Tyer Felix!
The Joe Oriolo Felix the Cat TV cartoons from the early 60s are pretty difficult to sit through. Slow, stiltled dialog, lots of stock actions, and Felix himself sounds and acts a lot like Mickey. The Professor and Rock Bottom are the real stars of the series. Jack Mercer’s vocal diversity is impressive, he sounds so different as each one of the characters, I like the Professor’s voice best. It’s gravelly and sounds a bit sophisticated and stuffy. The episodes that Jim Tyer drew are the most fun to watch today. It’s a hoot to look at the crazy eyes he drew on the Prof. and Rock, and the stretch inbetweens he used to shoot the characters across the backgrounds. Tyer did a lot of special tricks, for instance when a character like the Prof. is falling through the air and hits earth, Tyer animates about 24 frames of a shadow getting larger on the ground, then Tyer exposes one frame of the Prof. squashed down in the contact position and pops if off BEFORE the rest of the falling action happens! You would think this would confuse the viewer, but it works very well, sort of a pre-image that underscores the rest of the action. Here’s a few frame grabs of Tyer’s silly drawings for Felix. He also drew many of the Dell, Toby and  Harvey Felix comics in the 40s-60s.
Chris says:
Can you list the titles of the episodes that Jim Tyer worked on during this period? Thanks.
Mark Kausler says:
You’re Durn Tootin! Just don’t make fun of me, here they are:
*Exceptional quality, most funny
Felix Out West (most scenes except stock)
Felix the Cat Suit *
Do-it-yourself Monster Book
His Gold Mine (first half)
The Gold Fruit Tree *
Venus and the Master Cylinder
Moo Moo Island Oysters
King Neptune’s S.O.S. *
The Rajah’s Elephants
The Exchanging Machine *
The Leprechaun *
The Professor’s Committed No Crime! *
Martin the Martian Meets Felix the Cat *
“The Little Cloud and Mount Boom Boom” (my name for episode)
The Professor’s Instant Changer *
The Leprechaun’s Gold
Oysters and Starfishes *
“Nothing Like Relaxing on a Sunday Morning” (my name for episode)
Stairway to the Stars
There may be others, but I don’t have notes on them. Thanks for commenting!
Chris says:
Thanks a bunch!!! One more request, can you list the issue numbers of the comics Tyer drew?