Mumble Herder

Thanks for the link -- those were neat to see. It made me think of Chris Van Alsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

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I'm not familiar with that, I have to admit.

Have you had a look at Little Nemo yet?

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It's a kids book -- each page is a different illustration and piece of prose from different children's books supposedly written by a man named Harris Burdick. The reader has no idea where in the stories these pages come from -- beginning, middle, or end -- and each causes you to start imagining the rest of the story. It's a really wonderful book with amazing illustrations and endless possibilities.

I haven't yet gotten to Little Nemo. Currently I'm reading your novel but it is next in the queue.

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Ah, you've told me about that one before. I need to get my hands on it one of these days!

You're reading some lame-ass novel instead of Winsor McKay?!? Tsk, tsk. :-P

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It's not lame-ass, it's quite good. I've got about a third to go.

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I wasn't fishing, honest! But thank you very much; I'm glad to hear it.

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I didn't think you were fishing. For some reason though, I'm feeling this overwhelming urge for a piece of cherry pie.

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I get that same craving for ~~Audrey Horne~~ I MEAN CHERRY PIE at the oddest times.

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The thing about Winsor McKay is just when you think you've come to terms with how awesome he is, you turn this corner and there is a whole new reservoir/annex/palce wing of awesome yet to be discovered.

(Also, Buckaroo Banzai arrived from netflix. I can't wait to watch it. It's been years.)

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Have you seen the dinosaur movie? HAVE YOU HAVE YOU?

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This one?

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Yup :-) Dude was ahead of his time!

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Oh yeah, absolutely. Did you ever read Kim Deitch's Boulevard of Broken Dreams?

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I have not; is it about McKay?

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It's a graphic novel about the early days of animation - one of the characters is loosely based on McKay.

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Thanks for posting that link. I'd seen parts of that before but never the whole thing. My kids thought it was great.

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You're welcome... and despite some Depression-era racism, this cartoon always brings tears to my eyes. It's so beautiful, and the music is awesome.

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Thanks again. I've never seen that one before, although I'm a big fan of the Fliescher Bros. cartoons. The music was really good but I have to admit that the racism does make me cringe. I really do love the animation though -- the roto-scoping techniques they developed were really amazing (as was that 3D background that wasn't in this one but that they used in a bunch of their cartoons). Have you ever seen their Superman cartoons?

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The Superman cartoons are amazing! I've only seen three but I loved them.

The racism ... yeah, cringe-worthy and it defaces an otherwise perfect piece of art. If you liked the music, you might like this album. Words can not describe how good it is.

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Once again, thanks. I'll have to see if I can find it through our library system (it's where I get most everything nowadays).

You can sometimes find collections of the Superman cartoons at Toys R Us. My mother found a complete collection about a year ago that she bought for my sons which they loved. Unfortunately there are a few WWII era cartoons, one of which is titled Japatuers that have some pretty racist Yellow Scare depictions like a lot of the propaganda of the time (made for some fun discussions with my three and six year old).

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You're welcome. I hope the library has it. If they don't, try searching for Sol Hoopii as well.

Yeah, I've seen some of those WWII cartoons. YIKES. What's even worse to my eyes is how casual the racism was without a war going.

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I think the worst example of that I've seen was "Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarves" from the same Warner Bros. animation department responsible for Bugs Bunny, et al. Yeah, there was racism in the other Warners cartoons, but this was just beyond belief over the top.

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I am so happy I missed that.

Elzie Segar is the best by the way. Popeye is the classic example of a side-character taking over an already existing storyline.

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It's not shown very often because it's been banned several times in many different places. I saw it in NY years ago at a Warner Bros. cartoon festival.

The amazing thing about Popeye is that, even though Segar was perfectly happy (and planning) to do away with his character after the Dice Island storyline, when he was brought back he so quickly took over the strip. I think it was only a couple storylines before Ham Gravy was gone, never to be seen again except for a quick background appearance, and only a year and a half or so before Castor was also pushed out. I really love the job Fantagraphics has been doing with their Popeye books.

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Yeah - they have put together a very nice product.

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cija.livejournal.com

Winsor McKay scares me a lot. There is fear in every line!

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That is freaky but awesome. Thanks for the link!

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