Click the above image to read the current strip.

Confused? Read this. Get more confused.

See the Soapy the Chicken archive here. Get downright perplexed.

Subscribe to the Chicken Feed. Understand less on a sometimes regular basis.

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEMS: Here’s a rare Harvey Kurtzman comic on Marlon Brando from Esquire courtesy of Those Fabuleous Fifties…

Another brilliant Jim Woodring Frank image…

And Herriman Saturday at Allan Holtz’s Stripper’s Guide…

• IDYL
  from The Woodring Monitor
• Passing the law courts today I noticed that somebody…
  from The Fate of the Artist
• Comic Cuts
  from Yesterday’s Papers
• XKCD’s log-scale map of the observable universe
  from Boing Boing
• Stellar! Monday cartoon Day.
  from Those Fabuleous Fifties
• Herriman Saturday
  from Stripper’s Guide
• Freckles - 02/21/1945
  from I Love Comix - Freckles and Friends
• Mazie in “Look Who’s Talkin”
  from The Comic Book Catacombs
• Little Nemo 1913-09-14
  from Comic Strip Library News
• *Star Spangled War Stories* 202 issues ~ #3 (Nov/1952)
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• *Our Fighting Forces* 181 issues ~ #1 (Oct-Nov/1954)
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• Just More Needles in the Camel’s Eye…
  from datajunkie
• *G. I. Combat* 245 issues ~ #44 (#1 - Jan/1957)
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• *All American Men of War* 116 issues ~ #2 (Jan/1952)
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• *DC’S BIG FIVE* *All-American Men of War, G.I. Combat,…
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• The Raven, by Richard Corben
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Election Games
  from ThadBlog
• Jim Ivey’s Sunday Comics
  from Stripper’s Guide
• Jigger, Mooch and “food that don’t fight back:”
  from Stanley Stories
• Golden Age Hawkman: Fun with racism
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• The Scarab: The Four Theives of Am-Re!
  from Nedor-A-Day
• Kurtzman Linings Saturday Leftover Day.
  from Those Fabuleous Fifties
• The Secret of the Moaning Ghosts
  from THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
• Number 386 Werewolf Hunter/Ghost Gallery
  from Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine
• Big Bad Week- Act I
  from Classic Cartoons
• ONE LOVELY DRAWING, part 22
  from ILLUSTRATION ART
• Freckles - 02/22/1945
  from I Love Comix - Freckles and Friends
• Sex, sexy, sexist
  from Hairy Green Eyeball
• more “Dunc ‘n’ Loo” for yoo!
  from Stanley Stories
• Beating Up Father (MAD#17)
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• The Odd Fellow
  from Yesterday’s Papers
• Little Nemo 1913-09-21
  from Comic Strip Library News
• Port of Terror!
  from THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
• Nickie Norton of the Secret Service: Shocking News!
  from Nedor-A-Day
• Re-Run: Great American Comics Present The Secret Voice
  from Geeklog Site
• The Skyman
  from Fortress Of Fortitude
• Number 387 Let’s have a cheer for ol’ P.U.
  from Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine
• Really useful Tattoos
  from Mattias Inks
• More Jack Davis on record
  from Hairy Green Eyeball
• Obscurity of the Day: Van Boring
  from Stripper’s Guide
• Freckles - 02/23/1945
  from I Love Comix - Freckles and Friends
• Big Bad Week- Act II
  from Classic Cartoons
• DEAR LONELY HEARTS 6 [Re-Post]
  from datajunkie
• Poor Hearing
  from Introspective Comics
• 3 friends
  from Mattias Inks
• The Art of Romance, Chapter 10, The Peak of the Love Glut
  from Simon and Kirby - Jack Kirby Museum & Resear
• Illustration: Autumn (AKA fall in North American English)
  from Martin Klasch
• Spidey Super Stories #33: “Here Comes the Kangaroo!”
  from scans_daily: Bringing the crack since December 2
• Little Nemo 1913-08-31
  from Comic Strip Library News
• The Origin of Tygra of the Flame People
  from Nedor-A-Day
• The Nightmare Monster!
  from THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
• Wash Tubbs 1934
  from Sekvenskonst
• March 30, 1940
  from Sekvenskonst
• Ignatz Mexico 1916
  from Sekvenskonst
• Bob Lubbers - Long Sam
  from Sekvenskonst
• Bob Lubbers - Tarzan
  from Sekvenskonst
• More Baba
  from Sekvenskonst
• The Cowan Collection
  from Sekvenskonst
• Spirou by Danier
  from Sekvenskonst
• Gottfredson 1968
  from Sekvenskonst
• Kelly’s Mother Goose Pt. I
  from Sekvenskonst
• Kelly’s Mother Goose Pt. II
  from Sekvenskonst
• THM Pt. III
  from Sekvenskonst
• THM Pt. IV
  from Sekvenskonst
• Snuffys giraffe
  from Sekvenskonst
• Mystery Disney script
  from Sekvenskonst
• Polly and her pals
  from Sekvenskonst
• The Blue Kid’s Hicky Wicky Adventure, part 1
  from Top Shelf 2.0 Webcomics
• Martin Sutovec
  from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog
• Chocolate Cheeks for 9/26/08
  from FLOG! Entries
• “Weekends With Carl” Mini-Poster
  from Introspective Comics
• The Inkstuds of Pussy Rock
  from FLOG! Entries

