Category: Uncategorized
Mangy on the Wall
 Remember the theme song of Walt Disney’s “So Dear To My Heart”? You’re looking at a cat right now that I think of whenever I hear that song. Her name was Mangy. She lived at my wife Cathy’s little house in Sierra Madre, Ca. Cathy rescued her from starvation and a bad case of mange on her back. Mangy became a very loyal domestic cat after that and lived with Cathy for the rest of her life. Cathy immortalized her in several stories in her “Mad Raccoons” series of comics in the 1980s and 1990s. You can see all of Mangy’s comics on this blog’s archives, just search for them. I just recently got a copy of this photo of the REAL Mangy, and thought I’d share it with my Catblog readers. She was an incredibly sweet little black cat, but when I paid her more attention than she required, she let me have it with her front paw. She never had her claws out, and Cathy once drew a caricature of her with a boxing glove on her paw. This post is in memory of her.
One of my three readers, Thad Komorowski, has a friend who figured out at least part of the “Where was Ducky?” mystery first presented a couple of posts ago. The office Ducky is standing in, might be a French embassy, because the portrait on the wall is of Pierre Mendès France, French Prime Minister 1954-5. Maybe it’s a publicity session promoting the Jane Russell movie: THE FRENCH LINE, if so, the next question is where’s Howard Hughes? Again, a lifetime subscription to the Catblog for the reader who correctly solves the mystery.
 Krazy is from 6-22 to 6-27-42. Herriman uses a few old sayings such as “A cat may look at a king” and “Every dog has his day” as the basis of the 6-23, 6-24 and 6-27-42 strips. My favorite is the 6-22, which has a pun woven into Krazy’s “Kat Langwitch”. “Cat’s Paw, no doubt..”
 Myrtle is from 3-15 to 3-20-1948. My favorite gags this time are the 3-15 with Hyacinth the cat playing with the goldfish, and the 3-17 in which Myrtle sits on a wall and eats Bingo’s dog food. Why? Bingo ate her ice cream cone. When my brother and I were little, we sometimes ate our dog’s biscuits. They didn’t taste too bad, but were pretty tough and gritty. It’s surprising what a kid will eat when he’s hungry.
 Felix is from 6-11 to 6-17-1934. The dailies continue the story of the “Gentleman of Seizure” as he calls himself. He sheds the scarecrow outfit from last time and dons a stolen cop’s uniform. Mr. Yiminy and his family are so gullible that the phony cop fools them into “Protecting” all their jewelry and Mr. Yiminy’s crop money. Felix isn’t in his own strip much this week, but manages to return all the stolen goods in the 6-16. We’ll see how long the Yiminys are beholden to Felix this time. In the Sunday, the pole explorers aren’t loyal to Felix at all, but lock him out of their igloo and airplane. What follows feels a lot like an animated cartoon, as Messmer uses progressive panels to show a sled dog rolling in a snow ball and gaining enough volume for Felix to get a new igloo home. Don’t you think it’s fun having a place on the web where you can read the classic Felix, Krazy Kat and Myrtle strips for free? Make sure you keep the Internet a place that has equal access for all, write to the FCC and demand they declare the Internet a public utility! Do it today!
A visit from Tuxy!
 Here’s a photo of an infrequent, but very welcomed visitor to our vicinity, Tuxy the Cat! Tuxy’s owners call him “Jet”, and live about three blocks from here, downhill. I call him “Tuxy” because I made his acquaintance a long time before I discovered where his real home was, and I needed a name to call him by. Every once in awhile, a couple of times a year, their cat appears in our front or back yards and wants some attention. He loves to be petted and I give him some organic cat snacks. He likes to come inside for awhile and explore. The photo above was snapped during his most recent sojourn around the living room. If you look closely, you’ll see a faint image of Tuxy’s head as it starts to turn to stage right, so I caught him in motion. He’s got such an appealing face, black and white markings and a rather short tail. I just love having him around. Sometimes he shows up at the back door at night and enters the computer room. He jumps up in my lap and stays for a few minutes while I type or read. After he becomes bored with our house he faces the door and I let him out so that he can re-join his folks. They take excellent care of him, his coat is always brushed and he’s well-fed, although not too fat. If he were my cat, I would not let him roam the neighborhood, too many coyotes and cars around here. When a long time goes by and I don’t see him, I’m fearful that he’s worn his Tux into cat heaven, but he always re-appears. Long live Tuxy!
 Here’s Krazy from 6-15 to 6-20-1942. The second World War was starting to show up in Coconino by this time. In the 6-19 and 6-20, an “Army” worm shows up after a “Naval” orange and a “Navy” bean, and Ignatz dons a Civil War cap and tries to interrogate Krazy, who remains obdurate. Krazy does not take the War very seriously in the strip, it’s just something to use for gags and props. I love the last panel in the 6-16, as Krazy picks up a brick to throw at a wise-cracking dog, “Ignatz duds it, wy not me–“.
 Myrtle from 3-8 to to 3-13-1948 is full of Dudley Fisher’s unique turns in logic. My favorite strip features Hyacinth the cat scaring a very nervous Sampson out of his ice cream cone (the 3-9). Cats really do like to lick melted ice cream off a sidewalk or a dish. The 3-11 has Fisher’s comedy timing, as Freddie gives Sampson a lecture on economy and credit, then borrows a dollar from the boy. Fisher reveals Freddie’s taking ways in the last panel: “Your Pop borrowed it!”
 Here’s Felix from 6-4 to 6-10-1934, continuing his time with the Yiminy family on their farm. The family continues to be suspicious of Felix as more eggs and milk disappear from the place. All this thievery is really the work of a crook who hides in Yiminy’s field disguised as a scarecrow. What a great way to hide out in plain sight! Felix continues his Arctic adventures as he cleverly eludes the sled dogs. What would Yukon King do in a case like this?
