Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Bill Ritchie- Clumsy Claude



Hi, Peter,
I am glad you liked the scans of the 1960 Xmas issue of the New Hotspur that I posted on the comicsuk website yesterday; you can certainly use them on your blog, I have no problem with that. I attach better quality scans because those on the website aren't very good - the website would only allow files up to 400 kb. The covers have a lot of scribbling on them, which is certainly a shame.

I hope you will like it; keep up the good work with your blog!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009!
Regards
CK Thanks CK


I learnt from Classics from the comics that Bill's first Beano work was Clumsy Claude...I don't have his comic work..But here is the annual story version. If anyone has a Clumsy Claude comic page they can email me...that would be great!!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Nigel Parkinson drawing in Whizzer and Chips!!

Heres the cover thanks to Nigel P!! It was a comic not a mag/comic. Must try and get one sometime.
Scouse Mouse was a monthly comic, 100 per cent comic, no features, not a magazine. It was an early mostly full-colour comic,drawn by just three of us and written by those three with a fourth. thanks Nigel for the info


http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2408






The 'Fido Fax' story featured a dog that seemed very average, when he could suddenly turn into an ultra-sophisticated intelligent hound.
Thanks Muffy for the above scans..

Recently I bought lots of Whizzer and Chips from 1989..Cosmic Cafe by Frank is great fun and love Trevor Metcalfes The Ossies a story that continues everyweek which is a great idea like a soap...and look what I've discovered Nigel's work!!



Nigel Parkinsons Scouse mouse comic work which also carried on in Whizzer and chips when it mergered.

Friday, December 26, 2008

A new blog

I invite everybody to visit my new Atlantea the Beautiful blog HERE.  It's all about ancient Atlantis, only it seems very familiar, somehow.

Caroline Kennedy Obama cartoon


I find it interesting that the media are actually attacking CK's qualifications.  Is this part of the power struggle between the Kennedys and the Clintons?

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Obama cartoon

I know, this isn't really fair, but neither were all those cartoons with Bush/Nixon/Reagan, etc. as Hitler.  Available as t-shirt, etc., at Zazzle.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Leo Baxendale- Banana Bunch from Beezer

thanks to Phil-comics for the image Beezer comic Xmas 1957. Shame its not in colour!!! See what I mean when you see the rest of this post..



I got the new Beano and Dandy collectors club by Phil-comics...joined recently..recieved issue 7 today..

http://www.phil-comics.com/collectors_club.html

Was over the moon to see an early Banana Bunch on the back page of The Beezer..
I'm always looking for early Beezers But they are very expensive and often lose on ebay..so thanks Phil for showing an early one...hope DC Thomson will show these in some kind of published way..I liked seeing the early 60's one in Best of Beezer,,,

Hi Peter, Those Banana Bunch 'colour plates' only appeared on the rear cover of the Beezer for the first 13 issues and were all completed before the first issue went on sale (the comic being produced on a schedule three months ahead of it's distribution). According to Leo's ' A Very Funny Business' it was juvenile paper supremo R D Low himself who ordered the strips removal from it's full colour, rear cover spot to a red/black, (nothing in the Beezer was published in black and white) inner page citing the strip's 'rawness' as a reason why it wasn't suitable for a cover spot, a comment with which Leo seemed to have few qualms. In truth I imagine once the Beezer went on sale and the stockpile began to be distributed Leo would have found drawing these intricate colour plates laboriously time consuming and was therefore reasonably happy to continue drawing the Banana Bunch as a more traditional, multi-panelled, strip.
BTW, from issue No 14, the rear cover spot was taken over by the adventure strip 'The Kings of Castaway Island' drawn by Peem Walker which stayed there, for over two years, till No 120.
from Kashgar thanks again!!


Next wish list is I want to see the first one with the zoo talked about in the club sheet..
Quote from comicsuk forum

Well here it is...:)


I remember reading one of your posts on comicsuk where you said you liked Banana Bunch from the early Beezers; it is Christmas time, so I will send you one more message with a scan of Banana Bunch page in Beezer issue No. 1 (Jan 21, 1956) as a small Xmas gift. I hope you will like it; keep up the good work with your blog!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009!
Regards
CK
Thanks CK so much!!!!!!









How colour can make it look 100x better...these two firework ones prove my point!!!





Its a shame that a lot of these poster Banana Bunch pages were in black and white with red.......in colour they have so much power. He was the original Wheres Wally (US ..Waldo)!!

These poster pages should be collected together.coloured up nicely and put into a book..or even made into jigsaws..etc..

The Banana Bunch are often over looked by comic fans....The Beano characters he did and the Bash Street kids gets all the glory...well its time to look again...

the banana bunch are up there with the bash street kids in my opinion!!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Roy Nelson Christmas





From The Chicago Daily News, 1930's.

Walt Scott Christmas





Happy Holidays!










Global Warming cartoon

We're in for a lot more global warming rhetoric with the new messianic Obama administration.  You can buy this from Zazzle on a women's t-shirt, a men's t-shirt, or a mug.

From the "You Can't Make This Up" file...


In case you missed it, the Geniuses over in England are watering down the Christmas Hymns now to the point where I don't even know why they should even try singing them.

We're all aware of the subtle (and not so subtle) changes that have been made, especially by the Faith Haters over at Oregon Catholic Press, but here we have (supposed) the hierarchy of the Church of England doing it!

If you water these things down to ensure that nobody, or no species is offended, I suppose all you'd have left is to just open your mouth a just say "Aaaaah". But heck, then you'd offend the mute people in the world.

