Author: Mark
Charles Schulz, Theresa and Yours Truly
 Here’s a scan of an old slide that my brother discovered in the family archives, and it prompted this reminiscence:
The San Diego Comic-Con was at the El Cortez Hotel in 1975, and I went there with my dear friends Vincent and his first wife, Theresa, Davis. I knew that Charles Schulz was to be a guest, and I brought a copy of the first “Peanuts” book with me in case I had the good luck to meet him–and behold(!) I spotted him striding fast across the lobby of the El Cortez, and I practically tackled him. I was lucky to find Mr. Schulz by himself, armed with felt tip pens. I asked for his autograph and timidly requested a Snoopy–He looked pretty annoyed–but obliged me–you can see the drawing above. Later on, Vincent talked Mr. Schulz into posing for this slide–of course Theresa was pretty enticing in her girl scout outfit, so once again Mr. Schulz obliged us zany fans.
Charles Schulz is an early example of a comic strip fan becoming a member of the fourth estate–after all, his nick-name was “Sparky”-after Billy DeBeck’s “Spark Plug”. What a great thrill it was to meet him–going to the Comic-Con with Vince and Theresa was an annual event in my life for about 5 years. You should have seen Vincent handle all those famous cartoonists–he was never intimidated and his humorous appearance was a great ice breaker. Those days are gone forever–but I’ll always remember.
 In Krazy this week–from 10-19 to 10-24-1942, there’s plenty of slapstick in the 10-19 as Krazy socks Ig with a rock in retaliation–only bricks are pleasurable to KK. I love the “ZIZ” lettering in the 10-20 as “Kapri Kornus” the goat, butts Ig. There is kwirky kat langwitch in the 10-21 as KK says “Paul Troom” as code for “poltroon”. Ignatz paraphrases the early 1940s song hit: “I’ve Got Spurs” in the 10-22, and the brick-tossing coconut monster in the 10-24 is a vintage Herriman Horror.
Myrtle from 7-12 to 7-18-1948 features a story that lasts until 7-16, of a broken dinner plate. Sampson tries to replace the prized plate that Myrtle broke, but secretly “borrows” the plate from Bingo! If you find Sampson’s lisp annoying, you’ll love the 7-17 as Myrtle does something about it. The Sunday page is called “Ship Ahoy!!!” and features Dudley Fisher’s patented two panel down shot layout, as Myrtle hooks an extremely powerful fish.
 “Just a rolling stone, that’s me” Felix from 10-8 to 10-14-1934, features the homeless puss taking up with a sculptor, then a hypnotist. I love the statue coming to life in the 10/9, as Felix, hiding in the clay, brings it to life. Felix uses the old mirror gag in the 10/13 to turn the hypnotist into a chicken. The Sunday page looks like Felix is going home at last, but he is a Cat without a Country as the Captain of the ship is too cheap to pay import duty on Felix, so he is repatriated to the sea.
Thanks to all you readers for sticking with me. I just turned 67 on August 10th and will soon qualify as the world’s oldest boy cartoonist. C Ya!
Your Comics Page 8-1-2015
 Here’s Felix, 10-1 to 10-7-1934. The homeless puss manages to get into a vacant hotel room, order room service and escape from the hotel dicks unscathed! In the Sunday, Messmer uses a tried and true Felix formula, he is chased by angry sailors who are convinced he is a jinx, then he manages to plug a leak in the ship with the body of an escaping mouse (Skidoo?). Felix is once again “in good” with the sailors.
 Myrtle is from 7-5 to 7-11-1948 and Dudley Fisher’s special timing is most in evidence in the 7-5 as Freddie is in the “doghouse” with Susie after scolding Bingo and making him cry. I like the wordless final panel. I also like Freddie’s struggle with nicotine addiction in the 7-7 after he throws his cigarette out the window and lives to regret it, and the Sunday page is fun with the boys away at a business convention and the wives and girlfriends at home playing cards, which so many people did as a past-time in the early twentieth century.
 Krazy was originally published from 10-12 to 10-17-1942 and the strips seem a bit trimmed around the edges, don’t they? I love the 10-17 as Krazy and Ignatz trip over puns and Kat Langwidge. “Harmony”, “Hominy” and “Quantidy”, as Krazy interprets Hominy as “How Many?” Garge comments on his own work as Ignatz says “Corn” and Offissa Pupp says “..and in more ways than one, Corn is right.”
 Here’s Yogi from the month of August, 1965. I’m missing the 8-8 Sunday page, so perhaps old dog buddy Yowp at http://yowpyowp.blogspot.com will dig it up. (UPDATE: Yowp posted a black and white image of the 8-8 and I have it! I just didn’t know the date, so here it is thanks to the great Internet dog!) These appear to be Iwao Takomoto’s work once again. He does an attractive job of designing these pages, I especially like the 8-1 as Iwao handles the trees and landscape that Yogi and the ram inhabit as a little island surrounded by blue sky. The kid with a huge baseball bat up to bunt in the 8-22 seems like an old Percy Crosby “Skippy” baseball joke, reworked for Yogi. Ranger Smith pops up in the 8-29 along with Iwao’s personal brand of cute squirrels. Again, there is something essentially flat in his character design, especially in the last panel as the squirrels catch the falling walnuts. Harvey would have drawn them rounder and cuter, making them look more like the squirrels in the Barney Bear cartoons “The Uninvited Pest” and “Sleepy-Time Squirrel”. This post got side-tracked for awhile; the power supply on my computer was knocked out by a Glendale power outage on Tuesday night. Evidently the old power supply couldn’t handle the surge when the lights came on again after two hours down. Thanks to Robert Karsian of Jewel City Computers, the old Dell Demension 4550 is now operational and works a little better. Robert restored a “dead” computer back to life with a rebuilt power supply. He even makes house calls! If you are local here in Glendale, CA or surrounding communities, give him a call at 818-457-1207 or email him with your problems at Robert@JewelCityComputers.com . He really knows his stuff!
Your Comics Page 7-21-2015
Felix, as written and drawn by Otto Messmer, continues from 9-24 to 9-30-1934. I love the first panel of the 9-28, Felix is in despair; “Nobody wants me.” This panel should be plastered in every animal shelter where homeless cats wait for their forever homes, and by extension, should be plastered on the fences of all the skid rows in all the world. Felix is adopted in the 9-28 by a henpecked husband who uses Felix as a detector for his wife’s rolling pin. I hope the homeless Felix can do better. In the Sunday, Felix lands on still another ship and interferes with a treasure hunt.
 In Myrtle, 6-28 to 7-4-1948 you’ll see many examples of Dudley Fisher’s unique gag timing. My favorite is the 7-3 daily, as Bingo appears in the master bedroom complete with his sleeping bag in the last panel. Hyacinth the cat appears in the Sunday called, “Love Letters”. Myrtle is deviously selling her parents’ old love letters to the neighbors to earn a few dimes, sounds like real kid behaviour to me.
