Back For The Winter - Xmas Style

Well, it was a long hot three year summer. I once told myself I would never repost artwork on this blog. However...I just love the artwork and (pardon me) the sentiment:

Away For The Summer

I am currently several thousands of miles away from the Spectorphiles; hence, please don't waste your time looking for anything here until at least the beginning of September...at the earliest. Thanks to all those who continue to patronize this site and drop comments. (All and any comments will continue to be posted --it may take a day or two since I've had to begin moderating them due to obnoxioua entrepeneurs).
- Paul

ARMY DAYS: WWII Signal Corps Sketches

My dad did not often sign his work. When it comes to sketches like these, signing one leads me to identify others. Else, I wouldn't be able to positively I.D. many others, as his style was changing at that point in time. Not that they're anything above the norm, but they just help with the continuity.

Coogy: BA-ROOM! 4th of July In April

I had somewhat planned to save this Coogy for the 4th of July (American Independence Day for you non USA-ers) and about as close as I could get to fireworks. However, my Uncle John dropped a comment in my previous post for Coogy, titled TERMINATION, that the title might signify that postings of the strip have come to an end. No such thing! Uncle John, this one goes out to you.

Termination

Linus The Lionhearted: The Flyin' Lion

In case you missed the comment a few posts back, Brubaker has mentioned and provided a link for "The Flyin' Lion", which was the pilot that sold the Ed Graham Prods series of Linus The Lionhearted. If you need more background on the show, just punch Linus into the searcher at the top of the page. Here's the comment:

http://www.hitopstv.com/tv.cfm

select "Linus the Lionhearted" and click episode 4.

I'll just mention that although the soundtrack cover above has Graham's New York office stamped on it, all of the writing, animation, etc., was totally produced in Los Angeles (although not necessarilly the soundtrack itself.)

Thanks Bru!

Coogy NY Tribune Promo: PEnnsylvania 6-4000 (In Canada, 808-509)

Hey Spectorphiles. Here's the sales promo by the New York Herald Tribune for Coogy, from 1951. The written style of the copy was certainly not by my father's hand, but I suspect it might have been written by Harold Straubing, at that time an editor for the Trib, and subsequently he and his wife Helen (including Geisha, the gentlest German Shepard you'd ever want to meet) great lifelong friends of the family.
If you read my previous Coogy post then you'll notice the "Tennis Anyone" from which it's referenced.

Here's the strip that the Trib decided to put on the back of the promo:

I think I might have already posted the original for this, but in case not here it is:

Chronologically, this is a follow-up leading into a series to which unfortunately (Damn you Bekins Moving and Storage) I don't have the remainder:

Coogy: The Bus To Hollywood

I'm just putting this online because it's a dobie and I already had it scanned (I'm temporarilly enstranged from the Irvchives). Pay attention to the top right panel where Coogy says "Tennis anyone" -- it was included in the NY Tribune's promo to its syndicators...which will be shortly published here. Enjoy.

From October 7, 1951:

Casper, On The Cheap

The following speaks for itself. Forget about the return address -- we were in Los Angeles and my dad had already been freelancing for Paramount for several years. He was at Hanna-Barbera by the date of this invoice. Geeze, can you imagine this kind of price for boards? Well, then again, it is Casper

Abner The Baseball -- A LIttle Pepper In There Boy

In October of 2009 I received emails from Turkey. Here are some excerpts:

...in late 80's abner the baseball became very popular in turkey .everybody looks for it but nobody can find.

abner was shown in turkish tv channel TRT , between 85-90's.(in the football matches half times.) turkish children loved it very much.especially "little pepper in there boy" became an idiom.. turkish people use it as "Hadi biraz biberliyelim" it means "let's start" for us.now people aged 25-30 remembers abner...they talk how they can find it, some of them will be very happy to see that cartoon just one time again .because abner is one part of their childhood.

So, I asked Bob Jaques if he had a copy the thing, and it was immediately uploaded. Fatih, in Turkey, wrote me, ...from now on you are God to me. I forwarded the message to Bob, as it was better meant for him, who replied (to me), "I think you are the divine one." While Bob and I were discussing who was going to be the One, Fatih emails me: it s only a joke paul :)
That's too bad, because as the One, I had already made a list of all the butt I was gonna kick.

Here's Abner:

Paramount Cartoon: The Inquisit Visit

Dave Mackey has launched another of my father's cartoons on youtube. Maybe not the best of them, but I have to say I have not actually had the chance to see it before. Hats off Dave!

The Inquisit Visit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4CqyecunUU

BTW, Do you have The Ring-A-Ding Kid? No one I know seems to have ever seen it!

Three Paramount Tunes on the Tube

The ever-industrious Dave Mackey has notified me that he's placed three of my dad's Paramount cartoons on youtube.

As per Dave: You will notice that all of the cartoons have original Paramount title cards. I wasn't sure of the main title for Cool Cat Blues so I went ahead and used the "The Cat" title card from one of the final two cartoons.


Cool Cat Blues - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnzgMmAeb50

Le Petite Parade - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLo4-IBAd1A

Cane and Able - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeE-lgCDCq4

Thanks Dave!

Christmas Coogy: Nice Jewish Cartoonist Does Santa

I'm snowed-in here in the northeast, still waiting on a guy to come and plow 150 feet of driveway. What's to do? How about we get my Christmas post out of way? Don't kids like to open their presents early? (Trust me, in the manner I was raised there was no such thing as delayed gratification). If you like to frequent Spectorphile and the same kind of blogs I do, then I suspect you are just a kid. I know your type alright. Why must you wait?

