Not Much
Hi Reader (s). Sorry it’s been a long time since my last post, but I needed to scan some more material and the scanner is far away. Now at last I have more comics to entertain you with. A lot of scary stuff going on with the nation and the ecomomy. I believe it’s compounded by having a Presidential election at the same time as the Stock Market and Credit problems. It’s really hard to know who or what to believe. I have my own theory of economics, I call it the “cat food” theory. A few years ago, some poison meat crept into the pet food industry by way of China and Canada, then came across the border into the U.S. market. A lot of compromised cat food and dog food disappeared from store shelves, and when the kibble settled, what had been a fairly competitive market, with at least five manufacturers of pet food, shrunk to three, two national brands and one store brand. The two pet food makers, and others, who had trouble with their products, never returned. Cat food used to be 25 to 35 cents before the big shakeout, now it’s 50 cents a can and up, why? Reduced competition. The current economic crisis is shaking down the bank industry with the “poison” of bad mortgage loans made during an artificially created housing “boom”. This poison is now spreading through the banking industry and economy, felling one big bank after another. When the gold dust settles, it looks like we will have a lot fewer (and bigger) banks making a lot fewer loans. It will be harder to qualify for a loan and the interest rates will be higher. Why? Reduced competition.  Was this whole crisis engineered? You be the judge as you buy your 50 cent can of cat food made by either Purina or Friskies (no other choice around here), and try to get a small loan from an institution “too big to fail”.
       In this week’s comics, we have the last Mangy story to see print, originally in MAD RACCOONS #7, I call it “Mangy’s Stormy Night”. It’s a charming and beautifully inked comic story by Cathy Hill. I especially love the beautiful use of black in the first page as Mangy is awakened by the lightning flash. Page two is fun to look at as well, as Mangy leans over Virgil with her food bowl in the first panel. I like the distortion Cathy put into that drawing, as Mangy’s head moves toward Virgil’s nose. The conclusion of this story will be in the next post. Marvelous Mike this week is from 10/15 to 10/20/1956. I think this is the windup to the “Big Donation” story. Mike solves Cliff’s amnesia with the old cartoon cure, a hammer blow to Cliff’s head. When he awakens, Cliff finds that Mike has won the contest for him but he still doesn’t believe it. Krazy Kat is from 3/6 to 3/11/1939 and involves Ignatz’s two pals, Church and Door Mouse. They make things very confusing for Offissa Pupp. “Looks Are Deceiving” continues from Felix #8 by Jim Tyer. The drawing and staging are up with Tyer’s best stuff here, Pussyfoot’s laughing poses are amusing to look at and the inking is really dynamic. I like the comic action of Felix spinning the cocky Pussyfoot around by his tail in the second page, so typical of Tyer’s animation. I hope you enjoy the comics, there will be some more vintage Tyer to come after Felix #8. Please come back and see. If anybody asks you what you’re doing when reading this humble blog, just say “Not Much”. Any comments, either click the link below or write me at blogmolasses@att.net.
Best of the Best!
Hi Everyone! At the Huntington Beach Plein Air Painting Event last weekend, my wife Cathy painted outdoors on Saturday, Sept. 13th, painting sights on the streets of Huntington Beach. She settled on a charming little bungalow court called the “Beach Court”, built in 1923 on 6th street. There were dark, cool shadows on the stucco walls outside the courtyard, and the walls of two of the bungalows inside the courtyard were glowing invitingly in the bright afternoon sun. She set up her easel outside the walls on the street and painted the scene in oil, capturing the welcoming charm of the old bungalow court. At the end of the afternoon, she turned her painting in to the Huntington Beach Art Center to be judged in the “Painting In The Streets” competition, the first award the Art Center has made for a (so-called) “quick draw”. This “quick draw” was about the slowest one Cathy has ever been part of, she had about four hours to create her painting, instead of only one or two hours. When the judging was complete, she found she had won the top prize, called “The Best of the Best”. The prize, a check! She thought the title of the prize, “The Best of the Best”, was a bit immodest, but winning a check for a “quick draw” painting was a most joyous and momentous occasion! Her fellow painters, such as Michael Situ and Val Carson, effusively congratulated her with hugs and smiles. There is such good will and fellowship among fine artists. They are all up against the same difficult market and tight deadlines in painting competitions, but they still love to be part of them. Your appreciation of your surroundings is so greatly enhanced by sitting or standing in front of them and capturing their beauty on canvas or paper. Cathy and I have developed a real love for Huntington Beach over the three years we have painted in this event! From it’s charming pier, to the Dog Beach, old Ice House, Library Park, Equestrian center and of course, the Pacific Ocean and the surfers, there is a lot of light and subject matter to cover!
On Sunday the 14th, we went to the “Friends of the Rock” celebration in Eagle Rock. I wish more people would have turned out for the event; earlier in the day there were very few visitors. Later in the afternoon, towards the Gala, more people showed up and the President of the Eagle Rock Historical Society bought two of my watercolors! The money will help the preservation of the Eagle Rock. I helped a little in organizing the event, by talking to some musicians who play classical woodwinds and enticing them into playing for the customers for free! For their trouble they got some “CERB” T-shirts, food and champagne. Their music made us feel at peace and created an atmosphere of artful reflection, that’s sales to you! I hope the event did some good, it was wonderful to be there. Cathy and I painted some still life studies of succulent plants that were also on sale, along with our paintings. I hope some of you readers stopped by the GLAD center that day.