 Here are the Yogi Bear Sundays from September, 1964, art by Harvey Eisenberg. These are of course, the third page versions. Yowp, at www.yowpyowp.blogspot.com, will no doubt be presenting the half-page versions of these comics at his blog in black and white. Keep checking over there to see the strips and his commentary. Yowp has one of the best cartoon blogs around, he even mentioned Carmen “Max” Maxwell in his latest post, so put him in your favorites. I like the 9-13 (click to enlarge), which has a rare view of Yogi without his pork pie hat, and a very stylized leprechaun, and the 9-27, which has a really old vaudeville punch line, probably used by the Marx Bros. in their skit “Fun in Hi Skule” back in the 1910s.
Too bad nobody filled me in on where Ducky Nash was in the photo I ran last post. Thad, one of my three readers, seems to think it might be an RKO Radio function feting an actress, but it’s only a guess. RKO Radio Pictures, of course, was Walt Disney’s distributor in the 1940s and early 1950s.
Where Was Ducky?
In imitation of Mike Barrier’s infrequent series over at his blog: www.michaelbarrier.com; he calls “Where Was Walt?”, I’m starting a one-part series called “Where Was Ducky?” This is a mystery photo with which my brother gifted me, that shows Clarence “Ducky” Nash with his Donald Duck ventriloquist dummy (Ducky was NOT a ventriloquist), at what is evidently a signing ceremony for the lady sitting at the desk. Was she an actress? My brother thinks she might be Jane Russell, but she doesn’t look like Miss Russell to me. Who are the rather grim faced bunch of gentlemen in the picture with the actress (?) and Ducky? Why is there a crucifixion wall hanging behind them, and who is the man in the framed portrait on the right side of the photograph? I think it must date to the 1949 to 1955 period, because that’s the later edition of the Duck Dummy. If any of my readers can tell me anything about this photo, you’ll get a free subscription to this blog! (Oh, you say you already get that? We’ll give you the Stan Lee no-prize instead.)
In Krazy, 6-8 to 6-13-1942 this time, we have many delicious examples of Kat-Langwitch. “Kettle” in the 6-8, “Wekkum-Klinna” in the 6-10 and in the 6-13, Krazy’s accent is mistaken by a bullfrog in the pond as he mistakes “Fog” for “Frog”. Krazy even throws a cobble-rock at the Frog in the third panel, a slapstick turn in which the Kat rarely “inwulges”.
Myrtle is from 3-1 to 3-6-1948 this time. This being the Catblog, I will point out one of Hyacinth the cat’s rare appearances in the 3-3. In a typical Cat behavior, Hyacinth cozies up to Myrtle to get in on fresh milk. The 3-5 is very funny, as Myrtle’s Mom tries to lure errant husband Freddie back home from bowling with a lemon cream pie she hasn’t even made yet!
I predicted last time that Yimmy Yiminy would be Felix’s protector since the Yiminy family adopted him in the last batch of Felix the Cat dailies. In the strips from 5-28 to 6-2-1934, Otto’s proclivity for getting Felix in to tight jams continues and Felix is accused of stealing ducks and milk from the Minnesota farm. Here’s another prediction, Yimmy will find a way to clear Felix’s name very soon. In the Sunday, from 6-3-1934, Felix continues to be lost in the Antarctic blizzard and Danny Dooit and his kid brother want to save him with snow shovels.
I’ll be posting some new cat photos next time to cheer you, until then this is your faithful Catblogger, purrr-suing the mews!
Your Comics Page 7-24-2014
Scout is scouring the shelves in the komics kitchen to find this post’s oldies for you.
Scout turns up Krazy from 6-1 to 6-6-1942. Garge starts a promising story line in the 6-1 about Ignatz wishing he was twins, and Krazy “witching” she was “twims” in the 6-2. Rather than draw two sets of Kats and Mices, the twin Ignatzes are just suggested in the 6-3, not actually shown. The real winner for this week is the 6-5, told entirely in pantomime as Offissa watches the unseen brick hurtling over his head and puts Ignatz in his jail cell in the last panel. This strip assumes such comfortable familiarity with the tropes of the Krazy Kat characters, that explanation isn’t necessary.
Myrtle this time is from 2-23 to 2-28-1948. The 2-24 is very funny, with Myrtle slopping up her Mom’s kitchen to show her a leaky garbage can, and the 2-28 highlights Bingo’s sacrifice as he takes Myrtle’s punishment. Freddie’s choice of words, “..you’ve got to learn to mind!” seems to apply to dogs more than little girls, anyway.
Felix is now the responsibility of Olaf Yiminy and Yimmy Yiminy, in the strips from 5-21 to 5-27-1934. Mr. Dooit ships Felix to Olaf while he takes the family on vacation, and poor Felix has to deliver himself to Mr. Yiminy’s house to save him the 5 bucks delivery fee. This endears Felix to the very cheap Mr. Yiminy. Of course his son Yimmy is going to be Felix’s great defender. In the Sunday page, Felix is snubbed by the sled dogs, and then he’s forced to pull the sled with every dog riding it. It’s lucky that Felix is at the South Pole or he’d really sweat from pulling that heavy load.
The Yogi Sundays from August 1964 are here! Yowp whose blog is located at: www.yowpyowp.blogspot.com is the unofficial champeen Hanna-Barbera historian, and claims that he can no longer supply the half-page Yogi Sunday comics from his Canadian newspaper archive sources. So here are the third-page versions that I clipped from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch back then. The 8-2 and 8-16 strips are still on the “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear” promotional band wagon. Yowp was especially interested in the 8-16, as Yogi’s namesake, Yogi Berra, the baseball man is shown in caricature. The key artist on these is Harvey Eisenberg, I don’t know if he did Mr. Berra’s caricature or not. (By the way, Don, if you want me to send you scans of any of these pages for your own blog, you have only to ask.)
