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.