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM: In his Pop! column, George Khoury at Comic Book Resources brings us a couple true tales of kids who ordered monkeys out of the backs of comic books. Yes, that’s right kids, for less than 20 smackers, and as recently as in the early seventies, you could buy an actual live monkey from the back of a comic book, shipped in a box to your door half-crazed and covered in its own shit. Amazingly, this went on for years. I wonder how many of these were shipped to the wrong addresses. Click the image below to read the story.

• Minnesota Hot Ink
  from FLOG! Entries
• Nicolas Bentley illustrations web round-up
  from I’m Learning To Share!
• 50s Woody, Conservative Control and Style
  from John K Stuff
• The Wolf Enters
  from Michael Sporn Animation - Splog
• Top Calypsonians
  from Schadenfreudian Therapy
• The photorealist style of daily strips
  from The Fate of the Artist
• Pop!
  from CBR Columns
• Who Discovered The Bonobo?
  from Cryptomundo
• Hokum Music
  from Little Hokum Rag
• Cartoon Brew TV #3: Dinner Time by Paul Terry and John Foster
  from Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation
• MOVE OVER GODZILLA….
  from Gorilla Men
• 20th Anniversary of FallCon
  from The Daily Cross Hatch
• A Moment Of Gorilla Run 2008 Zen…
  from Monkeys In The News
• DKNY:2089
  from PULPHOPE
• Nepal Horse Book
  from BibliOdyssey
• Paul Newman
  from news from me
• Company will apply green spraypaint to dead brown lawns of foreclosed homes
  from Boing Boing
• Today’s Video Link
  from news from me
• FFF Results Post #135 — Powers
  from CR Briefings
• 1963 novelty song “The Martian Hop,” by the Ran-Dells
  from Boing Boing
• Comics Reporter: The 50 Things That Every Comics Collection Truly Needs
  from Boing Boing
• On The Passing Of Raymond Macherot
  from CR Briefings
• Open Rights Group call for photos on Britain’s march into the surveillance society
  from Boing Boing
• Vintage Poison Labels
  from Boing Boing
• Ponoko’s Photomake Turns Your Drawings Into Objects
  from Boing Boing
• Marry me or pay the mortgage!
  from Hairy Green Eyeball
• Filmography: The Wan Brothers’ Monkey King Features
  from ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
• *N. C. Wyeth* 1882 ~ 1945
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• Arthur Radebaugh
  from Goofbutton
• Dorothy Lathrop 1891 ~ 1981
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• Melody Board 1 - pt.1
  from Michael Sporn Animation - Splog
• Zander’s Tips for 24-Hour Comic Day
  from Big Time Attic
• Sept. 29, 2008: Pictures of gay people naked together
  from Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal
• Orphan Works Bill passes Senate by Hotlining
  from CONSPIRE!
• FallCon is right around the Corner!
  from bewilderedkid.com
• GHOSTBUSTIN’ GORILLA
  from Gorilla Men
• I had that situation last night when you’ve woken…
  from The Fate of the Artist
• Insincerely Flattered.
  from FLOG! Entries
• Lobster King
  from Schadenfreudian Therapy
• Guide to Pimping the Conspiracy at Fallcon
  from CONSPIRE!
