Author: Mark
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!
Right Around Home with Duane!
 More letters to Bob Balser from Duane Crowther, Part Six! The letter from 7-29-53 has some salty words, shows how far back common cuss words go! Those contemporary screen writers who constantly pepper their dialog with the “Universal Adjective” and various synonyms for scatology, may think they are being current, but the stuff they think is so contemporary was pretty tired even in 1953! I love the Joan Miro style doodles that Duane drew on the back of the envelope, the bird with the obelisk for a head at the bottom of the envelope feels like a Calder wire sculpture. In the 7-29 letter, Bob Balser’s draft status prevents him from joining Duane at UPA New York, and a Famous Studios employee fills the gap. If you read Duane’s letter of 10-7-53, you’ll find out that the Famous Studios guy screwed up the spots he was working on for the Tuberculosis Society, and left the UPA studio. I typed the 10-7 letter, as the original was written in light blue pencil and wouldn’t have scanned well. You’ll also read an account of a vacation trip that Duane made through the southeast to visit an Army buddy in Miami, Florida. He liked it so much there that he missed his plane going back to New York! Duane took in PORGY AND BESS featuring Cab Calloway, WONDERFUL TOWN and the movie version of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, which he liked better than the book. He refers to a “Mr. Babet” in his 10-7 letter, but I’m not sure if that’s Art Babbitt or not. It could be, since Art was working for UPA in those days, but on the West Coast. In the 7-29 letter, Grim Natwick leaves the UPA New York studio for the West, and Duane refers to him as “that grand and good man”. I’ll never forget the respect and admiration for Grim that Duane had for him when Grim turned 100, evidently that respect went back to 1953. Stay tuned into the New Year, for the further New York adventures of Mr. Duane Crowther.
 Dudley Fisher’s Myrtle strips from 5-19 to 5-24-1947 are funny! I like the 5-21 as Myrtle tosses Pop’s pipe cleaner over the fence and a robin cusses as he mistakes it for a worm. The 5-22 is pretty rich as Myrtle beats Aunt Minnie’s time in the living room with her boyfriend Slug. Myrtle’s character is so energetic and mischievous in these 1940s strips. She lets Slug have it with her slingshot in the 5-24 strip, and Slug thinks that Aunt Minnie is getting fresh! Ever reflect on how many famous comic strip cartoonists were named Fisher? Besides our Dudley, there’s Bud, Ham, Dave, Dean, Edwin, Jack and Thornton, to name a few. You might want to throw in Al Smith, Bud Fisher’s ghost for so long, as an unofficial Fisher. (Smith was pretty good at signing Fisher’s name to his artwork.) Happy New Year!
A Duane Crowther Christmas!
 This is a special Christmas card that Duane printed from a linoleum block in 1954. It was designed to be folded out, with Santa on the front of the card. The recipient unfolded it and found a very Gerald-like little boy up late on Christmas eve watching TV. I’m not printing the next two letters that Duane wrote to Bob Balser in this post, because the language is a bit unexpurgated for Christmas, but I’ll run them soon!
 Here’s more of the Moldy Figs! Flintstones Sundays from 12-23, 12-2, 12-9 and 12-30. These are 1/3rd page versions, to see the 1/2 page versions go over to Yowp’s blog, (click on the link in the blogroll on the right side of this page) he has the 12-16 episode as well. I like the image of Fred’s sleigh pulled by 8 huge brontosaurs. The names might have been an in-joke. Like Yowp, I like the multiple Freds in the 12-9 as he reacts to a cave woman. This looks like the work of Dick Bickenbach to me.
 Felix from 10-14 to 10-20-1935, continues his adventures aboard ship, trying to hide Danny’s diamond from the sailors. I like Felix’s expression as he feigns sleep in the second panel of the 10-15 and Felix’s pleased expression with the “oo” mouth in the third panel of the 10-18. In the Sunday, Felix turns magnetic energy against the chemist he’s living with. I like the drawings of Felix and the chemist being pulled back by the magnet.
 Krazy from 8-25 to 8-30-1941, centers on Krazy’s conversation with Mr. Bum Bill and other Bees. Including “Witamin ‘B'”. I love Krazy’s expression of schock in panel 4 of the 8-26 as Bum Bill Bee confuses him. The series winds up enigmatically as Ignatz overhears Bum Bill Bee explaining that both he and Vitamin ‘B’ are full of “pep, vigor and vitality”. In the last panel of the 8-30, Ignatz is outside a drug store, either full of anticipation of the vitamin B he’s going to get, or pepped up from the vitamin B he has just taken, the drawing can be interpreted at least two ways. This quixotic quality is what makes Krazy Kat loved and also disliked by Herriman’s readers.
