infamous “Joanie Phonie” story. I’ve been a fan of Al Capp’s strip all my life, I loved reading the strip each night in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and when my father didn’t bring home the evening paper, it was hard to hide my disappointment. I always liked the little fantastic characters in the strip, the Schmoos, natcherly, and the Kigmys, the little flying hot-dog shaped creatures of the planet Pincus #7, the Adorable Snowman, the Bald Iggle, and many others. I got a kick out of Big Barnsmell, the head man at the Skonk Works, and of course, Moonbeam McSwine and the gorgeous Daisy Mae. It’s said that Al Capp really didn’t like any of his characters very much. It’s lucky for him that somehow they were sympathetic to his readers. I always felt sorry for the dumb but lovable L’il Abner, and worried about his cliffhanger predicaments enough to want to keep reading about him. In reading about Capp’s sexual misadventures in the 1960s on college campuses, including his mistreatment of Goldie Hawn, Mark Evanier (world’s champeen blogger) feels uncomfortable even reading old L’il Abner stories knowing that Al Capp could be a pervert. I can’t defend Capp, but I look at his creation as a satirical fantasy unlike any other comic strip and will always enjoy it. Al Capp’s depression era background and his loss of a leg as a boy certainly colored his world view and his strip. He lived life as if he always had something to prove, and he’d do it by hook or crook. (Wait until you read how he got through art school!) “Li’l Abner” was an unapologetic bold slash of a comic strip, blending fantasy with satire. The drawing was both serenely slapstick and delicately sensuous, drawn with beautiful pen lines. Mark Evanier even got to MEET Al Capp, something I would have loved to have done. This book is a very thorough biography, I learned a great deal from it. Some of the most interesting stuff is in the notes at the back of the book. I’ve always wondered from where Capp’s comic book company, “Toby Press” got it’s name. The notes informed me that “Toby” was the name of one of Elliot Caplin’s daughters. Elliot Caplin was one of Al Capp’s brothers and wrote many comic strips, including “The Heart of Juliet Jones” and “Long Sam”, both strips about beautiful women. Toby eventually took over the writing on “The Heart of Juliet Jones” after Elliot retired. Too bad they didn’t put the story of how Felix the Cat and Otto Messmer got picked up by Toby Press after their Dell Comics run. Again, this book is highly recommended, even though it may sour some fans on Al Capp, like it did for Mark Evanier. Now, won’t some brave soul step up and reprint the rest of “L’il Abner” through the final strip? I would love to read all the “conservative” strips that caused so many newspapers to drop Abner. Let’s get Roger Ailes to do something meaningful with his life and foot the bill for reprinting these strips!
Your Comics Page 5-1-2013 with “The Nebbishes”
Hi There! We lead off with the first two Sunday pages of Herb Gardner’s “The Nebbishes” from 1-4 and 1-11-1959. This comic strip was an early venture of Mr. Gardner. He is best known today for his play/movie “A Thousand Clowns” featuring Jason Robards. Some web pages say that his strip “The Nebbishes” (Yiddish for “Nobodies”), started in 1954 and was distributed by the Chicago Tribune/New York News syndicate. Allan Holtz’s book says that 1-4-59 was the first one. The Nebbishes only lasted until 1961, and was only carried for the first few months of that run by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. My copies are from those dates, and were pasted on highly acid old scrapbook pages, so I had to gently piece them together for the scanner. I love the adventures of Irving and Seymour. I always thought they were cousins of “Flebus” and “Mr. Moo”, essentially walking heads with white, squared-off bodies. The first two strips break the fourth wall to smithereens. Irving is very aware that he and Seymour are trapped in a comic strip. I love how Seymour reacts like the early Daffy Duck in the 1-11, when he realizes he’s being watched (woo woo woo). I found these strips to be quite funny when they first were printed, still do. The Nebbish statues were very popular in greeting card shops of the day (you find them on Ebay now) and the famous Nebbish sign (“One of these days we’ve just GOT to get organized”) was also a best-seller. According to the websites, Herb Gardner opted out of all this lucrative cartooning and decided to become a playwright instead, producing his classic “A Thousand Clowns” in 1961. The dialog in “The Nebbishes” became so dominant that the balloons nearly crowded out Irving and Seymour. If speech was so important, reasoned Herb Gardner, then why not write dialog all the time? His biggest commercial hit play was “I’m Not Rappaport” in 1985 (movie in 1996). Herb also wrote and produced the movie “Who is Harry Kellerman, and why is he saying those terrible things about me?” in 1971, starring Dustin Hoffman. In 1987, Gardner appeared in the historic big budget flop movie “Ishtar” as Rabbi Pierce. He passed on in 2003. I have very few examples of “The Nebbishes” put I’m happy to scan the ones that are still with me and put them up here.
