Crumbling Paper: Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse

Here’s an example I scanned of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse from March 16, 1941 by Walt Disney. Just kidding. The Donald Duck one is by Al Taliaferro and the Mickey Mouse strip is by Floyd Gottfredson.

Click the image to view the full strip.

Click here to read about Al Taliaferro at lambiek.net.
Click here to read about Floyd Gottfredson at lambiek.net.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Nimbus Libéré

THE CARTOON CRYPT

A excerpt from a weird and ugly (but interesting) WWII propaganda cartoon made by inept and humorless nazis featuring Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Donald Duck, Goofy, Felix, and horrible Jewish stereotypes. I’ve seen a lot of WWII propaganda from the Allies, but not much from the Axis… presumably most of it was destroyed. If all their animation was this uninspired, it is no wonder we won the war.

WARNING: This cartoon contains offensive ethnic caricatures. If offensive stereotypes bug you, you may not want to view it.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse in The Gypsies at Rodney Bowcock’s Comics and Stories : October 29th, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S HEY! KIDS! COMICS!

I haven’t had any time to blog lately, so boy did this list get out of control… way too many treasures to feature this time around (including a ton of Herriman, and even a Segar Herriman parody), so I’ll just feature one of them.

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM:

Rodney Bowcock’s Comics and Stories brings you the Mickey Mouse comic strip adventure The Gypsies by Floyd Gottfredson (inked by Al Taliaferro) from 1931… with that scoundrel Walt Disney taking all the credit, as usual. Apparently, this one has never been reprinted in the US. Part one here, part two here. He thinks it will be presented on his site in a total of five parts.

INTERESTING LINKS: King Features Syndicate’s 1949 Famous Artists and Writers: October 22nd, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S INTERESTING LINKS

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM: Golden Age Comic Book Stories brings us 60 pages of the 176 page King Features Syndicate 1949 promotional booklet Famous Artists and Writers, featuring bios and rare art from their many fantastic artists at the time. Interesting to see that Otto Messmer was getting full (and proper) credit for Felix the Cat… I had previously been under the impression he had been anonymous for his whole career as creator and primary artist of Felix the Cat (in animation, comic strips and comic books!), with the sinister Pat Sullivan stealing the credit. Mickey Mouse is, however, (unsurprisingly) still credited to Walt Disney instead of the brilliant Floyd Gottfredson. Disney’s personal lack of artistic skill must have led to an awful lot of awkward situations, I imagine. What a phony. Part one here, part two here.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Summertime (1935)

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.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: The Pet Store (1933)

THE CARTOON CRYPT

The final installment of the Beppo the Gorilla trilogy. This one is a homage to Willis O’ Brien’s classic King Kong,which came out the same year.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database.

This cartoon is available on the DVD Walt Disney Treasures – Mickey Mouse in Black and White.