• Disturbing animation against global warming
  from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog
• Rare Cartoon Alert: Revver.com
  from Misce-Looney-ous
• Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection — only people who pay for music risk losing it to DRM shenanigans
  from Boing Boing
• HOT INK: Comic Art in Minnesota
  from CONSPIRE!
• McKinney wins Debate, Nader close second
  from Green Party Watch
• The Comics Journal Message Board :: View topic - Popeye Books Question for the Editors!
  from The Comics Journal Message Board
• The Comics Journal Message Board :: View topic - Wash Tubbs and Prince Valiant
  from The Comics Journal Message Board
• Carl Barks
  from Sekvenskonst
• More on the Barks plot
  from Sekvenskonst
• Semic archive Pt. I
  from Sekvenskonst
• Semic archive Pt. II
  from Sekvenskonst
• Semic archive Pt. III
  from Sekvenskonst
• Centralateljen’s archive
  from Sekvenskonst
• Asterix by Jippes
  from Sekvenskonst
• The Business of Cartooning Pt.I
  from Sekvenskonst
• The Business of Cartooning Pt.II
  from Sekvenskonst
• The Business of Cartooning Pt.III
  from Sekvenskonst
• The Business of Cartooning Pt.IV
  from Sekvenskonst
• Pen and Ink #2, Part I
  from Sekvenskonst
• Pen and Ink #2, Part II
  from Sekvenskonst
• Pen and Ink #2, Part III
  from Sekvenskonst
• Pen and Ink #2, Part IV
  from Sekvenskonst
• Pen and Ink #2, Part V
  from Sekvenskonst
• MM in Death Valley
  from Sekvenskonst
• THM Pt. VI
  from Sekvenskonst
• Uncle Scrooge 64
  from Sekvenskonst
• Gradients and coloring
  from Sekvenskonst
• Jungle Love
  from Sekvenskonst
• ‘Beto’s Homer
  from FLOG! Entries
• Hot Ink Opening Party — One Week from Right Now!
  from Big Time Attic
• Muscles & FRIGHTS now available!
  from Muscles and Fights
• Polar Trappers (1938)
  from Saturday Morning Blog
• Room and Bored (1943)
  from Saturday Morning Blog
• THINKING ABOUT GEORGE HERRIMAN
  from UNCLE EDDIE’S THEORY CORNER!
• Uranium Blues (1956)
  from Saturday Morning Blog
• Inspiration.
  from FLOG! Entries
• Interview with Miss Piggy’s creator
  from Boing Boing
• Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed
  from Comic Book Resources
• There Are Officially Way Too Many Awesome Comics Published Right Now
  from CR Briefings
• Raymond Macherot, 1934-2008
  from CR Briefings
• Knight’s Tournament Book
  from BibliOdyssey
• Superjail Super Interview
  from Cold Hard Flash: Flash Animation News

In eager anticipation of Halloween, here is a directory of the vintage spooky cartoons that have been compiled on this site so far. I’m going to be adding a lot more over the next month or so, so please do check back. Please note that you can subscribe to this site here to keep up with the latest posts.

Here’s an example I scanned of The Strange Adventures of Pussy Pumpkin by Grace G. Wiederseim/Drayton from 1903.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read Turr’ble Tales of Kaptain Kiddo by Grace Drayton at Barnacle Press.

Click here to read an example of Grace Drayton’s The Eternal Feminine at The Stripper’s Guide.