 There is a mystery in the Krazy Kat dailies of 10-20 to 10-26-1941. In the 10-21, why does Offissa Pupp lie in wait for Ignatz under a date palm with a sign tacked to the tree reading, “June 30 1941” backwards? I consulted the Krazy strip from that date, but it just features Krazy getting a bleach job at a beauty parlor, with no reference to any date palms. So Garge has once again baffled and amused us. In the 10-22, there is a hallmark of Herriman’s writing in Krazy’s annoyed reaction to the Sun, “Y-you..”. He used this stuttered experession many times in Krazy Kat and many of his other comic concoctions.
 Felix continues to attempt to reclaim his diamond in the dailies from 12-9 to 12-14-1935. Fooy tu Yu pours water on Felix as he hides in the basement of Fooy’s hide-out. Felix just drinks all the water to keep from drowning! A very fat, water-logged cat continues to pursue Fooy in the 12-14. In the Sunday page, you’ll have to print it out and color it according to the dialog, to get all the humor out of the Professor’s chameleon serum introduced last time, not to mention the X-Ray camera!
 Myrtle, from 7-14 to 7-19-1947 has two gags revolving around Bingo’s ability to open doors, but for me the funniest one this time is Freddie’s devilish reaction in the third panel of the 7-15 as he hits upon a way to stop Sampson from annoying him with his bad harmonica playing.
 In anticipation of Yowp’s blog, we have the May, 1963 Yogi Bear Sunday pages, all thirds this time. I think the funniest gag is the 5-12, in which all the restaurants in town that feature “All you can eat” specials close down after Yogi and Boo-Boo patronize them. Yogi, Boo-Boo and Ranger Smith all seem to be drawn by Harvey Eisenberg, but the teenagers in the 5-5 and the little Boy Scouts in the 5-19 look like Gene Hazelton. Only Jerry Eisenberg would know for sure, and he doesn’t read this blog! Remember to CLICK ON THE THUMBNAILS if you want to display any of the comics full screen. Keep visiting https://www.facebook.com/someothercat to see the complete storyboard from “There Must Be Some Other Cat” one page at a time, courtesy of our webmaster, Charles Brubaker.
Your Comics Page 4-16-2013
 In Krazy this time from 10-13 to 10-18-1941, Garge is just doing separate gags for each day. The 10-17 may or not be related to the 10-16, as Krazy tries to call a “chimp”, a “chump”. The 10-17 has Krazy, Ignatz and Offissa Pupp trotting along singing “Chup, Chup, Chup, etc.”, may have been an extension of the “chimp, chump” idea, or it could be a salute to the Andrews Sisters’ #5 hit of 1939, “Well Alright!” in which the sisters sing “Well Alright, well chop, chop, chop, well alright..”. They repeat the “chop, chop” refrain throughout the record. Perhaps Garge heard the tune on the radio and worked it into the strip, just a theory. The 10-18 strip shows just into how few panels the “Krazy, Ignatz, Brick, Jail” formula could be distilled. All we have to see is Offissa Pupp looking out to the Coconino horizon through field glasses, then cut to Ignatz in the cell.
 In Felix, from 12-2 to 12-8-1935, Felix is at last smuggled ashore by Wong, the ship’s cook. Wong also manages to come up with Felix’s diamond, smuggled on land inside a fish! At last we meet Ah Fooy, the Tong leader who figures in much of the 1936 dailies. He’s more than happy to use the diamond to finance plans for his secret empire, Sax Rohmer would have been proud. In the Sunday, Felix inhales some Chameleon extract in the Professor’s lab and acquires the ability to change color with his mood. Now everybody, print the page out and color Felix according to the script, I’ll bet you’ll get better results than most papers of 1935 could come up with!
