Author Archives: STWALLSKULL

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Learn more about Stwallskull here: http://www.stwallskull.com/blog/?page_id=2

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Jim Woodring, Mattias Adolfsson, Walt Kelly and Crazy Charlie : September 26th, 2008

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STWALLSKULL'S HEY! KIDS! COMICS!

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.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Summertime (1935)

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THE CARTOON CRYPT

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.

INTERESTING LINKS: Bob Staake’s LINGO: September 26th, 2008

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STWALLSKULL'S INTERESTING LINKS

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.

CRUMBLING PAPER: The Strange Adventures of Pussy Pumpkin (strip #1)

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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.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Salesman Sam by C.D. Small, Milt Gross, Old Manga, In This Corner by David Steinlicht and Mrs. Bumps by Dwig : September 25th, 2008

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STWALLSKULL'S HEY! KIDS! COMICS!

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEMS: The Marc Deckter challenge is over at the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive, but they have a bonus day today… a generous helping of the very inspiring Salesman Sam by C.D. Small and more Milt Gross (plus a Chic Young Blondie Sunday)! Boy, I’d like to see a book of those Salesman Sam strips. Click the image below to go there.

Salesman Sam by C.D. Small

My friend David Steinlicht‘s weekly In This Corner comic is one of my favorite things on the web (it also appears in the St. Paul Pioneer Press print edition every Thursday)… click the below image for his latest.

In This Corner by David Steinlicht

Shaenon Garrity brings us a bunch of pages of beautiful, obscure and forgotten manga in two different posts here and here.

Obscure old manga

Finally, The Stripper’s Guide brings us a lovely example of Mrs. Bumps’ Boarding House by Dwig. Click the below image to view it.

Mrs. Bumps' Boarding House

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Everready Harton in Buried Treasure (1929)

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I recently saw this cartoon on The Panopticist via Boing Boing. It is likely to be the first pornographic animated cartoon, and it is a doozy… boy is it funny.

Read more about this cartoon at The Panopticist. There they quote Wikipedia quoting Ward Kimball…

The Wikipedia page includes this backstory quote from Disney animator Ward Kimball: “The first porno-cartoon was made in New York. It was called ‘Eveready Harton’ and was made in the late 20’s, silent, of course—by three studios. Each one did a section of it without telling the other studios what they were doing. Studio A finished the first part and gave the last drawing to Studio B. … Involved were Max Fleischer, Paul Terry and the Mutt and Jeff studio. … A couple of guys who were there [at the party] tell me the laughter almost blew the top off the hotel where they were screening it.”

WARNING: This is a hilariously pornographic cartoon. If smut offends you, you may not want to view it. If you are under the age of 18, don’t watch it until you are, because you could probably get me in trouble, you naughty little imps.

INTERESTING LINKS: Strongbad’s 200th Email: September 25th, 2008

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STWALLSKULL'S INTERESTING LINKS

Congratulations to Strongbad on answering his 200th email. Click the above image to view #200. Thanks to Metafilter for bringing this to my attention.

CRUMBLING PAPER: The Prodigal Son

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Here’s an example I scanned of The Prodigal Son by Gene Carr (best known for Lady Bountiful). Interesting how it is broken into two parts, one on the right and one on the left… it would seem this strip could have been the inspiration for Goofus and Gallant. Unfortunately, it is missing the bottom half of the strip… if anyone wants to draw the imagined conclusion to this, I will gladly post it.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read examples of Home Sweet Home by Gene Carr at Barnacle Press.

Click here to read some miscellaneous Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sundays by Gene Carr (and others) at Barnacle Press.

Click here to read examples of Just Humans by Gene Carr at The Stripper’s Guide.

Go here to read an example of Gene Carr’s Mr. Always Wright.

Here’s a Google book scan of The Show Girl and Her Friends, illustrated by Gene Carr.

See some Gene Carr St. Patrick’s Day postcards here.

Click here to read about at lambiek.net.

Click here to read about Gene Carr on Wikipedia.

Click here to read more about Gene Carr’s Lady Bountiful at Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.

See some more Gene Carr images at pbase.com.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: The Big Bad Wolf aka Little Boy Blue (1936)

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THE CARTOON CRYPT

Another great Ub Iwerks ComiColor cartoon, featuring the Big Bad Wolf… this comes three years after the immensely popular Disney Silly Symphony version of the Three Little Pigs, which had also spawned a number of sequels, including one also titled The Big Bad Wolf. This Wolf would seem to be pretty influenced by the Disney one. I would guess that is likely to be why the original title of this appears to have been Little Boy Blue, even though Little Boy Blue is a fairly minor character in this cartoon. This cartoon really stars the Big Bad Wolf and the Scarecrow featured in the cartoon Jack Frost which I posted the other day.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database.

This cartoon, along with almost all of Ub Iwerks cartoons 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.