I don’t know how to block robot comments on this blog, so she’s wide open for the one-size-doesn’t-fit-all letters we get by the ton. Most of them say, “Your blog is very well-written, I learned a lot from it”, or “what a wonderful article” or “I’ll bookmark your site and visit often”. If only these comments came from real people and not from gmail or insurance companies or other instant mail generators. Robots, if you want your comments to be seen by my readers, you’re barking up the wrong cat! Bug off, or I’ll send you to the moon, with my magic spoon!
Your Comics Page 7-8-2014
Scout welcomes you into the inner sanctum of her Comics Room for a new batch of old stuff!
KK is from 5-25 to 5-30-1942 this time. You’ll note that all the gags except the 5-30 are potted plant jokes. Sort of Organic Krazy. The Kat Langwidge in the 5-27 stumped me for a bit, but I figured it out: “A Wiolet, same size as it were less wigg..” , that’s “last week” in the Kat tongue. The 5-25 was derived from the San Antonio Light of the same date, so much for the completeness of the King Features Archives.
Myrtle is from 2-16 to 2-22-1948 this time out. There are a lot of animal gags this time, featuring Hyacinth the cat, Junior the dog and Ebuceci the exotic Alaskan dog. Being that this is the Catblog, pay special attention to the 2-17, as Myrtle begs Hyacinth to catch just “One Little Mouse”, to cover her cookie thievery. We also have the Sunday page from 2-22, with Dudley Fisher’s patented downshot type layouts. These should be Uncle George’s favorite strips (that’s really an inside joke)!
Felix’s luck runs hot and cold as usual in the strips from 5-14 to 5-20-1934. Felix escapes the gas chamber at the Dog Pound, and gets back in the good graces of the Dooit family. It seems that the bulldogs he freed from the Pound were the property of a wealthy dog breeder and he rewards Mr. Dooit with a big check for Felix’s brave deed. However, Mr. Dooit decides to take the family to Europe with Felix’s check, and boxes Felix up to send him to Uncle Olaf for safe keeping. We’ll see what kind of cat care Felix gets from Olaf next time. In the Sunday, Felix gets into a chase with a fierce sled dog in Antarctica and gets a prop plane flying by mixing it up in the propeller with the aggravated canine. The pilots at last make Felix their mascot. I wonder how long will Felix’s good fortune last in the frozen wastes?
CU Soon!
Scout welcomes you to sit down at her table and read another blog post with more of your favorite comics!
Here’s Krazy from 5-18 to 5-23-1942. It’s mousecellaneous gags this week, some featuring Ignatz and some Offissa Pupp. In the 5-21 and 5-23, Herriman uses his Coconino Stage idea for knothole gags in the floor. Can anyone tell me what Ignatz is poking Offissa Pupp in the face with in the 5-21? I guess it could be a billy club, but Ignatz usually uses bricks! The 5-23 Saturday strip was culled from the San Antonio Light of that date. It’s interesting that the King Features Syndicate archive has so many holes in it, and that the strips they use on their Comics Kingdom website rarely go back earlier than 1936. It’s also interesting that some times they claim not to have a strip in the archive, say an old Barney Google, only to find that the reason they claim they don’t have a particular strip, is because it contains an appearance by a comical black porter, or has an ethnic gag in it that they don’t feel comfortable in reprinting. Here’s another example of a big business, in this case the Hearst Corporation, making profit from comic strips and characters that in many cases are 80 to 100 years old, and yet not held responsible for maintaining a complete archive of their features and strips! I suppose that means that KFS relies on collectors and library sources and collections of old newspapers for the truly vintage material. It seems strange to me that they could be reprinting the early Segar material, like “The Five-Fifteen” or Thimble Theatre before Popeye, but because they don’t have that material, they resort to recent strips like “Quincy” or “Boner’s Ark” and try to convince us that they are old classics. I am a devoted reader of Comics Kingdom, but as an archive, it’s pretty chewed up.
Here’s Myrtle, 2-9 to 2-14-1948. This week, it’s pure fantasy as Dudley Fisher presents Supersonic Cecil, the baby bird that breaks the sound barrier! Alice and Archie, the two sparrows who are running characters in “Right Around Home”, hatch out their offspring, Cecil, who demonstrates remarkable flying ability for a youngster. Cecil flies so fast that he breaks Sampson’s watch a couple of times. In the 2-14, Cecil comes in for a landing and uses a wheel from Sampson’s broken watch as landing gear. 
Felix, from 5-7 to 5-13-1934, again eludes some crazy looking Messmer bulldogs, by providing them with a giant dinosaur femur to eat. The dogs are rounded up by the pound, but Felix steals a key from the dogcatcher and frees them all, saving them from the gas chamber. In the Sunday, Felix continues his adventures with the two aviators in Antarctica and makes a soft mattress for himself out of walrus whiskers. 
Yogi Bear Sundays are from July, 1964, clipped from the St. Louis Post Dispatch back then. Yogi continues his Hollywood adventures in support of his debut feature film: “Hey There It’s Yogi Bear”. In the 7-5, we see a caricature of Zsa-Zsa Gabor, (real name: Gabor Sari, Miss Hungary of 1936) who evidently was a close neighbor of Joe Barbera in the Studio City neighborhood where he lived. The cartooning by Harvey Eisenberg is quite strong in the 7-26. I love Yogi’s disdainful attitude in the fifth panel, and Mr. Casholder’s attitudes in panels 4 and 7 are delightfully over the top. Layouts this strong would have been welcome in the Yogi Bear TV cartoons of the period, but often the background drawings were better than the character attitudes in those episodes. Cels For Sale!!
