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Bob Kuwahara’s “Barker Bill”
One of the “Holy Grails” of cartoon comic strips turned up in the Google News Archive! Direct from the Greensburg Daily Tribune we bring you some of the dailies that appeared in 1954-55, signed by Paul Terry, but drawn by Bob Kuwahara. Bob created “Marvelous Mike”, which has been reprinted almost complete here on this blog. The “Barker Bill” strip is a “hoomerous kontinooity”, with a touch of fantasy. I’m not sure exactly when “Barker Bill” started, but this strip from Nov. 8, 1954 is the earliest one in the Greensburg paper. We start mid-story as Bob Kuwahara introduces the “Gelt” from the African Veldt, a strange little character who does astonishing things (like eating paper money) to make Barker Bill’s top hat fly off. You will note that his hat flys off in nearly every strip, so he’s easily astonished. Puddy the Pup can talk in these strips, and is pretty intelligent, but he will only speak with Barker Bill. This reminds me of “Marvelous Mike”, the intelligent talking baby who would only converse with his sister at first. The Greensburg paper only printed the strip four days out of the week, but at least we have SOME of the strip’s run to read again. It’s a minor work, only ran about a year, and evidently there was a Sunday page. Here are the next 7 strips in the collection:
 I’m going to try to do these eight strips at a time, due to the strange way the Greensburg Daily Tribune printed them. Barker Bill originally appeared in the 1942 Technicolor cartoon “Happy Circus Days”, directed by Connie Rasinski. The early 1940’s cartoons were about as polished as Paul Terry animateds got. Barker Bill was animated principally by Carlo Vinci in the ringmaster’s first and only screen appearance. About 10 years later, 1953, the Barker Bill Cartoon Show debuted on CBS. This was one of the earliest old theatrical cartoon packages to appear on network TV, and created an audience for Farmer Al Falfa, Kiko the Kangaroo, Puddy the Pup, Dinky Duck and the other citizens of early 1930s Terrytown. Evidently, the show was successful enough that CBS made their offer for Terry’s studio and film backlog, which Paul Terry sold to them in 1955. Even though Paul Terry did not draw the Barker Bill strip, he DID draw Alonzo the Dog, here’s one of them: 
 It’s from June 26, 1909, you can see more of them if you go to Allen Holtz’s “Strippers Guide” blog. Click the link over to the right hand side of this page. I love the first and last panel in this strip, it shows the roots of Paul Terry’s slightly off-kilter drawing style that Jim Tyer eventually brought to imperfection in the Terrytoons of the 1950s. Paul’s brother John also worked on Alonzo in 1909. I don’t know if Paul Terry’s byline appeared on any other comic strips, let me know if you’ve heard of any.
 
In the Felix strip, this time from 4-1 to 4-7-1935, Felix’s keg is pulled from the ocean by the ship’s crew, who discover their gold tied to it. However, the keg containing Felix is cast back in the drink without even being opened. Felix’s latest chance to be a hero mascot is scuttled. He winds up on a jungle island, populated by strange birds. In the Sunday, Felix is still in Dreamland and manages to free himself from his bubble prison, saying his favorite word, “fine”, three times in one strip. The “Laura” topper expands to a third-page this week, replacing “The Sunny Side” feature.
 Krazy Kat, from 2-10 to 2-15-1941 has Offissa Pupp longing to become clairvoyant, or at least to read the criminal thoughts of Ignatz. In the 2-15, the Pupp wishes he could read Krazy’s thoughts, but the Kat’s mind is devoid of any, hence the very moody cross-hatching in the last panel of the 2-15.
 In the Patrick strip from 12-12 to 12-17-1966, Godfrey is clobbered twice, once by a snowball, then by Partick’s coat. Television provides amusement for both Patrick and Nathan, and Patrick tries to make a sweetheart deal with Santa in the 12-17.
With any luck at all, I’ll be around the Creative Talent Network Exposition this coming weekend, 11-18 to 11-20-2011. I’ll be at Jerry Beck’s table, come visit us there and maybe buy a cel or two from “It’s ‘The Cat'”, they make great Christmas gifts. A free DVD goes with every cel purchased. Jerry always has great cartoon books and chotskis to dispense as well. See you there!
Progress Report
Right now, you’re probably asking yourself, “How’s ‘There Must Be Some Other Cat’ coming along? If you look above, you will see the only 35mm color material that is around right now, an exposure test frame from the “Pre-Credits” sequence, where the Cat flips a stylus on to a record played on an old gramophone. The purpose of the scene is to quiet the audience, and prepare them for the sound of an old acoustic record used on the soundtrack. The background was painted in oil by Catherine Hill, and the cel was inked and painted by Greg Ford Co. Inc. The other photograph is of a checking table at Greg’s Co. with the cels from Sc. 15 on top. The rival cat is whispering sultry nothings into Pearly’s ear in this shot where the characters are silhouettes on the window shade. It looks like there are several more scenes in the background of the photo. On this evidence, I’m basing my hopes for the cartoon’s completion. To my sorrow, it won’t be this year. This little short will have just as difficult a genesis as “It’s ‘The Cat'”. I can only hope that principle photography will begin soon. If you believe in cartoons, don’t send money (because I know you have none), but applaud real loud and think your best positive thoughts that “There Must Be Some Other Cat” can be completed. “The Cat” and I send our thanks.
   Speaking of exposure tests, here are a couple of frames scanned from a test shot for the “Adventures of Red Ryder” serial: 
 I’ve never had a way of sharing this little strip of film before, so thanks to these computers, you can see it. This Republic serial from 1940, starred Don “Red” Barry as Red Ryder and Noah Beery Sr., along with Tommy Cook of the Our Gang Comedies as Little Beaver. It was based on the comic strip created by Fred Harman, Hugh Harman’s brother, so there is a cartoon connection. The same year, Republic produced another 12 chapter serial, “King of the Royal Mounted” based on the Zane Grey comic strip. The cartoon connection here is that Zane Grey’s brother, Romer, was an early producer of sound cartoons with his “Binko the Cub” series from the early 1930s. They were never finished, although the artwork still exists, you can probably find images from Binko on the Web.
    As an adjunct to Yowp’s post for today, here are three out of the four Yogi Bear Sunday pages he posted, complete and in color: 
 These are from Nov. 5, 12th and 19th, 1961. I don’t have the strip from Nov. 26th, sorry. I will now scold my youthful self for failing to save it back in ’61. I especially like the Nov. 12th strip, featuring a guest appearance by Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy. Please click the thumbnails to view at a readable size.
Felix from 3-25 to 3-31-1935, finds Danny using his Boy Scout skills to send a morse code message to the S.S. Sillatania, which picked up “One-Eye” and Spike on the high seas. They don’t have the gold they took with them, but Felix has that stowed. We’ll see if they pick him up next time. In the Sunday, Felix is still in Dreamland, in a frozen bubble from the Giant’s pipe. The King of Dreamland attempts to torture Felix with foodstuffs.