Another giant has passed on, George Putnam, the veteran newscaster and Southern California anchor since the early 1950s, and prominent in New York radio and the Movietone newsreels before that. He lived to be 94, and in that time met and interviewed many prominent men and women, even narrowly escaping the romantic clutches of Mae West! He knew W.C. Handy (as did Grim Natwick), Eleanor Roosevelt, H.V. Kaltenborn, Graham McNamee, every U.S. President since Herbert Hoover, Mort Sahl and many many others. To me, he WAS the voice of Southern California, and what a voice. He had an almost musical way of speaking that really drew me in. I only saw him in person one time, when he was broadcasting from the Arco plaza in downtown Los Angeles. He had a glass studio that was visible from the outside. I was going to my parked car in the plaza, and noticed him as I was opening the door. I waved to him, and he waved back with a big smile. He had no idea who I was, but was friendly to me as a spectator. In the many years that have passed since that time, I’ve heard George on television, and more importantly, on the radio. His radio show was the most fun, and he was obviously more relaxed off the TV cameras. He liked to laugh and joked a lot with his long-time co-host, Chuck Wilder. George liked to tell stories of his ranch in Chino, California, his many horses, thirty cats, and at least that many dogs. He rode his palomino horse every year in the Rose Parade until the horse passed on. If you listened carefully to his radio broadcasts from the Chino ranch, you could hear his pet exotic birds in the background chirping away, almost like the audio atmosphere of a Hindu or Buddhist temple. At first, George’s radio show was about a lot of different subjects, both personal and political. In the last twenty years, his show was about mostly one controversial subject, illegal immigration. He talked every day about the “invasion” of Southern California by illegals, mostly from Mexico, of course. George paid the price in his prestige by being marginalized by the news media for his one-note stridency on the issue, but in recent years, with the threat of terrorism and the very real overloading of our public schools and health-care system in California by the undocumented, George’s subject matter became timely. Let’s face it, George was a right-winger, and I am not a fan of most right-wing talk show hosts. I think Rush Limbaugh should be deported! George had a talk show on L.A. television in the late 1960’s with Mort Sahl called “Both Sides Now”, named after the Joni Mitchell song. You can probably guess who took what side of the issues at hand. I have an out-take from this show on video tape, in which Mort and George almost came to blows over an issue. Mort yelled at George: “Back up, Godzilla, or I’ll pick ya up with a sieve!” George responded in a hurt fashion, “Cut the tape, there’s no sense in proceeding…You’re a damned fool, Mort!” Years later, Mort Sahl was a frequent caller on George’s radio show, however. Evidently, even those on the left could fight and disagree with Putnam, yet remain friends. George had nothing but kind things to say about Sahl on his radio show. To me, George Putnam’s voice was sort of like the Santa Monica or San Gabriel mountains, majestic and seemingly eternal. His voice was stilled on Sept. 12th, 2008, not eternal after all. It’s hard to convey how much I will miss him, I listened to his last broadcast today in re-run from July 14th, when he celebrated his final birthday on the air. His voice was a bit unsteady due to his failing health, but still strong, he took a call from fellow animal-lover Doris Day, and joked with her about dancing with her mother! He finished the broadcast with a jolly anecdote about interviewing Eleanor Roosevelt, in which she told George, “Now don’t let me get too high and squeaky, my voice always gets too high when I get excited, just wave me down when I do that.” George chuckled as he remembered how he had to do just that. Then he signed off with a “see you then”. That was the last time he would ever say those words on the air. Chuck Wilder joked that the Glendale fire department wouldn’t let him light George’s birthday cake! Goodbye, George.
The comics this week are, the last two pages of “Mangy’s Blues”, by Cathy Hill. Mangy is tossed out by Virgil, gets her dinner, rejects her dinner (cats do that), and then decides to spread her greatness around to the other raccoons some more, making a circular conclusion to the story. We will start a new Mangy tale next week, I hope you enjoy them. MARVELOUS MIKE this week (10/8 to 10/13/1956) continues the “Big Donation” quiz program story. Clifford Crump, suffering from amnesia, actually has a conversation with Mike. Mike feels safe, knowing Cliff will recover eventually from his amnesia and forget all about his son’s power of speech. Mike agrees to provide the answers in the quiz to his “dad”, look for yourself! In Krazy Kat (2-27 to 3/4/1939), I call the story line: “Watch the Birdie”, as Pupp tries to distract Ignatz from his terra cotta tossing with birds, mechanical and otherwise. Felix the Cat re-appears in the last page of “A Biscuit, A Basket” from #7, gee, Kitty’s a good sport about her cooking! In the first page of what turned out to by Jim Tyer’s final Felix story, “Looks Are Deceiving” (Felix #8), Kitty and Pussyfoot co-star. Kitty is really getting Boop-ish in this story. I wonder if John Stanley wrote these? Remember, you may leave comments right here, or write me at blogmolasses@att.net.
Blogged Agin!
Hi again, Readers!
Don’t forget the big “Save The Eagle Rock” event this coming weekend, Sept. 13th and 14th at the GLAD center, 2222 Laverna Ave. in Eagle Rock CA 90041. Please help the old Rock to survive the developer’s wrecking ball, and buy a painting or a plant! You will hear and see musicians playing classical compositions on woodwind instruments and painters painting classical images on wooden easels! Saturday’s hours are 10 AM to 4 PM and Sunday’s are 10AM to 6 PM, with the big Gala celebration to follow. You can donate $35.00 for the big celebration, this gets you champagne and hors d’ouvres. I would like to meet my readers in person (I’ll be there on Sunday with my talented wife, Cathy Hill).
In tribute to the late Bill Melendez is a comic strip commemorating his vocal talents doing Snoopy’s howls and yips. It is from a Hollywood Reporter special issue on animation from 1992. It says “Apologies to Don Albrecht” on the edge of panel 8. Does anyone know who that was? My guess is that Albrecht was a cartoonist who first drew the basic idea that this page is based on. Bill will be sadly missed in the cartoon biz, funny storyteller, tremendously versatile animator; able to eat a whole jar of red hot yellow chilies without even a glass of water to wash them down ( I saw him do it!).
The comics this week are pages 4 and 5 of “Mangy’s Blues” by Cathy Hill. Mangy keeps bugging the racoons Virgil and Uncle Erf with her never-ending need to be noticed. MARVELOUS MIKE this week is from 10/1 to 10/6/1956. Cliff Crump is so intent on studying up for his appearance on “The Big Donation” quiz program, that he doesn’t look where he’s going,  bumps his head and gets amnesia! Krazy Kat does six strips (2-20/2-25-1939) on the “walking under a ladder” superstition. Offissa Pupp and Ignatz use a ladder to get into and out of jail, I love the elephant in the 2/25. Felix proudly brings up the rear in the next two pages of “A Biscuit, A Basket” from Felix #7. I love the strange anatomy on Kitty in the second page as she talks to Felix on the telephone, her legs are really lost behind her red skirt, Jim Tyer didn’t believe in sketching the body before putting the clothes on it! (It’s funnier that way.) See you in Eagle Rock!
You may leave comments here on the blog, or write me at blogmolasses@att.net.