 In response to at least two requests, we’re making six cel set-ups available from our 2013 production, “Some Other Cat”. These are some of the last of their kind, original, hand inked and hand painted cels created by some of the best in the business, notably our “Igor”, who inked nearly every cel with Itza Cat in it, and that’s quite a few. Just click on the thumbnails above to see them full-screen. The backgrounds are photo-reproduced, and each set-up comes with a DVDr of “Some Other Cat”. Three of the set-ups come with the original animation drawings mounted on the back: the silhouettes on the shade, Pearly’s hand about to grab Itza and Itza with the big heart over his head at Pearly’s mailbox. These one-of-a-kind art pieces are $100.00 apiece, or $80.00 apiece if you’re taking two or more. They make great gifts, and you’ll be helping to support a rare independent animated short that actually employed traditional ink and paint artists! If you’d like to take one of these cats home with you, just leave a comment below, or write to kausler@att.net, and we’ll make all the arrangements.
 The Krazys are from 5-11 to 5-16-1942. In the first panel of the 5-12, Ignatz mentions many African animals by their correct names (smart mouse!) such as the Eland (Savannah Antelope) and the Okapi (zebra giraffe). I love the abstraction of the last panel, as Krazy hops over a lot of geometric hedges as Ignatz and K. discuss the “Mountains of the Moom”. The last three strips for the week show Ignatz’s brick ingenuity using geothermal, hydro-fall and a “nesting” brick disguise in the 5-16. Next post I will discuss and criticize King Features Syndicate’s rather loose attitude toward their archives, which they exploit on the website “Comics Kingdom”.
 In the Myrtle dailies from 2-2 to 2-7-1948, Ebuceci the Alaskan dog has a prehensile tail that can hold bones when it has a glove attached to it. Of course Bingo is very jealous, for when he tries to hold a bone with a glove attached to his tail, he’s just “all thumbs”. In one of Dudley Fisher’s rare flubs at visual humor, the 2-7 is a little inept. It appears that Myrtle is trying to paint the fish bowl black so that the family’s pet goldfish can’t see her stealing cookies. In the third panel, I can’t make out exactly what Myrtle is doing, is she using a fountain pen, or a brush, is that an inkwell she’s dipping her pen into, or just a flat dish? If you readers can explain this one, please comment. Just click the thumbnail image above, to see it larger.
 Felix continues his running battle with bulldogs in the dailies from 4-30 to 5-5-1934, and in the Sunday from 5-6-34, encounters walrus at the South Pole (is that possible?). Mr. Dooit tries to fend off the bulldog that’s been chasing Felix these last few weeks in the 4-30, then the owner of the Kennely Kennels shows up to pick up the miscreant dog, but leaves another one in it’s place. Messmer is just about as good at creating funny cartoon dogs as he as with felines. Just look at the crowds of canines in the 5-4 and 5-5. There is something quietly humorous about Otto’s dialog balloon placement sometimes, witness his little “bow” balloon in the last panel of the 5-4. In the Sunday, the Funny Films topper has a little lady who reminds me of the heroine of the silent cartoon: “Felix Busts A Bubble”. There is a sequence in that film in which Otto animates a whole range of emotions on the little brunette’s face as she acts for the camera. The faces in the Funny Films topper, resemble the brunette’s, even though this one’s a blond. Felix continues his travels beyond the Zodiac, as he lands at the South Pole as the Mascot of the two aviators introduced a couple of Sundays ago. I love Otto’s funny walrus who show up in the last panel of the 5-6 Sunday. I hope you enjoy these wonderful comics, let me hear from you.
Scout Baby-Sits
 Everyone in Ericka’s family is taking turns babysitting newborn Charlotte, including Scout! This photo is a little dark, but if you look carefully, you’ll see Charlotte’s face in the shadow of her carrier. As we saw in our last episode, there isn’t much difference between a baby carrier and a cat carrier, so we’ll forgive Scout if she gets confused.
Felix’s misadventures (4-23 to 4-29-1934) with the crazy bulldog continue as he gets chased through a circus tent and takes refuge in Mr. Dooit’s refrigerator. Felix remains offstage in cold storage as the bulldog chases Hilda the maid and Mr. Dooit in the last two daily strips (4-27 and 4-28). he’ll probably be a block of ice next time. In the Sunday, Felix continues his fall from the moon begun last post, and becomes the mascot of a couple of airplane pilots. You see, Felix’s fall was broken by their rudder and the cat’s weight on the back end of the plane enabled it to clear a dangerous mountain range. So Otto segues from fantasy to “reality” in Felix’s world. By the way, the hand shadow episode of “Funny Films” above, reminds me of the hand shadows created by the baby in the cartoon “Sure-Locked Homes”, from 1928.
 Myrtle (1-26 to 1-31-1948) spends a week doing barber shop gags. It seems Freddie (Myrtle’s Dad) needs a haircut. I love the bucket gag in the 1-26 and the 1-31 has a nice little inside reference as the Barber tells Freddie, “I wouldn’t do this for you, only I want my picture in the comics!” Charming drawings and imaginative gags, that’s Dudley Fisher.
 In Krazy, (5-4 to 5-9-1942) it’s revealed in the 5-4 that Offissa Pupp is a Soprano, after Krazy’s “Berra-tone”, and Ignatz’s tenor. The balance of the strips are about brick-throwing, Ignatz foils Pupp’s Katzenjammer style use of glue on the brick with a pair of old, no-account gloves on his spindly hands. If you look at the foregrounds of the 5-5 and 5-9, you will notice floorboards and rugs in the Coconino desert. My theory is that’s what George Herriman thought his comic strip panels to be; little stage sets where the characters could hurl heavy objects at each other and trade bon mots in Kat Langwitch.
The Yogi Bear Sunday pages are from June, 1964 this time. I got access to another newspaper which carried the half-page version of the comic. I had to do a little computer paste-up work to make a facsimile half-page out of the 6-7. It was a tall, narrow strip in the newspaper I clipped it from. 3 out of the 4 pages are gags about the newly released Yogi Feature Cartoon, “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear!” The 6-21 is the only third page strip, (click on thumbnail to enlarge) and equates the music of The Beatles with skunks. All the artwork, including the logo designs, are by Harvey Eisenberg. I often wondered why the art in the TV shows and cartoons was never as pleasing as the Sunday comic page. It was a case of too many cartoonists spoiling the Bear, Mr. Eisenberg had the Sunday page mostly to himself in 1964, and few artists drew the Hanna-Barbera characters as well as Harvey.
