Do you remember Top Cat? I suppose Hanna Barbera cartoons were among the first animated cartoons produced exclusively for television as opposed to airing repurposed movie cartoons. I’m not saying they all were great, although many of them were clever, but they were ubiquitous. As a professional cartoonist, their influence on me probably was far greater than I realize. I wish you a contemplative, restorative and happy Memorial Day. Tomorrow, I will try to return to a more reliable routine around here.
97 responses to “Tee Cee”
And another day’s work is done.
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One of my favorites was Mr. Magoo, Jim Backus’ voice work really made that character work.
No Mark, I did not know about this. I have been to Paul’s Valley dozens of times as I had a major customer there in the candy company for whom we printed ribbons and labels, gift cards and envelopes.
Just listened to Top Cat song, read about him and other cartoon characters. A first, never saw it before.
But cartoons were never my thing. Didn’t have TV. But I did watch Bullwinkle.
(This morning, I posted “Empty Helmet” just minutes before Jimmy started this thread. I first posted the following on Memorial Day 2014 and re-posted it in 2015. I offer it again in case the population of the village has changed in the last two years.)
Empty Helmet
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I walked through a consignment/craft store in Logan, and seeing a WWII-era Army helmet hanging upside down by its leather straps took me back 52 years.
I grew up on James Road here in Lancaster, and I don’t know of any father in our neighborhood who had not been in WWII or Korea. Not all fathers fought, but all served. Seeing men in Lancaster who were disfigured or crippled by war was a common sight, and we all took it as a matter of course. We were taught that they were men deserving of great respect.
One of the fathers on my block saw Hell, and he came back with shell shock. He was usually okay, but sonic booms were hard on him. However, as he said on occasion, he came back. The real heroes did not.
I always thought about that whenever I was at my friend’s house on Clayton. An Army helmet hung upside down by its leather straps underneath the carport. His mom planted flowers in it. His dad didn’t come back from Korea.
In one of the Mr. Magoo cartoons, he’s driving his car along the bottom of the harbor. (Don’t ask; it’s a cartoon.) He sees a sunken ship and makes a comment about how the Backus Mansion has been allowed to run down. I wonder how many people understood that at the time.
Closeup, bull bison, scratching on boulder. Mt. oysters. Peace,
http://explore.org/live-cams/player/plains-bison-grasslands-national-park-cam-1
Here’s an article about Dave Breger and his creation, Private Breger: http://comicskingdom.com/blog/2012/05/30/ask-the-archivist-memorial-day-salute
I grew up on the H-B cartoons. I was too young to know it at the time but Top Cat was “Sargent Bilko” set in a New York Alley.
As much as I loved the H-B and WB cartoons, my favorites, even as a youngster, were the Jay Ward cartoons. I guess I was a subversive at a very tender age.
There was a TV set in living room of my boarding school but we had limited use of it. I remember the Dick Clark Show and Rocky and Bull Winkle, maybe Yogi Bear. It was 1959.
I got a TV in college but we were not allowed to keep in dorm rooms so watching in lobby was all available. I never acquired a TV habit.
At times I feel totally lost when the Village posts about things like these and I Google and read.
I don’t usually see things that make me wonder about being ‘tracked’ by technology. But today’s/tomorrow’s new front page at wikipedia seems to reflect some subjects I’m reading here.
First, I learned more about a cartoonist’s work I hadn’t known:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Kurtzman%27s_Jungle_Book
Work he did for a different audience after MAD.
Then…
An Old West bandit of another gender:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Hart
Doing her part for women’s equal treatment, way back in the day.
At my last visit to that site, we were close up to a prairie dog. There’s a p. d. town close to the bison watering hole. This, b.t.w., is the least windy day I’ve seen at the two nearby bison sites in Grasslands Natl. Pk. in Saskatchewan. It’s often so windy that the webcams jiggle. They should have monumental-size mounts. Peace,
http://explore.org/live-cams/player/plains-bison-grasslands-national-park-cam-1
What, Morphy, you missed our Little Annie Fanny Fest here in the Village awhile back?
I loved Little Annie Fanny, one of most complex and hilarious cartoons ever done. And art was incredible, humor was scathing. And those boobs!
Found it! This is the article Jackie mentioned earlier. I agree…it’s worth a read.
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/4260503-a-tribute-to-bill-mauldin-by-bob-greene
Morphy it was Kurtzman who did Little Annie Fanny for Playboy.
Little Annie Fanny https://g.co/kgs/sBo2q5
It took me forever to really read her because you had to identify all the minor characters being satirized as we as the throw away humor tucked in gratis.
And the boobs and butts.
There was a go-go dancer that worked at the club at my first PCS that was a dead-ringer for Little Annie Fanny. It was so obvious that was what we all called her.
You would no believe how much trouble I had posting the above, for to incorrect changes made by spell crustacean.
Ghost, this is good too: http://missoulian.com/army-of-admirers/article_e1527a98-1c6d-53f7-94f0-ec36384f1fe2.html
@Jackie via Ghost,
Thanks for that link Symply shared the Fargone thing on my FB page….
I wanted to put it on Facebook. Figured out it was Bob Greene who wrote, then Ghost found.
I miss the great columnists so much. I read their writers so I knew the papers like the Sun Times.
Didn’t have to always agree with them to enjoy reading.
Yeah, I uh, may have sneaked a few, uh …..
Yeah, I had known Kurtzman’s lines and they were certainly recognizable no matter what publication he drew for, or how many layers of clothing they were missing. A good sense of comic rhythm timed to a USAmerican’s eye scan rate, is what really gave punch to his work.
It was the adventure in a noirish storyline of detectives and dames with gams that is his ‘Jungle Book’ that was new to me. I knew several here had liked his work, so shared.
Ghost, I thought Annie was less likely to be found in nature than Mattel’s Barbie. Did she have the trademarked ‘o’ face? The one displayed when surprised, or have I crossed artist’s creations?
Oh, as an afterthought, Annie is what my mind’s eye sees every time I read the word pokie in it’s usual context here. Other times I may think of Gumby’s horse, but not here.
Ghost et al.:
Thanks for the memories / Bill Mauldin, a bright spot in my teen years.
It is so sad when such a bright light is dimmed by Alzheimer’s: Franklin P. Adams [‘FPA’, ‘Information Please’], E.B. White [‘Charlotte’s Web’, ‘Strunk & White,], my Stuyvesant HS classmate, brilliant geochemist prof now in the late stages in the Bay Area.
Peace,
0820 and no new posts. Where is everybody? Recovering from their holiday activities?
Trying to sleep.