Krazy (2/3 to 2/8/1941) has a very funny continuity this week, featuring Ignatz’s indignant wife, Molly. Offissa Pupp’s jail becomes a refuge for Ignatz, as he uses it to escape his wife’s wrath. I love Ignatz’s vocal impression of the brick’s “Pow” that he uses to get thrown in jail on 2/6, and in the 2/8, both Ig and Offissa Pupp wind up in the clink to escape Molly. It’s the only time I can recall seeing the Pupp in prison.
Patrick, from 12/5 to 12/10/1966, finds brother Nathan being “elevated” by television in the 12/6, and Patrick doing a sorta kinda Charlie Brown bit in the 12/8 as he chews out Godfrey for wanting to quit baseball in the deep snow. It’s amazing that Patrick is not obese from drinking 27 bottles of “sody pop”, as he confesses in the 12/9. Enjoy all the strips, folks, and think your best thoughts for “There Must Be Some Other Cat”.
Paul Terry Nitratoons
These two 35mm nitrate prints of the 1931 Terrytoons, “Club Sandwich” and “Popcorn” turned up recently on British Ebay. My friend Steve Stanchfield, had the temerity and courage to bid on them, and he won! He then sold them to me, I fixed them up a bit and ran ’em off. “Club Sandwich” is a minor mystery historically, in that Leonard’s book says it’s “on studio records as DANCING MICE”. Actually, that’s the title of the TV version of the cartoon, edited by CBS. For the most part the two versions are alike, until nearly the end of the story, as the mice tie a line to Farmer Alfalfa’s leg and run him through the “gauntlet”, meaning through mouse holes, up and down chimney flues, over the roof and so forth. The propelling instrument for this high velocity drag is a mule: 
 The little mouse shoots the mule with the cannon, causing him to run off at high speed (note the line attached to him). In DANCING MICE, the action cuts just after the cannon is fired, to Farmer Al being dragged. In CLUB SANDWICH, the mule emerges from the smoke: 
without his SKIN!! Farmer Al is then dragged through all the mouse holes and on to the horizon for the iris down. In DANCING MICE, the last scene is joined in progress, and you can barely see the mule in the distance. In CLUB SANDWICH, the mule’s bones run into the shot in full view of the mice, then Farmer Al enters the frame: 
 The frames with sound track attached were scanned direct from the nitrate print, sometimes they are a little streaky. The rendering of the trees and mountains is beautiful, reminds me of Japanese artists like Hokusai. Far too many of these 1930s Terrytoons exist only in the CBS TV versions, with many cuts and alterations. Obviously somebody at CBS didn’t like bones or skeleton gags as you’ll see in the Terry cartoon “Popcorn”, comin’ up next on this channel. So long to 
 (note this is the original end title card, the main title cards upstairs are the British titles).
Out next cartoon, “Popcorn” is one of the 1930s Terrytoons that was NOT shown on Television, probably the same CBS censor who cut “Club Sandwich” didn’t care for the haunted house sequence in “Popcorn”. Most of the cartoon is the boy and girl mouse enjoying a day at the county fair, riding the rides, grabbing for the brass ring, etc. When they enter the haunted house “ride”, here are a few things they saw: 
 The barker outside the haunted house tent, with pipe smoking skeleton on the “poster”. 
The Girl friend meets one of the residents of the haunted house, who steps out of a coffin-shaped doorway. (Note that the frame grabs show how the early sound films just cut an area out on the left side of the frame to allow for the sound track. The rest of the picture area (or “aperture”) is painted top to bottom. In projection, a lot of this picture information is cut off. Sometimes this is called a “Movietone” aperture.) 
The Girl Mouse hallucinates from her contact with ectoplasmic phenomena and the floor and furniture come to life. 
 Here is an early layout/editing technique that the Terrytoons studio used quite a bit. Popping a completely different background behind the characters while the characters continue to move in the same picture plane as if the change had not occurred. This was a great money saver and time saver. The backgrounds and layouts didn’t have to be conformed to live-action style cut aways at all, just pop ’em on! In this example, the tracks and the mice animate, but rather than try to animate the background with the roller coaster tracks back to the horizon, a simple wall design is substituted, which animates in perspective. The “cut” to a different background works because we are watching the characters. The early Terrytoons were very lazy about the character’s feet slipping on pans in slow walks, so they had a lot of chases, where the slipping isn’t as apparent.
It’s wonderful to see these early Terrytoons, even in British prints, which sometimes have their OWN censorship problems. How different our image of Terrytoons might be today, if we could see them with all the strange and terrifying images restored. I have a feeling we might make more comparisons between Terrytoons and Fleischer if we could see more of the uncut Terrytoons. When Network Television (CBS) got involved in marketing the Terrytoons of the 1930s, an historic decision was made. “Cartoons are for Kids”. The heavy editorial hand descended and any gags remotely appealing to the Moms and Dads, especially the Dads, were out. The early walls of the cell in which cartoons are forever imprisoned were being constructed. Let’s hope that the original 35mm negatives, now entrusted to the UCLA Film Archive, contain all the gags and ideas that CBS wouldn’t allow us to see in 1956.
Felix (3/18 to 3/24/1935) continues his adventures at sea. Patch and Spike, greedy sailors, want all the gold for themselves and store it on a lifeboat. They try to escape with the goods, but fortunately for the crew, Felix, their lucky mascot, is asleep on board the lifeboat. I love the second panel in the 3-21 strip. The staging is so crowded that it looks like Spike’s nose is sniffing Patch’s hand. The Sunday continues Felix’s adventures in Dreamland. He uses the Giant’s pipe to blow a bubble that will carry him into next Sunday’s strip.
Krazy (1-27 to 2-1-1942) centers around Offissa Pupp’s Jail for most of the week. I love Krazy’s Owl friend in the 1-31. Herriman drew owls very well, this one would have made a good continuing character.
Patrick (11-28 to 12-3-1966) has a lot of winter time jokes involving snowballs and squirt guns. Patrick’s dad appears in the 12-1, and his brother Nathan in the 11-28. Mal Hancock used the single panel daily a few years before it’s use became wide-spread. Now two panel and one panel dailies are common-place given the tight space that newspapers allow comics, but Mal was using them when they stood out from the crowd a little more. They looked “modern” and eye-catching.
More Yowpin’
Here, as an adjunct to Yowp’s latest post, are the half-page, color versions of the Yogi Bear Sundays from October, 1961-all FIVE of them, whew! It seems to be controversial whether Harvey Eisenberg actually drew these or not, a lot of the poses and especially the title lettering look like Harvey’s work to me. Some of the incidental humans could be Gene Hazelton’s designs, don’t know for sure. Remember to click on the thumbnails to see them at full size. Even though this is not a “regular” post, I’m going to quickly put up my regular comics:
Felix (3/11/1935 to 3/17) gets the gold and the prize Dodo fish all in one swoop. I love the last panel of the 3/16, as Felix ruminates on his “Prize”, making good as the ship’s mascot. The little guy really appeals to the heart, not a greedy bone in his body. In the Sunday, Felix sums up his life in the 6th panel, “Life is just one jam after another, for me.”