Two of my seven readers, Thad and Charles, wrote in to ask about cels for sale from our cartoon: “Some Other Cat”. They are all for sale, except for the original backgrounds which Greg Ford is keeping. Each cel comes with a reproduction background, original pencil drawing where available, and a DVDr of the cartoon. The package sells for $80.00 to $100.00, depending on the whim of we who sell the artwork. I’ll try to get some thumbnail images of the cels available now on the blog page very soon.
Scout says: “Baby Me!”
 It looks like Scout wants some of the attention that baby Charlotte gets as she takes over the basket seen in the last post’s photo. Photo by Ericka Stockwell.
 That’s singer and entertainer Janet Klein on the right, and me on the left on the stage of the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. Janet is a devotee and admirer of the popular music of the early 20th century, she channels Helen Kane, Ruth Etting, Lyda Roberti, Annette Henshaw and Connie Boswell, then puts her own appealing personality and performing ability into her act as well. Janet borrows 16mm cartoons from me to show before the program begins, Jerry Beck mans the projector:
 Janet has started a new segment of her show at the Steve Allen Theater on Hollywood Blvd. each month, namely Retro Toons! The idea is to find contemporary animated shorts that have an early 20th century sensibility, using the music of those times. She invited Itza and his cartoons to join Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys on May first, and she ran “Some Other Cat”. It was one of the best experiences Itza’s had yet! The musicians (Parlor Boys) in Janet’s orchestra really enjoyed the cartoon for all the musical ideas in it, they appreciated the rhythm that it was synced to, and so did the small audience that attended that night. It’s so great to hear the laughter of people you don’t know responding to a cartoon that’s so close to your heart. I still haven’t recovered from the warm reception that “Some Other Cat” was afforded, and to be part of such a charming, sparkling evening was an experience Itza and I will never forget. Thanks Janet! Thanks Jerry! If you’ve never seen Janet performing such songs as “Who’s That Knockin’ At My Door?” and “College Rhythm”, come on down to the next show, you’ll be glad you did.
 On May 10th, I found myself at a place I’d only heard about and seen pictures of, but never hoped to visit, Walt Disney’s home in Los Feliz, CA. As part of the Hyperion Historical Alliance’s annual Disney History Luncheon, our group was invited to a tour of the vintage Disney sites around the Los Feliz district near Hyperion Avenue. We parked our cars at one of the most historic movie studios in the world, the ABC studios on Prospect and Talmadge. That’s where D.W. Griffith filmed his epic “Intolerance” in 1916! Our van left from there, and we saw the Disney buildings on Kingswell and Lyric Ave. (where “Plane Crazy” was made), then went up to the house Walt built for his family in 1932. That’s the front door in the photo above, with that wonderful tower incorporated into the design.
 Here’s a shot of the cobblestone driveway and the view overlooking downtown Los Angeles. If you can take the skyscrapers out, and just leave City Hall in, that’s the view that Walt, Lillian and family had in those golden days. To be at that house was the realization of a dream for me. When I first moved to Los Angeles in 1968, they were demolishing the last of the old Disney studio which stood at 2719 Hyperion Ave. I drove to the site, expecting to see the crumpled remains of the famous “Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony Cartoons” neon sign. All that I saw were the crumpled remains of a lot of brick buildings and a big hole in the ground. I saved one of the bricks, but I no longer have it. So the entire old neighborhood, including Marshall High and the “Snow White” apartments on Griffith Park Blvd. is magical to me. As I sat in the backyard near Walt’s pool, I was delighted at the sight of the little house he built for Diane and Sharon which mimics the style of the big house, which is sort of an English Manor house design. The interior had very high ceilings, several of the rooms had hand-painted decorations on the ceilings, and small stained glass panels with English heraldry and armor were in most of the leaded windows throughout the house. The house originally was on 3 acres of land, so they had a lot of privacy and a real feeling of serenity on top of that hill. The projection room is still there, but no film projectors are left, digital took over that booth as well. Playing on the system was footage of Walt swimming in his pool with Diane and Sharon, and scenes of swimming parties at some of the neighbor’s pools. Part of the original trailer for “Snow White” was included, and we heard Walt’s voice introducing the Dwarfs. One of the invited folks remarked how ethereal it was to hear Walt speaking in the house where he lived with his family so many years ago. On display elsewhere inside we saw many vintage photos of Walt posing on the circular staircase that’s inside that tower in the first photo. Lillian’s gardens are still there, along the side of the house and extending down a very steep slope with a little BBQ pit far below the residence. The current owners of the home are Disney collectors and had a nice collection of Disney posters and animation art on the walls. It makes you wonder what Walt had up on the walls of that house. This proved to be another hard-to-forget experience, two in one week with the Janet Klein show. As I sat on the steps in the backyard looking at Walt’s view of downtown, I couldn’t help feeling a little bit of the serenity and class of early Hollywood, as Walt must have experienced it. Thanks to Mike Van Eaton and Didier Ghez, I was there!
 Here from 4-16 to 4-22-1934, are the Felix strips by Otto Messmer. This week Danny Dooit and his brother Chip play baseball in the rain and catch cold. Felix can’t play with them in that condition, so he leaves the house for awhile and tries to make friends with a Messmer bulldog. I love the poses of the bulldog in the last two panels of the 4-20, as the dog reacts to the eel he grabbed instead of Felix’s tail. In the Sunday page, Felix arrives on the moon, but finds that it’s just a rim of scraps that crumble all away, leaving him hurtling through space!
