Mister Scribbles

Billy likes to be outside.  He likes being alone, which is a good thing for him.  Here he is catching butterflies and then letting them go.  Billy loves life and even swatting a mosquito bothers him.  He has thought a great deal about the amount of death he has brought with him and, to say the least, it upsets this bunny greatly.  The miracle of even the most insignifcant of critters blows his mind.  How can something as small as this insect be so beautiful, so well programmed for it's existence?  Billy is currently reading and not understanding a book about the double slit light experiment.  He is so ignorant of science that he thinks the Big Bang argues the existence of God.  Let there not only be light but space and time.  Weird, thinks our rabbit.  Soon it will be time for those nice sunflower sandwiches and carrot cutlets he has brought.  A can of cold lemonade will go very well with lunch.  He used to talk ab...

My brother is a fantastic artist.  He puts these cartoons up on Instagram and gets very few readers.  Even I, ignored at light speed that I am, do better in the audience department.  I am trying to draw cute and humorous animals, and I would love to have the vitality of his drawings.   This is one of the reasons I am so bitter and violent.  Yesterday, at the beach, I walked over to a small boy building a sand castle and took his bucket and shovel, crushing his castle with my foot as I did so.  When I left him he was crying his eyes out.  But, and this is the point of my anecdote, I did feel sorta bad about it for awhile. Everyday in every way I get better and better. Here we see Graffo's dark, malevolent, twisted psyche in full bloom, in this staggering display of misogyny and scientific horror. Ha ha!  Gotcha!  This drawing don't mean shit.  Otto Soglow had better watch out! Poster for Charl...

I have been walking like this my entire life and thought nothing of it.  Now I find out this is the Felix pace, head down and deep in thought. And everyone said I would never amount to anything! We have much in common.  As does Pat Sullivan, who first drew Felix and drank himself insensible every day of his adult life.  Dead by 47.  Some say the chief animator, Otto Mesmer, came up with Felix but it is probable that Mr. Sullivan originated it. Pat Sullivan was a convicted child rapist and did time for it while others were out fighting the Hun. Felix was the first cartoon star, but Sullivan's refusal to use sound doomed him.  Here he is rushing toward oblivion.  All cartoons after Felix, Koko the Clown excepted, were rip-offs of Felix.  Even Mickey, who was just a pared down version of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.  Disney lost control of Oswald and Ub Iwerks came up with a superior version.  Here is Woo's Whoopie, 1...

After months of waiting for these to come down to a reasonable price, I got them today for 10 bucks.  This guy is such a great artist. Just look at that singing rabbit.  Adorable! Outstanding work. These look like brush and ink only.  The smooth line, the excellent composition mark this guy as a master cartoonist.  But he is best known today for this- Felix the Cat, 1931.  While his first Macy's balloon was used in 1927, there are no photos of the earlier ones.  Sarg was a distinguished puppeteer and regard the balloons as "upside down marionettes". The Sea-Serpent.  In 1937, as a hoax, Sarg let this thing wash up one a Nantucket beach.  He lived in Nantucket. https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-nantucket-sea-serpent-hoax-1937/ Himself.  But what's this?  It popped up unbidden in my Sarg search.  Why, I believe this is a painting of Raul Julia fro...

Billy has become a real cartoon character today!  No more anger and brooding.  However, Officer Portly has some questions about those missing carrots...  But Billy knows nothing about that.  It is a day of days!

My brother likes to draw on newspaper.  I admire his cartooning ability a great deal.  He has drawn all his life and has a degree in printmaking.  I thought I was going to be young forever so I did not bother with college.  Now I am trying to learn to draw cartoon style. I could think of several additions to this that would make it really funny and not just weird.  One would be something in the boy's right hand.  Perhaps a re-arrangement of clothing?  The possibilities pile up.

Here is a picture of a happy lady.  This was drawn by a man now famous for talking ducks. Carl Barks worked at Disney for seven years as an in-betweener, which meant drawing fill in animation for the real artists.  He left to go raise chickens. I noticed his art when I was a kid, although I had no idea who the artist was.  He was already outed as the "good" duck artist but I didn't know.  I was surprised that I liked the McDuck comics as much as I did.  I read this c. 1969 but whether it was a reprint or not I don't know. (It was a reprint, see below). Donald, Huey, Dewie, and Louie.  Barks retired in 1966 and was replaced by the very good Don Rosa. Disney did very little artwork as he was an idea man, but all the comics were signed with his trademark signature.  (Studio created).  These were by Western Comics Group. He came up with a lot of great characters. ...

A quick copy of Br'er Rabbit from a Disney comic illustrated by Carl Barks, according to the internet.  It was dated 1987 and I have never heard of Barks working outside the duck thing.  I guess I did not need to say that this was quick, did I?  It should have taken a few seconds.  It took 10 minutes at least, all these great cartoons characters are design masterpieces.  Genius can be deceptively simple. Readers of this internet thing I got here know that I admire Bill Peet, who quit Disney over the way Walt planned on fucking up The Jungle Book, which Walt then proceeded to do.  The new version is outstanding with only two songs, both excellent. Now I read in IMDB that Kaa sings Trust In Me, which I don't remember, and I wish to remind everyone that Kaa is an ally of Mowgli and Baloo.   Kudos to them for the new Sher Khan.  I love Disney art and hate the movies, singing and dancing does not and has not advanced a storyline...