Krazy (from 1-20-1941 to 1-25) has the usual alarms and excursions, including Garge’s penchant for disguising his characters. This time, along with Offissa Pupp and Krazy (1-24 and 1-25) even the BRICK is in disguise.
In Patrick (11/21/1966 to 11/26), Patrick declares liver and onions to be a “sadistic punishment” in the 11/21. I used to have a theory that liver and onions were a cure for the common cold. Every time I felt a cold coming on, I would drop down to the local Astro’s coffee shop for a plate of punishment. Invariably, I would wake up the next morning feeling fine. In the 11/23, Patrick’s hero, Batman, disappoints him. You will notice that the 11/24 is missing, the Post-Dispatch did not publish on Thanksgiving that year. See you next time with a little bit more fleshed-out post.
A Book Review
 This photo is the main reason to buy “Krazy Kat & The Art of George Herriman: A Celebration” by Craig Yoe, published by Abrams Comicarts, New York in 2011. It is on page 160, and is a portrait of Garge with the family cat: “Kat Herriman”, one of the most charming pictures I’ve ever seen of the maestro. There are many things the book has to offer: the classic writings on Herriman and Krazy Kat by Gilbert Seldes, E. E. Cummings and Tad Dorgan. Newer essays by Bill Watterson, Craig Yoe, Craig McCracken, Richard Thompson and Jay Cantor, among others. Many beautiful color illustrations from the Krazy Kat strip, including some of Herriman’s hand-colored originals, several examples of “The Family Upstairs” strip which weren’t in the “Complete” Family Upstairs book edited by Bill Blackbeard some years ago. Craig has reprinted the rare DUST JACKETS from Don Marquis’ Archy and Mehitabel books which Garge illustrated. There are many photos of George Herriman (with and without his hat), and even the last two Krazy Kat strips found on his art table after George passed away in 1944. I tried to decipher Garge’s handwriting on the strips: 
 (click to enlarge) 1.: Pupp: “Two ones, who threw them?” Krazy: “Ignatz” 2.: Pupp: “They call them snake eyes-” Krazy: “No” 3.: Krazy: “Smoke eye” Pupp: “Baf”. Note how Garge turned Pupp’s exit direction in the third picture to panel right, the original pencil shows him exiting panel left. 
 This is the second unfinished strip found on Garge’s drawing board: 1.: Krazy: “Hotty Kulcher” 2: Krazy: “A azzaler, (Krazy’s way of saying “azalea”) I’d say-” 3: Krazy: “No” Ignatz: (as he closes the flower pot lid) “Of Course Not-“. That’s as close as I can come to decoding Garge’s handwriting. There is even a photo of the house that Garge designed on Marravilla Drive as it looked before all the mansions clustered around it: 
This book is highly recommended for those who don’t have many of the previous Krazy Kat collections. Much of the material in this book is reprinted from Patrick McDonnell’s “Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman”, published by Abrams in 1986, and various volumes of “Krazy and Ignatz: The Complete Full Page Comic Strips”, published by Fantagraphics between 2002 and 2010. If you only get one book on Krazy, you could do worse than this one. The only really negative thing I could say about this Craig Yoe/Abrams effort, is that is was printed and bound in CHINA. For a book about an American icon, Krazy Kat, to be printed in China, in these times of few jobs for American citizens, is a crying shame. Surely there are a few companies left in the United States that could do a high quality color printing job on a book like this, much better than Chinese printers can do. With jobs so scarce, the costs should be negotiable. Craig Yoe is a dedicated devotee of old American strip cartoonists, he has also done a fine book on Milt Gross’s comic book work, which was printed in KOREA by IDW publishing in 2009. With a little more digging, I’m sure that Mr. Yoe could have found an American printer for this book as well. I hope he will change his production model in the future, so that I can recommend his books without any reservations. 
Speaking of KK, let’s look at this week’s batch from 1-13 to 1-18-1941. In the 1/14 strip, you will note a joke similar to the one that Frank Tashlin used in his “Porky’s Spring Planting” animated cartoon in 1938, q.v. “I’m called a watchdog, cause I’m fulla ticks.” In the 1/15, Ignatz is given a very appropriate conveyence to the jailhouse, a hod (for carrying bricks, see “Bringing Up Father” if you don’t know how they are used). There are star gazing gags in the 1/16 and 1/18 strips, and Krazy makes another brick-worthy pun in the 1/17 involving “shell fish”.
Felix is from 3/4 to 3/10/1935 this time. Felix tries to assist the crew in their hunt for the rare Dodo fish, but he is called a jinx by the sailors, then Felix’s catch of a prize Dodo fish is broiled by the Chinese cook. Felix then finds another Dodo fish as he holds his breath for a couple of days undersea! In the Sunday page, Felix continues his adventures in Dreamland, riding on the Nightmare. It turns into a very funny dragon wearing a top hat, and a shark, putting Felix undersea again. Felix is caught by a fisherman who wants to cook the cat for the King. Felix gets out of that situation with two kernels of giant popcorn.
Patrick is from 11-14 to 11-19-1966. Patrick’s crib-bound little brother is named in the 11/14 (“Nathan”, reminds me of Fanny Brice’s hit, “Oy, How I Hate That Fellow, Nathan”) and Patrick and his Mommy are at daggers drawn over his need for a dog. In the 11/19, Partick rips Elsa’s favorite movie magazine to shreds at her birthday party, what a guy! We’ll see y’all next time.