 Here’s Krazy, 10-5 to 10-10-1942. However, we are missing the 10-6-42 episode. Perhaps the “Kat” man, G. Heinlein himself, can supply it? (UPDATE! Gerd Heinlein has come through! Thanks, Gerd for the missing 10-6-1942 strip! You are the official “Kat” man forever.) I’m somewhat mystified by the 10-5. Does Krazy’s tortilla look like a chuck steak to Offissa Pupp? And what’s the gag here? I like the 10-10 strip the best this week, it’s funny to see a fire dog misinterpret Krazy’s yell and watch Ignatz get soused. We’ll have another post very soon, see you then.
Your Comics Page 7-1-2015
 Here’s Felix, from 9-17 to 9-23-1934. Felix is still searching for a loving home, but instead gets spooked by some mice, gets set up to be chased by a dog, gets ignored by a man in training for night watchman duty and gets poked and prodded by a musician’s bow and trombone. Felix longs to be free as a bird, then meets a caged parrot! In the Sunday, Felix fends off the ape he met last week by accidentally giving him a hornet’s nest instead of a coconut. The intrepid cat then sets off to sea in the shell casing.
 Myrtle is from 6-21 to 6-27-1948 this post. In the dailies, Freddie starts out the week by trying to wash his golf balls. That turns into a treatise on being absent-minded, until Myrtle really loses her mind in the 6-26. Reminds me of the ending of Tex Avery’s “Happy-G0-Nutty”:”You think you’re Napoleon, but you’re not! I AM!” In the Sunday, Freddie gets a call from “Toodles”, an old sweetheart, and Susie is a bit concerned. But Toodles has gained a lot of weight since she last saw Freddie, to everyone’s relief including Bingo.
 Here’s Krazy, from 9-28 to 10-3-1942. Much ado about a “Cat O’Nine Tails” this week, in the 9-28, the Nine-tailed wonder turns out to be a fake, and in the 10-2, the W.C. Fields-type dog claims to have known a TEN-tailed feline. I like Offissa Pupp speaking of himself in the third person as a “Kop”. He tries to beef up his ego, but Ignatz escapes in a bottomless garbage can before his story can be continued….in Jail.
 I do believe we have come to the final Harvey Eisenberg Yogi Bear Sunday page, from 7-4-65, and Yogi finds himself lassoed to a rocket ship, going from a mare to the air. (Hey-Hey!)
 These next three, 7-11, 7-18 and 7-25-1965, appear to me to be mostly the work of Gene Hazelton, who is a bit more of a graphic artist than Harvey; he drew a little flatter, Yogi seems a bit less rotund with Gene. Huck Hound makes a rare appearance in the 7-11 with a little boy scout that looks like a Hazelton design. Click to enlarge the 7-18 strip, and you will see an unusual episode giving Yogi credit for the Wright Brothers successful aircraft! The last Sunday page for the month has an ingenious use of a friendly porcupine as Yogi spears some forbidden apples. If you keep in touch with Yowp’s blog, www.yowpyowp.blogspot.com, you will find more complete versions of the third-page strips I have loaded here, in black and white. The “Tab” format Sundays with the “Yogi Bear” logo, two of which I’ve included in this post, are only missing one panel that was in the half-page format. You’re missing very little on these if you just read them here. Have a crazy Fourth of July, enjoy all your illegal fireworks and learn not to burn (Hey-Hey-Hey!).
A Gentle Touch
 The Catblog presents actual cat pictures! This week it’s a cat named Fitz being petted and visited by little Charlotte. Charlotte is the great-granddaughter of our dear neighbor, Belle. Charlotte’s just a little over one year old now, and seems to be a budding cat fan. Her other cat friend, Scout, should be familiar to you; she’s appeared a few times on the Catblog. I just love how gently Charlotte’s small hand brushes against Fitz’s soft fur in the first picture. Fitz is a rescued cat, and is very friendly and well-socialized. Belle just loves these pictures and thought that you would enjoy them too!
 Felix continues to try and be adopted in the strips from 9-10 to 9-16-1934, but runs afoul of a nearsighted man who can’t read the reminder note from his wife to feed Felix. Felix leaves the house in disgust when the nearsighted man can’t even look down to see him. Suspense is set up by the 9-15 strip as Felix finds what seems to be an abandoned house to live in. The Sunday page continues Felix’s expedition in the artillery shell as he drifts to another island inhabited by a coconut hurling ape. This looks like a friendship in the making, we’ll see.
 Myrtle is from 6-14 to 6-20-1948 this time. The gags are charming and some have the Dudley Fisher timing I’ve spoken so often about. The cookie jar gag in the 6-18 and the shower curtain for the birdbath joke in the 6-19 are good examples of the Fisher timing. The Sunday entitled “Cool off, Freddie”, showcases one of the early whole-office air conditioning units. These were no doubt a novelty in the immediate post-war years and this one seems to work very well. Even the birds talk about being part penguin, they take to the cool temperatures so rapidly. Would this have been a Trane unit, a GE or a Lennox?
 The Krazy strips this time are from 9-21 to 9-26-1942 with the strip from 9-25-42 missing. Does anybody have this one?
Our faithful reader Gerd Heinlein has supplied the 9-25-42 strip! He’s come to the rescue before and we really appreciate it! Thanks, Gerd!
The 9-21 addresses the rubber shortage as Krazy starts to call a passerby a “Rubba..(neck)” and the rest of the cast shout, “Where?” In the 9-25, Garge draws the “Carats” as if they were turnips! The 9-26 uses gas masks as proto-Halloween get-up. Krazy and Ignatz scare each other away when they try them on. Garge draws them almost as if they are old-fashioned stereoptican slide holders. The gas mask was a holdover from the World War One years. Well, that’s our blog for this time, see you soon.
Red Skelton DVD Review and Your Comics Page!
 Your Comics Page begins with Krazy from 9-14 to 9-19-1942 this time. You’ll note that the first three dailies are about Pouter pigeons, which Krazy thinks are “Powder” pigeons and might explode (wartime flavored gag). The next two dailies address the old poem “The North Wind Doth Blow” or “The Robin”. No one remembers who wrote the old English Nursery Rhyme, which no doubt dates back hundreds of years. My mother used to recite it to me, and I memorized it. But what is the poem Krazy is reciting in the 9-19? Is it from “Julius Caesar” by Shakespeare, or “The Martyr of the Catacombs”? If anyone can solve this Kat puzzler, a lifetime subscription to this blog is your reward!
My esteemed brother and retired Calculus tutor, Kurt, says: “The quote in the Krazy strip is from ‘Supposed Recitation of Regulus’, a popular ‘recitation’ piece of the period by Elijah Kellogg. You can find it complete if you google it. The actual quote is ‘Calm and unmoved as the marble walls around him, stood Regulus, the Roman!’ Pretty gripping stuff, huh?”
Not only gripping, but winning! Thanks Oh Mighty Tutor, you now have a lifetime subscription to the Catblog!
 Felix is from 9-3 to 9-9-1934 this time. He escapes from the evil scientist by punching him out after receiving an injection of Gorilla serum. Felix is less trusting of future homes, as he rejects a maker of dog kennels, a fat lady on a diet and a beginning saxophone player. In the Sunday 9-9 episode, Felix does a quick escape from the cannibal island by turning the shell casing into a sort of canoe. We’ll see if he gets home from there next time.