Happy Jerry Lewis Day!
Well it’s Jerry Lewis day here in the old USA! I think they should change the name of the holiday from Labor Day (all the jobs are outsourced anyway) to Jerry Lewis Day. I watch at least part of the telethon each year to see to what extent poor Mr. Lewis has deteriorated from the previous telethon. He is not fat this year, he looks thin and emaciated, and very out of breath at the beginning of the show (great kid singers and tapdancers by the way at the start). My wife thought he looked a bit like Fred Astaire at times. There are a lot of “Report to the Chairman” sections this year, MDA is getting very serious about telling just how much (or how little) progress is being made toward a “cure” for Neuromuscular Diseases. It seems like they know what causes the more than forty such ailments, but are approaching them from a “more powerful drugs” standpoint than a cell or DNA gene-splicing attack. Our beloved President is standing squarely in the way of the stem-cell research that could make a “cure” for those forty diseases POSSIBLE! I wonder how strongly MDA tried to lobby against the ban on stem-cell research? Or are they content to just drain off the millions they collect each year into big pharms’ pockets? I like the seriousness and sobriety that Jerry displays as he listens patiently to the doctors explaining a lot of complex medical information to his telethon audience. I wonder if the “kid” in Lewis wants to break the doctors up every once in a while? This is not to denigrate Mr. Lewis for his over 43 year devotion to the “cause”, I really love and admire the guy. His Al Jolson medley this year was very poignant. Jerry squinted, sweated and grunted his way though “Mammy” and “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody”, as the band seamlessly covered his tempo variance. I hope to see him sing “When You Walk Though A Storm” once more at the end of the broadcast. For the first time, thanks to AT&T’s digital video recorder, I can “tape” the entire broadcast and “troll for Lewis” by scanning through the hours at high speed! If you can get AT&T UVerse by all means sign up. Every channel is flawless, and the DVR that comes with the service is incredible, I can’t tell the difference between the live broadcast and the recording! Sometimes I get confused which one I’m watching. At last we dumped Charter Communications cable “service”, just in time as it turns out! We just got a “new channel line-up” notice from them that they are moving Turner Classic Movies (our favorite channel) to a higher digital “tier”, so we would have been forced to go to their more expensive service to keep what we already had! AT&T even has the Boomerang channel (no commercials on this one), which has a couple of interesting programs, “The Boomerang Zoo” which features mostly old Hanna-Barbera animal cartoons such as Yakky Doodle (Fibber Fox is funny!) and Loopy De Loop. They show old H-B sitcoms like “The Jetsons” (cut-down), Tom and Jerry cartoons and “The MGM Show” which runs the Avery, Harman-Ising and Barney Bear pictures. Did I say the picture was flawless?
   This just in, Jerry Lewis raised over $65,000,000 for MDA this year! His dialog with the little ambassador girl, Amy I think her name was, toward the end of the show was very heart-felt. It’s so sad that so few of these children live to be very old. Jerry did a good job on “When You Walk Through A Storm” and must have shuffled off the stage tired and happy. As Amy said, “You got your dollar more.”
     If you like Golden Age Funny Comics, head on over to www.stanleystories.blogspot.com and read some nice-looking scans of early John Stanley comics. I didn’t know that Stanley wrote for so many diverse characters besides the Little Lulu gang. There are Peterkin Pottle, Oswald the Rabbit, Andy Panda, Woody Woodpecker, Nellie the Nurse and even our own Krazy Kat! YOW! This blog is the work of Frank M. Young of Seattle WA., who really has a great love and appreciation for John Stanley and the old funnybooks. You don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to read 1940s Golden Age books, just visit Stanley Stories, tell Frank that “The Cat” sent you.
Our comics this week are, the next two pages of “Mangy’s Blues” by Cathy Hill, Cathy even developed a “cat language” for this story lettered in symbols. MARVELOUS MIKE’s homework service is curtailed, but the schoolboard thinks that Cliff Crump is the genius in the family and enters him in a TV quiz show! Remember in 1956 that quiz shows were top draws and got into a lot of scandal. Krazy Kat has a continuity with Ignatz and a “tecolote” (Spanish for “owl”). There is a lot of cactus by-play this week. Felix winds up the “Clothes Make The Cat” story from Felix #6, and starts “A Biscuit-A Basket” from #7. Kitty is quite managerial in these stories, in the “Biscuit” story she sports a heart in her hair. These are by Jim Tyer, in case you hadn’t guessed.
Didja notice that WordPress has turned on the comments again? Let’s see if I can manage them better this time. You can also email me at blogmolasses@att.net.
AT and T Taking Over
Hi folks, the Eagle Rock paint-out continues, we painted at a beautiful house last week, high up on a hill with surrounding views of Occidental College and desert foliage (cactus). I did a pretty lousy WC, but my wife did a very nice oil of a little stone path leading down a prickly slope to a house with an orange tile roof. Don’t forget to attend  The Collaborative Eagle Rock Beautiful Event Sept. 13th and 14th, at the GLAD center, 2222 Laverna Ave., Eagle Rock CA 90041. The big Gala event is from 4 Pm to 7 PM at the GLAD center on Sept. 14th, $35.00 donation gets you champagne, hors d’ouvres and admission to a sale of fine paintings of Eagle Rock created just for the event, and succulent drought-tolerant plants will be for sale as well. We’re lining up a woodwind music group to play at the event as well, tres elegant! In case you missed it in a previous post, this is to help preserve the last open space between Eagle Rock and Pasadena, and to keep the area landmark, the Eagle Rock, from being blasted out for Condos! Help (PLEASE!) CERB raise the remaining 70,000 dollars and keep the Eagle flying!
I’m switching my Cable and DSL services to AT&T next week, so my email address for this blog will change to blogmolasses@att.net. This is the new fiber optic cable, I’ll let you know if there is any improvement in reception or DSL speed. It sure will be cheaper, that’s for sure. Comics this week are the last page of “A Package For Virgil” featuring Mangy the cat as Virgil’s big surprise! Also I’m starting another Mangy story, “Mangy’s Blues”, done in modern graphic style, sans dialog, all by my incredibly talented Cathy! MARVELOUS MIKE this week is from 9/17 to 9/22/1956: Mike and Merrie start a “homework answering service” much to the horror of the school-board! Check out Krazy Kat this week 2/6-2/11/1939, for a lot of “helmet jokes” and the mysterious disappearing Ignatz in Pupp’s jail.  Felix returns with pages 2 and 3 of “Clothes Make the Cat” from Felix #6. Tyer is in fine form, with funny drawings of the maniacal suit salesman, and Kitty’s girlish amusement at Felix’s shopping phobia. Be seeing ya! Rest in Peace Bill Stulla and Harry Gibbs, two childhood heros, hosts of local kid’s TV shows in Los Angeles and St. Louis, Mo., I’ll be seeing ya wranglers!