Norm, I hardly knew ya
Norm Gottfredson, who had the upstairs office when he was part owner of Fred Calvert Productions 
, earned my awe and respect. I didn’t realize until later that he was Floyd Gottfredson’s son, or I would have been even MORE impressed with him. You see, I lived at Fred Calvert’s studio for a couple of months in the summer of 1968, when his studio was in North Hollywood. I talked to Norm about animation a little bit, and I’m sure he saw how starry-eyed I was about the business. Norm wouldn’t let me talk very long to him, and indicated that time was money, he was doing layout on some sub-contracted George of the Jungle episodes, and they needed to be done quickly. Norm’s office was beautifully decorated with many storyboard drawings, character roughs, and colorful paintings, that made me want to stay and browse! Fred Calvert Productions was a non-union shop in the midst of union studios, which sub-contracted a lot of work from Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward and the Children’s Television Workshop. Fred’s wife, Kimi, also had an office there and worked very diligently and hard for the studio. Floyd Gottfredson, in an interview with Malcolm Willits in the early 1970s, said this about his son: “My oldest son is an art director, artist, and part owner of Fred Calvert Productions, in Los Angeles. They produce industrial films, commercials, and animation entertainment films, among which are some sub-contracted Bullwinkle cartoons. (Actually, Floyd assumed that working for Jay Ward meant Bullwinkle, but by then George of the Jungle was the going series.)” This is the only mention I have in print of Norm’s career by his famous dad. If I had been a little bit more bold, I would have asked Norm if Floyd approved of his going into the animation business, how they got along when Norm was a kid, and whether Floyd got Norm any summer jobs at the Disney studio. (Maybe one of my readers will know the answers.) Norm had quite a long resume, evidently starting at TV Spots, Inc. in 1951 as an art director! He evidently started at the top. He art directed King Leonardo and His Short Subjects in 1960, Calvin and the Colonel in 1962, both for TV Spots. By 1963, he was doing layout on the Funny Company series where he probably worked with John Sparey, and in 1966 did storyboard and layout on the “Super 6” series for Depatie-Freleng, their first TV cartoon. By the time I met him when he was partners with Fred Calvert, Norm was doing layout on anything that Fred rounded up, George of the Jungle, Wacky Races, Three Musketeers, etc. Norm was an all-around artist who could draw practically anything and did! One of the last series he worked on with Fred was Emergency Plus-4, where he did layout, with Kimi Calvert doing the art direction. After 1973, Norm worked on an odd series called Drawing Power, a strange live-action/animation combination show, produced by Kim and Gifford in New York. Norm was an animator on the show, in which an actor named Bob Kaliban played “Pop”, an old animator who entertains children with his magical drawing board, and thus encourages youngsters to draw. It had very crude, chroma-key special effects, but was a novel-toon series. Norm when on to work as a timing director on Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears in 1985, Galaxy High School in 1986, Denver, the Last Dinosaur in 1989 and Widget the World Watcher for Bill Kroyer in 1991, where he was animation director. In addition, Norm did layout and design on many TV commercials for all sorts of clients, including of course, the Kellogg’s Leo Burnett stable, Green Giant, etc. Norm, Kimi, Iwao Takamoto and Fred Calvert were all very serious-minded people to whom animation was a nuts-and-bolts kind of business, in which a Sally Sargent, Emergency Plus-4, I Am The Greatest or George of the Jungle, were all pretty much the same thing. Just get ’em out, get ’em done and do ’em non-Union so we don’t have to pay benefits or health and welfare. When I met Duane Crowther at Fred’s studio, he was just the opposite of all the rest of the studio. Duane seemed to have a good time with his animation, and was easy to talk to.
I wish I could have talked to Norm Gottfredson a lot more, but being a real neophyte at the time, I was not encouraged to “take up his time”. He was a real talent, and admired by many people, but became part of the faceless army of TV animation enablers. As a timing director and animation director, he no doubt greased the wheels for the ultimate non-Union production, “overseas”. Norm, I hardly knew ya, but I was saddened to read of your passing on July 16th, in the Union paper. It’s interesting that The Pegboard only printed your activity with Union shops for the most part, never mentioning Fred Calvert.
I noticed that Joan-Ellen “Joanie” Gerber passed away on August 22. Joanie was a voice-over actor who did some of the “Lady Bugs of the Evening” voices on “Shinbone Alley” back in 1969, the feature film where I got my first scene of professional animation to do. She did voices on a lot of the same shows that Norm Gottfredson worked on, such as “Super 6”. One of her first jobs was on the TV cartoon version of “Beany and Cecil” for Bob Clampett in 1959. She did voices on “Heidi’s Song”, for Hanna-Barbera, the “Jokebook” show for H-B, Tex Avery’s “Kwicky Koala” for H-B, the revived Chipmunks series in 1984 and many many more. Read her career listing on IMDB. Her most recent credit was for Tony Cervone and Spike Brandt’s “Duck Dodgers” series. I never had the chance to work closely with Joanie, but she must have been in demand, she worked a long time in one of the few animation jobs that can’t be out-sourced, the voices! She did a lot of baby voices, old lady voices and teenage girls as well. Maybe she will get a longer obit later on. This one:
seems so puny.
Felix from 2-25 to 3-3-1935, has Felix once more defending his reputation as a good luck mascot by rescuing the sailors from their marooned diving-bell under the ocean. After fighting off monster fish for days, Felix is presented with still ANOTHER fish for his dinner! In the Sunday, Felix is still in Dreamland, and in another Winsor McCay swipe, rides away on a “Night-mare”!
Krazy is from 1-6 to 1-11-1941 this time. Ignatz tries to take a flower in a pot to Krazy a coupla times, but the Pupp manages to keep the pot. In the 11-8, Ignatz suggests improvements to the “Jail”, which he is imprisoned for suggesting. “Boorjwa”, exclaims Ignatz, one of my Grandma’s favorite words. Mrs. Kwakk-Wakk figures in the strips for the rest of the week, nearly getting caught in her own web of gossip.
Patrick is clearly labelled this time, from 11-7 to 11-12-1966. Patrick is quite a “biter” this week, sinking his teeth into Elsa and Godfrey. The 11-11 strip features the debut of Patrick’s new little brother in his playpen. He will make several more appearances in the strips to come, always confined to the pen. Watch for him! Soon!
Special Post to “Yowp”
If you click on the link to Yowp’s blog on the right hand side of the screen, you will see that the cartoon dog has posted the September, 1961 Yogi Bear Sunday comic strips, all drawn by Harvey Eisenberg. His scans lack color and the top tier, since these were all originally half-page strips. I delved into the old clipping files and came up with the same strips, clipped from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch fifty years ago. They were published on Sept. 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th, 1961. Please click on the thumbnails above to see them at larger sizes. Please excuse the slightly mismatched halves of the strips. These were pretty large, so I had to scan them in two parts and piece them together, sometimes I don’t get it perfect. The strip from 9-24 with Augie Doggie has some masking tape stains in the 5th panel. That’s a good tip for all you strip collectors, don’t repair your strips with highly acid tapes like Scotch cellophane or masking tape, they will discolor the material they are holding together. If you like the early Hanna-Barbera characters, you will enjoy Yowp’s blog. Yowp has some good background comments on these strips, so go over there and read them. If any visitors from Yowp’s blog are reading this, stick around! Go through the archives and enjoy some old strips, as well as some articles on animated cartoons of the past. I hope to be back soon with a “regular” post.