 In Myrtle this time, (7-7 to 7-12-1947) Bingo stars in four strips. My favorite is the 7-9, where the fierce guard dog is supposed to chase the book salesman away, but winds up buying two pawloads of books! I remember the days of the door-to-door salesmen very vividly from childhood. In St. Louis in 1949 to 1954, we still had salesmen coming to the door with encyclopedias, as well as junkmen with horse-drawn wagons trying to pick up refuse cheap! They were the original “recyclers”. Photographers sometimes came around our house with a pony and a little cowboy outfit. My Mom fell for their line, and a photograph exists of my brother and I on ponies with cowboy hat, chaps and pistols. You’ll never see the likes of those photographers coming to your door anymore, now all we seem to get is Jehovah’s Witnesses! To get back to the strip, Freddie’s smelly pipe opens and closes the week, as Bingo admires Pop’s ability to smoke the darn thing in the 7-7, and a pipe cleaner (very cartoony idea) rebels at cleaning the offending calabash in the 7-12. The image quality of the Myrtles will dip a bit in the following weeks, as my run of original clipped dailies runs out. I have to substitute the missing strips from Newspaper Archive, and the quality is mostly on the down side. We’ll see you soon with more favorites from old newspapers.
Your Comics Page 4-3-2013
 In Krazy this time, 10-6 to 10-11-1941, Garge trots out one of his favorite vehicles, the “Door-Mice”. He got a lot of mileage out of that basic pun, “Dormouse” and “Door-Mice”, and here he spins more gold out of that straw, to mix a metaphor. There is a visit from a Herriman rattle snake, then Krazy and Ignatz trade nonsequiters about a pair of Tom-Tom drums. Ignatz’s comment on Krazy in the 10-11 is so iconic: “His craziness is practically permanent”.Â
 It’s “Felix Pathetique” this time, as Felix strikes out in both the daily continuity and Sunday page, from 11-15 to 12-1-1935. Felix is very nearly reunited with the precious diamond aboard the ape’s ship in the 11-17, but loses it again and isn’t even allowed to come ashore in the 11-30, because the Captain won’t pay duty on Felix. In the Sunday page, Felix tries to rescue the professor’s mind-reading formula from a burglar, but only succeeds in attracting the metal box it was stored in with a giant magnet. We’ll see if Felix redeems himself next time.
 In Myrtle, from 6-30 to 7-5-1947, Myrtle is proud of her rear shape in the 6-30, Bingo steals her clothes while she is bathing in the 7-2, Freddie is punished for saying “Ain’t”, when he has actually used much sharper language in the 7-4, and Susie buys a rather “fem” shirt for Freddie, knowing full well that she will wind up with it in the 7-5.
 Beautiful art by Harvey Eisenberg on this month’s Yogi Sunday pages, from April, 1963. Just click the thumbnails to blow them up. The 4-14 has a funny twist, with Cupid shooting Boo-Boo instead of Yogi. Boob winds up with Cindy Bear! In the 4-21, check out what life was like before Xerox photocopiers were commonplace, as Mister Ranger dreams that Yogi falls into his duplicating machine, mimeograph no doubt! In the 4-28, Mister Ranger does a real “Tom and Jerry” take, as he pulls out the entire electrical wiring system from his cabin! Check out Yogi’s understated pose in the same panel, nice acting from the animated/comic strip bear. Check the link to Yowp’s page in the Blogroll list, he will probably be posting the half-page versions of these strips very soon. I’m having fun posting these comic pages, I’ll do another Junior Times, one of these days. C ya.
Your Comics Page, Palm Sunday 2013
 From 9-29 to 10-4-1941 comes Krazy Kat with a lot of pigeon jokes for the week. “Stool” pigeons, “Homin'” pigeons and Carrier pigeons have a hierarchy that Garge explores thoroughly, ending with a neat little “Welsh Rabbit” joke. Garge designed rabbits very well, this one could have been a recurring character, perhaps in tandem with a desert jackrabbit.
Felix is from 11-18 to 11-24-1935 this time out. He continues to elude the sailors by hiding in a bag, but is eventually flushed out and he surrenders his precious diamond under ether. Once again, he loses control of the peculiar oblong gem that propels the action into 1936. I love Felix’s crouched position in the 11-22 and 11-23 as he tries to hide the diamond by hunching up around it. He really looks pathetic. In the Sunday, Felix thinks he has a Thanksgiving Turkey dinner courtesy of the Professor, only to find that the Prof. just wants a turkey for two feathers to round out an Indian costume he’s making. Felix’s frustrated attitude in the last panel is quite funny as he searches for a fish dinner as he’s forced to trade L-Triptophan for Omega 3’s.