 Krazy is from 4-27 to 5-2-42 this time and nearly the whole week’s worth of strips is about wishing wells, or in Kat Langwitch: “Witchin’ Wells”. The pig with the buttons down his front in the 4-28 is a character that Herriman didn’t use very often, he seems to be a paragon of logic in the very non-logical Coconino County. He informs Krazy that he can’t get a wishing well to wish wishes in if he doesn’t already have a Well to make the wish WITH! Garge has fun with two wells side by side, one of which seems to be occupied by Offissa Pupp, who wished for him?
 Myrtle is from 1-19 to 1-25-1948. Myrtle figures that her dog Bingo is 45 years old in dog years, and deserves Senior rights. Bingo takes over Freddie’s chair in the 1-21 because he’s older than Freddie! In the 1-24, Bingo is told to go outside by Myrtle using dog talk to communicate with him. In the last panel, Bingo reveals that he can’t understand a word of human talk, but can read a hand pointing the way to the outdoors. Some of Freddie’s business worries are touched upon in the Sunday page.
Scout Finds a New “Kitten”
 Little Scout has found a new “Kitten” in a basket on the floor of Ericka’s house! Actually, that’s little Charlotte, Ericka’s brand-new daughter, now weighing in at almost 6 pounds. She’s a very tiny baby, smaller than Scout, she was born a little over a week ago. I just love this photo, it deserves to be in the Cat Calendar, thanks new Mother Ericka, for sharing it.
Felix, from 4-9 to 4-15-1934, features Felix being pampered by the Irish maid at Danny Dooit’s house. The maid washes Felix and puts a bow on him, and he looks a lot like Krazy Kat with it on! Felix disappears from his strip for the 4-13, as Danny’s brother and Dad do a golfing gag. In the 4-14, Felix cheers up a depressed dog on his birthday; this strip has a Depression era feel to it, not really a gag, but Felix holding forth in an optimistic way to get the dog to love his life more. It reminds me of Mother Hubbard’s Dog’s song in the Ub Iwerks ComiColor cartoon, Old Mother Hubbard (1935): “Cheer Up”, composed by Carl Stalling. Remember the lyrics? “Why sit around so humble, mumble, tumble, groan and grumble, Cheer Up, we all should sing for that will bring a smile, be a regular guy!” In the Sunday from 4-15, Felix continues his tour of the Zodiac, visiting Leo the Lion’s star. Messmer again uses props for continuity, Felix using the fish bones from the last Sunday page to launch himself into space and escape from the attacking Leo.
 Here’s Krazy from 4-20 to 4-25-1942, Garge mostly uses a prop, a “megic Koppit” in five out of the six dailies this week. Krazy’s dialect is delicious in these, “L’il Dottin’ Tommitz”. I like the 4-25, as Ignatz tries to fly off with Krazy’s “Koppit”, only to find that it’s securely tied to the dining table. Krazy is not quite so wholly innocent as he seems, he knows that Ignatz is a rascal and a thief, but loves him in spite of his faults.
 Here are five Yogi Bear thirds from May, 1964, drawn by Harvey Eisenberg. In the 5-31, a continuity starts to promote the release of the Columbia feature cartoon, “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear”, released June 3rd, 1964. Ranger Smith summons Yogi in the second panel, by yelling “Hey There, Yogi Bear!” at the same time that two Hollywood publicity guys speak the picture’s title. We’ll see more of these characters in the next batch of Yogi Sunday pages for June, 1964.
Myrtle is from 1-12 to 1-17-1948 this time. Slug gets a job collecting past due bills for a radio store, and of course his first target is Freddie, Myrtle’s Dad. Freddie wants Slug to succeed so that Slug can marry Aunt Minnie and move out of his guest room, but at the same time, he is reluctant to part with any money. I love the 1-15. Slug has a small walk-around transmitter he carries on a pole to target Freddie’s radio with his bill collecting reminders: “Freddie is a DEADBEAT..!” In the 1-17, Slug repossesses Freddie’s receiver, only to get one tube from it as a commission. As an old time radio buff, I really love these strips. They demonstrate just how beloved and important the household radio was to the families of the 1940s. As far as I know, there were no Felix the Cat, Krazy Kat or Right Around Home with Myrtle radio shows in the 1930s or the 1940s. Myrtle might have been funny on the radio! The Catblog will be back soon, with lots more laughs and excitement!
Scout’s On A Bug Hunt!
 All you fans of little Scout the leaf lovin’ cat will enjoy this great storytelling photo. Scout’s on a bug hunt in her new Culver City home! This picture was sent from the iphone of Ericka Stockwell, one of my good neighbor Belle’s grandchildren. Ericka really loves Scout and her other orange tabby named B.J. Thanks for keeping Scout’s admirers up to date, Ericka!
 Another batch of “Myrtle” dailies from 1-5 to 1-10-1948 from the pen of the unmatched Dudley Fisher! In the first three, Freddie devises a clever way to dispose of a chi-chi vase that Susie won at a bridge tournament (does anybody under the age of 70 play bridge anymore?). Snoggons’ rare Alaskan dog, Ebuceci is running a fever and Myrtle makes a ridiculous funny face in the 1-10.
 Krazy is doing telephone gags for the most part of the week of 4-13 to 4-18-1942. It’s small “wunda” that Garge’s Krazy Kat has so seldom been successfully animated. Look carefully at Krazy’s face and “boda” in these strips, his head changes shape and the eyes are handled differently in almost every panel. I love the abstract look of Krazy’s head in the third panel of the 4-14, and that pose in the third panel of the 4-18 is indicative of Herriman’s complex thinking about simple problems, as Krazy’s right foot winds sinuously about the table leg. It’s also interesting how props like tables, beds and so forth sometimes seem dimensional and sometimes look like they are pasted on the wall. What power Garge possessed, no matter how he drew his characters and settings, they always look right.
