Felix Goes Back (to 1932)
As promised, here are the Felix strips from the first two weeks of January, 1932. The model of Felix used in these comics has to be one of my favorite cat designs. His fingers are square, his knees are pointy, his torso looks like a miniature bowling pin, and his ears go high up off his head and end in points. I love how Otto shows the bottom of Felix’s feet and the Sleuth Hound’s feet as they walk along in the first panel of the 1-15. If you animated the foot coming forward almost parallel to the ground, the character would stumble or trip over his own shoes (see also the burglar in the second panel of the 1-5). The main story here really starts in the 1-7, as a funny old guy complains to the police captain that his mule is “gone”. Felix decides to train the “Official Police Dog” he met in the 1-5 to become a detective by taking up the mule case. Felix and the Hound keep coming up empty, until they see the imprints of the mule’s shoes on the rear end of a black mule wrangler. We’ll see what happens to Felix in the next exciting chapter in the Adventures of Felix The Cat!
Remember to right-click on the images until you see a menu of instructions. Click on the line saying “Open Image in a New Tab”. When you see that, click on the new tab at the top of your screen. You will then see the image in a new screen with black on both sides of it. Then enlarge the image by clicking on it, or hitting plus or minus on your keyboard. Can you figure that out?
Paul Groh says:
A black cat like Felix has a lot of nerve calling anybody an “eight-ball”. Regardless, these scans are wonderful, with great clarity of detail, and I can enjoy them without enlarging.
Did Laura the parrot ever appear in any of Pat Sullivan’s animated cartoons?
I’ve been meaning to ask you: A while ago I was watching the 1984 movie “Children of the Corn” to settle a dispute with my brother-in-law (I won). I noted the animation in the climax of the film, mostly effects like flames but giving the effect of a powerful supernatural entity. I know you worked on the Twilight Zone movie around this time; by any chance did you do any animating on “Children of the Corn”, and if not, do you know who did? The credits don’t say anything about it.
Mark says:
Hi Paul, thanks for the kind comments on the Felix post. I don’t know if Laura the parrot actually appeared in the Pat Sullivan Felix cartoons, but there was almost surely a parrot or two that looked a lot like Laura, as it was Otto’s house style. I have never seen “Children of the Corn” and don’t know who animated on it. I’ll bet the credits probably listed the snack bar attendants and the truck drivers’ names, but NOT the animators! Probably animated in Shanghai, so nobody cared.