 Dudley Fisher’s Myrtle is from 6-7 to 6-13-1948 for this post. My favorite daily is the 6-8. Myrtle takes a gag photo of Bingo dressed up in Freddie’s hat and pipe, resulting in Bingo eating his meals with a spoon! Fisher lets the reader fill in the gaps here, as Bingo makes the leap up the anthropomorphic ladder from wearing hats and smoking pipes to eating his meals with a human utensil. I also love the 6-10, as Myrtle asks for a piece of bread and jelly and restricted to “just one” by Susie, Myrtle slices the bread length ways (you got your bread unsliced in 1948) and chows down on a cinemascope slice. The Sunday, 6-13 is called “First Flight”. Hyacinth the cat is fastened securely in Bingo’s doghouse as a baby robin takes it’s first test hop out of the nest into Myrtle’s hat.
 The Yogi Bear Sundays from June, 1965 are here, courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Harvey Eisenberg’s legacy continues for now, but in the July episodes other hands start carrying the load. The 6-6 episode is a beautiful drawing job, as Yogi baby sits for a Charles Addams type couple who seem to be the missing links between Mr. and Mrs. J. Evil Scientist and The Gruesomes. The 6-13 is OK, but the last panel seems to drop the ball a little as Yogi and Boo-Boo skate away from the Jellystone General Store with a pillow somewhat awkwardly placed near their rear ends! Yogi’s rhyme is rather lazy here too, he matches “right” with “right”! The 6-20 has some good Eisenberg staging in it as Yogi tries to get a tattoo artist to draw an arrow correctly. The concept is a bit weak here, Yogi doesn’t have human skin, so a tattoo on his fur would disappear almost immediately. The 6-27, once again drawn by Eisenberg, seems to reprise an earlier Indian gag, as Yogi seems to be doing a tribal dance, when actually the gyrations are caused by sitting on an ant hill. I’m sure that Yowp will come up with more complete copies of these Sundays in his blog soon, so keep checking in at www.yowpyowp.blogspot.com .
 I just finished (after 5 months) watching this historic DVD set of Red Skelton shows published by The Shout Factory. Here is my review:
Red Skelton Show, The Early Years Shout Factory 11 Disc Set
The name “Red Skelton” is fading away in the 21stCentury, but way back in the 20th, he was a beloved and well-known comedian. In our family home when my brother and I were little, Red “visited” us by TV nearly every week. Our Grandma Katie just adored Red, although she seldom laughed at his actual comedy. She loved his shy little four-fingered wave to the audience as he came on to the stage, the dimples in his smile, and his show-closing phrase: “Good night and may God bless!” This is the Red Skelton that is best remembered today, the “old people’s” Skelton.
The Skelton in this 11 disc DVD set released by The Shout Factory, is not for the most part, the “old folks” Skelton. The earliest TV shows Red did are visual extensions of his radio program. Red’s radio programs from the 1940 to 1944 and the 1945 to 1954 seasons were his true legacy. Like Joe Penner before him, Red had the capacity to be both inside and outside of his material at the same time. His most endearing character from his radio days was the “Mean Widdle Kid”. “Junior” was wise beyond his years, one of the craftiest rascals on radio. He played off Harriet Hilliard as his mother on the early shows, but the funniest Junior scripts featured Verna Felton as his “Namma”. She often spoke to Junior with that “Hairbrush tone” in her voice. There were no “time outs” in Junior’s lexicon, just extreme corporal punishment. Junior made “I dood it” and “He don’t know me very well, do he”, beloved catch phrases, but Red’s outstanding achievement with the character was making such a brat seem somehow endearing. Junior’s influence on cartoons of the 1940s and 1950s was in every Wise Guy hero, from Bugs Bunny to Tweety, Woody Woodpecker, Skrewy Squirrel: every character that broke the 4thwall and had no respect for authority owed their existence to Red Skelton’s radio program and his head writer and first wife, Edna Stillwell. Skelton’s other radio characters, such as Clem Kadiddlehopper were imitated by Tex Avery (“The Hick Chick”) and by Bill Scott as Bullwinkle Moose, “Deadeye”’s “Aw, Come On Horse, WHOA!” became components of Yosemite Sam and Quick Draw McGraw–Mike Maltese, who wrote for these characters, was imbued with Red’s comic bad guys.
The first Skelton TV shows tried to do a visual version of the radio program. Ironically, although Red looked hilarious as Clem Kadiddlehopper with his crossed eyes and receding chin, and Cauliflower McPugg with his broken down prizefighter’s facial ticks and catch phrases such as “a flock of ‘em flew over that time”, or “Deadeye”’s crummy mustache and even crummier marksmanship–all these characters were just as vivid on the radio without the makeup. The listener could easily imagine what they looked like and the attempts by the makeup men to make them visible comes off a little cheesy. It’s significant that Red made almost no attempt to recreate “Junior” visually for TV. He used the “Junior” voice and turned his fedora upside down to simulate being a Fauntleroy type kid, but turned the character into a parody of his own son, Richard. Red was a big guy over six feet, and he wisely decided against performing as Junior alongside Verna Felton or Lurene Tuttle. “Junior” on the radio was a tiny, scampering, atomic powered bundle of mischief, so Red’s stature was all wrong for the character.
Having said all that, these TV shows have their own rewarding qualities. Edna Skelton was still the head writer (even though she and Red were divorced) and the characters that she and Red created could coast on their energy. Red loved to make fun and criticize the writing as he performed it, (“now there’s a brilliant line”, “I’m proud o’that, it ain’t written here”). He would often break up on camera as he went along, and sometimes threw off the timing of his supporting cast in doing so. An early member of that cast, Lucille Knoch, is a standout in these 1950s kinescopes. She’s petite, blonde and very cute, Jeff to Red’s Mutt, and really seems to be enjoying Red’s comedy, mistakes and all. It’s a delight to watch her break up along with Red. Jack Benny was very critical of Red’s unprofessionalism, laughing at himself. Yet somehow breaking up became an integral part of his routine and bridged less-than-perfect comedy writing. Red would comment: “I gotta laugh, ‘cause I know what’s comin’” and “I only just got the joke.”
What’s the value of this SHOUT FACTORY DVD set to a collector of television shows of the 1950s? Invaluable. Red Skelton held the rights to all his television kinescopes, and how fortunate we are that he did hold them and didn’t syndicate the programs. Part of the reason Red didn’t want his early programs seen during his lifetime might have been that his son Richard, who was the subject of many of his father’s comedy routines, died of leukemia before he turned 10, and his second wife Georgia, mother of Red’s two children and featured in several of the Christmas Skelton shows, shot herself to death in 1976. Red was probably too saddened by the loss of Georgia and Richard to look at his old shows. He continued to make new ones until 1971; he preferred to go on and not to look back.
The first season, 1951-52 , has the most manic energy–Red had to change costumes several times in each episode, and there are no “God bless” endings here–Red is usually dragged under the curtain at the end of the show in mid-sentence by a stage hand! Cauliflower McPugg, Clem Kadiddlehopper and Willie Lump-Lump are the featured characters. The show was as big a hit as Red’s radio program and he won two Emmys for his TV program and for being an outstanding comedian. Unfortunately, the first episode from 9/30/1951 is not included in the set, perhaps the print went vinegar–it’s a miracle that so many of these episodes have survived at all, Red must have had good film storage. In the 1952-53 series, they tried to make it easier on Red by filming the performances on a sound stage with mostly canned laughter. The show really suffered without a live audience and Red’s comedy was enhanced by real laughter–so the filmed shows lasted only one season. Being shot on 35mm, they look great.
