Nemo #9: Comic Strips, Political Cartoons and Animation All In One!

Today I begin the "Every Sunday" upload of a COMPLETE issue of "Nemo: the Classic Comics Library". Call it "Sunday Funnies" if you like, I probably will.

Feedback is welcome about the view ability of the scans, I'm playing with my Photo Shop options to reduce the file size but IN NO WAY want to reduce the resolution. Please let me know how it looks on your computer. I'll make adjustments accordingly.

You can see by the table of contents that, once again Nemo is chock-full of articles and features on everything you'd want, but in 1984 you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else...

And Richard Marschall rightfully puffs his chest and feels pride in this magazine. Truly a labor of love that must have hit all his creative expectations...

First up, an unpublished interview with the great master Hal Foster on all things, but mostly a great look at Prince Valiant.

Foster was a master story-teller and his drawings were amazing...his figures seem real and nto imagined, they're so solid...and in the days when he had an entire tabloid page to play on, his landscapes were breath-taking. It's great to hear him speak of it all first person.

"Fantasy in the Comics" this issue covered a pre-"Bringing Up Father" George McManus strip that shows Winsor McCay's influence on his style. Ironically enough, McCay's influence on his page layouts would come about more evidently when telling the tale of Maggie and Jiggs later.

These seem a little muddy, but Nemo even had the good foresight to re-print these as double page spreads, which I've "Photomerged" into single images. Another example of what would be wonderful to see in full 4-color.

Meh! Another article in the vein of the Mort Walker one in a previous issue. Interesting enough, if not slightly off-topic for the "Classic Comics Library".

I have very mixed feelings on Hanna-Barbera. Their earliest MGM "Tom & Jerry" cartoons were gorgeous to look at if not very funny. Their earliest TV work (Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, etc.) had great character designs and used the economy of television animation to great effect, thought he humor is extremely dated. Their late 1960's adventure cartoons were great fun "Jonny Quest" and "The Herculoids" standing head and shoulders above the rest, mostly in deference to the contributions of Doug Wildey and Alex Toth respectively. But for the most part their work is hack-y at best and their sub-par work only shines in comparison to studios like Ruby-Spears and Filmation.

On the plus side, they are a very important part of animation history. And someone like me should never criticize "off-topic" as I believe "all things cool" should be discussed anywhere and everywhere.

Enough of my jabbering. Here's Joe Barbera in his own words.

Part 5 of the Allen Saunders autobiography "Playwright for Paper Actors". The more I read this the more grateful I am to the folks at Nemo for giving this work an outlet. In the years before the Internet, it was not that easy to find a place to foster such things.

A brief but glorious look into life in the "King Features" bullpen of the 1930's. The opening page is worth a thousand words!

The best look into political cartoons I've seen in a longggggg time. Great to see a specific topic covered by so many great cartoonists and the space of 100 years (now 125) really gives perspective on it all.

Invaluable!

And finally a little teaser for what's to come in issue #10, next Sunday come see it all!

Talk to you soon!