Speaking of readers, thanks to all you readers for sticking with me through 5 years of this blogging madness. Stay with me for more arcane bits of comicana through the coming year, I couldn’t do it without you! Merry Christmas, from Duane Crowther and me.
L.A. Junior Times March 1927
 Here at last are the L.A. Junior Times comics from March, 1927. I ran a few comics from junior cartoonists who DIDN’T go on to fame as animators or strip cartoonists, but did some pretty good stuff anyway. I like Berk Anthony’s drawing about the Artist’s Meetings, especially when he does jokes about his fellow cartoonists such as Bob Wickersham (” ‘Wicky’ looking for an idea”) I like the “Karikaturist at work” surrounded by curious juniors.
 Here’s a prize winning cover by “Wicky” from 3-20-1927 and a Times Junior Club promo by future animator Phil De Lara. Phil stayed with the Junior Times into 1930, producing a lot of strips and filler drawings, such as the three episodes of “Hezy Tate” below and his panel feature “Pearl Handle”.
 Here you will also find drawings and strips by Morey Reden, Bill Zaboly and I. Ellis doing a strip about “Willyum Tell” for his occasional feature, “Incidents in the Lives of Famous Characters”. I also threw in a couple of panels illustrating “Variations on a Single Theme”, by Scott Crosby and Bob Phillipi, showing Boy Cartoonists struggling to get an idea for the Junior Times. I know nothing about these two guys, but maybe Bob Philippi was some relation to Charlie Philippi, the Walt Disney art director in the 1930s.
 Myrtle is from 5-12 to 5-17-1947 this time. I especially like the 5-14; Freddie sits on a chair his wife has just decorated with a few flower paintings and tries to hide the wet paint on his clothes by standing in Myrtle’s “time-out” corner. The 4th panel of the 5-16 has a funny drawing of Junior with his stomach bloated by golf balls he’s swallowed, and the 5-17 has a subtle gag, a conspiracy between Mom and Myrtle to get Freddie to wash the dishes by giving Mom a manicure just after dinner. Watch this blog for a little Christmas post coming soon.
Duane Crowther Letters Pt. 5
WHY THE HELL AIN’T YOU BACK IN NEW YORK?
Duane Crowther was quite a droll comedian in his letters to Bob and Cima Balser of 5-11 and 6-25-1953. He makes a lot of teasing remarks to Cima and alludes to Bob’s employment status being affected by his draft status (Korean war era). He again tries to get a print of Flora Mock’s film out of the UCLA film department. (He refers to her as “unbalanced”.) Bill Shull was one of Duane’s instructors at UCLA, in the 6-26 letter, Duane refers to him as the “world’s number one shrewdie when it comes to matters financial.” Duane often spoke of Bill Shull fondly in later years, evidently Shull had a lot of influence in both Duane’s and Bob Balser’s lives. It’s funny to read Duane’s opinions of the stuff he was working on at UPA New York, such as the Howdy (ugh) Doody film. In the 6-26 letter, Duane reports that Steve Bosustow took a great interest in the Howdy Doody project, mostly because it would cost half the usual price, due to it’s being a glorified “pose reel”. Duane really tried hard to find a print of “Howdy Doody and the Magic Hat” in the years I knew him, mostly to see if it was as bad as he remembered. It finally turned up in the Library of Congress, alas, too late for Duane to see. I think it is still around the ‘Net somewhere. I love Duane’s tips on getting a job at UPA, which he lists as “What Every Young Man Named Balser Who Would Like to Get a Lot of Money Out of UPA Should Know….”. I wonder what Duane meant by stating that “Poor Gene (Deitch) ran into his brother’s head…and had to stay away for a week or so.” While Gene was away, Duane had to turn out an Ivory Soap commercial practically single handed, including all the ink and paint! He put in 40 hours of overtime in two weeks making the commercial. No wonder Duane didn’t think a lot of late nights and weekends weren’t unusual when we used to work on commercials together.
   These are great letters that shed a lot of light on Duane’s life in New York, and what the atmosphere in the business was like at the time. Thanks again to Bob Balser and Cathy Karol-Crowther for letting me publish them.
 Here’s some more stuff that Duane would have called “moldy fig”, Harvey Eisenberg’s Yogi Bear Sunday pages from December, 1962. I am missing Dec. 16th’s strip, which you can find if you click on Yowp’s website link over to your right. I like the Christmas strip, and the science-fiction 12-30 strip with the bubble gum machine from outer space. This idea would have made an interesting TV cartoon, but Yogi seldom ventured into outer space except when he stowed away on Army rocket ships. At any rate, Yogi and Huck worked better with robots and aliens than the FLINTSTONES did! “Great Gazoo”, anyone?