NBC dropped the Red Skelton show in 1953, due to low ratings, and CBS picked it up, running it on a sustaining basis at first. More shows were one-character per episode affairs and there were many singing/dancing interludes by the “Red-dettes” to give Red some breathing room. It’s a real treat to see these CBS kinescopes. The network had a terrible track record on film storage and most of their early kinescopes were destroyed. We owe Red our gratitude in preserving so much of his television legacy for us to see today.
About this time in the show’s history, a new character began to dominate the programs, a hobo named Freddy the Freeloader. Skelton used his father’s clown makeup for Freddy’s face. In the early appearances Freddy spoke quite a lot, but in the later 1950s and 60s he became largely a pantomime character. He was a gentle soul, but was rather coarse in his manners, I remember an episode that featured Greer Garson, whom Freddy addressed as a “broad”. Red’s skill at acting and comedy without using words make him worthy of study by animators and actors today. He had absolute control over his face and body and could become an old man, a little boy, a drunkard, a haughty dowager or two seagulls just by changing his posture or wearing his hat differently.
There are many Skelton legends that aren’t included in the biography documentary on the bonus disc. Tales such as Red in his dotage responding to unexpected visitors ringing the bell at his Bel-Aire home by running out on to the driveway clad only in a bathrobe and brandishing a rifle! Red supposedly wouldn’t let anyone near the vault rooms in his mansion where all the film was stored, reportedly he refused to show the old kinescopes to people, including himself. Red was a right-wing God and Country type guy in his later years and accused CBS of persecuting him for his politics when they cancelled his show in 1970, still at the top of the ratings.
Shout Factory has cut nearly all the commercials out of Red’s prints but have left the filmed spots he did for Tide Detergent in the first season shows. The ads are funny and painless, nearly devoid of plugs until the last minute of the skit. You won’t find any of the Pet Milk or Johnson’s Wax ads in the later shows, however. Maybe they couldn’t clear the rights.
I give this set the highest rating a film collector can give it–4 Reels! There are so many interesting episodes including guests like Bela Lugosi, Peter Lorre and Vampira and a filmed rehearsal for a 1953 NBC episode featuring “Deadeye From Mars” which lets us in on Red’s freewheeling and irreverent attitude towards his comedy. He cracked up when the elaborate space bicycle prop fails to take off at the end of the sketch. It’s always fun to watch Red just take flubs and fluffs in his stride and make them “funnier than what’s written here”.
By all means get this set and savor it slowly, there are 92 shows included and you’ll be sorry when you’ve used up all the episodes!
Your Comics Page 5-20-2015
 Felix is from 8-27 to 9-2-1934 this time. In the dailies, Felix wins over the young lady (who mistakenly believes Felix is a present from her fiancee) with orchids he found lying in the street. Felix searches for a new home, and manages to land one with (who else) a professor who wants to turn the hapless cat into an experimental animal. In the Sunday, Felix hides in an artillery shell to escape the returning crew, only to be fired into space and land on a cannibal island. The cannibals think that the empty shell is a new-fangled cooking pot. I think Messmer used this gag several times. By the way, look at the cat in the “Laura” topper, I have a weak spot for Messmer’s alternate designs for cartoon cats and this is one of his best.
 Krazy is from 9-7 to 9-12-1942 this time and Garge’s inking is beautiful! The military gags go through all six strips and feature Ignatz as a private interacting with a lot of army dogs who closely resemble Offissa Pupp. I like the 9-8, in which Ignatz meets a canine spy: great inking in the second, third and fourth panels as the big spy tells Ignatz, “I AM”. The 9-9 is the runner-up for me, as four Ernie Pyle Pupps show up and tell Ignatz they are columnists. Noting that there are four of the dogs, Krazy asks “Where’s the Fiff one?” The “Fifth Column” refers not to journalism, but to military spies, such as Quisling in Poland in 1940.
 Myrtle is from 5-31 to 6-6-1948, I love the 5-5 as Bingo gives Sampson a nudge which turns on Sampson’s libido. He grabs Myrtle and kisses her, leaving her puzzled. I’ve included the Sunday page which bestows a new power lawn mower on Myrtle. The new gasoline engine mower goes AWOL and smashes through a nearby neighbor’s yard.
 Here is a new feature on the Catblog, George McManus’s BRINGING UP FATHER, from 1-2 to 1-7-1950. The reason Jiggs pops up here? I’m PO’d at the King Features comic website, Comics Kingdom. They have some nice proofs of BUF that they recently stopped running with the episode for 12-31-1949. I think they should have kept running Jiggs in chronological order so the readers could see the eventual abandonment of the dailies by George McManus. If I can run the post-1949 dailies here, why can’t King Features run them on their website? A syndicate that has distributed so many fine features for so many years should have a much more complete archive of their classic strips than they do. By the 1950s, George M. had been cartooning for over 43 years! He passed away in 1954 having logged in 41 years of Jiggs and Maggie, starting in 1913. His ink line was very delicate, and sometimes reminds me of Winsor McCay. McManus drew the whites of his characters’s eyes blank, once in a while with very tiny dots for irises, looking like Harold Grey’s Little Orphan Annie eyeballs. BUF will only be an occasional feature here, as the strips rarely feature continuity, except for the repeating gags of Jiggs being socked by endless crockery from his wife’s well-stocked china cabinets (which he paid for). I always enjoy McManus’s sense of staging, silhouette panels and sense of design. I love the 1-6 as Jiggs and Maggie visit their local movie theatre. McManus suggests the movie show with silhouettes of Jiggs and wife along with other movie goers in front of a totally white space above the line of theater seats. We don’t need to actually see what’s on the screen, the black figures and dialog fill us in on all the movie details. McManus is one of newspaper cartooning’s finest cartoonists, but he is easy to take for granted. Watch for more of his work coming soon.
Your Comics Page 4-28-2015
I’ve saved a lot of crazy cat pictures over the years, here’s one of my favorites. Reminds me of a real life Tom and Jerry or Ignatz and Krazy on the flip side.
 Krazy from 8-31 to 9-5-42 displays the incursion of the second World War into Garge’s Coconino County. In the 8-31, Krazy is singing “There’s Something About A Soldier” as Ignatz goes into the infantry as a Colonel. Offissa Pupp is an M.P. In the 9-5, a Dog who says he’s a General marches into the strip and says to Ignatz: “Hi Private, What’s Cooking?” The General seems to be Irish, since he has the craves for potatoes, and Ignatz makes a hasty retreat, having no potatoes cooking, or otherwise.
 In Myrtle, 5-24 to 5-30-1948, Myrtle and Sampson put out their own typewritten newspaper, with an “e” missing. Slug, in the 5-27, submits a comic strip to the fledgling paper, but Myrtle, Sampson and Bingo reject it. I love the panel with Slug keeping his job as a soda jerk, looking at his strip: “I still think it’s good!” The Sunday from 5-30 has the whole family painting the house, Slug defiantly walks under the ladder and look what Hyacinth the cat pushes over!
