Happy New Year From Heckinaw County

all images enlarge

Not literally a traditional New Year's episode, but published at the end of 1953 and briefly touching upon a New Year's Day theme (college football, for those who partake). As I write this we are actually having a bit of snow where I live -- only an inch or so, but a ripping horizontal wind similar to what's in the strip. No matter, stay out of blizzards and have a good New Year's yourself. And if you happen to come across a stray cougar moaning in the snow, do the right thing.

From December 27, 1953.

Tastes Just Like Chicken

"Acronize" is the trade name for the antibiotic chlortetracycline, and acronized is used to describe products that have been treated with it. These five drawings are all I have of what I imagine must have been an industrial that my dad worked on somewhere along the line. Looks like the 1950s or early 60s to me.

You don't need me to break down the word "chlortetracycline" for you, but an arduous one-minute of personal online research has revealed to me that it is the first tetracycline to be discovered (1945), and is used in quantity for the treatment of bacteria in animals that some of us might eat. If you have any left over around your farm or house, cure your pig (sorry, couldn't resist that one), your cat's conjunctivitis, and of course, add it to your chicken feed.

"Time to get acronized. Oh Boy! See ya!"

You're next, dude!

Coogy: Dirty Money (3)

As mentioned in the first installmen of Dirty Money, this is the last original I have for this series. From April 6, 1952.

Coogy: Dirty Money (2)

From March 23, 1952

Coogy: Dirty Money - A Fight Film

As the heading suggests, Dirty Money is a comic strip parody rip on classic old cliche-ridden fight films. The good news is that I believe (in my very subjective view, naturally) that it's got some good artwork and writing. The bad news is that I only have 3 of what was probably 4-5 segments. I hope that's not too anticlimactic for anyone. I'll try and get one up each day or so. When we moved across country in the early 1960's, Bekins Moving and Storage "lost" half of the complete run of Coogy. What's missing is part of that. And yes, still, like an idiot, I both hold a grudge and somehow some hope. From March 16, 1952.

Things will be hectic for me the next 10 days and I am looking for things that are easy for me to put online. "Dirty Money" occurred to me when I saw today's Boxing Day twist over at Pappy's. Go take a look. You'll see some obvious similarities in his and these (especially the third one I'll be putting up.) Thanks, Pap!

Stocking Stuffers

Irv Spector's posthumous holiday gift for you (not to be confused with the Phil Spector record album of near similar title) these orphaned drawings are looking for a home. Most are nameless and culled from folders and envelopes without label. Lacking mates in their own little cubelike environment, they've no recourse but to band together into a post of their own. Won't you hang them from your mantelpiece this holiday season?

(all images enlarge, of course)

Three 1950's Paramount. This first drawing is probably inspired by something he was working on at the time and drawn for his own amusement, since there's no screen frame around it and it's signed at the bottom.

Was on the outside looking in at Sir Irving and Sir Jeames.

No idea, but after reading the caption I must know the rest.

Phone doodles. After scanning this today I noticed
my name on it (bottom left of the owl scene). That
dates it late-period Spector (1970s).

Just for the sake of drawing?

Write your own caption. I say something about golf.

Some conception.
At first glance this appears like The Bear That Wasn't but I'm pretty sure it's not. Different box among items with similar ink style from much earlier. You'll see what I mean when we rouse Bear out of hibernation in a future post.
From the real Horton Hears A Who.

Might be the only one I have. That's why it's here.

I hope everyone's having a decently fine holiday season!

Season's Greetings From Heckinaw County (1953)

Spector at MGM: How The Grinch Stole Christmas

On How The Grinch Stole Christmas my father and Bob Ogle are credited with Additional Story. Here's a little bit of my dad's uncredited layout work (doing a decent Chuck Jones impersonation on a few). I'm not trying to be a Grinch myself by not posting more of them, but the fact is that I just don't have very many.

Comic Book Interlude: Little Lionel, "The Big Game"

My father's Little Lionel from Timely's Super Rabbit #13, 1948. You'll definitely notice some differences in drawing and writing styles between this and his other comic work from the Muggy-Doo and Lucky Duck era (1953-54) posted previously. In this, his line is less flamboyant and his writing style succinct -- in fact there are many panels with no dialogue at all. I chalk this up to the fact that in 1948 he was mostly animating for Famous and had yet to move into the story department, as he had by the time Muggy/Lucky was produced. The inking here lends itself more to cartoony animation, while Lucky's wavy-type lines would be murder.

Marty Taras Model Sheets - Barney Google, Snuffy Smith and Loweezy

Three model sheets by animator Marty Taras. As simple as they appear to be I really enjoy looking at them -- especially if you were to compare them to the finished cartoons, which I've never seen but am told are no great shakes. Anyway, I'm putting them online because otherwise they'd just sit in a box, and that's just not right! King Features Syndicate had Paramount do 50 cartoons which were released in the early 1960s. You can find out more about them here (you'll need to scroll down a little more than half that page).

My father animated 3 of the cartoons. Talk about "mailing it in", he literally did just that: we were living in Los Angeles by then and he was freelancing for Paramount, mailing the work back across the country to New York.

I have some partials for one titled Off Their Rockers. In that, Antique Alfred offers the hillbillies meager bucks for their furniture, which they they are delighted to get since they think it's plain 0ld junk. Alfred, however, plans to sell it for plenty of dough as rare and authentic. I had planned to post a few alongside these, but really, they're quite minimal and it would only diminish Taras's fine models.

Irv Spector At Hanna Barbera: The Jetsons: Use This Model

More layout from The Jetsons

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Yeah okay so I'm a tease.