Felix Navidad, prospero Ano Nuevo y Felicidad!
Here’s a special Holiday greeting to all my readers from my dear wife, Cathy. She loves Felix and dabbles in studying Spanish, so the two interests got together and produced this delightful drawing, enhanced with watercolor. It was a big Christmas surprise for me, and I’m delighted to share the joy with all of you, and of course, Felix. Cathy thinks someone else must have used this pun, but for now we’ll say it’s her own invention.
Felix, from 5-15 to 5-21-1933, tries to help Danny in his arithmetic homework. Danny can only count to five, so this qualifies him to be a golf caddie, since no golfer wants more than 5 strokes a hole anyway. Felix is called a “black jinx” in the 5-18, and Danny is fired as a caddie in the 5-20 much to the delight of Felix, who was feeling neglected. In the Sunday, Felix throws a rock at an ape, thinking his head is a coconut. I like the shadows that Otto used in panel seven of this Sunday page.
Hyacinth the cat does a couple of bits in the Myrtle strip, from 2-14 to 2-20-1949. She appears in a mouse-hole gag in the 2-18, and pushing her kittens in a perambulator in the 2-20. I love Myrtle’s look-alike doll being pushed in a toy carriage by Sampson in the 2-20. Myrtle’s tomboy side emerges fully in the 2-19, as she is made to stand in the corner for showing prowess as a schoolyard fighter. If you had to pick a characteristic pose for Myrtle, it would be standing in a corner.
In Krazy, from 5-24 to 5-29-1943, an electric eel shocks Ignatz, who then harvests the eel’s electric output in the 5-24 and 5-25. In the 5-29, Offissa Pupp gets a hammerlock and a headlock on Ignatz before being beaned by a baseball that Krazy throws at his head. “Zup-Klup”!
As a late Christmas present, here’s another Story Book Record Company production, read by Walt Kelly. “The Three Bears” and “The Gingerbread Boy”. I put them up on Archive.org, so that you can hear them. Here’s the link: https://archive.org/details/WaltKellyThreeBearsGingerbreadBoyComp . The records start abruptly and there is a repeating groove in the Gingerbread, but it’s so much fun being able to hear Mr. Kelly take all the parts and entertain us for a precious 2 minutes and 49 seconds. I hope we will have a happier New Year than 2017 has been, and that the repeal of net neutrality will not cut us off from each other, dear readers. See you soon, I hope, Itza and Mark
Rodinei Campos da Silveira says:
The title of this topic made me reminding of the song Feliz Navidad (which the puerto-rican singer José Feliciano recorded in 1970).
Mark says:
Hi Rodinei,
You’re right! Cathy’s drawing and title are a deliberate parody of the Feliz Navidad song. Jose Feliciano not only performed the song in 1970, he was the composer! Charo, Celine Dion, Garth Brooks and Luciano Pavarotti were among the many singers to cover it. I don’t think we intended to do a salute to Puerto Rico by doing a parody of Mr. Feliciano’s song, but nevertheless, we DO send out our best wishes for Navidad and Prospero Ano Nuevo to our fellow American citizens on that battered island. May your power return in many senses of the word,
Itza and Mark
SC says:
Tell Cathy thanks for the Felix cartoon..and Merry Christmas/Happy New Year to everybody..!!
Charles Brubaker says:
Belated Happy New Year to you! That is a lovely Felix painting that Cathy painted!
Looking forward to more posts from you in 2018!
Daryl Boman says:
Hey Mark!
Happy New Year to you!
May we have more of the Krazy Kat in 2018?
Love Cathy’s Felix!
All the best!
SJC says:
And I want to say that I love Ports o”Call, Calif., I’ve been there and hope you get better, I tried to post on the proper response entry.
Mark says:
So sorry to be late in responding to your comment. I am doing fine, just hit the big 7-0. Poor Ports O’Call looks like it’s going to be re-built entirely. Soon it will look like a giant shopping mall with $5000 a month apartments for rent, I’m sure!