 Felix, 8-20 to 8-26-1934 has Felix trying to find a new “owner” as the crook he was bound to is now in the clink. He finds himself being given away to Miss Daisy Pipp, who is expecting flowers and instead receives a “common cat”. In the Sunday, Felix manages to get the whole battleship to himself as he plays around in the hold with explosives and the whole crew take to the lifeboats. We’ll see whether Felix blows himself up or becomes an Admiral!
 Here are the Yogi Bear Sundays from May, 1965. Harvey Eisenberg is still represented by the comics he left behind, and he managed to create quite a backlog of Yogi pages while he lived. My favorites here are the 5-16 (click to enlarge the thumbnails) in which Yogi leads his own humming group of hummingbirds. Harvey was very good at drawing realistic birds, his “Bertie Bird” text illos in many of the Tom and Jerry comic books attest to that. The hummingbirds he designed for this strip are very appealing. The 5-30 episode is a little bit puzzling to me, who’s Henry? He’s a bit hard of hearing, and celebrating his 91st birthday. Does this Henry have anything to do with Henry Orbit, from “The Jetsons”? Henry Orbit was an old-timer, and as I remember, a little hard of hearing. Maybe the Henry in this Yogi Bear page is the great-great-great grandfather of Henry Orbit? I know nozzink. Maybe Yowp can help with this H-B puzzler. So long for now.
Easter Cats!
 My dear wife, Cathy, makes up a little Easter basket and decorates eggs with her wonderful drawings each year. She found a little egg-shaped wooden cat head at a local store and re-created it’s face on one of the eggs. The other egg is a small Japanese ceramic cat she found in the same store which she named “Sake Cat”; this one was an Anniversary gift. Now they are both featured on Easter eggs. If you go to Itza Cat’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/someothercat, you’ll see another one of Cathy’s Easter egg creations featuring Itza’s face.
 Here’s a cozy shot of our Easter basket, made up by Cathy. In it, you’ll see a dark chocolate bunny, a couple of Cadbury Caramel eggs (my favorite), a jar of apple butter and some cloth roses. We’re still sampling the delicacies, well into April. I gave Cathy a special card and about 10 pink roses, so it wasn’t an entirely one-sided Easter. It was a happy, peaceful and memorable one.
 Felix, from 8-13 to 8-19-1934, at last foils the robber who has been in a black-face disguise to fool the police. The disguise works until a stray bullet punctures a water pipe and washes off the burnt cork. In the Sunday, Felix tightrope-walks over to an immense battle ship and locks the Admiral in his cabin with the whole crew standing at attention. The crafty cat then proceeds to eat his dinner in the Officer’s Mess. The “Funny Films” topper features a black artful dodger, if you put the toy together you can see him dodge the baseballs that Felix throws at his head. If you want to see Popeye throwing balls at another black dodger, just find the first Fleischer Popeye cartoon (actually a Betty Boop) called: “Popeye the Sailor”.
Here’s Myrtle from 5-17 to 5-23-1948. My favorites this week? The 5-18, one of those “makes you think” gags, where Myrtle is wearing her pajamas underneath her skirt as she writes on the blackboard, and the 5-21, a Fisher Fantasy touch as the vacuum cleaner sucks up a cookie crumb and burps, sending Myrtle to the corner. I also found the Sunday page called “Another New House” where the whole neighborhood has fun with a steam-shovel, including Hyacinth the cat!
Here’s Krazy, from 8-24 to 8-29-1942. The first three strips feature the infrequently featured character, Mr. Bum Bill Bee. In the 8-27, Krazy seems to be suggesting the “heavy light” of Neutron Stars, or is he just being silly? The 8-29 strip doesn’t register with me, I can’t remember the “old watermelon gag” that Offissa Pupp is referring to. Does Ignatz usually hide inside a watermelon each year? Maybe one of my readers can help crack this Kat puzzler. UPDATE: The mighty Pat Ventura, cartoonist extraordinaire has shed light on this Kat puzzler. Here: 
 is the Sunday page from 7-11-1927 in which Ignatz not only hides in a watermelon, but goes over a waterfall in it. Look at the comments below to find out more about this page. If the Kats will stay out of the Korn field, I should be back before the end of the month with another post filled with comics, including the next batch of Yogi Bear Sundays. Remember to click on any image to enlarge it. 
Your Comics Page 3-26-2015
Gentle readers, here’s Krazy from 8-17 to 8-22-42. The sharp-eyed completists among you will notice that 8-20 is missing. King Features doesn’t have it, and I was unable to find it elsewhere, so if anyone can furnish the strip, you will get a free subscription to this website! (Our wonderful reader G. Heinlein has furnished the missing Krazy from 8-20-1942! Thanks, G.! You now have free access to the blog!) Herriman’s staging stands out to me in the 8-17 and 8-19 strips as the lower half (which was often cut-off when 1940s newspapers crowded 16 to 18 daily strips on a page) is adorned with rugs and dark spaces under the floor boards of the Coconino desert stage where the action takes place. I especially like the last panel of the 8-22 as Garge shows us what Krazy looks like to a near-sighted worm, the inking is a perfect representation of how a near-sighted person without glasses would see the Kat.
 Here’s Felix from 8-6 to 8-12-1934. He is still the reluctant pet of a house-burgling crook. Otto gets into a bit of 1930s style racial caricature in the 8-10 and 8-11 strips as the crook paints Felix white and blacks his face up to foil the police. In the Sunday, Felix is still pursued by the ravenous animals on board the deserted ship. He sets a captive bird free, and the grateful avian flies out to land with a rope so that Felix can tightrope walk his way to safety.
 Myrtle is from 5-10 to 5-16-1948 this time, complete with the 3/4 downshot Sunday page. My favorite is the bunny joke from the 5-15 strip, in which a picky rabbit wants mayonnaise on his lettuce. Dudley Fisher had a way with cute animals and birds, his gentle comedy has no counterpart in today’s nonstop snark that’s taken over just about all comedy outlets, including comic strips.
 These Yogi Bear pages from April, 1965 appeared in the last month of Harvey Eisenberg’s short life, he died four days before the 4-25 strip reproduced below. The 4-4 and 4-11 pages feature “Mugger”, a snickering pooch designed by Iwao Takamoto for the “Hey, There, It’s Yogi Bear!” animated feature. Harvey was just as adept at drawing Iwao’s designs as Ed Benedict’s or Dick Bickenbach’s, so he exaggerated Mugger’s teeth and streamlined his body for action in a very pleasing way. Harvey’s poses and his way of arranging figures and action on a page always remind me of the best of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. Just click to enlarge the 4-18 strip above and you’ll see a tennis gag that is carried entirely by the action poses.
 Here’s the cover of a “Dexter” comic book from 1947, that Harvey drew for the Dearfield comics company. Harvey was the co-owner of that company along with Joe Barbera, and they published many handsome looking comics with the characters “Red Rabbit” and “Foxy Fagan”. I had never heard of the “Dexter” series until I ran across them on the Internet. Harvey’s trying to tap the teenage comic market which was starting to catch fire post WW2. Archie comics, Mayzie comics, etc. were eating into the funny animal market, so Harvey and Joe tried to fill a niche. I don’t know how adept Harvey was at drawing teenage boys, but his girls are cute, and so is the steer. I’d like to see an issue or two of “Dexter” to see if Harvey drew the interiors. Anybody want to scan any pages for me to look at?
