Radical midwest: December 2008

Krazy Kat - Beautiful Stop-Motion Animated Short Lovingly Recreates Herriman's Eternal Triangle

I have never watched any of the old Krazy Kat animated cartoons from the 20's 30's or 60's because I never wanted to corrupt the pure image in my brain of one of the greatest comic strips in the history of ink.

But THIS little animated tribute to George Herriman's
eternal triangle (below) finally got me to press "play."

According to Cartoon Brew, this Krazy Kat kartoon was directed by Derek Mogford in 1996. I couldn't find any more info on this beautiful re-creation of Coconino County (with its constantly-changing backgrounds and never-changing characters), so if anyone out there can shed some light, please leave a comment. Otherwise, just press play and enjoy!

P.S. -- Here's a link to some high-resolution scans of
one of George Herriman's less-celebrated comic strips,
Stumble Inn .

George Herriman's Stumble Inn

Click on the image to jump to the scans!

Cosmo Cat and Super Pup -- Fun Funny Animal Comics @ Pappy's Comic Blog!

These funny animal comic book scans
from 1954 are just too much fun!

Cosmo Cat is arguing with anoother cartoon animal

Head on over to Pappy's for some good old fashioned funny animal comic book adventures featuring fifth-tier anthropomorphic obscurities Cosmo Cat and Super Pup! There are two stories and over thirteen pages of really silly funny animal comics in this post about the odd delights of Avon's Cosmo Cat comic book from 1954.

Cosmo Cat punches the bad guy through a wall

I just posted these two panels 'cause they totally crack me up. Isn't that what a comic oughtta do? To read the whole story (both stories!), click on over to Pappy's amazing funny-book blog at:

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2008/12/number-439-spaced-critters-dave-miller.html

Pappy's Golden Age Comic Book Blog always has a ton of fun comic book scans to read, enjoy and download. Go check it out and get ready to wallow in a sea of great old-time comics!

UPDATE! Pappy just posted
3 more Cosmo Cat comics HERE--
that's 19 more pages of four-color funny-animal fun.

Pappy's Golden Age Comic Blog

Supermouse vs. the Dragon -- Super-powered Funny Animal Comic Book Scans

"Kid Terror" (from the Nedor-a-Day comics blog) strikes again as he scans and posts another super-powered funny animal comic book scan for our enjoyment!

Milton Stein's Supermouse chases. the Dragon

In this adventure, Supermouse has his hands full as he tries to take down an imaginary cartoon dragon...

cartoon mouse flies in talking airplane in Supermouse vs. the Dragon

As usual for Supermouse comics, the story is fast and silly,

Milton Stein's cartoon mouse travels with anthropomorphic airplane in Supermouse vs. the Dragon

and the funny animal cartoon drawings are just beautiful!

Cartoon dragon chases funny animals in Supermouse versus the Dragon

See what happens next at:

http://nedor-a-day.blogspot.com/2008/12/supermouse-daze-of-yore.html

...and Kid Terror: Thanks!

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PS... there are lots more Supermouse
comics scans from other great blogs to enjoy...

The First Adventure of Supermouse

Supermouse in "The Good Old Wintertime"

Supermouse's Dangerous Mission!

Supermouse and the Pirates

Click on the images below to jump to the comic book pages

Supermouse Underwater

Supermouse and the Timid Giant

...and if you like Supermouse, I think you'll wanna check out these
pages from another funny animal hero: Super Rabbit

Classic Cartooning Skills on Display -- “Patsy in Hollywood” by Bill Dyer

Some long-forgotten gems of classic comic strip art popped up recently on Ger Appledorn’s wonderful website about comic strip art from “Those Fabuleous Fifties”.

According to Ger’s intro, “Patsy in Hollywood” ran under varying titles in the forties and early fifties, and was helmed by a succession of artists from the Milt Caniff stable. The jokes in these strips may be very pedestrian…

… but the artwork, staging and storytelling are really great! Modern comic book and comic strip artists could learn a TON from these strips.

Click on any of the images below to jump to the FULL-SIZED
Comic book scans on Ger’s “Those Fabuleous Fifties” Blog

Comic Strip art cartoon girls dancing school Ballet Patsy-in-Hollywood

For example, the topmost strip (above) features figures that are full of life and dynamic angles and S-curves. Nobody is standing straight and rigid. Even the stuffy matron in the last panel has a very dynamic pose.

Click on any of the images below to jump to the FULL-SIZED
Comic book scans on Ger’s “Those Fabuleous Fifties” Blog

comic strip art cartoon boy and cartoon girl on Hollywood movie set Patsy-in-Hollywood

In the second strip, look at how cartoonist Bill Dyer implies a big movie studio in the background with just a few blobs of ink. He uses heavy blacks on the starlet's boobs to emphasize her bombshell qualities. Andrew and Patsy both have character designs that read like crazy in silhouette! That's great design. The body language in panel three is a joy to behold, and look at how the two kids have totally different walking poses in panel four!

Lastly (for this strip) look at the clear storytelling on that last panel. He makes sure to put the gag in the foreground where it's clearly staged and impossible to miss.

