This lovely anthro ferret is from Animal Snap, probably by Spears. I referenced this one in my micro-essay on the name "Billy Bunny".  This artwork is out of hand! Terrific. All fun and innocence.  One would almost think disparate species like each other, just like we do! 1940's, guess who? Russell Manufacturing, Lieceter Massachusetts.  1940's, as are the above Disney cards.  These are miniatures. Maybe Spears, maybe 1940's or so.  The artist is superior. Whitman was the publishing house that dominated my childhood. Adorable. Why is he sad?  Maybe the mouse can help.  A throne, a cane, a pipe, a lion.  Even the mightiest symbols might need a boost from time to time.  Suggestive of an old authority gone lame.  This is one fucked up analysis tool. What is the little one being told to do, and why are people talking behind

Tony Sarg So I am in my favorite thrift store today, buying a couple of geological survey maps of Aransas County et al, when I ran across these excellent anthro drawings on what turned out to be Nabisco trading cards, Tony Sarg's Animal Circus.  What the Fuck?, thinks I, and I go home and look this guy up.  Holy smokes, talk about forgotten! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Sarg As per usual, I will let Wikipedia do the honors and tell you guys about Tony.  But what an artist this guy was! The very essence of fun. At this time period illustration was at it's high water mark, and Sarg is no exception. Incroyable. Irvin Cobb.  They seem to have been friends. Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  Sarg invented the tradition of the giant balloon critters in 1927. well i'll be a typewriting cockroach This is what I saw in the store today.  I ju

My brother, Graffo, drew this excellent and cheerful picture, perfect for the lovely if warm day we are having here.  He thinks it is derivative, and I looked at it and said "Crumb"?  and he said "yeah". True story! ( Graffo ) I think he is referring to this, The Cute Little Bearsie Wearsies, which I think we read about 1976.  Little did I realize how this planted the idea of foul mouthed anthro animals who engage in adult behavior into my consciousness.   Robert Crumb is just the best, top of the heap, a world class cartoonist, sex maniac, and stunningly talented fine artist.  Both of us are influenced by Crumb but also by hundreds of others!  But, as I often tell my brother and anyone else in the bar - Good artists borrow.  Great ones steal! What a glorious day to be alive.  Seize your dream, ...and fear nothing. (The excellent cat drawing is the best early Robert Crumb drawing I have seen.  The shi

Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo One of my fave film performances, this flick is so over the top that I am surprised I have taken this long to mention it.  This is from Kiss of Death, the 1947 film noir by director Henry Hathaway from the screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer.  Victor Mature as Nick Bianco is trying to go straight, but, gosh darn it, things just don't work out that way!  Rick Widmark is on hand to show how psychopathy should be done.  The below is the old lady down the stairs with giggles scene, and it will never be topped. https://youtu.be/S_0xAbFAIbM?t=72 Mildred Dunnock learns that Richard Widmark "can't stand squealers"! I first heard of Tommy Udo when I read that funniest of books about murderers, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, by Jimmy Breslin.  The above is Joey Gallo, an absolutely nutbar mafiosi who tried to take down the Columbo family and make it his. Joey admired Tommy Udo and acted l

I found these two in a shed that had been collapsed by our recent hurricane. (August 2017).  They were broken into 7 pieces, and I started to just throw them away.  They are from a do it yourself plaster mold shop.  These places were popular a while back, and in my hometown of Plano we had one for years, in a ratty strip mall across from the old A&P.  That place went out of business decades ago and as it anchored the mall, soon it was full of lower end businesses, like a Karate studio and fly by night telephone shops.  I could see the sign from my bedroom window, several miles away.   Anyhoo, I brought these figures home.  They were painted backyard fence brown and looked really bad.  I took glue and gold spray paint to them and here is what I got- I had to use filler on these, the cracking was severe.  A couple of times I thought, why bother?, but I kept at it.  These are at least 50 years old and may date to the early '60s.  They are signed with some lady's

 After years of being thrashed in the constant Rabbit Wars, a coalition of Cats and Wolves has emerged and are demanding total acquiescence on the part of the Lapin tribes.  This includes hostages, tribute, and free passage of Bunny lands.  The Wolves want this war over fast, as their allies are as untrustworthy as they cruel.  While the Wolves and the Cats have the edge in size and strength, the Rabbit population dwarfs them both, and combined with the Bunnies superior strategic ability this effort must be regarded as one of desperation on the part of the Carn Alliance.  The two emissaries above are typical of the Alliance, meeting the Bunnies at a critical pass alone and lightly armed. Carn arrogance is beyond all belief.  The Rabbit behind Flamma is the commander of a picked battalion of sharpshooters hidden among the rocks.   The Bunnies have been predated on since the Graft, and their recent battlefield dominance has come as a nasty surprise. Oh, and a band of Ca

Two Fisted Tales #30, 1952.  Jack Davis cover art.  The great writer Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) was overage for combat but managed to get in the army as a footsoldier.  He repeatedly turned down a commission, and was an extremely good NCO.  Taking out a night patrol, one of his men lit a cigarette.  Munro's last words were "put out that bloody cigarette"!  He was killed by a bullet to the head immediately afterwards..  That he had to tell someone at night and in a no man's land dominated by enemy snipers not to use a match demonstrates that Britain was scraping the bottom of the barrel for manpower by late 1916.  He has no known grave. Two Fisted Tales, #27, 1952.  Harvey Kurtzman cover art. Two Fisted Tales # 25 1952.  Harvey Kurtzman cover art.  This is the greatest comic book cover of all time.  I first saw this in Les Daniel's excellent Comix, in 1973 while I was sick with the flu.  This is where the young boy discovered t