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The Mouse Hangs High
Scared yet?No, not by that image to the right—by the nerve-wracking fact that I’ve got a blog.I mean, my friends know I'm often "drowning in chaos" (as I like to put it), fighting with several...
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Bosko Shipwrecked: The Comic Strip
When Mickey Mouse had a certain type of adventure in an early 1930s cartoon, you knew Bosko would have it, too. Though Looney Tunes' African-American boy was created before Mickey, he wasn't animated...
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Legendbreakers: Hare-um Scare-um
I've always had a soft spot for Hare-um Scare-um (1939), Bugs Bunny’s third cartoon. As a kid, I actually ranked it among the best Warner Bros. shorts: I liked the gags, I liked the goony formative...
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Oswald's Bright Lights, Big City
Uh-oh, it's here. A few of my friends have been awaiting and/or dreading the inevitable post on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I've spent quite awhile chasing rare cartoons from this early Disney (and then...
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All's Well in Lilliput
Though today, the Fleischer studio feature Gulliver's Travels (1939) strikes me as a gently enjoyable missed opportunity, the tiny land of Lilliput was hot stuff at the time of the film's first...
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The Tammany Kat is Loose: Ratskin
Call him/her whatever gender you will—George Herriman's Krazy Kat is cartoondom's most famous masochist. When not reveling in the dubious joys of being bonked with a brick, Krazy is willfully...
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Sketches For Fethry Duck's First Appearance
Disney comics' "S-coded" story production program—S for Disney studio—began in 1962. George Sherman, head of Disney’s Publications Department, had heard that the Disney comic book stories being...
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Not the Funniest Freleng: Krazy's Port Whines
Travel and intense research have me busy this week, so I haven't had much of a chance to post. But for your amusement (?) and edification, here now is Port Whines (1929), another of the earliest...
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Felix Down Under: The Oily Bird Comic Strip
From kat to cat: it's time to bring one of my all-time favorite cartoon stars to this blog. Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat was one of the first animated characters who really acted—emoting to the...
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Ub Iwerks' Rep: From Flip to Flop
Why did Ub Iwerks leave Walt Disney's employ in January 1930? For leave he did, and fast; enticed by an offer that, according to Michael Barrier and John Kenworthy, Iwerks at first didn't realize was...
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Tho-MAS! Come Up and See Some Rarities Sometime (Hic!)
Researchers revel in the search for classic cartoons' original titles. Almost every major studio reissued its cartoons years after their creation; sometimes to theatres, other times to TV. And almost...
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Allwine Does Gottfredson: A Tribute
Wayne Allwine will be missed.I'm not the first to say so. In fact, my blog must be about the five-hundredth cartoon blog to spread the news, insofar as Disney's longtime Mickey Mouse voice artist...
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Making New Donald Duck Adventures: Tamers of Nonhuman Threats! (Part One)
I've spoken much on this blog about favorite creations of the past—but as a comics editor and writer, I've personally had the honor and privilege of working with some stellar creators in the present....
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Yes, Virginia—we'll miss you, Alice
I'm back today from more than a month's travels—some of which involved exciting research and animation-related discoveries. I'll be busy for a few days now wrapping up one project or another, but that...
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D23's Love Bug Will Bite You
And now a quick word from our "sponsor"—well, Disney's D23 website isn't actually responsible for anything on this blog. But I love the way they explore Disney lore, and have had the fun of writing a...
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October Original Titles
Wak! It's been forever since I've updated around here. Sadly, I'm still under the gun with one project or another. But the least I can do is return briefly to a topic everyone's been asking for: the...
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An Oswald Trick (Or Treat)
Little time to blog today; big Halloween doings. But I couldn't let the holiday pass without a special Ramapith commemoration.When Walt Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit staff moved on in 1928, that...
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Ninety Years—Nine Lives (Preview)
November 9, 1919-November 9, 2009.Incredible, ain't it?Just a placeholder so I don't miss the actual anniversary (though I'm already a few minutes late by Eastern time). More soon.All original blog...
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Ninety Years—Nine Lives
As late as the 1930s, J. R. Bray's Colonel Heeza Liar was remembered as "the Mickey Mouse of his day," but the first true cartoon superstar was Felix the Cat. I've covered this character's great appeal...
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Big Ramapith From the North
Another big blog entry coming soon, I promise; but I'd be remiss not to draw your attention to this update of my earlier Halloween post. Following on the challenge I gave you there, I've now got some...
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