Save the Eagle Rock!
Hi Readers! Currently, we are painting in various locales around the town of Eagle Rock, CA. The big rock that the town is named for is in danger of being blasted out to clear the land for condominiums, so we are trying to raise 70,000 dollars to buy the land around the rock to keep the developers away. Our group is creating paintings of the town to celebrate Eagle Rock and to bring people’s attention to what makes the town special, the Rock! A Gala event on Sept. 13th and 14th at the historic Women’s Temperance League building, will have a live paint-out with many fine artists participating. If you live nearby, come out to the event! I will post more details next week. Or just write to me at blogmolasses@att.net  to get a flyer. PLEASE NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS FOR THIS BLOG!!! THANK YOU!!!
     This week’s comics are the penultimate page of “A Package For Virgil”, can you stand the suspense? The exciting conclusion to the story will be next week. MARVELOUS MIKE is from 9/10 to 9/15/1956 and concludes the saga of “The Serenader”. Once again, Mike’s talents are ignored and disbelieved and Mike quotes from Sir Walter Scott. Krazy Kat this week is from 1/30 to 2/4/1939. Mostly “Brick Antics”, the little sign on the fence in the 2/3 episode means “Big Flea Circus” in English. There is a freeway offramp near La Jolla called “Las Pulgas”, must be a pretty flea-bitten offramp! The cat’s tail this week is a one page gag from Felix #5 by Jim Tyer starring Felix and Rock (not Bottom, but from “Rock and Rollo”), and the first page of “Clothes Make the Cat” from Felix #6. I love the design of that clock with the little cherubim kittens around it and Kitty’s “Beauty Mark” on her cheek. C.U.
Seaport Village and Naples
Hello again, readers. Cathy and I had a most memorable painting experience last Thurs. August 7th. We visited Naples! No, not Italy, but Naples, California. You can reach this Naples by driving down the 405 freeway south to Studebaker Road. Go right on Studebaker Road and left on Marina Drive. Make a right on 2nd Ave. and proceed to Naples. Naples is a small, hidden little village surrounded by Alamitos Bay. If you walk down a street called “The Toledo”, you will come to bridges that cross over the circular walkway that ambles along by the seawater stream. Walk down these lanes, and you will be transported! The homes, some new, some Victorian and Greek in style, sport balconies that look out over the water. Each home has a little dock in front of it, many with sight-seeing craft anchored there. A lot of the homes have gardens; flower and vegetable. A friendly black cat was napping underneath one of the chairs; he jumped up on the wall when we passed by and rubbed his head on our hands, then took a playful swipe at us with his paw, meowing in a raspy tone. Naples, California rivals Venice, California both in charm and how human housing can interact with the sea. Ideal painting spots would be up on the bridges to get a wide view of the sea canals, boats and homes. My poor powers of description can’t match the joy of being there, come and look! We didn’t actually paint in Naples on Thurs. but instead parked along Marina Drive and set up by Alamitos Bay in the boatowner’s area. The Harbor Police are there, as are many restaurants. We painted a sailboat race from Naples to the breakwater, and a beautiful yacht anchored nearby with highly polished wooden trim all over it. It was great painting weather, until the wind came up and pushed us (the Thursday Painting group) off our bayside perch. Bring your sketchbooks to Alamitos Bay and Naples (they are in Long Beach), very soon. It’s another little corner of beauty in the ugly and lovely County of Los Angeles.
    This week’s comics are pages three and four of “A Package For Virgil” from Cathy’s MAD RACCOONS #7. Virgil the raccoon was one of the featured characters in the comic books, he could go from placid to manic in a few panels, as you see here. Mangy is the co-star, but you’ll have to wait to see her. There are only 5 episodes of MARVELOUS MIKE this week, from 9/4/56 to 9/8. 9/3 is missing, donations gladly accepted! “The Serenader” storyline continues, with Cliff hiding from the mob while Mike plays on. Krazy Kat this week is the complete week’s strips from 1/23 to 1/28/39. I really like 1/25, as Herriman makes fun of his own laziness by not completing the last panel, and making a gag out of it. The only real continuity in this week’s KK’s are 1/27 and 1/28 in which Krazy meets two fireflies, one widowed and one with a wet husband. I have also re-printed the final two pages of Jim Tyer’s “Some-Her” from Felix the Cat #5. My favorite panels are Felix socking the bully on page four and his big reaction to the mischievous kittens on page five. Enjoy the strips! Any reactions may be sent to molasses@earthlink.net.
Pencil Test is Finished!
It’s hard to believe readers, but the pencil test for my short cartoon: “There Must Be Some Other Cat”, is cut together and synced up at last! Maybe some day we will post the pencil test on itsthecat.com, we’ll see. There are a few little adjustments, but the timing of the animation and the musical ideas work well. Greg Ford, Larry Q. and company worked hard and smoothed all the rough edges from my scribbled exposure sheets and did some first-rate camera work. Maybe some day soon I will see the first color scenes of the cat in his desert environment! I feel like taking everyone out for nopales at the Cacti Cafe!
