Well, that was a surprise. I lost the eBay auction! Somebody with the handle “petsanf ” won with a bid of $20.50. Of course, only he knows the actual amount of the bid, above the $20 I ventured.
I’d have thought my friend, whose mother drew the picture, would have bid on it himself. But I suppose if he wanted it he’d have taken it before his mother sold it at the yard sale!
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This time around is the opening to Azumanga Daioh, along with a couple of gags. Azumanga Daioh is so totally nonsensical it defies description. Originally a 4-panel comic strip, it was then turned into a daily 5-minute Animé for TV.
Since this video preview is already wacky, for contrast I’ll tack on a single-gag cartoon done of the 4-panel comic strip Peanuts, way back in 1963. This was some of the first animation produced to test Charlie Brown and the gang for television.
Here’s a bizarre coincidence. Ebay has an auction right now for a framed amateur drawing. To my surprise, I realized that the drawing is by the mother of a close friend, who was one of my college roommates.
My friend says he remembers his mother selling this picture at a yard sale about 7 years ago. The person auctioning it now picked it up at an estate sale on Cape Cod. By coincidence, the seller happens to be right in my town!
This week’s Spider-Man comic, inserted in the Sunday paper, starts reprinting issue #5, from 1963. Spidey is hopelessly mis-matched, battling Doctor Doom, one of the principal character inspirations for Darth Vader.
I was impressed that the colorist for this little freebie comic made the TV a black & white set, as it was originally, 43 years ago; emphasizing that the comics were in color, but TV (for the most part) wasn’t. Nice touch.
I’m a very big admirer of the late cartoonist Charles Schulz. Someday I’ll visit The Charles M. Schulz Museum. The museum has released a DVD of the long-neglected 1963 TV show, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. How neglected? It was never shown!
I’m providing 2 minutes of footage from the show as an enticement for you to buy it. His ideas were very similar to those of Fred Rogers, don’t you think?
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Order the DVD here. Unfortunately, the museum doesn’t take orders online, and you’ll have to click the “Videos” link to see the ordering information for the DVD.
The show also includes the first Peanuts animation, done a full two years before the ground-breaking special, A Charlie Brown Christimas. For a measly $15, anybody who is interested in the work and life of Schulz must have this unique DVD!
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A movie I remember well from childhood is Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964). My brother Jeff and I were so taken with it that we created our own audio version on my tape recorder.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars was directed by Byron Haskin, who had directed War of the Worlds for George Pal ten years before that. Crusoe was sort of a test-run for the Paramount Studios special effects and production team that would soon begin work on the original Star Trek TV series.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars is not currently in official release. Many people remember it, but most haven’t seen it in decades, so I’m posting it here, probably in four parts. The image is very small, but it should be adequate.