From December 23, 1951:

What I really want to know is...where are all the Chanukah strips drawn by Christian cartoonists hiding?
You kids, whatever you may celebrate, if anything, please have a good time. And don't blog and drive.

Stocking Stuffers

As you might have guessed, the above items are from my dad's last days in the Army Animation Unit (WWII). If you're wondering why there is a "T" on the chevrons, that's because the AAU was actually part of the Army Technical Corps.

The above has to be from the mid-70's, because my dad is sporting those graying sideburns which were so popular among balding middle-aged men from that era. Oddly, I like the photograph.

Yes, there really is a reel in the can. It has three commercials: Nabisco Shredded Wheat, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Buster Brown Shoes (don't forget his dog Tige -- he's in there too.) Actually, that is my own ugly handwriting at the top of the label -- to remind myself what is inside -- because if you've ever had to unspool something of this length using a pencil, like I did -- you'll never want to do it again.

Comic Book Interlude: The Farmer's Daughter #1

Here's a real Spector oddity of cheesecake. The Farmer's Daughter ran for four issues, beginning with the February-March 1954 issue. What is it with the four-and-out titles from this era such as Muggy-Do, Boy Cat, Lucky Duck, and now this? You'll notice that the story is copyright Hal Seeger, although my dad drew and wrote all the stories in it (Muggy is also copyright Seeger). Anyway, I am personally taken with the rushed yet controlled abandon of its loosey-goosey style.

Yup, she was only the farmer's daughter's butt. I don't have my Overstreet guide at hand but I do recall there being a mention of a "lingerie panel", or "nudity panel" -- or something to that effect -- in this same issue. Here's a one-pager to which they must have been referring.

Thanks to Glenn Bray for inadvertantly mentioning this title to me, Bob Jaques for locating and sending me scans of issue #'s 1 and 2 from Golden Age Comics (UK) and of course the folks who uploaded them in the first place.

Anyway, that's the way I heard it...

...and if that ain't the truth let me be struck by lightning.

Here's a story I must have heard a half-dozen times in my life when I was much less than half as old as I am now. The tale never wavered. It goes something like this:

My dad, when he was young(er), used to draw single-panel gag cartoons and send them off to celebrities that he was fond of. Now, some of you might know that his industry sobriquet was "Spec", yet few of you know that in those early days he would often sign his artwork with a pair of spectacles (I myself have yet to see this phenomenon, but I take his word for it). Well, one piece he sent to Gary Cooper...the actor, not the astronaut. Cooper did a goodly number of western cowboy flicks and so my dad drew a gag about a cowpuncher, something about a bull with a black eye, if I recollect correctly. Decades go by, and Cooper eventually passed in 1961. My dad is flipping through some Cooper magazine retrospective and comes across a caption something to the effect of, Most people don't know it but Gary Cooper was a very good artist. So, my dad looks at the drawing, it seems vaguely familiar, and then notices a pair of spectacles in place of Cooper's signature.

By the way, I've yet to come across this drawing. If any Spectorphile does find a copy of where it appeared, I guarantee you a nice original authentic artistic piece of work in trade for your trouble.

Gulliver Animation - King Bombo on the Carriage Step

It's difficult to identify my dad's actual pre-war (WWII) animation. However, two days after my dad passed away, Arnold Gillespie (who not only worked at Fleischer but went on to have a glorious career in special effects), paid me a wonderful telephone call to let me know that, back in the day, this particular piece of animation from Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels just "tickled" him. We can thank Bob Jaques for the clip. It seems like the moment I press the send email button to ask "Do you have...", the darn thing is already in my inbox.

Comic Book Interlude: Little Lionel

We can thank Mr. Bob Jaques for this one. Bob was searching for moonlighting-comic-book-drawing animators and came up with this from a Wacky Duck titled reprint pubbed in 1958 (I.W. Enterprises). My dad had already exited from a decade-long comic book era at that point, and Little Lionel dates back to the post-war 1940s. Still, I like the sort of pre-war old-fashioned flavor of it all: the telephone, the firemen panel, et al.

The Sad Sack

Harkening back to the old U.S. Army Signal Corps days, here's an old mildewed book I have that Sgt. George Baker, creator of The Sad Sack, personalized (above) to my dad. I don't know if Baker was technically in the animation unit, but then again, when it came to creatives -- no mattter what their particular facility -- every cartoonist (using that term in general) knew each other.

Rather than send you to Wiki's blurb on Sad Sack, let's just let the book do the talking.

Books in wartime, Egad!:

The Introduction: You might want to read the whole thing, but I'll paraphrase that Sad Sack first appeared in Yank magazine in 1942. "The Sack is Army's perfect personification of the Army's little man, the hopeless underdog who has no stripes, no glory, no friends in the orderly room, no escape from the dread terror of red tape and higher ranks. Since he is the Army's little man, none of his problems are of his own making. No matter what he does or leaves undone, trouble will come to him from outside forces. "

The deal, storywise, with Sad Sack, is that no matter how hard he tries, he always gets the crap end of the military pecking-order stick: the end gag is always the same...he's just a sad sack of... The book is flush with pages -- those scanned below are, to my own eyes, representative of what you would find.