 Myrtle is from 6-23 to 6-28-1947. Dudley Fisher continues to produce great looking dailies. Freddie wears a sports shirt three times during the week, but only in the Saturday, 6-28, strip does a real gag come out of his change in wardrobe. Victor, a neighborhood boy, looks better in the sports “muscle” shirt than does Freddie, so he goes back to his long sleeve dress shirt. I also like the 6-26, where Bingo shows his true opinion of Mom’s taste in lamps; “You can’t fool a dog!”
   There’s a current class called “Blogging for Fun and Profit” offered over at the Glendale Community College right now. If it didn’t cost so much, I’d take it, simply to get ideas of how to “profit” from a Blog. I know all about the fun part. Have you visited Jerry Beck’s new and improved Cartoon Research blog? Here’s the link: http://cartoonresearch.com/. Jerry really works hard at his blog, posts every day, sometimes more than once. I like to put a post together every so often, but it’s hard to be dedicated to sitting in front of a screen for so many hours a day. See you soon.
Your Comics Page March 5th, 2013
 Our Kat this time is from 9-22 to 9-27-1941. Wartime consciousness begins to seep into Coconino County as there are three “listening post” gags, and a saboteur dog who wears wooden shoes, but calls them “sabots”. Is he from Holland or France? Ignatz and Pupp refer to themselves as “spies” in the 9-26, and in the 9-27, Krazy’s convoluted logic lets him believe that an “underworld character” is a “pingwing” (penguin).
 Felix is from 11-11 to 11-17-1935 and continues Felix’s adventures aboard Danny’s ship. He dives to the bottom of the sea to get the sailor’s pipes back to them, and the diamond becomes an ingredient in Wong’s stew. Felix hides in the Captain’s grip with the diamond, but the Captain locks him in. The “Silencer” machine continues to provide a continuing plot for the Sunday page. However, the Professor’s handy device makes robbing his safe a little TOO handy for a thief.
 Myrtle is from 6-16 to 6-21-1947. I like the gag in the 6-18, as Bingo the dog fakes out Freddie, and the 6-20, as the timely appearance of Myrtle’s boyfriend Sampson at the front door, galvanizes a reluctant Freddie into making vacation plans to get away from the lisping little creep.
“Stop That Crazy Bear!” I’m gonna get ahead of that sly dog, Yowp, this time. Here are the 1/3rd page versions of the Yogi Bear Sundays from March, 1963. I like the long panel with all the props that get attached to Yogi in the 3-3. I’ll bet Yogi watched a trapdoor spider emerge from his underground home in the original top row of the 3-31, as he refers to the spider in the last panel. That’s nice use of color in the 3-31, too, as Yogi is a shade of Cerulean Blue and Yellow-Green in his underground lair. These all look like Eisenbergs to me. Keep checking with Yowp’s site in the Blogroll, as he’ll probably be posting the half-page versions of these strips any day now! Yuk-yuk!
 Here’s something else to click on the Blogroll for, Milton Knight’s “Hugo” in a brand-new story called “The Lady in Question”! This is the first Hugo comic not to be printed on paper, but burned into a CD-R disc. Get a preview at http://miltonknight.net/previews.html. You can probably order it through Milton’s website, which I directed you to visit a little earlier in this paragraph. No doubt it will contain Knight’s own unique blend of delicious dames and devils. It retails for a mere 5 bucks a copy. Tell him “Itza Cat” sent you!
Los Angeles Junior Times, May 1927
 Welcome to another chapter of Los Angeles Junior Times comics and funny drawings from May 1927! We start off with the comics of Morris Redensky, later known as Morey Reden (1912-1981). Morey animated at Disney, did animation and story at Famous Studios and worked a long time at Hanna-Barbera. He created the characters Hank Hambone and Jim Dandy (before Pal) for Aunt Dolly’s paper.