In comics this week, I’m presenting the first two pages of Cathy Hill’s “A Package For Virgil” from Mad Raccoons #7. This story seems to star Virgil, but is really a showcase for Mangy as co-star. Mangy was originally just a back-up feature for the Raccoons, and in this story…..well, you’ll see. Marvelous Mike from 8/27/56 to 9/1/56 continues the story of “The Serenader”, Mike’s “Dad”, Cliff gets all the credit for playing Chopin like Van Cliburn, much to his wife’s disgust. Krazy Kat this week is missing Monday, 1/16/39, anybody have it? In KK from 1/17/39 to 1/21/39, it’s guest or “guess” week, as the action moves from Krazy’s house, to the Jail and back to Krazy’s house again. 1/20 is a bit obscure, Offissa Pupp and Ignatz emerge from Jail, only to see Krazy approaching and put themselves back in stir again. The “love triangle” theme was so well established by this point, that it only has to be hinted at to form a springboard for a gag. From Felix #5, we have the first two pages of “Some-Her” by Jim Tyer. Kitty as drawn by Tyer, is one strange cat. I love the delicately drawn foot with the shoe dangling from her toes in the first panel. Kitty is more human than cat by this time; look at her profile on page two, panel two. Sometimes Jim puts heart-shaped “beauty marks” on her face making Kitty resemble Lilly Langtry or some Robert W. Service heroine. They only gave Tyer one story and a gag page in this issue, we’ll continue the story next week, if we can.
Remember if you wish to comment, write to me at molasses@earthlink.net. Remember to click on the thumbnail images to see them larger.
New and Old
Hi Readers, hope you are enjoying yourselves at the San Diego Comic Con! Hello to my friend Ed Buchman, make sure you visit his Little Lulu Fan Club meeting at the convention. It will take place July 26th (Sat.) from 3 to 4 PM in Room 24A (on the top floor, off the city-side hallway near the South end of the immense building). Tell him that Mangy sent you! Here’s a “new” installment of Mangy written and drawn by my wife, Cathy Hill, which I call “Mangy’s Cocktail”, it’s from Mad Raccoons #6. Mike Fontanelli, cartoonist De Luxe, wrote in about Mangy. He thinks she’s “right up there with MUTTS..”! Wouldn’t Mooch be jealous? He thinks Mangy should be syndicated in newspapers. It’s an interesting thought, but for now we will be “syndicating” her adventures via this blog. Cathy was flattered by the compliment, thanks Mike.
In old stuff this week, we have Krazy Kat from 1-9-39 to 1-14-39. Krazy spends the week debunking old sayings, pretty much as he did last week. Marvelous Mike’s “dad” Cliff goes on a vacation to the Indian Rock Hotel (Catskills?) and Mike fills in playing piano for “The Serenader”. Of course, Mike plays an excellent Chopin. Here is the conclusion to the Rock and Rollo story we started last week: “A Moving Story” from Felix #4.  I love the sign pointing to Rock’s injured finger in the last panel on page two. It’s a Jim Tyer “understatement” as a coda to an overstated slapstick situation. This completes the reprinting of Felix #4. In Felix #5, Tyer gets fewer pages, unfortunately. See you next week!
Latest Installments
Hello again readers!Â
The comics this week are the last page of “The Legend of Mangy” from MAD RACCOONS by Cathy Hill. The punch line resonates better if you read the entire issue of MAD RACCOONS, as the racoons are against any CATS appearing in their stories. Remember to visit MU PRESS’S website to order the MAD RACCOONS COLLECTION: www.mupress.com/catalogpg08.html. If you just want the original issue “The Legend of Mangy” appeared in, it’s MAD RACCOONS #2.
An old friend came back in out of the cold, Krazy Kat! He’s back with the first dailies of 1939: 1/2 through 1/7/39. Ignatz and Krazy spend the whole week declenching the words “Coat of Arms”. Marvelous Mike this week concludes the “Kitty Delight” cat food story. Cliff gets all the credit for Mike’s deft touch with a candid photo and a funny caption. All the little kittens get loving homes into the bargain, I love this strip! The Jim Tyer Felix department has a rare non-Felix story from Felix #4, “Rock and Rollo in ‘A Moving Story'”. Rock (no relation to Rock Bottom, evidently) is so dumb that he calls Rollo the Fox “Rock” on page one! Or is it a continuity error? The drawings of Rollo sticking Rock with a safety pin on page two are the essence of Tyer. I have no idea who created these two characters, their sole excuse for being seems to be the obvious pun in their first names. I still haven’t heard from any of you comics historians on whether Gaylord DuBois or some other scripter wrote these stories. I’d love to hear from you if you know anything about them at molasses@earthlink.net. Not much else to report on this week, see you soon!
Cartoon Brew Films, R.I.P.
Hi Readers, sorry for the long absence. Cathy and I have been doing some more location painting, two weeks ago we sketched and drew an alligator, many dogs and a cackle of hens and roosters at the Pasadena Humane Society. We would have drawn and painted some cats, but they had a lovely air-conditioned enclosure all to themselves and didn’t have enough space around them to house painters. The Humane Society has had the alligator for almost 10 years. She has her own generous space, complete with bamboo wall, a waterfall and her own splash pond. No wonder she’s always smiling! Two weeks ago, we visited Ports O’Call in San Pedro, near Long Beach. Cathy did a nice oil of an old boat house with a sail boat anchored nearby. I did a WC of an old kid’s merry-go-round. I concentrated on two goofy-looking pink and magenta rabbits with saddles on them. Our crit-master Walter laughed at my painting and remarked that I could do a merry-go-round anyplace, why didn’t I do a marine subject, since I was in San Pedro harbor? I replied that I suggested a cabin cruiser in the background, but I don’t think that satisfied Mr. McNall. On July 5th, Cathy was invited to be an “artist-in-residence” for an afternoon at the Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. She set up her easel right near the tea room and did a study of water lillies in oil. She based it on a beautiful smaller painting she did some time ago. She also displayed several of her recent paintings, a Flamenco dancer, the wildflowers in Borrego Springs. The hotel helped her get set-up, and I put down the tarp on the floor. It was a delightful afternoon, like being in an elegant salon with live piano music in the background, and brides, grooms and wedding guests filing past (there were about three weddings going on that day). No paintings sold, but Cathy wants to go back soon and paint in the Huntington again. The Huntington loves oil paintings, many old canvases adorn its walls. We loved being there.