 This was not the last Yogi Bear Sunday that Harvey would contribute to, as you’ll see in future posts, he worked about 9 months ahead, so his art continued through just about the rest of 1965. He died of a heart attack. My guess is that he put in so many hours at the drawing board, that he never got any exercise, and like most folks of the “greatest generation”, he probably smoked as well. He left us a grand legacy of beautiful cartoon drawings, animation layouts, comic books and comic strips. Yowp is no longer posting these Yogis on his blog, so this is the only place where you’ll see them from now on. See you soon!
Your Comics Page 2-25-2015
 Here’s Felix, 7-30 to 8-5-1934. Felix is still the reluctant pet of the burglar. He tries to return every stolen item to it’s rightful owner after the crook “hooks” them. I like the 8-1, in which the little boy thinks that the grandfather clock has hatched three smaller clocks and the 8-4 demonstrating that it doesn’t pay to return a bomb to an anarchist. I love the final panel as Felix hurtles toward the sky; it’s an action-packed Messmer sketch. In the Sunday, Felix continues to elude the hungry animals on-board the abandoned ship. He protects himself inside an octopus’s legs in the last panel, similar to a scene in “Felix Braves the Briny” (1926).
 
 Krazy is from 8-10 to 8-15-1942 this time. There is a particularly juicy bit of “Kat Langwitch” in the 8-12 as KK asks a question about a piece of furniture called a “High-Boy”: “Podzezzis a prodijjis yemplitude of high, dun’t it?” Translation: “Possesses a prodigious amplitude of high, don’t it?” I also admire the sly sight gag that Garge uses in the 8-14 as Offissa Pupp chases Ignatz around a very thick tree and clubs him off “camera” range. Krazy’s reaction to the unseen “korpse” of the Mice is a Kat Klassic.
 Myrtle is from 5-3 to 5-9-1948. The storyline in the dailies is “Freddie’s Garden”, as Myrtle’s pop tries to plant his vegetables. I love the 5-7 as Myrtle and Sampson dig up everything in the garden when they are supposed to be weeding it; Myrtle: “Just pull up everything, the ones that come up again tomorrow are the weeds!” Freddie takes away the telephone receiver from Bingo in the 5-8, thinking the call is for him. In Dudley Fisher land, however, the call really IS for Bingo, and Freddie apologizes: “Excuse me, I didn’t know it was YOUR call!” The 5-9 Sunday page is beautifully composed as always. The robins are setting up housekeeping on Freddie’s ladder and Myrtle is charging one cent to look at the eggs. I love the sight gag of the giant bell tied around Hyacinth the cat’s neck to serve as a warning to the robins.
 One of my favorite cartoonists, Harvey Eisenberg, is back with four more Yogi Bear Sunday pages from March, 1965. The first two are more or less “tab” format pages which incorporate the Yogi Bear logo normally missing from the third-page strips usually run here. The first one actually throws a prime-time H-B character, Top Cat into the afternoon cartoon bunch: Huck, Quick Draw, Augie Doggie, Boo-Boo and Baba Looey. The lonely little squirrel in the 3-21 is a typical cute “realistic” Eisenberg animal, along with the mother Blue Jay. In the 3-28, the hotel towels in the last panel are about 90% authentic. These pages all had great attention to comic detail, yet keep an open, friendly cartoon style. Remember to click on the thumbnails to display the images full screen. Watch for Yowp to post black and white scans of these Yogi pages soon on his blog: http://yowpyowp.blogspot.com. He will provide the missing panels and logos that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch didn’t run when I cut these out (gulp) 50 years ago. Can you tell that I wish I could have met Mr. Eisenberg while he was still around?
 Cathy and I attended the first Chouinard Alumni brunch on Feb. 8th out at the Cal Arts campus in Valencia. The Alumni Association provided a shuttle bus out there, so we got almost a free ride, in addition to a table groaning with omelettes, sausages, vegetables, eggs, coffee and champagne! I remarked to my friend Tim Walker who was there with Sue Crossley, that this was the first time being a member of the Chouinard Alumni Association ever paid off! Many distinguished Chouinardians were there, including my teacher, employer and friend, Bob Kurtz, and Alice Davis, great costume designer, artist, painter and widow of Disney legend, Marc Davis. Alice is hovering around 9-0, and walks quite slowly with a cane, but still remains a dynamic and appealing speaker once she gets wound up. (That’s a snapshot of her at the podium above this paragraph.) She was a friend of Nelbert Chouinard, the founder of the old Chouinard Art Institute, and told stories about her. She told us especially of Mrs. Chouinard’s philanthropy, especially when it came to giving scholarships. In fact, she gave away so many scholarships that her school was on the verge of insolvency several times since she founded it in the 1920s. At these critical junctures, Mrs. Chouinard mortgaged her house and car and kept her school afloat. (I was lucky enough to attend Chouinard in the fall of 1968 on a Bobe Cannon scholarship, which T. Hee arranged for me, and met many people there who I’ve been friends with ever since, like Tim Walker, Judith Morita, Robert Alvarez, Bob Kurtz, Gary Katona and many more.) Alice concluded her remarks by suggesting that we all emulate Mrs. Chouinard and use our great fortunes to set up scholarships for Cal Arts students! With the cost of higher education today, it takes a fortune the size of David Koch’s or Donald Trump’s to put a kid through college. I wonder if Ted Turner ever sponsors animation students, Lord knows he’s made a ton of dough out of old animated cartoons! It was a beautiful day, and a great brunch. So wonderful to hear Alice Davis talk to us! We’ll see you next time, faithful readers.
Post-Post Holiday Post
“Til’ the mistletoe comes down, ’til the evergreen turns brown, once again, there’s Christmas in my heart..” as the old song goes. Here’s a great post-holiday treat, my old pal James (Tim) Walker sent me this original watercolor painting inspired by “It’s ‘The Cat””! Tim has Parkinson’s disease, as anyone who follows his website: www.jamestimwalker.com , knows. He published a book a couple years back called “Drawings From The Left”, which showcased artwork Tim has done with his left hand after the Parkinson’s made his right hand too feeble to hold a pencil. Now, the medical science has advanced to the point that Tim can make a transition back to drawing with his right hand again. The painting above was done with that hand, if he keeps this up Tim will become another Alex Lovy! I love the boldness of this watercolor, the white abstract shapes that stand in for stars, and the crazy, antic pose of Itza. The banana-yellow moon and the ultramarine blue background are eye-catching colors. Tim’s health battles haven’t dimmed his bold approach to color and design. I hope you will enjoy this new painting and visit him on the web!