 Here’s the other comic strips for the month of May, featuring the work of Louie Salkin (1913-1993, UPA, Disney), Frank Tipper (1909-1963, animator for Ted Eshbaugh-“Wizard of Oz” animator for Schlesinger and Lantz and painted B.G.S on the first Huckleberry Hound cartoons), Bob Wickersham (1911-1962, animator for Disney/Fleischer/Warner Bros., Director at Screen Gems-“Snap Happy Traps”, “Willoughby’s Magic Hat”, “Room and Bored”, developed the characters and drew comic books of the Fox and the Crow, wrote the screen adaptation for “Mr. Bug Goes To Town” with Cal Howard for Fleischer), Cal Howard (1911-1993, Directed “Katnip Kollege” for Schlesinger, did the voice of Gabby Goat in the Porky Pig cartoons, wrote the stories for “Snap Happy Traps”-Screen Gems, “Canned Feud”-Warner Bros., “Spookananny” and many others for Walter Lantz), Herbert Gramatky (Hardie Gramatky’s brother), Bill Zaboly (1910-1985, drew the comic strips Otto Honk and Thimble Theater), Isadore Ellis (1910-1994, animated on the Clampett classics: “Porky in Wackyland”, “Baby Bottleneck” and “The Great Piggy Bank Robbery” among others, also animated for Bob McKimson and Frank Tashlin at Schlesinger’s), Philip De Lara (1910-1994, animated on the Bob McKimson cartoons: “A Lad In His Lamp”, “A Fractured Leghorn”, “Early To Bet” and wrote the Daffy Duck cartoon “Quack Shot” for McKimson). So most of these boy cartoonists were 15 or 16 when they were published in the Junior Times.
 Here’s a cover drawing that Bob Stokes did for the May 8th issue (1908-1980, animated on Bosko for Hugh Harman, for Ub Iwerks-“Humpty Dumpty” and others, for Disney, “Woodland Cafe” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” among others). Hugh didn’t want to lose Stokes to Walt Disney, but admitted to me that he felt Stokes did great work on the character of Snow White, and thought him to be one of the great draughtsmen of animation. These Junior Times posts are a lot of work, hope you enjoy them! Next time, more comics!
The Final Duane Crowther Letters
 Here is Duane Crowther’s letter from 4-12-1955 to “The Wonderful Balsers”. Matt Crowther’s coming birth is eagerly looked forward to by Duane and Susanne as Duane marvels over how active the baby is, kicking the mother! This was the prevailing attitude toward children in the 1950s, millions of people died during World War 2, so let’s re-populate the world! Duane is eager to move to California, and he sizes up the TV commercials scene in New York and Los Angeles very incisively: “The West Coast TV studios (Patin, Storyboard and the like) are doing much better, sharper and more creative stuff; but for whom? That’s why outfits like Transfilm, Academy (Pictures) and Culhane (Shamus Culhane Productions) will always make more money turning out more crap than anywhere else.” I can hear Duane’s voice in my head as I read those lines, he could be quite caustic in summing up the animation field, but he usually did it with a disarming smile. It’s interesting to note the pay differences between the two coasts in the early days of TV commercials, and the lack of “prestige” among West Coast clients. Â
 The final letter that the Balsers saved from Duane, is an undated one on Lars Calonius Productions stationery. It’s obviously a couple of years post-1955, as Duane relates a tale of an injury that young Matt Crowther experienced. By this time, Duane has changed jobs from Transfilm to Lars Calonius. I remember him talking a little about Lars, he liked the guy and had good memories of working for him. By this time Duane was directing as well as animating commercials and industrials. Duane was equally adept at both character and what they used to call “technical” animation, gears, pistons, bricks slapping down to create a building, charts, graphs and the like. I watched Duane turning out animation of a striped chart moving around in a cycle while he was working at Fred Calvert’s studio. He was animating with one hand and playing a game of chess with the other!
 These last two letters are Christmas notes from Susanne Crowther both before and after Matt’s birth. I like her description of teaching Matt to talk and what some of his first words were. Her description of New York weather, “It’s been horrible here..!”, certainly forecasts the Crowther’s eventual move to Malibu, California. I’m not sure where Duane was born in Cal., but maybe he was a beach kid.  And with that, we close the archive of Duane’s letters to the Balsers for now. Many thanks again to Bob and Cima Balser for allowing me to print these here for the first time, and the kind permission of Duane’s widow, Cathy Karol-Crowther, to share them with you. If I’ve made any mistakes in my notes, please let me know and I’ll fix up the errors.