A few weeks ago, I got the sad news that the Cartoon Brew Films website is being discontinued. I found out when I tried to log on, I was just directed back to the Cartoon Brew website. Brew Films was certainly a noble experiment in the marketing of new animated short subjects, Bert Klein and I were among the first to be on it. It seemed to get a lot of hits initially, but then interest tapered off. I was surprised that so few cartoon makers were using the site. Here was a chance to have new cartoon shorts on view to the public for only two dollars a download, how could it miss? The answer, You Tube and its many cousins offering loads of new “animated” shorts for free! I was hoping that “It’s ‘The Cat'” would have a chance to earn back some of its negative cost on Brew Films, but it wound up paying very little. The failure of Cartoon Brew Films means that the Internet has not yet found a way to market new short films in a way that returns any significant income to the creators. It is my fervent hope that some day there WILL be a way to bypass theaters and television and create an Internet cartoon theater that will be healthy both creatively and FINANCIALLY. Brew Films just wasn’t it. Right now, “It’s ‘The Cat'” does not have a home on the ‘net. Eventually, I would like to see it embedded in the www.itsthecat.com website, bracketed with ads for our merchandise. Maybe that time will be not too far away. For the present, however, the concept of the paying customer for new short cartoons on the Internet has proven a dead end. It was fun, and an honor to have “It’s ‘The Cat'” be part of the experiment. Thanks to Jerry and Amid for trying it. Thanks to all of you viewers who paid to see my little labor of love. Anybody want to invest in my next cartoon? I want to continue to make them and I could really use the help. Write me at molasses@earthlink.net.
Comics this week include page two of Cathy Hill’s “The Legend of Mangy”. I love the panel with Mangy’s BIG EYES and running off with an entire Thanksgiving dinner in her tiny mouth. This story means a lot to Cathy and me, we loved Mangy and enjoyed having her with us. The “Corporal Crock” story in L’IL ABNER concludes this week, it originally ran from April 30th through May 3rd, 1973. Bullmoose thaws out, and the FBI confiscates all the comic books! Abner won’t be back on the Catblog for awhile, look for a new feature starting soon! MARVELOUS MIKE continues the cat food campaign storyline, from August 6th through 11th, with August 8th missing. The Post-Dispatch failed to print the strip on that date, anybody got it? Felix the Cat by Jim Tyer ends the comics this week with the last two pages of “There Auto Be A Law”, from FELIX THE CAT #4. Next week, there will be the start of a “Rock and Rollo” story by Tyer, don’t miss it friends!
Mangy’s Origin Story
Hi Evvabody! Cathy and I are back from the San Clemente Plein Air Painting Event. It was very pleasant there, both for the weather and the many beautiful subjects for painting. We spent a couple of sessions at the Casa Romantica, which was the founder of San Clemente’s home in the 1920s. His name was Ole Hanson, a Swede who loved Spanish architecture. When he founded the town he created a city ordinance that restricted the style of building to Spanish. When he went broke in 1934, the city council changed that rule, but still the best and most beautiful buildings in town are all Spanish style. We actually got to paint INSIDE the Casa Romantica! Of course we had to put down tarps and make sure we stayed on them, but the view of the harbor and pier were nonpareil and the light in the spacious living room with its sunken tile fountain and arched doorways was gentle and lustrous. We enjoyed painting the reflections in the hardwood floor. On our last day, we came back and painted the front of the Casa from the parking lot. The entrance has a unique “keyhole” shaped doorway, and a lush rose garden on either side of the front door. You must come and visit, Ole would want it that way. On July 4th, they are having a gala celebration with the best view of fireworks in San Clemente.
The prizewinners in the Plein Air Competition were all very competent, but we liked our friend Ray Harris’s “Casa Romantica Interior” as well or better than any of them. He did a charming study of a museum lover examining some artifacts in the Casa’s anteroom. Ray made up the figure of a professorial type looking over some framed documents with indirect lighting. He got an honorable mention for his painting. Many fine painters were there, including Jason and Micheal Situ, Greg La Rock, Albert Tse and many others. It was a good way to escape the “triple digit” temperatures of the L.A. basin for awhile. Motels have gentrified quite a bit in San Clemente, it used to be 40 to 60 dollars for a room just a few years ago, now it’s 70 on the weekdays and close to 100 dollars on the weekends. A lot of artists just camp in their vans in the public parking lots all week, a practical approach to the high cost of motels. I’ve posted one of Cathy’s beautiful oils of the old Beachcomber Motel, a series of Spanish style bungalows overlooking the Pacific, with the Amtrak and Metrolink trains running between the motel and the sea. It’s a dream of ours to stay there some day, but at $200.00 plus a night, only a dream.
The comics this week are “The Legend of Mangy” from Cathy’s MAD RACCOONS comic book. She thought the readers might like to see how the character got started. This is not strictly new work, but it deserves reprinting. The story closely parallels the real Mangy’s life story, when we found her wandering through Cathy’s front yard in Sierra Madre and won her over with food. General Bullmoose tries cryogenics as a tactic in snagging Pappy Yokum’s copy of “Corporal Crock” #1 in this week’s strips from 4-23 to 4-28-1973. I wonder if Al Capp was thinking of all the rumors about how Walt Disney was supposed to have frozen himself, when he wrote this story? In MARVELOUS MIKE this week from 7-30 to 8-4-1956, Honeybear the cat eats like a horse and has some fillies, uh, kittens, much to Cliff Crump’s disgust. The charm of a bunch of cute kittens is lost on him. Also in the cat department, this is the Catblog after all, we have the next two pages of “There Auto Be A Law” from Felix #4. Tyer has a ball with the cop on page two, I love the cop’s enraged tantrum poses and his total collapse against the wall when Kitty double parks. I love being able to reprint these old comics, I hope you all enjoy them.
I got some response to the original Mangy comic I published a few weeks ago, this first is from my friend Milt Gray, who proposed I publish some new comics in the first place:
Congratulations to Cathy for her whimsical and stylish and observational comic strip, Mangy. I didn’t realize that you had already posted it, as I am often so focused on drawing my own cartoons that I sometimes procrastinate in surfing the Internet. I’m sorry that you haven’t gotten any comments yet, although people usually write only when they want to disagree about something. For the record, I wouldn’t describe myself as someone who is tired of the old classic comic strips — I love those strips, and I’m glad that you are making some of them accessible again. But I admit that I do advocate to my cartoonist friends that they should post their own work more, especially work that has never been publicly seen before. Hopefully that will attract an audience and we can begin to make at least modest livings (or better) from what we love. We should be promoting new talent — ourselves — at least as much as other people’s work from the past.