 My friend and retired post office delivery man Juan Alfonso, did this little pencil sketch for me featuring one of his cute little bear characters. She’s putting the topmost ornament on her tree. Juan is a fixture in furry fandom, he’s drawn many comics for fanzines. I don’t know if he’s done much on the Internet, but you can always Ixquick him. Juan lives in Miami, Florida. He sent me an old Willie Whopper pencil box for Christmas along with this drawing. If you go to Jerry Beck’s Cartoon Research blog, you can find a picture of it there. The Whopper pencil box features scenes from “Davy Jones’s Locker” one of the CineColor Whoppers.
 In Felix from 7-23 to 7-29-1934, Felix is enslaved by the crook into helping him with his burglaries. In the 7-25, it’s a little chilling to hear how dispassionate the crook and the cop are about drowning their cats. The attitude toward felines has definitely softened since Felix’s heyday. In the Sunday, 7-29, Felix is stranded on the abandoned ship and finds that he has company: a crowd of hungry wild animals! Felix is forced to toss them the ship’s food supply to appease them. Maybe next time the animals will be ready for a Felix feast!
 In Myrtle from 4-26 to 5-2-1948, Dudley Fisher pulls a lot of his switcheroo gags. My favorite is the 4-27, as Myrtle’s parents try to figure out which one is the most intelligent while Myrtle hangs out in the backyard with Bingo. I like the 4-30 as well: Sampson’s pop foils Freddie’s boast that he can out run him in a race, by stealing his bathrobe! This is what I mean by a switcheroo, it’s unexpected that Sampson’s pop would resort to bathrobe robbery to thwart a potential defeat. The Sunday page is beautifully organized, as Slug’s car breaks down and the whole town’s talking about it, including the gas pumps!
 Krazy from 8-3 to 8-8-1942 trots out Krazy’s Kat Langwitch by the doleful dropfull. I love the 8-3 as Krazy speculates about what a gingerbread man was as a “Yoot”, and the “Wail”, “Jail”, “Bail” string of words in the 8-4.
 Harvey Eisenberg dazzles again in these Yogi Bear third page Sundays from February, 1965. I love the guest appearance by the forgotten TV star, Quick Draw McGraw, and the carousel gag.
In the next week or so, Yowp at www.yowpyowp.blogspot.com will be putting up these same Yogi pages in the half-page size in black and white, from Canadian newspapers. So keep checking in with the old dog, he never disappoints (he’s a pointer, not a disappointer). C U Soon.
Post Holiday Post
 Wishing you a Merry Un-Christmas and Chanukah! I’ve been spending a lot of time sending out our annual Holiday Card and writing a message on each one. This year the card was based on an actual ornament, which we thought was a very cartoony and quietly subversive one. This is one of the few cards we’ve done that has actual color printing on it, usually I hand-color them. We stalwarts who print and send our Holiday Cards through the mail are a dying breed. More and more greetings are sent out by Email these days. I really appreciate the effort behind an artist-produced Holiday greeting, printed on paper. I especially like the cards that are sent by cartoonists and friends in the “business”. Here are a few of my favorites:
 Here’s my friend Graham Webb’s card. Graham is a tireless researcher on animation history, he’s published two editions of The Encyclopedia of Animated Shorts, and now he’s working on an Encyclopedia of Live Action Shorts of the Twentieth Century. He likes to draw caricatures and turn them into cartoons, this year he’s drawn “Ghost Buster (Keaton)” and says “Have a Spook-Free Christmas”. He could also have called it “Sta-Puffed Buster”.
 June Foray’s card this year showcases her versifying and her dogs! She is a wonderful friend, both personally and for the animated film. She’s been doing voices for radio and cartoons since the 1940s and still continues to do them. My favorite voice she’s done? Midnight the Cat in “The Buster Brown Show” on radio, written by Hobart Donavan. The Annie awards were her idea. She’s recovering from a fall right now, so I wish her a quick recovery.
Here’s Roy and Dann Thomas’s card. Roy, of course, being a long-time writer of comics, mostly Marvel. He’s quite the historian and collector of comic books as well. Roy and Dann (his wife) live on a farm and love to take care of animals. They found the owl on their card lying face-down in the courtyard, and nursed him back to health. Then he was released back into the wild. The light green tinted card is from Marc Schirmeister, a veteran cartoonist and story artist, he almost always draws his own card each year, sent out as a postcard. Santa’s pack seems to look like a giant ass in this one! There’s also a little labor union humor here.
 Here’s Tom and Pat Sito’s card, showing us how Roger and Jessica Rabbit have fun! Tom Sito is a world-class student of world and animation history, a director (Osmosis Jones), animator (Roger Rabbit) and story artist. He is teaching at USC and hoping to be a tenured professor there one day.
Here’s good friends Willie and Rosemary Ito’s card. It shows the legendary layout man’s Disney Productions ID card from 1954, when he was working on inbetweens for “Lady and the Tramp” under the World’s Greatest Assistant Animator: Iwao Takamoto. Willie sent me some Magilla Gorilla layouts he did when I was a kid, and bowled me over with his generosity. He now does wonderful children’s books like “Hello Maggi”, about the life of a child confined at the Manzanar camp during World War 2. Willie has a wonderful collection of Mickey Mouse memorabilia, so now he’s “Steamboat” Willie!
   Leslie Iwerks is another good friend who is the grand-daughter of Ub Iwerks, ( I was lucky enough to meet him in 1968), who remains one of my greatest cartoon heroes and influences. Leslie is a wonderful documentary film-maker, she’s done one on her Grandpa, “The Hand Behind The Mouse”, one on Pixar (“The Pixar Story”) and a great piece called “Recycled Life” on the people who live on the trash dump near Guatemala, Mexico. She’s currently working on a doc. about the Imagineers at Disney.
 I’ve included my friend Bob Jaques’s and Kelly Armstrong’s card, even though he did not draw it, because I think the idea’s funny (and Bob could easily have drawn it). Bob is a long-time animator and animation director, best known for his contributions to “The Ren and Stimpy Show” and the modern update of “Baby Huey” alongside many others. He has a terrific blog on Popeye animators: http://popeyeanimators.blogspot.com , go over there right now and read his post on the Fleischer Popeye cartoon “Onion Pacific”.
Felix, from 7-16 to 7-22-34, continues the Scarecrow Bandit adventure. The Bandit escaped jail last time, and continues to elude the cops and the bulldog. He abducts Felix and manages to pin his subsequent crimes on the hapless cat. Scarecrow can’t get away with this forever! In the Sunday, Felix is stuck on a deserted ship, as the crew leaves for shore with their new-found riches, provided for them by the lonely cat.
 In Myrtle this time, from 4-19 to 4-25-48, Dudley Fisher features mischievous Myrtle mixing up her mater and pater as always. I like the 4-21 as Myrtle is too busy taking a bath to take a gift of an ice cream cone, so Sampson shoves it in the mailbox! The 4-22 is a favorite also, as Freddie tries to lure Bingo to his bath by making a noise like a rabbit, then consulting with a real bunny (“Let’s hear you say something!”) to find out what a rabbit sounds like. We also found the Sunday page this time, as Freddie poses for a picture.
 Krazy, from 7-27 to 8-1-42, explores the half-way point between lines on paper and solid objects in the strips this time. A dog artist draws Ignatz in his cell so realistically that it puzzles the “mice” himself. Offissa Pupp’s badge and buttons appear and disappear as the lines they are drawn with wash away. Ignatz draws a realistic brick on a wooden fence, but another Law Dog censors it. In the 8-1, there are no bricks at all, due to the War materials shortage, and the three featured players take a nap under a tree.
