Cartooning – Page 187 – Prattling Before the Pratfall

IRONy at the movies

Iron Man 2 is out, and while watching it in IMAX yesterday I couldn’t help but thinking it’s ironic that we’ve gone from this…

…to this, because by the time I was in high school, reading comic books was decidedly not cool. It’s amazing to me that the Marvel Comics I loved as a kid in the 60’s have become the basis for widely popular and hugely successful major movies.
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The second Iron Man movie has been getting mixed reviews. My capsule comment is there’s an incredibly stupid drunk party fight in the middle, but other than that it’s absolutely terrific, if you can stand the usual mayhem of excessive explosions at the end. Here is the Boston Globe’s take on Iron Man 2. I agree with everything they say, but I don’t take as many points off as they do for the movie’s failings.

P.S. There’s a kicker after the end credits that has me a bit worried about the upcoming introduction of Thor, and how well the character will translate to the semi-reality of the big screen.

Saturday Morning Beatles

Ah, Saturday morning TV in the 1960’s. A sublime mixture of awful-to-pretty good cartoons. During the Summer of Love, 1967, Marvel Comics featured this centerfold ad for ABC-TV’s “America’s Best TV Comics”. The Fantastic Four and The Amazing Spider-Man were being introduced, having not been a part of the syndicated Marvel Super Heroes cartoon series from the year before.

The Beatles first appeared as cartoon characters on US TV in 1965. How Brian Epstein cut the deal is explained in a book, now out of print, called Beatletoons, by Mitchell Axelrod.

I have a fondness for the cheaply-produced Beatles cartoons, but it’s been said that John Lennon, persistent curmudgeon that he was, disliked them. This photo of Lennon contemplating some layout drawings seems to back that up.

The third season of the show would be the last to include some new material. Two of the titles — ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Nowhere Man’ — were later animated again, with strikingly different interpretations, for Yellow Submarine. It’s hard to believe that some of the people who worked on the Saturday morning cartoons were also involved with Yellow Submarine, but you’ll find some fab bits of surreal creativity in there.

By 1967 the Beatles looked nothing like they had in 1964-65, yet their character designs didn’t change. The producer of the series, Al Brodax, more than made up for that with Yellow Submarine.

‘Peanuts’ leaves United

An outfit called Iconix Brand Group will own 80% of ‘Peanuts’, and the family Charles M. Schulz will have 20%, in a deal that acquires the licensing unit of United Features/Media that apparently includes the licensing of ‘Dilbert’.

Boilerplate: putting the kettle on

It’s sort of like Zelig meets Iron Man, by way of the Tin Woodsman. It’s Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel.

Is it a graphic novel? A faux Dorling Kindersley™ book? Watch this promo video of an ultra-nifty idea that’s very nicely done, combining classic illustration techniques and computer effects.

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Popeye… stoned sleeper agent?

My first favorite cartoon character was Popeye. I never cared for spinach as a kid, canned or otherwise, but that didn’t stop me from loving the Fleischer Popeye cartoons.

I was in an ice cream-candy shop with Carol and Eric this weekend, and I spotted boxes of Popeye ‘candy sticks’. They’re what used to be called candy cigarettes.

These ‘candy sticks’ look like reefer joints! What if those aren’t spinach leaves in that can, but marijuana? Maybe that explains why Popeye is senselessly punching his own shadow on the back of the box. He’s stoned!

But look closely on the side of the box, made by World Confections, Inc., of Brooklyn, NY, and you’ll see writing in Arabic!

Have Islamic extremists put Popeye under their influence? Is he in fact a drugged sleeper agent? Why hasn’t Glenn Beck said anything about this?

Great North Wood Barks

Last week’s installment of ‘Tim Rice’s American Pie‘ on BBC Radio 2, the second in the series, was about Oregon. I was surprised to hear Rice mention the cartoonist Carl Barks.

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Here is a Barks story I posted over two years ago. It was the first one by him I ever read, which didn’t happen until I was fifteen.

© Disney
Barks died in 2000, the same year that Charles Schulz passed away, but Barks was 99 — old enough to be Sparky’s father! Here’s a nice video about the late, beloved Old Duck Man.

Between Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Chuck Jones, my favorite is Clampett.

And aren't we VERY glad he kept everything!

Tom and I love Jon!

Your OCD Twinster suggests: "tan" or "beige" to get the correct one syllable. But heck, it IS yellow. It's not…

I wore one of those, very uncomfortable. I called mine "das Boot". Heal quickly.