Best regards, Milt
Here are some words from Bill Warren on Cathy’s comic and other things:
Cathy drew a cartoon for me of our black cat Isadora (who tends to look a lot like Cathy’s drawings of Mangy) sort of haunted by images from 1950s science fiction movies. That led me to ask Cathy to do the covers for the initial two volumes of my huge survey of those movies, KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES. This was published in 1982 (vol 1) and 1984 (vol II), and were the first books from that company to have cover illustrations. I insisted on it, however, and included a frontispiece in one volume similar to the covers. Vol I covered 1950-1955; the front showed a little boy from behind watching a movie screen (or maybe the clouds of his imagination) illustrated with iconic images from that part of the 50s SF movies. Vol II covered 1950-1962 (they didn’t stop making 1950s-type SF movies when the calendar changed), so the boy (now taller) is seen watching images from that chronological period. Only time I’ve seen an illustration including a high of the Id Monster from FORBIDDEN PLANET and a goofy low of The Brain from Planet Arous. The first volume also had a similar frontispiece by Cathy, only the boy is seen from the front–and it’s me.
    I am just finishing a rewrite of the entire thing; it’s now about a quarter of a million words in length. And that’s before I do the index. Someone else is doing the covers–the publisher wants color this time–but I’ll be including all of Cathy’s illustrations as interiors. Along with some great semi-caricatures by Frank Dietz and a whole lot of photos.
   That Mangy and the Worm story reminded me of all this–no, this wasn’t just a blatant plug for myself–and that not long ago, someone discovered a black-and-white octopus in the waters just north of Australia that actually is an animal mimic. There were photos of it looking like an upright fish, like a flatfish (a skate or flounder or something) and other sea critters too. The world is full of wonders yet to be discovered.
Here’s another comment by Bill about Al Capp’s comics:
I still find 1950s Al Capp to be very funny, but the comic strip from that period that can still make me laugh about as much as I did when I first saw it is POGO.
   Of course, looking at it another way, PRISCILLA’S POP can still make me laugh about as much as it did originally–which was not at all.
Uh, oh! Now Al Vermeer’s fans are going to scream! Priscilla originally ran in newspapers from 1947 to 1983 outlasting Vermeer by a few months. The crictic Maurice Horn called “Prisilla’s Pop”, “impossibly sophomoric” and “trite”. Maybe I should reprint some of it!
My friend Larry Loc also wrote in: I did comment on Cathy’s page, (which I loved – more please) I just didn`t do so to you. I made my comment in the form of a blog posting telling people they really need to get over to you page and check out the cool stuff. I am very excited about your new animation. When can I see the pencil test work print? Here are my comments: http://www.agni-animation.com/blog/2008/06/mark-and-cathy-show.html Thanks Larry, to date, still no complete pencil test. I think we have one scene (#22) that is still unaccounted for. Maybe in a couple of weeks?
Remember, comments can be sent to molasses@earthlink.net.
Back to the “Old Stuff”
Whelp, I didn’t receive any comments on my wife’s “Mangy and the Worm” page. Those who wish to continue to see new or unpublished comics continue, please let me know at molasses@earthlink.net. Last Tuesday night, Jerry Beck did a show of “Pre-Code” (actually pre-code ENFORCEMENT) cartoons at the old Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax in West Hollywood. I hadn’t been in this picture palace for over 30 years! The current management, “Cinefamily” has re-done her inside and out, with a new marquee (see photos above), new Simplex and Elmo projectors in the booth (including a (gulp) digital projector), new photos on the wall, new popcorn machine, in summary, a nice place to watch old movies in. The theater seats about 100, in brand-new seats with cushions (!) and a couple of soft huge leather couches in front. A Hammond organ and a baby grand piano are on either side of the screen for the real silent movie evenings. The Silent Movie is now a rep house, that’s why we could run sound cartoons last Tues. We ran THE BEER PARADE, SOUTHERN EXPOSURE and BETTY BOOP’S PENTHOUSE in 35mm and several early 1930s cartoons in 16mm as well, such as ROOM RUNNERS, I’LL BE GLAD WHEN YOU’RE DEAD YOU RASCAL YOU, BOOP OOP A DOOP, PLANE DUMB, BIMBO’S INITIATION, SINKIN’ IN THE BATHTUB, YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOIN’ and finishing up with SWING WEDDING in color. There were so many people that they had to do a second show to accommodate the overflow crowd. The “overflows” had to wait more than two hours to see their show. The presentation was good, with good lumens and good sound. The audience reactions were very good, they laughed a lot,  applauded some of their favorite cartoons and didn’t gasp and cry at some of the racial sterotypes and comedy, like some contemporary audiences will do. Maybe the Silent Movie will host another cartoon program sometime featuring (maybe) SILENT CARTOONS! I think a good program could be created showing the influence of silent comedy on the animated cartoon, both silent and sound. Think about that, Jerry! (By the way, that’s J. Beck himself in the photo up there with the projectionist cutting 16mm reels together.) The Silent has come a long way since the hard wooden bleachers and the one old 16mm projector (under-lit) that I remember. It’s wonderful that the Cinefamily people have chosen to renovate the Silent Movie, rather than sell it for Condos. Come out and support them if you’re local!
This week’s comics are L’il Abner from 4/16/1973 to 4/21. Barney Oldgoat dies from too much partying, but reveals to Bullmoose that Pappy Yokum owns a copy of “Corporal Crock” number one! Wait ’til you see the General’s reaction to that! In MARVELOUS MIKE, from 7/23/1956 to 7/28, Mike and Merrie foil the “Adoption Racketeers”. I wonder if there really were such operators in the mid-1950s, anybody know? To finish up, we have the next two pages of “There Auto Be A Law” from Felix #4 by Jim Tyer. The jokes about women drivers seem lifted from Cap. Billy’s Whiz Bang, but the drawings are very funny. I love the splash panel with Kitty’s car chasing dogs, funny chickens and running pedestrians up a telephone pole. This story reminds me of the Popeye cartoon, “Women Hadn’t Oughta Drive”, which I believe Tyer DIDN’T work on. I’m posting early because Cathy and I will be plein air painting a lot next week in San Clemente and I won’t have time to blog. She has a “quick draw” (actually a quick PAINT) to do on Saturday the 14th, for which she is already keyed up. I love the ocean and am looking forward to being with her in the lovely town of San Clemente, near San Juan Capistrano. I’ll be bringing you more material both old and new (?) soon!Â
The Return of Mangy
Hi Readers! Cathy and I had a wonderful time on Catalina Island, painting the Casino, the Fish Shack, the Via Casino archway, cruise ships and cabin cruisers. A friendly seagull was attracted to the red oil paint on Cathy’s pallette and tried to eat it! All he got was a beak full of red paint. Jason Situ, the famous Chinese landscape painter was there, he went up on Wrigley Road, looked down on the bay and did some aerial studies. Of course, Walter and Martha McNall were there along with about 10 members of our Thursday Painting group. Weather was great, although Cathy and I nearly froze when an unexpected sea breeze came along one day and caught us without our coats! We hope to come back to Catalina in the fall, you can’t do too many paintings of the island.