Click on any of the images below to jump to the FULL-SIZED
Comic book scans on Ger’s “Those Fabuleous Fifties” Blog

Comic strip art by Bill Dyer of a cartoon starlet and a frustrated director Patsy-in-Hollywood

Finally-- the third strip. In the opening panel, look at the way all the foreground elements, props and designs point straight to the movie star. Once again, the cartoonist keeps the staging and posing interesting, and he makes sure to use a close-up on the punchline in the last panel.

Great great stuff! Thanks for to Ger for sharing this!
His “Fabuleous Fifties” site is one blog I check every day.

Take a look at:

http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/2008/12/when-leonard-starr-offered-sveral-ideas.html

Vintage Hanna Barbera Art Collection on Flickr

There are some amazingly gorgeous cartoon images on display on slappy427's Flickr page. Classic painted comic book covers, model sheets, ViewMaster 3-D images (see above), production drawings and promotional art from Hanna Barbera.

There's a lot of oddball H-B stuff that you may not have seen before...

This is only a tiny fraction of the cartoony delights

waiting for you over on slappy427's Flickr page.

Go check it out HERE:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29235310@N07/

UPDATE: Here are a bunch of Hanna-Barbera Flickr
pages all in one group: http://flickr.com/groups/hanna-barbera/

Storyboards: Huckleberry Hound in Caveman Huck – August 18th 1961

Storyboard artist Chong Lee has been teaching Story Development at CalArts for the past four years. This year, he decided to put all of his handouts on a blog for his students, but the blog is open for anybody who want to click over to the ChongToons Blog .

He has a lot of hard-to-find animation ephemera in easy-to-download PDF files. Some of my favorite downloads on his site are the vintage Hanna Barbera storyboards .

Huckleberry_Hound_storyboards_from CaveMan Huck cartoon

If you click on any of these images, you’ll jump over to the page that features FIVE (count ‘em) 5 different storyboards from the classic era of Hanna Barbera Cartoons.

Huckleberry Hound storyboard art from Caveman Huck

The samples on this page are all from Caveman Huck, a Huckleberry Hound episode from way back in 1961. He also has storyboards from Pixie & Dixie, Yogi Bear, Quick-Draw Mc Graw and the Flintstones.
There’s a lot to learn about storyboarding in these boards…especially when it comes to economy and simplicity. If you like them, why don’t you leave some comments on Chong’s blog and ask him to keep posting this kind of rare cartoon art!

Cartoon Storyboards from the Sixties -- Irv Spector draws Linus the Lionhearted

Gorilla pounds Linus the Lionhearted into the ground with his fist

The classic cartooning and animation work of Irv Spector has started to re-emerge from underneath the sands of time and forgetfulness. Irv Spector's son, Paul, is spearheading the Irv Spector revival with his posts about the life and work of his father on the Spectorphile blog at http://irvspector.blogspot.com/

Storyboard panels from 1964 cartoon Linus the Lionhearted Storyboard art by Irv Spector

As a storyboard artist, the stuff that gets me most excited are these beautifully loose storyboards from the 1960's TV cartoon, Linus the Lionhearted.

Cartoon duck talking with cartoon lion playing william tell with an apple and an arrow

See all the storyboards as well as the story outline, model sheets and animation layout art at the Spectorphile blog at: http://irvspector.blogspot.com/2008/12/irv-spector-at-ed-graham-prods-enter.html

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More Irv Spector storyboard art at Cartoon Brew:

Storyboards from Fido Beta Kappa (1954).

"Stupid Comics" - A Freaky Look at Some Vintage Funny Animal Comic Books

Cartoon wolf is kidnapping a girl bunny rabbit

A really fun website called Stupid Comics celebrates everything that's weird and funky about comics from the golden age up thru the eighties. A great assortment of old comic book ads (more comics ads HERE), an essay on "The Gentle Art of Defacing Comic Books", and some really messed-up "educational comics" are some of the highlights.

Tubby comic book cover defaced by a little kid with a ballpoint pen

Go have fun and check it out here:

Stupid Comics

Boxing Cartoons by Willard Mullin - The Master of Drawing Dynamic Poses

Check out the Sports cartoons and drawings of Willard Mullin

Thanks to some recent posts on various cartooning blogs
(see links at bottom), I have fallen in love with the work
of master sports cartoonist, Willard Mullin

The collector in me wanted to buy up every out-of-print book that contains Willard Mullin's unbelievably dynamic drawings, but I wised up and whipped out the ol' library card instead!

I managed to find a bunch of beautiful books that I borrowed from the Los Angeles public library (you can do it all online) and subsequently scanned them for sharing with everybody here on the CartoonSNAP blog!

Each of the images below links to a GIANT high-res image
of scans from "It Beats Working," a book illustrated by
the greatest sports cartoonist who ever wielded a pen,
Willard Mullin!

willard Mullin cartoon Boxer eating steak

Click on thumbnails for the BIG picture!

Willard Mulllin drawing of two boxers...one boxer is biting the other one's ear

All the illustrations on this page are from the chapters about boxing, but later posts will feature Willard Mullin's drawings on Football, Baseball and Horse Racing, too!