 The Yogi Bear Sunday pages are here from January, 1965, the third-page versions. Yowp, at http://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/ will be posting these pages at half-page size in black and white very soon, so keep an eye out for those. Remember to click the thumbnails to see the comics at full screen display. Harvey Eisenberg still has the feel of momentum and action in his drawings in these pages that he must have had in his layouts in the golden days of the MGM cartoon studio. The pose of Yogi throwing the snowball in the 1-3, has that Tom and Jerry quality to it, as does the sled dog being cracked with the whip in the 1-10. The stampede of animals (with the moose silhouette) in the 1-17, and the Ranger sailing on the ice in his ice boat in the 1-31, passed by Yogi with an outboard motor strapped to his back, also have the lively animation layout quality.
Here’s hoping that all my readers will enjoy New Year’s Eve, and that we will all quaff a root beer for Auld Lang’s Syne. See you next year!
CTN Expo!
CTN Expo (11-21 and 11-22-2014) Randall Kaplan explains his proposed feature length macabre cartoon, “Boxhead” to a prospective supporter. That’s a sculpture of Boxhead on Randall’s right. Randall is the son of animation director Yvette Kaplan, and he’s quite a visionary. Years ago, some friends and I pipe dreamed about a “horror” animated feature and sort of laughed off the idea as not having a chance of a hot tamale in Iceland of being sold in the mindset of the then-current animation market. Now time has rolled along and there finally might be enough of a market for a true “scare” or “horror” animated feature to take theaters by storm. Randall has a lot of guts to want to make a feature on his own, all hand-drawn; he will need some help. I told him that David Lynch (director of “Eraserhead”) might really be impressed with the project. If anyone reading this can get in touch with Mr. Lynch, please let me know. It was fun sharing a table for a couple of days with Randall, we had some good talk. Itza and I wish him the best. By the way, Randall animates houseflies really well! If you see his presentation trailer for “Boxhead” you’ll see what I mean.
My half of the Cartoon Research table at CTN Expo. I had many cels from “It’s ‘The Cat'” and “Some Other Cat” for sale and managed to sell three. The faithful Toshiba miniature DVD player completes the “point of purchase” display. I didn’t have much notice that Jerry Beck would have space for me at the Expo, so didn’t bring any “new” cel set-ups, but I still have a few of the older ones. You can buy them too, just click over to the “It’s ‘The Cat'” website: www.itsthecat.com .
The Expo was the usual crowded madness, only more so. There are so many young women and men with good portfolios (most on Ipad display), and I’m afraid most of them are not in the least prepared for the often uncreative and high-pressure environment that the profession can be. To keep your vision and believe in it with all the negativity that can be directed at you, can be quite an exercise in tenacity. If you are not stubborn and have too many self-doubts, you may as well seek other outlets. Remember it’s easier for a big corporation to green light yet another Marvel superhero, Batman or Bugs Bunny resuscitation, than to take a chance on a young filmmaker’s new dream. I noticed that many young people draw in a Glen Keane/Cal Arts character style, maybe too many. I didn’t see a whole lot of graphic originality at the Expo, so Randall’s project really stood out to me as a lodestone that might just pull some risk-takers into it’s orbit.
Felix (7-9 to 7-15-34) just can’t get no respect. After giving the reward for the capture of the Scarecrow bandit to the Yiminy family, Felix finds that they have gone “high-hat”. They don’t want him in the house damaging the “snappy” furnishings (“snappy” was a popular slang word of the 1930s), the pasture has become a golf course, and the horse, cow and goat don’t like their gentrified barn. To top it off, the Scarecrow bandit breaks jail and uses Felix’s tail for a fake jail bar (see the 7-14). In the Sunday, Felix continues his fish ride away from the Antarctic, and winds up under the sea. Felix must be part cat-fish, as he is able to breathe underwater. He finds a treasure chest and becomes a hero to the crew of a passing ship as they pull him out of the sea, chest and all.
Myrtle (4-12 to 4-18-1948) is her irrepressible self in the strips this time. She’s punished for making faces in the 4-14 by standing 20 minutes in the corner. In the 4-16, she has a bet on with her Dad that she can’t sit still for ten minutes without giving the impression that she’s sick, and in the 4-15, Myrtle gets scolded for talking curtly to Hyacinth the cat! The Sunday page is included, Freddie’s driveway gets no respect from his neighbors, Sampson or Bingo the dog.
Krazy (7-20 to 7-25-1942) is influenced by WW II’s rationing of essential materials this week, notably, iron, clay and brass. Offissa Pupp’s jail is missing it’s bars, locks and hinges because they are iron and collected for the scrap drive. Ignatz’s bricks are gone, because clay had to be conserved as a rationed substance, and even Pupp’s badge and buttons are in danger of being collected, since they are made of brass. But in the strip for 7-25, an artist cheers up Ignatz by painting a very realistic brick on a wooden fence. “Mickey Angelo couldn’t have done better”, sez the artist. The gentle and hopeful artist might have been George Herriman, himself.
Yogi Bear (December 1964), with the strip for 12-6 missing. Maybe we didn’t get the paper that day, ’twas a long time ago. In the 12-13, I love the panel where Yogi gets his tennis racket/snowshoe idea suggested by Boo-Boo.  A miniature Yogi hits his head with a mallet (Panel 5)! The Christmas tree gag in the 12-20 is kind of heartwarming, as Yogi donates his ill-gotten shrubs to the boy scouts (I’ll bet Bill Hanna liked that). I love Yogi’s super-tolerant expression in the 4th panel as Mister Ranger chews him out. Harvey Eisenberg was great at drawing story-telling faces. The 12-27 is a wintertime butt joke, as Yogi’s fur gets worn off in two strategic spots.
I heard today that a good friend of puppets and animation, Bob Baker, has passed away. Bob ran the Bob Baker Marionette Theater in downtown L.A. for many years, putting on some imaginative shows, like his version of “The Nutcracker”. I first met Bob when I was part of an animation peer group at the TV Academy. If I had known then that Bob was one of George Pal’s stop-motion animators on the Puppetoons, I would have asked him more questions! Later on, I got to hear more of his stories as we chatted on the phone every year at Christmas after he got my card. Bob was also a big fan and supporter of Itza Cat; I sent him screeners of the two shorts, and he thought they were funny. When I worked at Renegade Animation, the whole studio went to see the Marionette Theater’s holiday show, followed by Balian Ice Cream in cups! (Balian ice cream is a Los Angeles institution.) Bob told me an interesting story about the making of a Puppetoon called “Jasper’s Booby Traps”, which called for miniature props that used real food loaded with Puppetoon dynamite. There were miniature (and some full size) steaks, pies, pork chops and a Technicolor maraschino cherry. Bob was in charge of all the props, and he left them out in the studio overnight to prepare for an early morning shoot the next day. When the animators and cameramen showed up, all the food had been consumed by the studio rats while the building was closed. It caused quite a delay in production! Bob, you will be sadly missed.
Your Comics Page Marches On! August 30 2015
August 28, 2015
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