Goodbye, Corny
My old friend and “Drawing God” Cornelius Cole III, passed away August 8th, 2011. I’ve known Corny so long that I can’t remember exactly when we first met. I could have seen him for the first time picking up freelance layout from Fred Calvert, but I remember him best from the old Duck Soup Produckions studio on Main St. in Santa Monica. Corny had his own little studio on the same floor with Duck Soup which he called “Corny Films”. I think that Duane Crowther was his business partner for awhile. I’ve reproduced some of the model sheets and drawings that Corny produced for Duck Soup and Murakami-Wolf Films in the 1970s and 1980s. Duane directed a whole series of Nine Lives Dry Cat Food commercials with Sylvester the cat. Corny did the models for the spots on Sylvester and Marc Anthony (the bulldog). He did the rough models in ball point pen and clean ups in graphite. Corny could work both rough and tight, but he preferred rough. Corny always worked with an inking board in his lap, never on a light board. He preferred to do layout that way. Duane and Corny would sometimes fight over Corny’s 3 and 4 field pan layouts for the Sylvester and Froot Loops commercials. It seems Corny had a hard time drawing within a 12-field cut-off and let his pen range far outside the field to the right and left, sometimes even north and south! Corny would attach little pieces of paper to the top and bottom of an animation sheet to allow for his lines to escape the bonds of the field edge. We who had to animate to these layouts would often have to reduce the drawings mechanically so that they WOULD fit within a 12 field TV cut-off. The compositions looked a bit patchy sometimes after we got through making them fit. Also, Corny usually drew his layouts in ball point pen, with a lot of lines. We animators had to boil down all those beautiful pen lines down to one, hard, unforgiving graphite line for our character drawings. They never had the liveliness of Corny’s original drawings, but we had to have a good line for Kunimi, the great Duck Soup inker, to work from. (Kunimi was such a good artist that she could take a “pen haystack” like Corny or Duane would draw, and make a beautiful single line cleanup from the rough, right on cel!) The mockingbird that you see upstairs with a top hat was designed for a Kellogg’s Raisin Bran commercial, those little blobs in the layout are raisins. The Gator character was a Corny Cole design for Fred Wolf. I’ve forgotten now which product it was for, but Fred really liked this character, it lasted for several commercials. Here: 
is a rooster character that Corny designed for a Duck Soup Froot Loops commercial. He was an inventor with a German accent, loosely patterned on Albert Einstein. It’s a good example of Corny’s rough pen style. We had a good time trying to animate overlap on the very loose shapes that Corny drew for his comb. Corny loved to tell stories about his time at Warner Bros. with Chuck Jones. Many of those stories can be read over at Michael Barrier’s website, look for his interview with Corny. Corny especially liked telling me about the Daffy Duck storyboard he fashioned for Chuck, which the great director rejected, saying “this is not MY Daffy Duck.” Corny disliked the lofty tone of this remark and told Chuck where he could shove his Daffy Duck. Corny always praised Friz Freleng’s timing and downgraded Chuck’s. But evidently, he really admired them both, judging from the interview. Corny always was trying to loosen up the atmosphere at whatever studio he was working for. At Duck Soup, he frequently lured the animators out into the Santa Monica surf for a body surfing lesson. I went along for one such outing with Bob Seeley, Mel Sommer and a few other folks and swam a bit out to sea with Corny leading the way. I tried to float in on a wave, but when it hit the sand, I was tumbled about like the rinse cycle on a high speed washing machine. I emerged from the surf, with quite a few cuts and gashes through my skin. Corny laughed at my extreme surfing naivete, but did it in a sympathetic way. This is my best memory of Corny, he was a regular guy, but he was never lofty, never authoritarian. There was a real warmth to the man, he was just great to be around. He drew so well that he could fit in to any studio, any production. He was still teaching drawing at Cal Arts up to the time he left us. A few years ago, at a 2005 Annie Awards ceremony, I saw Corny for the first time in many years, sitting in the audience. He said “hello”, almost as if it had been 10 minutes since I’d seen him last, not nearly 10 years. I couldn’t help noticing how slowly he walked up to the stage to receive his Winsor McCay award. The great surfer had foot trouble, according to Bob Kurtz. It was a real thrill to see Corny be recognized by his peers for what he did best, draw! Corny was never too reverent about the animation industry, and never held cartoons in very high esteem. He loved fine art. You know, I don’t know if I ever saw any oil paintings that he produced, so I don’t know what his grasp of color and light amounted to, but I always loved his detailed figure drawings. The poses always were full of action, seeming to fly through the air over the great space of the long pieces of paper that they were drawn upon. Corny made a few animated films of his own, including a great anti-Richard Nixon piece that he worked on for over a decade. I hope the family takes good care of his films and drawings. Please don’t turn them over to the ASIFA archives! We need to remember Corny for a long, long time.
Felix (from 2-18 to 2-24-1935) is an accidental underwater explorer this time. In going after Danny’s camera, Felix punches out a Carabuda fish which swallows the valuable instrument. When Felix and the fish are hauled up, the Captain develops the film and finds some photographs of sunken treasure ships. Some of the crew descend for another look in a diving bell, and the fish remark that it’s good to see humans in a globe for a change. In the Sunday, Felix continues his adventures in Dreamland, and the King of Dreamland pulls several mean tricks on the little cat to try to wake him up. I wonder if McCay contemplated a lawsuit over this story?
Krazy (12-30-1940 t0 1-4-1941) is for vegetarians this time. All the gags are about cucumbers, chili peppers, bell peppers and topped off with an eggplant gag in the 1-4. The 1941 strips came from a different source than the 1940s and are arranged vertically. I think the strip looks good either way, but I prefer the horizontal layout, preferably 8 columns wide, which I can’t do on this dad-blasted computee!
Patrick (from 10-28 to 11-5-1966) has a reference to the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, “Quick Draw McGraw” in the 10-28. Patrick steals Quick Draw’s signature line, “Ooh, that smarts!” You will notice that the Post-Dispatch starts printing the dates on the Halloween and subsequent strips. Now I won’t have to speculate so much on the days these were originally printed. I love the acting that Patrick puts on for his Mommy’s benefit in the 11-5. Enjoy the comics, my readers! I will write again soon.
Cat Comics Return!
I’m not neglecting Cats for Bears, just did a special post for Yowp’s blog last time. Here are the Felix strips from 2-11 to 2-17-1935. The tough sailor’s name turns out to be “Tuffy Spinaker”, and he turns out to be a forgiving sort, rewarding Felix and Danny for saving him from the Octopus. Last week, the Octopus had “feelers”, this week it’s “tentacles” (see 2-11). Felix is fooled into thinking the Sargasso Sea is a patch of land in the 2-16. In the Sunday page, Felix solves his “Little Nemo” problem by taking a draught of the Rip Van Winkle potion. He’ll be in Dreamland for twenty years now, or maybe not.
Krazy is from 12-23 to 12-28-1940 this time. For the first two days, Offissa Pupp manages to suppress Ignatz’s reactions to Krazy’s bad puns, but KK gets a Christmas Brick in the 12-25. I’m not sure to who Pupp is referring in the 12-27, when his visitor asks him who should be in the Jail besides “mice”. Is Pupp referring to Mrs. Kwakk-Wakk, who beats a hasty retreat in the last panel, or Krazy, or ?? If it IS Mrs. Kwakk-Wakk who is potential Jail-bait, what has she done that’s against the Law? She mainly gossips and is a busybody. In the 12-28, Ignatz puts himself in Jail, as Offissa is suffering from gout, perhaps he had too much Christmas cheer.