Your Comics Page
 Hi Readers! I’m experimenting with a little different look to the Krazys and Felixes. I’m joining them together to make a column, like I’ve been doing with the Myrtle strips. Let me know if you like the format. In the Krazy strip from 8-18 to 8-23-41, our Kat adopts a Cuckoo egg and intends to put the offspring in a Cuckoo Clock. The hatch-ling flies away in the 8-19, so the hapless Kat substitutes with a Sparrow, an Owl, an Ostrich and finally himself as the biggest Cuckoo of all.
 In Felix for 10/7 to 10/13/1935, we find Felix still aboard ship, trying to hide Danny’s precious Diamond found on the Ape’s Island from the cut-throat sailors and the Chinese cook. They almost burn the diamond in the stove in the 10/22 but Felix saves it. In the Sunday, Felix is still hanging out with the Professor, who invents a youth serum. When Felix refuses to be a lab animal, the Prof. takes the serum himself and reverts to babyhood. Felix has to babysit him! Otto loved to do stories about chemical formulas and the effects they had on Felix and the denizens of “Messmer land”, such as the story for the cartoon “Germ Mania” in 1927. This one features “Golf Germs”, which cause the Golfer’s mania and “Love Germs”, well, you can guess what they do.
 Myrtle this time is from 5-5 to 5-10-1947. I love the 5/10, especially when Pop eats a spring onion and Myrtle goes out of her way to avoid criticizing his breath, retreating to the top of Pop’s chair with binoculars to read the paper over his shoulder. I also love the long single panel (rare for those days) of 5/9 with Myrtle and Sampson walking their dolls in a baby carriage accompanied by Bingo, Junior and Hyacinth. What a charming drawing with a lot of appeal, a quality rarely achieved in the current vogue for irony and ugliness in comic strips. I hope you enjoyed your comics page for this time.
The Duane Crowther Letters Pt. 4
 Happy Thanksgiving y’all! Here are the next two letters that Duane Crowther wrote to Bob Balser in January and February 1953. Duane keeps trying to get in touch with Flora Mock, whom he apparently met while he was a student of William Shull at UCLA . He describes the atmosphere at UPA New York, thriving in spite of the Actor’s strike then going on. They were doing the “Howdy Doody and the Magic Hat” cartoon for Bob Smith, and the theatrical cartoon “Spare The Child”. Duane does quite an analysis of “Spare The Child” in his letter of 2-28-1953. He criticizes Abe Liss, the director of the picture, and sites an “Oedipus situation” in the story. UPA hired Cliff Roberts to do design and backgrounds, effectively relieving Duane of the responsibility. Duane remained in touch with Cliff and was still using him for jobs at Duck Soup in the 1980s and 90s. You’ll see a few opening chess moves on page one of the 2-28-53 letter, Duane played chess all his life. Bob Balser told me that Duane learned a lot of advanced moves from a chess master that Duane met in Japan when he was in the Armed Forces (see The Duane Crowther Letters, Part One). This knowledge served Duane very well, even to the time of his illness, when he could hardly talk, Duane was still playing chess in his sick bed, and LETTING BOB WIN! Evidently Duane was interested in cryptography as well, look at the back of the envelope for the 2-28-53 letter above, and you’ll see an alphabet with odd symbols next to the letters. Either they are code, or Greek, I can’t tell. More of these little pieces of Duane’s history to come.
 In response to Yowp’s blog, here are the Flintstones 1/3rd page Sundays from November, 1962. Some of these may have been the work of Dick Bickenbach, but the 4th and the 11th seem to be the work of an animator to me, judging by how pushed the poses are. Let me know what you think. To see the 1/2 page versions of these in black and white, head over to Yowp’s blog (link is to the right of the page). You’ll see many fascinating historic screeds, although how Yowp has time to write and assemble them all continues to puzzle me. Remember, just click on the thumbnails above to see them full size. May you all have good things to eat on Thanksgiving.