 From Duane’s LEAST favorite studio, and in response to Yowp, here is the Flintstones Sunday page from 2-3-1963. It’s the third-page version. To see the half-page version and the rest of the Flintstones Sundays from February, 1963, just click on the link to Yowp’s blog over on your right. This could be another Dick Bickenbach effort. About this time, Wilma became pregnant with Pebbles, and the strip changed. I must have lost interest about this time, because I stopped cutting out the strip until July of 1963. Maybe Pebbles was just too cute for me. My flesh crawled when she plugged the sponsor’s product on the TV show (Welch’s grape juice) by calling it “Woo-Woo Gwape Joo”! Yeesh!
Your Comics Page 2-8-2013
 Hey Hey, here’s your comics page, infrequently but sincerely submitted with two kats, a little girl and a bear as your stars. Up first are the Krazys from 9-15 to 9-20-1941. The 9-15 and 9-16 eps. feature Ignatz crawling through a pipe to escape Offissa Pupp, which the mice pulls off quite neatly. In the 9-17 through 9-20 installments, Ignatz mostly hides in boxes of various sizes and shapes until Pupp and Kat figure out how to dig a hole in the ground underneath a box lid. Herriman can ring changes on the most ordinary of props for days and keep us entertained.
 Felix continues to search for Danny’s diamond on board ship this time, from 11-4 to 11-10-1935. The sailor who now has the diamond hides it in his tobacco tin, then manages to hi-jack every one of his shipmates’ pipes and toss them overboard. His scheme is to remove the implements of smoking, so that no sailor will ask for a pinch of his tobacco. In spite of all this finagling, the diamond winds up in the soup (Chinese soup, that is). In the Sunday, Bobby Dazzler and Chip lament the lack of “Funnies”, as Dad reads the New York Times (without comics). Felix helps a hen-pecked husband with the Professor’s Noise Silencer, but gets clobbered by the baby in the last panel.
 Myrtle from 6-9 to 6-14-1947 has quite a few gems among the straw. I like the 6-9 as Mr. Smaltz the grocer is left to freeze to death, locked in his cooler as Myrtle’s friend Gussie pretends to be a ventriloquist imitating Smaltz’s voice asking for help! I like Myrtle’s embarrassed reaction in the last panel of the 6-12 as her Mom catches her with her hands in the cookie jar, and of course, I’m a puss-over for cat jokes as Hyacinth the cat is taken home by Myrtle in a sack with only her four legs exposed in the 6-14. It’s nice to see that Mr. Smaltz didn’t freeze to death after all.
Once again Yowp has awakened me from a long winter’s nap to force another load of Yogi Sunday pages upon you. These are all from February, 1963. The 2-3 is the only half-page edition this time, I have the 2-10 and 2-24 strips in third page. I’m missing the 2-17. However, YOU know where to find the missing strip and see the half page versions of the Yogi Bear strip in beautiful black and white, don’t you? Just go to the right of the page and click on YOWP in the blogroll. You’ll find the pages and the dog’s comments along with them. He attributes the design of the kid characters in the above strips to Gene Hazelton. I vote for Harvey Eisenberg as the main artist on these. He also designed the “Yogi Bear” logo on the 2-3. The 2-3 is a bit brittle on the top, I had to piece it together for the scan. It’s not in too bad a shape, however for a piece of newsprint 50 years old this month! I should be back soon with a few more letters from Duane Crowther!
What was “Lucky You”?
 Here are more entries in “The Letters of Duane Crowther” series, (number 9) this time from July and August, 1954. I can’t find any information about the theatrical production of “Lucky You” at the Tempo theater in NYC from 1954. Maybe a kind reader can fill me in on that production. It seemed to have had film animation combined with live performance (possibly dancing), which Bob Balser did for the production. Duane sent him a drawing, there is a letter from the producer, Robert S. Corey, and a telegram apparently congratulating the Balsers for “Lucky You”. I’ve also included Duane’s letter to Bob Balser from 8-16-1954, in which he once more indicates his desire to start a family, and tells of his new job at Transfilm, a commercial studio founded by Dave Hilberman and Zack Schwartz. I don’t know if Hilberman and Schwartz were still in their studio in 1954, as they were blacklisted and lost control of Transfilm around then. Duane is still longing to move to California with his new wife Susanne, although the expense of NYC living was taking it’s toll. We’re almost down to the last letters of Duane’s that Bob Balser saved. More very soon.