Click here to read about Grace Drayton at lambiek.net.

Read a short biography of Grace Drayton here.

Read an article on Grace Drayton here.

TODAY’S FEATURED LINKS:

Good golly I love the work of Jim Woodring… he is one of my all time favorite artists. Click the below brand new image from his blog to go see it in spectacular full size, and then check out the rest of his eye candy. Note that Mr. Woodring has a new book he has made with author Paul Di Filippo coming out imminently called COSMOCOPIA that will be limited to 500 copies, and includes a jigsaw puzzle. $50, but I imagine they will go pretty fast.

Swedish illustrator Mattias Adolfsson has been posting images from his sketchbook for a long time, and they are always absolutely spectacular. His buildings remind me of early R. Crumb crossed with Dr. Seuss. Fantastic stuff… click one of his latest images below to go check out his blog.

Those Fabuleous Fifties brings us a beautiful silent Walt Kelly kids comic strip from Animal Comics #22. Once again I plead into the void… PLEASE, someone out there reprint all the Kelly kids comics! If a book like this was well-designed and aimed at the kids market rather than the comic collectors’ market, I think it would clean up. Click the image below to go there.

Finally, Allan Holtz at The Stripper’s Guide gives us two examples of H.E. Godwin’s Crazy Charlie. Click the image below to go there.

• I HAD A DREAM… OF PERFIDY!
  from The Woodring Monitor
• chocolate cheeks
  from CHEWING GUM IN CHURCH
• Witch Woman
  from THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
• *a couple of wild stories by the great* Fred Guardineer
  from Golden Age Comic Book Stories
• Freckles - 02/20/1945
  from I Love Comix - Freckles and Friends
• Fun and Elephants Friday Comic Book Day.
  from Those Fabuleous Fifties
• Prototype For Brain Police
  from The Canada Council For The Arts MARC BELL Dept
• Statler & Waldorf Op Ed in New York Times
  from Mike Lynch Cartoons
• “Hucky” Duck in The Contest
  from Nedor-A-Day
• King Aroo by Jack Kent
  from Beautiful Balloons with Maggie Thompson
• Heavy Metal Heart, part 2
  from Top Shelf 2.0 Webcomics
• Little Nemo 1913-08-24
  from Comic Strip Library News
• It Happened In Never-Never Land
  from Fortress Of Fortitude
• Number 385 “You’re big…and ugly…and crude…but…
  from Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine
• Obscurity of the Day: Crazy Charlie
  from Stripper’s Guide
• Beast of burden
  from Mattias Inks
• Two Frightened People
  from THE HORRORS OF IT ALL
• Comic Strip Ads - Delight of the Morons
  from Today’s Inspiration
• Comic Strip Ads: Something for Everyone?
  from Today’s Inspiration
• Comic Strip Ad Artist Tom Scheuer
  from Today’s Inspiration
• The Bu$ine$$ of Illu$tration: Feature Syndicates
  from Today’s Inspiration
• The Destructor
  from Fortress Of Fortitude

Summertime is one of the weaker Ub Iwerks ComiColor cartoons, in my opinion, but it features the return of Old Man Winter, who was in the cartoon Jack Frost that I posted the other day. It was definitely influenced by the Disney series of season-based Silly Symphonies… because Iwerks directed Springtime (1929) Summer (1930), and Autumn (1930) for them. It also features a very racy scene for the time of silhouettes of trees turning into silhouettes of rotoscoped dancing ladies. In spite of some very good moments, this cartoon is greatly weakened by having only one design for a centaur, and reusing the animation of him relentlessly.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database.

This cartoon, along with almost all of Ub Iwerks cartoons made for his own studio, are available on the excellent DVDs The Cartoons that time Forgot Volume One and Volume Two. This cartoon is on Volume 1.

TODAY’S FEATURED LINK:
Drawn! points us to LINGO, an amusing looking take on the game BINGO by illustrator Bob Staake designed to deflect some of the pain of watching this season’s presidental debates. Print them out if you’re the sort of masochist inclined to put yourself through watching presidential debates.

