Category: Cartooning

Eclairs, I declare

At work today I saw some cookies in the break room that must have been left over from some meeting, not long after my group had muffins and bagels in our monthly meeting. This brought to mind one of my favorite Disney Silly Symphonies, The Cookie Carnival, a lavish and fascinating cartoon from 1935.

Does this remind you of Dorothy’s reception four years later in The Wizard of OZ, with the parade, the Lullaby League, and the Lollipop Guild? At 2:30 into the cartoon, watch what the cookie guy (with Goofy’s voice) does with the eclairs. Obviously, the animators knew exactly what they were doing to get the attention of the adults in the audience. And I don’t think the angel food guys were interested in marrying anybody but each other.

He’s Mighty Sore!

It’s going to be a super-hero summer! (Especially if you consider Harry Potter to be a super-hero.) The buzz from Europe, where the Thor movie is already out, is that it’s a great, fun ride.

That’s good, because so far Jack Kirby’s creations for Marvel Comic haven’t translated to the big screen as well as the less cosmic characters Spider-Man and Iron Man. Captain America was one of Jack’s first, co-created with Joe Simon. As with Thor, I wasn’t too optimistic about the project until I saw the trailer, which looks very promising.

And there’s another X-Men movie coming too. The X-Men are also from the mind of Kirby, but the movies are based quite a bit on later incarnations of the mutant team.

http://youtu.be/0Yq7Za1JnZg

When I was a kid in the 60’s, Marvel’s summer special double-size, 25-cent comic books were a big deal. We’ve come along way from those days!

DC is represented this summer by Green Lantern, but this trailer leaves me feeling more uncertain about this movie’s prospects than Marvel’s offerings.

http://youtu.be/pHmMh0yikQ0

From Our Gang to Superman

http://youtu.be/1uVu1S7wEOk

Jackie Cooper is gone. After being the biggest child star in the 30’s before Shirley Temple, Cooper managed to have a solid, successful career. To relatively younger audiences, he’s best known for being Perry White in the Christopher Reeve run of Superman movies. I knew him first for his memorable appearances in Our Gang, with June Marlowe as Miss Crabtree.

Boston Comic Con

D.F. Rogers and I were at the Boston Comic Con today, where the all-time great artist Joe “Sgt. Rock” Kubert was a guest. Holy moley, does Joe look great! There’s just no way he’s coming up on his 85th birthday. Like another legendary Joe, Sinnott, Kubert’s artistic skills remain in full force, and have not diminished one iota.

Here is Denro with Joe…

…and this is me.