 Danny Dooit and his brother miss Felix a lot, but he comes back to them in the strips from 4-2 to 4-8-1934. Messmer carries the continuity well from preceding weeks, as Felix still has the roll of discarded oil paintings he got from “Rembrandt” the artist. Those paintings really come in handy in the 4-6 and 4-7, as they make Mr. Dooit look like an art connoisseur to the senior partner in Mr. Dooit’s office. Felix is once more responsible for bringing good fortune to Danny’s family. In the Sunday, Felix visits the star (planet) of “Pisces” the fish. It’s an underwater planet filled with piscatorial delights until an octopus shows up. Felix constructs a ladder of fish bones to escape to another star, again very reminiscent of the Felix cartoons of the 1920s.
My computer’s operating system, Windows XP has now been officially orphaned by Microsoft, and will no longer be supported or updated. They have implied heavily that my computer will no longer be “safe” from threats and attacks. Their remedy for this, buy a whole new computer that will support the touch screen type interface included in their newest operating system, Windows 8.1. I don’t feel “safe” in continually touching the surfaces of complicated electronic devices to get them to do things, and I especially resent a major megawealthy corporation telling me to go spend money I haven’t got on new computers I don’t want! My old Dell Dimension works just fine, thank you, Microsoft! To Microsoft, 13 years is a “long time” to support one of their “older” operating systems. Not so very long ago, most appliances lasted much longer than that, some of them more than 50 years. I own a Bell telephone that’s more than 50 years old, and it still works better and sounds better than any iphone! These corporations want to trick us onto the Merry-Go-Round of computers and ipads, get us all comfortable and cozy with them, then pull the rug out after 13 years and make us spend another 500 bucks on still another “improved” computer. Makes you sorry you ever got into it. What would A.J. say about all this!?
I Remember “Hawaii”
 We’re readjusting to Glendale life after the incredible luxury of Sedona, Arizona. I’m reliving all the great times we had there, including my horseback ride on the last day of our trip. Above, you’ll see a picture of “Hawaii”, the paint I rode along the trails of Dead Horse Ranch State Park near Cottonwood. That was a gentle and easy horse to ride.
 Here’s a shot of A.J., my wrangler. He’s telling me a story of the cottonwood tree in the upper right hand corner of the photo. It was called “Hangin’ Tree”, and evidently that’s where horse thieves and rustlers were strung up without a jury trial back in the day. A.J. taught me a horse fact I’d always wondered about. When Hawaii made that snorting noise that horses make now and then, I asked A.J. what that sound signified. “It’s just the horse sneezin'”, replied my guide. A horse sneeze is pretty big and loud; imagine a horse size Kleenex tissue to go with it! I reported in the previous post that we saw two bald eagles in a cottonwood, and passed the entrance to an Indian cave dug out pretty high in a cliffside. As much fun as showing “Some Other Cat” was to an audience, riding “Hawaii” on an early morning Cottonwood trail is the experience that just won’t leave me.
 Here’s some comics that A.J. probably wouldn’t care to read, Krazy Kat from 4-6 to 4-11-1942. Every strip is a pun or a Karom shot off Krazy’s Kat Langwich pronunciations of words. The 4-9 is my favorite, a “Krimm Widd” comes in a small bottle, as opposed to a “Milk Widd” which comes in a standard size “Milk Boddil”. There is also the humor gleaned from the words “Slack” “Slick” and “Sleck” in the 4-8, an example of Krazy’s mangled syntax.
 Myrtle comes to you from 12-29-47 to 1-3-1948 this time. Snoggons adopts an Eskimo dog named “Ebuceci”, which goes right along with a boy who’s name is the same spelled forward or backward. Dudley Fisher gets a whole week of gags out of this strange dog, the best being the Saturday 1-3, as Freddie shoos Ebuceci out of his favorite chair, only to find that the frigid temperature of the Eskimo dog’s body has made the chair too cold to sit in!
 In Felix, from 3-26 to 4-1-1934, Danny’s Dad tries to protect the kids from an evil looking man who is apparently hanging around their window, peeping into the house. It turns out to be just another manifestation of Felix’s collection of rejected oil paintings from his friend Rembrandt, introduced in previous posts. The Saturday strip has Felix hiding from a Stork under a painting of a fish, not a good choice. This set of dailies has Felix in only three out of the six strips. Messmer dropped the Cat from his own strip every once in awhile when the story called for it. The Sunday page continues Felix’s journey through the signs of the Zodiac, visiting Sagittarius, the Archer. In a silent cartoon type gag, Felix steals an arrow from the sleeping Sagittarius and shoots himself onto the planet Pisces, in search of food, almost always the prime motivator for anything Felix does.
 Here are the Yogi Bear Sundays from April of 1964, more of the work of Harvey Eisenberg, who drew the style we associate with “Hanna-Barbera” better than almost anybody. We really should call this style “Eisenberg”, to be fair. About the earliest vestige I’ve seen of Harvey’s style is in the “Red Rabbit” and “Foxy Fagin” comic books of the late 1940s which Joe Barbera and Eisenberg produced together, during production of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. My favorite of this batch is the 4-26-1964 page, which features many Hanna-Barbera animals, such as Chopper and Yakky Doodle, Augie Doggy and Doggy Daddy, Baba Looie, Blabbermouse, Snagglepuss, Mr. Jinks (colored brown, not his usual orange) , and Hokey Wolf (also brown, in this case easy to confuse with Jinks). In the silhouette panels, you can make out Quick Draw McGraw standing tall under the umbrella, and a few generic H-B/Eisenberg animals squeezing into the act. When Yowp gets around to posting the half-page version of this strip, we’ll see who else makes a cameo. Keep checking out his blog at: http://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/. I’ll bet A.J. never visits Yowp’s site either. When we touched briefly on the subject of computers during our ride, A.J. just sniffed, and muttered “throw ’em in the ocean.” I’m inclined to agree with him.
