Harry-Go-Round

Don Markstein’s essential Toonopedia now has an entry on Bucky and Pepito. It’s a joy to see someone other than me devote a few paragraphs to them…

I’m rummaging through some old photos while working on a review of the new Yahoo Photos, and I happened to come across this photo I took of Maurice Noble in 2000. He’s in Chinatown, not looking like a 90-year-old, and holding a bag whose contents I can’t recall. I’ll never forget Maurice, though, and the fact that he’s been gone for more than five years now is still startling to me.

Sorry for the lack of communications hereabouts–I’m alive, well, and hope to be blogging more frequently soon. Meanwhile, here’s a drawing by Art Binninger with some of our favorite cartoon characters making merry on 06-06-06:

I try to keep my eye on the road when I’m biking in San Francisco, but I couldn’t not see this plate on a parked SUV, fairly far from where it was bought…

If you ever feel the need to blackmail me–Lord knows you wouldn’t be the first–you may find this photo of me willingly palling around with Seth McFarlane characters helpful.

It’s startling just to think about it, but Apatoons is celebrating its 25th anniversary with its new issue, #140. With a circulation of about 30, it has one of the smallest readships of any publication on animation–yet it’s also the longest running, most distinguished discussion about the art form that ever existed.

As an example of the venerable type of publishing collaborative known as an amateur press assocation, Apatoons should be an anachronism in the Internet age. Yet it’s alive and kicking, and the best stuff in it is as worthwhile as anything you’ll find on the Web–maybe more so. The permanence and privacy of the apa’s paper format and small membership have made it special since Don Markstein and GiGi Dane founded it in 1981. (I should know: I’ve been a member since issue #5. That makes me a oldtimer, but I’m not the longest-serving member–Apatooners tend to hang around.)

The Apatoons Web site has more information on this unique and indispensable organization; head there to learn more, including how to join. (As I write, there are three slots open for new members.)

At a conference I attended earlier this week, they served corn dogs at a snack break. An attendee from Australia was momentarily confused, and said he didn’t know what a corn dog was. But when he saw them, his eyes lit up and he revealed that Australians call a hot dog with a cornmeal batter a “Dagwood Dog.” And yes, it’s a reference to Blondie’s husband.

While researching this tidbit at Wikipedia, I discovered that Australians also call corn dogs “Pluto Pups,” and that our Canadian friends call them Pogos. Is there a tradition we don’t know about in the U.S. that these things should have names that pay tribute to great cartoon characters?

(When I was a kid in Portland, by the way, we called corn dogs Pronto Pups–Wikipedia says that that’s the brand name of a prominent make of corn dog.)

Over at the worthy project known as the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, Steve Worth has been posting a digital replica of That’s My Pop Goes Nuts For Fair, a spectacular Milt Gross book, published for the 1939 World’s Fair, which lovingly documents New York City as it was…or at least as it was as seen via the unique perspective of Milt Gross. (The drawings are like a whacked-out east-coast version of San Francisco’s amazing Coit Tower murals.)

I’m a huge Gross fan, but I’d never even heard of this publication. It’s nice to be reminded once again that there are still obscure-but-first-rate works by great cartoonists of the past out there for us to rediscover.

The A-HAA blog has tons of other stuff worthy of your attention, including John Kricfalusi’s interview with Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, and Friz Freleng, excellently illustrated with art and entire cartoons referenced by the interviewees. Don’t visit it when you have any pressing deadlines…but do visit it.

(Via The Comics Journal.)

This just in: Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, the editor and artist, respectively, of a boatload of Harvey comics over several decades, have collaborated on a graphic novel adaptation of the 9/11 commission’s report.

I’m tempted to insert gratuitious references to Jackie Jokers here, but this actually sounds like it’s worth a look, at least–Colon is an excellent and versatile artist.

It’s been a long time since Carl Anderson’s Henry made headlines. But this fascinating New York Times story, involving Anderson’s successor Don Trachte, a forged Norman Rockwell painting, and a wall with a secret panel, puts the lovable, mouthless scamp back in the game.