The Duane Crowther Letters Pt. 3
 Here are two more in my continuing series of Duane Crowther’s letters to Bob Balser from New York, dated 12-23-52 and 1-6-53. In the 12-23, Duane continues his running joke with Bob about typewriter snafus and the mistakes caused by the “touch system”. Duane was quite the student of pantomime, and went to see the Jean Louis-Barrault Troupe perform a 20 minute sketch. Duane has to sit through a 2 and a half-hour drawing room comedy beforehand, though, and he didn’t speak French! He also ribs Gene Deitch for being into “the straight design stuff” and “Doesn’t UNDERSTAND us animators..(knows) NOTHING ABOUT IT.” Duane really liked Gene’s design ability, as you’ll read. Duane had moved out of the YMCA by this time, and his description of his apartment is very funny, cost him a whopping 75 bucks a month! Note the little drawing of Duane with his new coat and the little dog at the left margin. In the 1-6 letter, Duane criticizes Chaplin’s “Limelight”, asks for a print of “Waiting” by Flora Mock (see his March 5, 1952 letter in “The Duane Crowther Letters Pt. 1”), and fakes Bob Balser out by deliberately not putting a page one in his letter, because Bob failed to put a header on his letter. It would be interesting to read Bob Balser’s side of the correspondence, but Duane probably didn’t keep them. He was not a “saver”, as I remember. Duane concludes the letter with a little drawing of a lady being scared by a spider hiding in a typewriter, which seems to be another running gag between Bob Balser and Duane. Charles Brubaker and Mike Sporn both like these letters and want to see more! I’m especially pleased that Mike is reading them, since he is a consummate film-maker, blogger, and New Yorker, choose your own order.
Felix, from 9-30 to 10-6-1935, continues Felix’s adventures as a stowaway. Thanks to the little gold idol he stole from the Ape’s island, Felix continues to elude the sailors who are after him. The Chinese cook, Wong, in the 10-3, is a harbinger of the Tong intrigue coming to Felix’s world. In the 10-6 Sunday, the Professor swabs Felix with a powerful anesthetic, which makes him insensible to pain! Felix swipes two hamburgers from a lunch counter and is unhurt by the blows from Joe, the proprietor. Felix proves his humanity in the last panel, as he vows to chase the mice out of Joe’s place someday, to pay him for the hamburgers.
 Krazy continues to entertain Current, his Jelly Fish visitor in the 8-11 through 8-16-1941 strips. This adds to the story begun in the previous week’s strips, posted in “The Duane Crowther Letters Pt. One”. Herriman spins all kinds of verbal and visual puns out of the parade of fishy characters that flop in Krazy’s house all week, including an Angel Fish, a Flying “Fitch”, a Star Fish and an Electric Eel. Keep reading, folks, I’ll be seeing you soon.
The Junior Times Feb. 1927
 Wow, art instruction for 15 cents a lesson! That’s what the future animators of the 1930s were paying in 1927 courtesy of the Los Angeles Junior Times. You’ll note that Bob Wickersham, Phil De Lara, Izzy Ellis and Frank Tipper were among the students on those halcyon Saturdays in Los Angeles. You’ll also note Bob Wickersham doing his best Chaplin impression for Aunt Dolly’s Hi-Jinks in the photo below. Also if you look down the page, you’ll see the comic strips and editorial drawings for the Junior Times by Izzy Ellis (Hezy Tate, Pearl Handle), Bill Zaboly (Lucky Lem), Bob Wickersham (Fido Bark), Morey Reden (Highshine Joe, Jim Dandy), Isadore Ellis (Incidents in Lives of Famous Characters) and Frank Tipper (The Average Home). These cartoons all appeared in February of 1927. Even though Aunt Dolly expressly forbade continuity, you will notice that Jim Dandy and Fido Bark still use it. Fido Bark is a printed out of sequence.
 Hardie Gramatky was a busy little guy, according to his bio printed in the Junior Times. He took cartooning classes with correspondence school, the Landon School of Cartooning. Like Joe Barbera, Hardie worked in a bank before becoming a full time cartoonist. I don’t know if the Junior Times ever ran a part two of this biography, I couldn’t find it. These Junior Times posts are the most labor intensive ones I do, so I hope you readers enjoy them.
 Here’s Myrtle, from 4-28 to 5-3-1947. Dudley Fisher is really in top form in the 4-28 and 4-29 strips, I love how Bingo leaps off the roof and graps Pa’s head in his two paws in a really human looking grip. I like the use of silhouette in the last panel with Pa lying prone in the foreground with a star coming out of his head. I love the business in the 4-29 of Bingo chasing his friend the rabbit with his sprained ankle, and then appealing to Pa for sympathy in the last panel. These strips are loaded with great poses and appealing drawing. The Myrtle dailies featured the kind of cartooning we used to take for granted. See you next time.
The Final Duane Crowther Letters
February 23, 2013
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Mark