Patrick is from 10-20 to 10-27-1966 this time, with a strip or two missing. Patrick’s behavior in the movie theater in the 10-21 was probably considered eccentric back in 1966, but today with all the cell phone and texting going on, probably no one would notice. I like the “animation” in the fourth panel of the 10-27 as Patrick practices Karate. I’ll try to post more often this month, now that my energy is coming back. See you soon!
An Answer To Yowp
Well, here’s a “special extra” post, y’all! I really love Yowp’s blog, which is in my blogroll at the right hand side of this page. The cartoon dog does a unique and well-researched blog devoted to the early TV programs of the Hanna-Barbera studio. These cartoons, especially, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw were well-loved by my brother and I back in the late 1950s and early 1960s when they first aired on St. Louis television. The subject really doesn’t “fit” the Catblog, which is devoted to early animated cartoons and comic strips of the 1930s and 1940s for the most part (except “Patrick”). At the risk of incurring the wrath of Yowp (and getting dog-bit), the Cat dug into his files of old comic strip clippings and came up with the Yogi Bear Sunday pages of 8-6, 8-13, 8-20 and 8-27-1961, of which Yowp couldn’t find good copies for the current post on his blog. Here they are, the original half page versions in color, drawn by the late, the great Harvey Eisenberg, one of the most accomplished cartoon draughtsmen of animation (and comics). He was the layout man on most of the best Tom and Jerry MGM cartoons of the 1940s, and starting in about 1947, started drawing comic books, first the “Red Rabbit” and “Foxy Fagan” books, co-produced by Joe Barbera. Then Harvey took over the “Our Gang with Tom and Jerry” comic book for Dell, and did the lead Tom and Jerry story artwork, and illustrated a lot of other stories in the book, such as Droopy, Spike and Tyke, The Adventures of Tom and even Flip and Dip on rare occasions! I’m not going to make this a long-winded screed, but I’ve offered Yowp help with the Yogi Bear Sunday pages he posts from time to time, and Yowp just growled and wasn’t having any. This time I couldn’t resist posting these strips which I cut out of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in that friendly year of 1961. Enjoy, if you can, and Yowp, down boy, I hope you will enjoy them too!
A Howard Beckerman Comic Strip?
Hello again, readers! I’m a lot better than I was at the last posting, fever is gone, and I’m breathing better. I can walk now, not quite as far, but I’m walking. I’m also doing some household chores like gardening and cleaning floors. Since I took all the antibiotics, I’m not quite as crabby as I was when I was “under the influence”. I’m hoping that my lung will be completely clear very soon. Today’s lead strip is “Willie Woo” by the New York animator, historian and occasional columnist, Howard Beckerman. It was syndicated by NEA in 1961, this episode is from Jan. 22nd. I saved this strip from an out of town paper because I liked the style, it reminds me of Gene Deitch and Bobe Cannon. Howard Beckerman did not compose the music in this episode, but bought it from Marion Abeson. There aren’t too many comic strips that had sheet music printed into them: “Willie Woo” seems to have been an “activity” strip for children, probably had games and puzzles worked in to the strip at times. I have no idea how long NEA syndicated the strip or how successful it was. It’s one of the few strips actually drawn by an animator. Except for Floyd Gottfredson, Walt Scott, Harvey Eisenberg, Hank Ketcham, Walt Kelly, George Baker, Fred Harman, Gus Arriola and Gene Hazelton, it’s hard for me to remember how many cartoonists who started out as animators migrated into the newspaper comics. There are many animators who drew comic BOOKS, and I don’t include Winsor McCay in this, because he started in newspaper comics. So with “Willie Woo”, Howard Beckerman joins a very select few who cracked a difficult market. Howard has his own website at www.howardbeckerman.com , but there is no information on “Willie Woo”. If any readers can add to this story, feel free to comment.
Krazy is from 12-16 to 12-21-1940. The week consists of three two-day continuities, the first has the Kat unable to say “chrysanthemum”, the second has Pupp seeing double Ignatzs after smoking a bad cigar and the third has Pupp trying to grab a fresh hot brick away from Ignatz. I wonder what kind of “tobacco” was IN the Offissa’s stogie?
Felix this time is from 2-4 to 2-10-1935. In the dailies, Felix is continually under attack from the “Bully Sailor”. It’s lucky for Felix that the sailor is so backward in his reasoning powers. In the 2-8, he mistakes an octopus tentacle for Felix’s tail, and in the 2-10, Danny dives to the rescue and ties knots in the octopus’s “feelers”. In the Sunday, Felix pulls a “Little Nemo” and winds up in “Dreamland”. The banquet Felix was going to be served winds up being consumed by the cooks after Felix vanishes from his dream, a McCay story twist if I’ve ever seen one. I love the “Fraidy Cat” and “Smarty Cat” characters in the “Felix Movies” feature at the top of the page. Otto had a real gift for designing cartoon cats. Please remember to click on the thumbnails to see the strips at readable size.
Patrick is from 10-12 to about 10-19-1966 this time. Patrick’s Dad appears in the 10-18, still mad at his son, over TV shows. Patrick’s “right” to watch TV is debated in the 10-13, with the kid finding out he has no rights. You will note that the first three strips in the Patrick section of the post are in black and white. This was the result of a press room strike at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, resulting in a totally black and white newspaper for at least a week. I don’t recall if it affected the Sunday edition, but the daily lost it’s “unique” color comics for awhile. Does anybody reading this blog know of any other daily newspapers that ran their weekday comics in color? They look pretty if they are scanned from original clippings, but the color tends to mess up the microfilm. See you next time, I hope it won’t be too long.
Well, ..uh..I’ve been Sick!
Sorry for the long absence from the old blog. I caught pneumonia in San Clemente, perhaps from a bad vegi-burger. After I ate it, my stomach was very upset and a day or so later I started feeling sick, really violent chills just from air conditioning. I thought I had stomach flu, but all that really developed was a cough, and a fever that jumped from 99 to 103 degrees back and forth. I also have great shortness of breath, I can hardly walk two blocks without breathing really hard. I miss my two mile walks very much. I am now on antibiotics, which has tamed the fever, but my lungs are pretty full. The worst is when I get into a coughing jag, is I start choking because I can’t get a breath! It can be pretty scary! So please, all my readers, don’t eat any bad vegi-burgers!
