Thanksgiving Leftovers
A few Thanksgiving leftovers this time around. I found a few articles in the Los Angeles Examiner which were illustrated by Webb Smith, the creator of the “flypaper sequence” first used in the Mickey Mouse cartoon “Playful Pluto”. This sequence became the template for Disney frustration comedy for a long time after it was created, for it allowed the protagonist (in this case Pluto) to pause long enough in the action of getting stuck in something (flypaper) to register thinking and emotions to the audience, usually by a camera look. The sequence was animated by Norm Ferguson, who brought all the thinking in Smith’s sketches to life on the screen.  Practically every Pluto cartoon thereafter had elements of the “stuck-in something” formula, and of course it worked especially well when used with a low-boiling point personality like Donald Duck. Webb Smith was referred to as a “cracking-good cartoonist” by Walt Disney in his daughter Diane’s book, and here is a column of his illustrations for an article which originally ran on 4/11/26.
Felix this time is from 7/13 to 7/19/36 with the 7/5/36 Sunday page thown in. Felix is paired with Snobbs the butler this week in babysitting gags. Snobbs has to take care of Mrs. Boo’s baby, much against his will. I love the sleeping Felix in the baby’s crib in the 7/14. Felix at this time is a true “humourous continuity”, so the effort to supply the missing strips is really paying off.
Krazy Kat starts the 1940 dailies this time, from 1/1 to 1/6/1940. Mostly one off gags here, the 1/1 is the most obscure. Ignatz hides his head like an ostrich and Offissa Pupp puts him in jail, earth and all. I love Pupp’s gleeful expression as Ignatz gets the brick in the 1/4.
From the generous Cole Johnson comes one of the Missing Marvelous Mikes, the episode of 9/9/1957 which was preempted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper strike. What beautiful quality!
Cathy and I stayed in the little town of Tehachapi over Thanksgiving this year. What a town for rail fans with the 122 year old Tehachapi Loop still functioning. We watched a 122 car freight train making the circuit. It was so long a train that it doubled up on itself as it went around the loop. If you visit the town of Tehachapi, the “Loop” is actually nearer to the town of Keene, about 12 miles from Tehachapi. The old downtown has a lot of model train stores and old coffee shops and motels. We found a lot of charming farms and countryside to paint as we travelled about. If you go, prepare for a slower, more relaxed pace with plenty of friendly people. By the way, look at how green the landscape was in the postcard, and how brown it is in our photos. The effects of long-term drought!
Steve Cottle says:
Hello, Mr ilovecomix here. I was wondering if you would be willing to contribute any of your comic scans to my ilovecomix archive site. I love old comic strips and want to preserver them for the next generation to enjoy them. -Steve Cottle / Mr ilovecomix http://ilovecomix.smugmug.com
Charles Brubaker says:
Nice to see some Mike strips in good quality.
Seeing them in clearer quality, I can see some resemblance in the strip’s style to Bob’s Terrytoons character Hashimoto, bulk of which he wrote and directed (and even animated).
Terry Guy says:
Hello Mark,
I treated myself to a Thanksgiving weekend stay in Mojave, for its proximity to the Loop, a number of years ago. One of the most stress-free Thanksgivings I ever had! Anyway, I’m writing in hopes that you can answer a question for me… I’ve developed this folklore in my head that Chuck Jones’ Tower 12 Productions was so named partly because it was in the tall skinny building on the southeast corner of Sunset and Vine that stood skeletal for many years after a fire and recently reopened after much refurbishment. Can you tell me if my sense of this is correct or way off base? Digging around on the Web hasn’t provided me any clarity on this, so I was wondering if you could shed any light on the Tower 12 name.
Anyway, thanks for all the work posting the great comics on your blog and also contributing to the Animation Tuesdays at the Silent Movie Theater, and best wishes for the rapidly aging year 2010!
Terry G.