 Here’s as many of the January, 1963 Flintstones Sunday pages that survived in my collection, clipped 50 years ago from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The 1-13 episode is missing, but you can see it, and the half-page versions of the above strips in black and white by going over to Yowp’s website, link at the right of the page. The first two strips seem to be by Dick Bickenbach, but the third, looks like the pencils were drawn by Harvey Eisenberg; probably Gene Hazelton or another capable H-B stalwart did the inking. Eisenberg did the art for several Flintstones Dell comics in the early 60s. I’m almost at the end of my small cache of “Flintheads” Sunday pages, I’ll continue posting them as an adjunct to Yowp for as long as I can.
Your Comics Page 1-22-2013
 Your comics page comes to you loaded with Kats and Little Girls. Here is Krazy from 9-8 to 9-13-1941 deep in analyzing the difference between the Nott and Sott Poles. I love the last panel in the 9-8 as Krazy looks at the penguins grouped around the Sott Pole, upside down. Of course Ignatz thinks the Earth would be better off square shaped, so he makes his own version of the “globe” in the 9-11.
 Felix continues to hide the diamond from the sailors from 10-28 to 11-3-1935. A lucky sailor winds up with the diamond when Felix accidentally throws it at him in the 10-28, and it changes hands again in the 11-2. The Sunday page has Felix in a Cone of Silence, as the Chemist comes up with a device to block sounds from his vicinity. When Felix tries it out, he doesn’t hear oncoming traffic and gets socked by an auto.
 Myrtle by Dudley Fisher comes to us from 6-2 to 6-7-1947. My favorite from this week is the 6-5. Myrtle realizes she is a character in a comic strip as she asks her Mom why she doesn’t age like “the kids in other comics”. The main reason she can’t get older is that her Mother would have to age, too! I also like the 6-4 as Bingo dons Freddie’s clothes by stealth and goes to Mac’s party in Fred’s stead. The 6-7 is really cartoony as Myrtle straps Sampson to the ground and plucks hairs out of his head like a daisy to find out whether he loves her or not. Myrtle sometimes seems to stand out from the world of her strip like a pixie, as she seems aware that she’s a comic strip character and keeps perching on the back of Freddie’s easy chair like she flew there.
    Well that’s a couple of big posts for this week, hope you enjoyed them. More of Duane’s letters next time.
Junior Times April, 1927
 Here’s one of those posts I put off doing as long as I can, the Los Angeles Junior Times cartoons from April, 1927! Feast your eyes on the works of I.Ellis, Phil De Lara, Cal Howard, Milt Schaffer, “Louie” Salkin, Larry Martin, Hardie Gramatky, Frank Tipper and Manuel Moreno! I love Manuel’s cartoon from April 3rd, as he does a full page of little sketches commemorating the Charity Ball. Can you find Aunt Dolly in the jumble of figures at the bottom of the page? If you can, tell me, I sure can’t see her! I like the photo of Bob Wickersham, and the caption that tells of his election to the Vice-Presidency of the TJC, and his “good sportsmanship”. I’ve also included Hardie Gramatky’s “Capt. Kidd” strip from April 10th, I’ve been leaving him out of these Jr. Times posts, thinking I could catch up later. But there isn’t any “later”, there’s only now! Hardie was the most professional of the Junior Times cartoonists, and his contributions fell off as he got involved in art college. Manuel Moreno also went pro very early in life, so his Junior Times comics get increasingly rare. However, Phil De Lara proved to be the most loyal of the Aunt Dolly discoveries, lasting well into 1930. I’ll try to do another “Your Comics Page” later this week and include Myrtle, but for now I’m exhausted!
Duane’s Romantic Side in Letters of 1954
Here’s the next two letters from Duane Crowther to Bob Balser, from 1-24 and 2-23-1954. This post is “Letters of Duane Crowther # 7”. Much more personal this time, as Duane visits his home town (Los Angeles)Â and the Balsers for Christmas vacation, then marries his first wife, Susanne, on Jan. 22nd. Duane and Susanne were living with her mother by February 1954, on East 80th street, for the whopping rent of $138.00 a month! Two and a Half Rooms yet! Susanne liked Babies, Bartok and Beatrice Lillie, according to Duane, (you can tell they wanted to start a family), and likes to write poetry (“the good, sex-laden kind”, whatever that was). Susanne was Matt Crowther’s Mom, in case Matt is reading this. We are going through Duane’s early history at a fast rate, still six letters and a telegram to go!