    Have you visited my friend Pat Ventura’s new blog? It’s at www.patcartoons.blogspot.com. Kind of an odd address, no “@” sign! You will see many of Pat’s drawings of characters we worked on for the “What A Cartoon!” series of shorts produced by Fred Seibert at the old Hanna-Barbera studio. We, meaning myself, Julian Chaney, Robert Ramirez and many more, really loved making layouts for Pat’s cartoons. Sledgehammer O’Possum, Yucky Duck, his version of George and Junior, what happy memories! I remember I was continually ill from the air-conditioning system in the old plant. My supervisor, Larry Huber, was not happy that I made so many layouts for some of the scenes. I just couldn’t help it, Pat’s designs were so much fun to draw that I wanted to animate ’em! What matters now is, we had fun making them, a few people enjoyed watching them. Now we’re all unemployed and broke. Sometimes you pay for your fun in this business, big studios don’t like independent thinkers. Pat Ventura really thinks for himself, he’s been dreaming up cartoon stories with his own characters since he was a little kid. Go over to his site and maybe drop a comment, he’d love to hear from you.
I’m not too energetic this time, so I will just post my usual strips without much comment.
Krazy from 12-9 to 12-14-1940.
Felix is from 1-28 to 2-3-1935.
Patrick is from 10-6 to approximately 10-10-1966.  You will note that the 10-10 (?) is in black and white. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch was on strike at that time, and the color engraving department was closed, so all the dailies were printed in black and white for awhile. The Post was always prone to strikes, back when workers had the backbone to demand better wages and conditions. Too weak to write more, see you again soon, I hope.
Garge’s House
I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d drop by. The last time I visited 2217 Maravilla St. 
was more than 30 years ago. The little dead-end street has certainly gentrified. There was a time when you could see the Herriman house clearly from the street, complete with the remains of the old weather vane. 
Now there is a big wooden gate and a high hedge blocking the view of the house. It still retains the Spanish design that Garge wanted. He designed the place back in 1931, it once held an art gallery full of Jimmy Swinnerton’s and Maynard Dixon’s paintings of Monument Valley, a lot of Indian baskets and pottery and some Navajo slashes and other designs painted on the outside walls. Herriman’s little studio was in there, too, 
where he drew Krazy Kat strips until he literally died on the job. This house means a lot to me, and should to every lover of the great American cartoonists and their creations. For this house to continue as a private residence, is a crime! It should be set aside and restored to what it looked like when Garge lived and worked there. He even bought the lot across the street and made it into a little park with benches for all who stopped by. Here’s what that park looks like now: 
 Squeezed out by mansions. If you try hard, you can catch little views of the upper story of the house: 
 This one might have been the windows of the studio. I’m really glad I made the pilgrimage to see this wonderful house again, a house that George Herriman personally designed, and that in a city with so few shrines to it’s great cartooning past, should be treasured and set aside for everyone to visit. Here’s what the current owners did to the garage:
 It just makes me sick to think of this art treasure being turned into just another suburban dump by a family that probably knows nothing and cares little about the artist who created their house. This post is turning into a tribute to George Herriman’s memory. We will now dive into two more weeks of Krazy Kat from 1940:
The KKs are from 11-25 to 12-7-1940 this time. In the first group, Krazy literally “draws” a pail of water from the well in the 11-26, is called “loony” in the 11-29 and in the 11-30 lives in a nicely drawn cave with Ignatz, right under the Pupp’s nose. In the 12-2 through 12-7 strips, a political intrigue is developing as Mrs. Kwakk Wakk and Mimi the humanesque French poodle are running for police chief against Offissa Pupp. I wonder who Al LeBamm in the 12-7 represents? Perhaps he was a reporter who knew Garge, or whom Garge is ridiculing. Matilda Mouse shows up in the last panel with the infants.
In Felix from 1-21 to 1-27-1935, Felix tries to foil the evil sailor’s plot to discredit Danny by planting a stolen watch in his duffel bag. Danny is afraid that Felix will be detected, but Felix escapes over the side in an inner tube. In the 1-27, Danny introduces Felix to the crew as a “good luck” mascot, and all they can say is “Fine”, in a Messmer understatement. I love the way Otto draws and groups figures, as in the 1-27 with the sailors linked together, and in the 1-23 with the evil sailor leaning against the rail. I love those hands, big circles with tiny stubs for fingers.
The dates on Patrick this week are really uncertain, but there is a definite continuity here so they are probably the last week in September, 1966. Patrick can’t watch TV because Mommy is punishing him, so he buddies up to Godfrey, Suzy and Elsa to watch theirs. Patrick’s tantrum in the bottom strip this time is real over-the-top. Hancock liked to really push the emotions in his drawings.
No John Sparey letters this time. I couldn’t wait to share my trip to the Herriman house with y’all. See you next time, and thanks for all the comments!
Happy (Sparey) Memorial Day!
I hope all my readers are having a happy holiday as we remember our soldiers and what they put up with for all of us. The drawing above by John Sparey was inspired by the “Archy Declares War” sequence in “Shinbone Alley”(1969). It turned out to be the only part of the movie that looked anything like George Herriman’s drawings for the “Archy” books. Sam Cornell did the layouts for the sequence. Frank Andrina, the key animator, tossed me a couple of scenes to do in that section, and I was thrilled to be breaking into the ranks of professional animators for the first time! I must have gotten extremely angry one day over some development or other, so John Sparey thought he would comment about it, turning me into an aggressive cockroach.
Here are two more of John’s letters; in the first one, he is commenting on an exchange we had concerning his 16mm family home movies. I offered to screen them for him, since John had no projector. He used a note in his Christmas Card that year to interest me in the movies, but then decided to let his nephew handle the problem for him. John had no car and didn’t want to drive to Glendale from Hollywood. (I wonder if there was a time when John had a car, it must have been frustrating to always take Public Trans. in L.A. ) It’s also interesting that John worked many years at Disney, but had never seen the Mickey Mouse cartoon; “Through The Mirror” until they ran it on television in 2001. I guess the employee screenings in those days were rare. John was also a fan and a collector, as you can tell from his comments on “Animation Blast” and Floyd Norman’s book, “Son of Faster, Cheaper”.
Dec. 11, 2001
Mark,
I appreciate your offer to provide projection facilities. I cagily sent your card a week ahead of the bulk of them, and you came through handsomely. But having unspooled most of the film by hand and eyeballing it with magnification, I feel no need now to view it in motion. I am compiling program notes for distribution to whoever will be getting copies.
At the Union Christmas party last Friday, Carl Bell told me of a place in Hollywood that could help me get a transfer to video. That seemed more convenient than bussing to Glendale.
Then on Saturday, I got a call from the second-generation nephew who had sent me the films to identify in the first place, saying that he would prefer a CD (DVD). If I send him a CD, he can run off as many copies on his computer as will be needed. He says that there should be no problem finding somebody to make the CD transfer.
We’ll see. If you hear from me again, I need help.
I ordered Animation Blast #7 (with which you are familiar) from Bud Plant for its article on Ray Aragon. It properly played up his efforts for the failed Don Quixote project. I feel that his work on that is worthy of a book of its own.
There was also a collection of Floyd Norman cartoons–one of which I couldn’t figure out. When and why would Walt have wanted to ship Winnie-The-Pooh back to England? 