"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" would become "God (egads!) Rest Ye Merry Gentlepersons". But even that would offend those who aren't very merry. Along with all those who aren't technically "persons". And the "Rest" part? Wouldn't that offend workaholics?

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Neil Smith and I are collaborating on an experimental strip called "Atlantea the Beautiful."  It's about the contemporary United States, of course, but it's set in Atlantis (Atlantea) before the flood.  The "Prophet of Doom" who appears here, the cynical old guy, is based on Ron Paul.  He keeps telling everybody that Atlantea is about to sink, but nobody wants to hear it, much less the politicians.  You can see other strips at the Libertarian Enterprise.
I had to reduce this one to fit onto the blog, but you can click on it for the full-size version.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Obama and Bush bumper sticker


You can buy this as a bumper sticker at Zazzle.

Global Warming cartoon


Here's another one you can buy as a T-shirt, bumper sticker, or greeting card at Zazzle.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Whizzer and chips with Scouse mouse!!!!

Whizzer and chips was quietly joined by one last comic after Whoopee..Krazy..Knockout had done before...this was Scouse Mouse!!

Scouse Mouse was a comic/mag in the 80's. Sadly I can't find any covers of this comic to show here unless anyone can help!!

This title only seems to have appeared once..the following week it was called Whizzer and chips again. Only one character joined..Scouse Mouse see below.
The cover is drawn by Jim Hanson who includes in the cover the characters Scouse mouse plus the parrot.




Anyone any idea who drew this?

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Bumper Sticker


I'm now selling this bumper sticker at Zazzle.   It's an answer to all those hokey 'save the earth' stickers you see.  

The Holiday That Dares Not Speak It's Name...

It's good to be back!


Christmas - the ONLY Holiday where it's okay to reference in code, but you'd better not say it outright!

Obama and Blagojevich shocked cartoon


For the youngsters here, the original.

Monday, December 15, 2008

TONY REZKO CARTOON


This doesn't need much commentary.    Some good stuff on the subject by Steve Sailer here.

Happy Christmas readers!!!

A Original drawing by David Parkin. Thanks to Trevor Metcalfe for the scan.

http://uk.geocities.com/pjgtrevormetcalfe/






Happy/Merry Christmas from me!!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

I Castelli Animati 2008 - Part Two

Well, they say better late than never, so there you are: as promised, the second and last part of my adventures in Genzano!

One of the main events at the festival was the meeting with some of the veterans of Italian animation, namely Giulio Cingoli, Paolo Di Girolamo, Gibba, Giorgio Castrovillari, and Stelio Passacantando.
Gibba was another one of the guests who didn't come to the festival. Too bad, because not only it would have been nice to meet him in person, but also his films were not screened due to his absence. I would have loved to watch his masterpiece "L'Ultimo Sciuscià" on a big screen!
Luckily all of the other scheduled shorts were screened, including the Castrovillari-Gibba co-production "Il Merlo", a couple of short films by Stelio Passacantando made with animations by grade school children, a handful of Giulio Cingoli productions, including animated commercials, psychedelic segments from live action movies and a narration of the Italian unification in "La Lunga Calza Verde", and Di Girolamo (one of a few European artists who were offered a contract at the Disney studios in California after WWII) presented some of the works of his animation school students.
Lots of interesting exchanges with the artists themselves followed, including a lively argument involving Passacantando and his relationship with the Italian ASIFA.

Among the events at the festival, there were also the presentations of some books: "Il Cinema di Animazione Italiano Oggi" by Sabrina Perucca offers a view on the current state of Italian animation, and followed the screenings mentioned above, offering a link between the past and the future of animation in Italy.
This was followed by the presentation of the book "Capelli Lunghi", a comic book adaptation of a script by the legendary Italian director Mario Monicelli for an unrealized movie, written in the late Sixties, and revolving around the social revolution taking place at the time.
Another featured book was "Viaggi nell'Animazione" by film historian Matilde Tortora. Including essays and interviews with, among the others, Bruno Bozzetto, John Canemaker and Michel Ocelot, the book follows the entire history of animation, from the beginnings to the more recent applications of artificial intelligence and computer technologies to create virtual worlds. It is dedicated to the memory of Simona Gesmundo, who was among the first ones to study the possible uses of artificial intelligence applied to filmmaking and animation, and her name has also been given to an international animation award (http://www.premiosimonagesmundo.com/index.html).

Le Noeud CravateThe last event I could attend was Saturday night's award ceremony. The final winner was Dennis Tupicoff's "Chainsaw", which to me still remains a questionable choice. Sure, it is an interesting film, to say the least: a flow of several different stories connected with an almost stream-of-consciousness sensibility, mixing fact and fiction, including chainsaws, love triangles and bullfighting. I still don't think it deserved the honor of the first prize though, among many other interesting nominees. Gladly one of the films that I really loved, the NFBC-produced "Le Noeud Cravate" by Jean-Francoise Levesque, received an award, the Fabrizio Bellocchio Award for Social Content. Mixing stop motion puppet animation and 2D animation, the film is a metaphorical narration of growing up and facing for the first time the responsibilities of a job. It was a visually great short, and it offered a very touching yet entertaining interpretation of work life, alienation and following ambitions.
The BridgeAmong the other award winners were "The Bridge" by Vincent Bierrewaerts, another stop-motion film which I think absolutely deserved a prize, and the amazing production "Muto" by Italian artist Blu, entirely composed of animation made through graffiti paintings on public walls. It really has to be seen to be believed, and I can't help but admire the incredible work behind this short film.

Well, that' all for now! Stay tooned for more posts by yours truly, finally back on the blogging scene!


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