 Here’s Dudley Fisher’s Myrtle from 5-26 to 5-31-1947, in answer to Joe’s (and perhaps other) requests. I love the 5-28, as Myrtle catches her Mom in a fib to avoid talking on the phone. Her Mom asks Myrtle to say she’s “baking a cake”. The pixieish Myrtle hangs over the back of the easy chair in a great Fisher pose and asks Mom for “some of the cake”, forcing her into actually making one to cover her lie. Myrtle’s personality is really intriguing here, she’s childlike, but right on top of things, as she plays her mother like a Stradivarius. The 5-31 is almost Herrimanesque in it’s obtuseness as Myrtle sings one of her little songs about her cat, and then asks Sampson if he’s had his dinner. Go read the gag, it’s round-robin logic is a lot of fun. It’s good to know that Myrtle has so many fans, I’ll try to run more of her daily adventures very soon.
Your Comics Page for 1-5-2013
 Hey Hey, that Yog’ Rogue is at it again! I bow to Yowp’s request and post the January, 1963 Yogi Bear Sundays. I have the 1-6 and the 1-20 in half-page, the other two are thirds. I don’t have as many halves as thirds for the balance of 1963, but it’s whatcha do with whatcha got! These all look like Harvey Eisenberg’s art to me, but Yowp seems to see Gene Hazelton’s work here as well, especially the kid designs. I like the fantasy of a talking Merry-Go-Round horse in the 1-6, and the “Modern Indian” gags in the 1-13 and 1-20. Perhaps H-B were contemplating a new series featuring Native Americans, perceived as primitive, but actually sophisticated, sort of the Flintstones premise, but more contemporary. I’d like to see that show today! The 1-27 actually tells the truth about how difficult it is to tune an Ocarina. There’s a song in “The Road to Singapore” (1940), called “The Sweet Potato Piper” which was done by a chorus of Ocarinas all tuned in harmony with each other. Today, that kind of tuning expertise with the Sweet Potato is impossible to come by, so the wonderful choral arrangements for Ocarinas are gone forever. To see the top third of the third page Yogis go on over to Yowp’s blog, he’s waitin’ for you.
 Krazy from 9-1 to 9-6-1941 contains a psychological experiment. Offissa Pupp tries to convince Ignatz to banish bricks from his mind, at the suggestion of Mrs. Kwakk-Wakk. I like the 9-4 when Ignatz seems elated at the mental gymnastics of brick banishment. However, in the 9-6, a hod carrier appears with a new supply of the forbidden missles, and it seems that the tricky mouse was just making sport of the duck and the dog.
 Felix, from 10-21 to 10-27-1935, continues to elude the curious sailors on board ship. He still has the oblong shaped diamond that he found on the Ape’s Island. I like the bit in the 10-25 when Felix is socked with a sailor’s boot in which he has hidden the diamond. The Sunday page is a lot of fun, as Felix makes use of the Chemist’s formula for liquefying metal. He feeds the liquid metal to the fish, in hopes of drawing them out of the water by magnetism. His scheme works TOO well, and he is soon almost smothered by the fish. I like Felix’s passed-out pose in the last panel as a fisherman makes off with the hapless cat’s catch. Now that’s a diet rich in iron! Hope your holidays and New Year were at least somewhat joyous! C U Soon!
Your Comics Page-So Long Nebbishes and “Cat” news!!
May 20, 2013
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Mark
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!
We took second prize in the ASIFA East Competition for Independent Shorts! That’s in New York City, folks! If you can make it there you can make it anywhere! We are now the Avis Rent-A-Car of cartoon shorts, we’re number two, so we’ll try harder! Congrats and love to all our stalwarts who made the cartoon possible, Greg Ford, Kim Miskoe, Igor, Ronnie Scheib, Cathy Hill and many more! I think we can safely say that this cartoon is the very LAST cel-animated analog production in the USA!! We’ve thrown down the cat-gut, no other cartoon producer can make that statement!