• Britain will make foreigners carry RFID identity cards and will put us in a huge, Orwellian database: the rest of Britain will be next
  from Boing Boing
• VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED FOR FALLCON 2008!
  from CONSPIRE!
• KILLER GORILLA DRAG QUEEN
  from Gorilla Men
• Grandpa’s Picture Party
  from PCL LinkDump
• Play Presidential Debate LINGO
  from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog
• Mysterious Cottingley Fairies
  from Little Hokum Rag
• Peter Bagge and Eric Reynolds
  from Inkstuds
• Django Reinhardt-51-60
  from Internet Archive - Collection: 78rpm
• All Small
  from Read Comics
• Oh Brother! Fun with blue-lined Kirby pencils.
  from Scary Terry’s World
• Bonus Ads
  from The Comic Book Catacombs
• l slight change to the ilovecomix blog…
  from I Love Comix
• Immortal McHorror burger is 12 years old, looks just like new
  from Boing Boing
• Heart transplantee visits her old heart in a museum
  from Boing Boing
• Sept. 26, 2008: A nice, quiet Friday
  from Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal
• Taken For A Ride Pt.4
  from Uncle John’s Crazy Town
• Biography: John K on Flintstones Animators
  from ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
• Why can’t America call its torture *torture*?
  from Boing Boing
• Inspiration.
  from FLOG! Entries
• The Monkey Sculptures of Mitsy Groenendijk
  from Genius Chimp
• Expert Says, Chimp Jokes Not Funny
  from Genius Chimp
• Monkey From Mars
  from Genius Chimp
• Monkey and Bulldogs Play Cards - Postcard
  from Genius Chimp
• Secret Gorilla Paradise Found
  from Genius Chimp
• Sgt Gorilla
  from Genius Chimp
• Man Confronted By Ape In Zoo Parking Lot
  from Genius Chimp
• Soviet Women Volunteer to Carry Half Ape Baby
  from Genius Chimp
• Jerry Lewis Featuring King Klonk the Killer Gorilla!
  from Genius Chimp
• Interpretations of the Monkey King
  from Genius Chimp
• Chimp Loves Dog, Rege and Nzee
  from Genius Chimp
• Mystery In Space - Monkey Rocket to Mars
  from Genius Chimp
• Strange Adventures - My Mind Is Imprisoned Within the Body of a Gorilla
  from Genius Chimp
• Chimp in Glasses Smoking Pipe
  from Genius Chimp
• Stolen Robot Gorilla Returned With Head Severed
  from Genius Chimp
• Jack - The Baboon Who Worked for the Railroad and was Paid in Rum
  from Genius Chimp
• Japan Attacked by Packs of Roaming Monkeys
  from Genius Chimp
• Nearly Anonymous: The Cartoonist Illustrators
  from Today’s Inspiration
• Video: Dr. Seuss Documentary
  from Mike Lynch Cartoons
• VIDEO: “Monkey Island” Made by Scientists
  from National Geographic News
• Nerdbots
  from Coudal Partners Blended Feed
• Awesome personal library
  from Kilgarlin Center Denizens
• Experts Say Missing Moe Likely Dead
  from Monkeys In The News
• MySpace Helped Catch Suspected Monkey Thief
  from Monkeys In The News
• This BUD’s for You!
  from Lonny Unitus :: News
• Sept. 25, 2008: Where the gravestones never cease
  from Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal

Here’s an example I scanned of The Strange Adventures of Pussy Pumpkin by Grace G. Wiederseim, aka Grace Drayton, the creator of the Campbell’s Soup Kids, from 1903.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read Turr’ble Tales of Kaptain Kiddo by Grace Drayton at Barnacle Press.

Click here to read an example of Grace Drayton’s The Eternal Feminine at The Stripper’s Guide.

Click here to read about Grace Drayton at lambiek.net.

Read a short biography of Grace Drayton here.

Read an article on Grace Drayton here.