“There Must Be Some Other Cat” (my next cartoon short) now has a completed film pencil test, up through Sc. 26! Greg Ford has been slaving away at Larry Q’s 35mm film test camera and figured out all my wonky pan mechanics, translating them into his own math. The results look good, now I have the last third of the cartoon in test form spliced together! We should have a completed test with sound ready very soon. I don’t expect any of you readers to get as excited about this as I am, but it’s been quite a long time getting to this point, so pardon my enthusiasm!
A reader of this blog, Milton Gray, animator and cartoon historian, likes my efforts, but is tired of reading all the old comics I reprint here. He wants to see NEW comics! I don’t draw many comics personally, although that could change. My wife, Cathy Hill, drew a comic book for Mu Press called “Mad Raccoons”. It lasted seven issues, many of which are still available through Mu, go to www.mupress.com/catalogpg08.html to see the covers and order them! Cathy did enough material to fill at least one more issue. She has kindly consented to let me publish these pages for the first time here! I’m starting with a one-page story with her cat character, Mangy. Mangy was a real black cat that Cathy rescued from the Sierra Madre wilds. She had a bad case of mange on her back, which we cured with some topical ointment that smelled like barbecue sauce! We both adored her, Mangy became a loving member of the family, she let Cathy carry her around like a portfolio! The real Mangy is now playing by the Rainbow Bridge, but she lives on in comics. If you wish to comment on Mangy or anything here, write molasses@earthlink.net.
In the old comics this week, (L’il Abner, 4/9 to 4/14/73) Bullmoose hires Barney Oldgoat, the cartoonist who created “Corporal Crock” to re-create the first issue! Barney seems to be another sly slam at Ham Fisher, but that’s just a guess. Mike Fontanelli is enjoying “Corporal Crock”:
…Still laughing over the 1973 “Corporal Crock†strips!  They’re hilarious, thanks for posting them – I’d never seen them before.  LI’L ABNER is the only comic strip that can still make me laugh out loud after all these years. The Bullmoose stories are proof positive that Capp was an equal opportunity satirist – he let both sides have it, with relish!  I wonder why more people don’t remember that, or pretend not to remember it?
  “Corporal Crock†flies in the face of the many, many Capp detractors who claim ABNER degenerated into a rightwing political screed after 1965.  Capp continues to get a raw deal, almost three decades after his death. Â
BTW, I’m currently finishing the last of the Al Capp essays for ASIFA, (there are 12 in all, plus a bibliography/checklist.) Â
There’s a late chapter titled “MAD CAPP: Li’l Abner In The Sixties,†in which I reference the Joanie Phoanie continuity, which to my knowledge has never been reprinted before you posted them last month.  Thanks again for that.
  I make the point that Joan Baez herself forgave Capp decades ago, as she made clear in her memoirs from 1989.  Why can’t Capp’s critics let it go already?  That grudge has got whiskers, for chrissakes!
Make sure you go over to the ASIFA archives website and read Mike’s Capp pages, you’ll be glad you did, www.animationarchive.org/ . By the way, remember to click on the small comic images above, to see them at full size.
Bill Warren wrote that Corporal Crock looks like a caricature of Jack Webb to him. This could be, or maybe the stone face is a characteristic shared by both Webb and Crock. Also this week we have Marvelous Mike from 7/16 to 7/21/56; Mike and Merrie join forces to foil his phony “parents”.
“A Sample Assignment” from Felix #4 concludes and “There Auto Be A Law” commences. I love that spring neck “take” that Jim Tyer used in the last page of “A Sample Assignment”. It reminds me of Bosko’s spring neck in “Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid”, Tyer was using 1920s style cartoon iconography in the 1960s and making it look contemporary! I love how he draws Kitty in the “Auto” story, she has such trim little ankles, and a beauty mark! Come back next week for more ancient panels, and maybe we will have some more unpublished pages from “Mad Raccoons” as well!
For Your Reading Pleasure
October 8, 2008
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Mark
Hi Reader(s), in this crazy world it’s hard to tell if we will be with each other from one week to the next, so without further adieu, here are this week’s comics!
The final page of the final published Mangy story: “Mangy’s Stormy Night”, from Mad Raccoons #7 leads off. Mangy was only trying to warn Virgil about his leaky roof. I love Cathy’s drawings of Mangy, especially the sleeping pose on the bed in the last panel. This will be the last appearance of Mangy in this blog, unless I can talk Cathy into doing more.
Marvelous Mike this week is from 10/22-10/29/1956 and features Cliff Crump’s old school chum, Edgar Fencemetal. I wonder if Bob Kuwahara came up with all the names for his characters himself? Fencemetal has a product for Mr. Kimball, Cliff’s boss, to market, and Edgar moves right in on the Crump’s, much to Liz’s disgust.
Krazy Kat (from 3/13-3/18/1939) is a story based on the old saying: “A Cat May Look At A King”, except in this case it’s a Queen Bee that’s the recipient of all the ogling. 3-16 is especially interesting, as Krazy’s gender is called into question by Ignatz.
From Dell Felix #8 we have the final page of “Looks Are Deceiving” by Jim Tyer. Felix slammed Pussyfoot with a Judo manoeuver. This is the last Felix page that Jim Tyer ever drew, as far as I know, by Felix #9, he was out of the book, never to return. Tyer did do one last story in #8, however, featuring Rock and Rollo. It’s called “Too Much Energy”, and is a drug story featuring a new character called “Professor Sauerkraut”, a funny design drawn in Tyer’s “modern but ancient” style. See more of Rock’s antics next week!
Comments may be made right below, or write to me at blogmolasses@att.net.