Sedona Was Swell
 We had a really good trip to Sedona! SOME OTHER CAT played at the Harkins Cinemas on 2-24 and 2-27-2014, that’s a happy cartoonist up there on the evening of 2-27, cel and muffler in hand. The cartoon looked really good on the big screen projected from a DCP 
. (Tiny aren’t they?) You can see the Festival screening report below with all the technical specs.
 Note how thorough the Festival planners were, at the bottom of the form, “Opens with: cat listening to phonograph” (that’s Cathy’s background painting) and “Closes with: Song: There Must Be Somebody Else…credit”. At the first screening a trouble shooter came to my chair and asked me how I liked the projection, I just told them the sound was a little loud, and they noted it down! I’m not used to that level of care in showmanship from a Festival! The audience asked a lot of good questions after each screening, notably, “Why don’t more professional animators make their own films?” and “How did you get the feeling of musical rhythm into the cartoon?” I would have tried to sell some cels from “Some Other Cat”, but there just wasn’t any Festival store I could find or other venue that would have been appropriate. The Fest. put us up in the Poco Diablo resort in South Sedona, a beautiful room with a King bed, fireplace, wide screen TV and a flock of ducks at our sliding glass doors waddling across the 9-hole golf course! Room Service breakfast was delicious, we had it about three times.
Allen Elfman of the Best of Arizona.TV website, interviewed me at the VIP center, and now thanks to him, and my webmeister Charles Brubaker, we have a link to the interview that Allen has so kindly posted: https://www.facebook.com/groups/300140486809331/Â Â Head on over there and you will see a battered old cartoonist gamely trying to keep up with the dynamic Mr. Elfman. Enjoy!
 We managed about three painting excursions, this watercolor is from the first one. We stopped by the side of the road and painted the Cathedral Rocks formation. Cathy did an oil of the same formation, we enjoy painting together. Sedona is a breathtaking city which is very well integrated with the red rocks that surround it. Most of the buildings and even the sidewalks are the same earth red color that the looming rocks are. There is almost never a bad time to look at the rocks, they are beautiful in almost any light, any weather condition. There are a lot of intriguing art galleries and Mexican shops with mucho “Dio De Los Muertos” figurines on display, including a skeleton donkey. The Festival provided a lot of free meals at the VIP lounge, and threw a great awards brunch on March 2nd, in which Patrick Schweiss, the Festival director, made everybody laugh, winners and losers alike! Some Other Cat did not win any awards, but we were treated so well by the Festival that we purred! If any of you complete some short films (or features) in the future, consider entering the Sedona International Film Festival! On our last day in nearby Cottonwood, Arizona, your humble correspondent got on a horse named “Hawaii” and took an hour’s ride through the Dead Horse Ranch State Park. My guide and I saw two Bald Eagles sitting in a cottonwood tree as we walked past. I love riding at a slow walk and just experiencing beautiful landscapes from horseback.
 Krazy Kat is from 3-30 to 4-4-42 this time out. The subject of the week is singers and song. My favorite drawing is the last panel in the 4-2, as Krazy’s singing act is whittled down from a “kwotett” to a solo. The brick and Offissa Pupp need only be hinted at to get a laugh; as Ignatz reaches down for the brick, Pupp is barely visible waiting in the wings.
 Myrtle was originally published 12-22 to 12-28-1947. In this batch of strips, Myrtle carries on with Sampson and Snogg0ns, and in the December 25th strip, she tries to write the future in her diary concerning the outcome of her date with Snoggins, but finds out that she’s no Dreer Pooson. The Sunday page is very funny, as Myrtle pushes her head through a metal bicycle rack, and has to go to the town blacksmith to be free. I love the remark that Dudley Fisher has prepared for the horse to say.
 Felix is here from 3-19 to 2-25-1934. Felix brings a commission to “Rembrandt”, the artist he’s staying with, so he feels it’s time to return to Danny and Chip. Rejected oil paintings help him defend himself against unruly dogs, but it looks like a suspicious character is hanging out at the Dooit household. In the Sunday, Felix continues to get butted and bullied around by Taurus and Capricornus in his little journey through the cosmos. In a stunt very reminiscent of the silent cartoons, Felix glues together a stack of rocks to shinny down onto the next “star” or planet. We’ll pick up the next adventures very soon.
Ridin’ Fer Sedona!
 Folks, “Some Other Cat” has been accepted into the Sedona International Film Festival (www.sedonafilmfestival.org )! We’re screening as the accompanying short to the feature “Garibaldi’s Lovers” at the Harkins 2 Cinema on Monday, Feb. 24th at 12:10 PM and on Thursday, Feb. 27th with the same feature at 9 PM. We seem to be one of the few animated shorts at the Festival, maybe they liked the SouthWest backgrounds in the short. So head out there if you are so inclined.
 Krazy is from 3-23 to 3-28-1942, a whole week of Goldfish puns! I like the Kat Langwitch in the 3-24, “IMMMMPOSTA!”
 Myrtle is from 12-14 to 12-21-1947, Sunday included with a drunken and wayward Bingo and Junior out on a spree!
 Felix is from 3-12 to 3-18-1934, he’s with the starving artist this week. Felix is fooled by a very realistic bulldog painting, and he restores the arms to a statue of the Venus de Milo (favorite statue of many cartoonists). In the Sunday, Felix gets blown off the planet Jupiter by the March wind and starts travelling through the galaxy.
 Here’s the Yogi Sunday comics from March of 1964, all the work of one of my favorite cartoonists, Harvey Eisenberg! That flying squirrel in the 3-8 has been in the Yogi pages before, he’s “Harman-Ising” cute! The “Gambling Yogi” story is appealing in the 3-22, provided you’ve never lost at the gaming tables in Vegas! Seems like Mr. Ranger is mighty forgiving of Yogi as long as he’s winning! I’m keeping this post rather short and sweet this time, as we will be busy with Sedona for the next little while. See you soon!
Your Comics Page 9-30-2014
September 30, 2014
Uncategorized
4 Comments
Mark