 (Mark here, maybe John didn’t read Floyd’s caption, Walt was frustrated at the restrictions of using Milne’s famous character, and almost gave up on Pooh at one point. He probably didn’t “literally” think of shipping the Old Bear back to Great Britain.) Some of Floyd’s jabs at Michael Eisner are sharp enough that he HAS to be good at his job.
This was pretty much of a Disney weekend for me. Sat. Night A&E had a 2 hour biography of Walt (a rerun, actually). The youngest participants were Floyd and Roland (Rolly) Crump. And Sunday noon, Ch. 13 set aside a 2 hour slot for “Alice In Wonderland”. Too much time for just the feature. My watching paid off. The program started with “Thru The Mirror” which I had never seen complete before–only snippets.
Enough.
John S.
In our second letter from John, dated May 7, 2006, John comments on his experiences with “Access Services” from the Woodland Hills Motion Picture Country House, where he lived after his collapse. He wanted to get his collections and personal things from his Hollywood apartment, but the obstacles to a handicapped older person with no transportation to getting anywhere near the apartment were daunting. It’s interesting to read the long paragraph (4th one) and get an insight into John’s extremely sharp memory for details, and how he could turn his frustrations into humor. Access Services were really obsessed with John’s blood pressure! This letter is really addressed more to John’s family, not me:
May 7, 2006
For the last couple of weeks, an appointment was being set up for me with access services. It was determined about a week ago that my appointment would be on Friday, May 5th. But it wasn’t until 5:55 Thursday evening that I got a phone call telling me transportation would pick me up at 12:30 on Friday. Also, the “home” had hired a “caregiver” to make the trip with me. She arrived at 4:30 and saw to it that I had a dry diaper before I was served an early lunch. I can get on intimate terms with women very quickly these days. You’d never guess from her name, Gemma Cohen, that she’s from the Phillippines.
!!!CINCO de MAYO!!! It was the most satisfying meal-on-a-tray I have had here yet: ground beef taco salad with sour cream and salsa, a Mexican style soup, and a diet custard rather like flan.
Our wheelchair van was the best I’ve seen yet, with a chair space right next to the driver and a clear view all around. We had a one hour trip from Woodland Hills to East L.A., mostly on U.S. 101. You may ask, “What is Access Services?” A good question.
It looked to me like an overblown bureaucratic boondoggle. Inside of a several story-high warehouse space was a rambling sprawl of waiting areas, cubicles, and a testing area of curbs, ramps, and such. First, my California I.D. was copied and I signed away any rights to damages in case of injuries in the testing area. Then my blood pressure was checked with a finger clamp, and I rode onto a scale to show the total weight of me and the chair. Then I rode into a space with Lucite moveable walls that could measure the length and width of the chair. Then my picture was taken with a Fiber Optics camera, and my blood pressure was checked with a finger clamp. Then we were directed to join a group sitting in front of a video screen watching a public service film on the benefits of aids for the handicapped provided by the L.A. Transit System—alternately in Spanish and English–with lengthy screen saver footage separating the shows. That lasted an hour. We were then sent to Room 111. I didn’t see half a dozen cubicles in the area, but one had a cardboard sign 111. In there, I was shown a succession of photos, stopping them whenever I spotted a bus with a specific number or a Jack In The Box or a MacDonald’s location. I was asked to separate 53 cents from a collection of 1 Quarter, 2 Dimes, 1 Nickel, and a number of pennies spread across a table. I was asked about my medications, and I presented them with my list as updated to last November, which I carry around for such occasions as this. It is very much the same as my current dosages. I was asked how I had got along using our transit systems and what problems I had had. So I told them. Then my blood pressure was checked with a finger clamp. I was told I’d learn in a week or so if I qualify for their service. Another 40 minutes in another waiting area, and we were told our van was waiting for us. Another hour trip to Woodland Hills. We were told to expect a 4 hour outing. It took 4 hours, 10 minutes.
What is Access Services? It’s a supplement to Public Transit for the severely handicapped, equivalent to buses, not taxis. Price? $1.80 for less than 20 miles. $2.70 for 20 miles or more.
It’s the first step toward access to my apartment.
Felix (1-14 to 1-20-1935) continues Danny Dooit’s adventures. At the behest of the Explorer’s Club, Danny is invited to go on an ocean voyage as a representative boy scout with the Club’s expedition. Danny doesn’t even know what the trip is all about, but his parents agree to let him go anyway. The boy could be going into involuntary servitude for all they care! Felix disappears from his strip for two days, and doesn’t re-enter it until he magically pops up in Danny’s bag in the 1-18. In the Sunday, Felix continues to fight Flub the Pup, and ejects him from the house with a Jack-In-The-Box. It’s nice to know that folks were relaxed about taking the Christmas tree down in 1935.
Krazy (11-18 to 11-23-1940) is almost all word play this time. The English Dog in the 11-18 has such a thick accent that Krazy (who has quite a thick accent himself) can’t understand what “Ice Cool” is. In the 11-22, Krazy is naked in the bathtub, Offissa Pupp can’t look at her without her ribbon, which is carefully draped over the edge of the tub. In the 11-21, Garge is quoting from a hit tune of the 1920s, “Who?”, a smash for George Olsen’s band. The original lyrics were, “Whoooo stole my heart away? Whooooo makes me dream all day? Dreams I know can never come truuuue, Seems as though I’ll ever be bluuuue….”
Patrick (approx. 9-20 to 9-25-1966) loves being mean to Suzy Smith. He won’t give her anything for her birthday, then punches her out when she gets a little sarcastic with him. I like Patrick’s extreme reactions to “Shots!” and the “Cruel, Sadistic, Excessive Punishment” of having his TV privileges suspended for a week. There was no cable TV in those days, but still a lot of afternoon and morning kids’ programming, before the era of Oprah took most of it away. See you soon, you wonderful readers!
Barker Bill-Take Two
November 23, 2011
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Mark
Felix (4-8 to 4-14-1935) lands on the desert island and busies himself trying to survive. He devises kites and sends them up, hoping to attract the ship’s attention. In the Sunday, Felix controls a dog’s dream invasion of Dreamland, conjuring up a human skeleton!
Krazy (2-17 to 2-22-1941) has a special guest this week. A scotch terrier with a very thick brogue, compares notes with Mrs. Kwakk-Wakk and all the prominent citizens of Coconino, concerning high-class social connections. In the 2-22, the scotty reveals that he is Fala, President Roosevelt’s famous dog. This storyline must have appealed strongly to Garge Herriman, as he loved scotch terriers as well.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Jerry Beck and I didn’t have a table at the CTN Expo as it turns out, and I didn’t stick around. Maybe next year things will work out better, and I’ll have some interesting artwork to sell. Friends who never comment on my blog tell me that they really enjoy it and read it regularly. It’s very gratifying to be reaching so many good folks! Keep your bicarbonate handy.