Little Golden Books make for Happy Kids!

Sunday's a good time to turn your brain off and look at things that make you happy.  Maybe that's the appeal for some people to go to church...

The other day on Facebook, a few other art appreciators and I trailed off topic and someone brought up Little Golden Books, one thing led to another and the scanning started.  Below are the Little Golden Books that sit proudly in my collection.  There are a few more stuffed in a box of Christmas type stuff one of which I've already posted here and the rest I'll get to by December, I'm sure.  

These are books that I've carried with my since I was a wee tyke, with the exception of the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner ones which I picked up in my teen years, just because I was starved for real cartoons.  The late 70's was a very bad time for fans of real cartoons.

People ask, why did you keep your children's books?  You're forty-freakin-nine years old?!?  The answer being, even as a tot, when it came time to toss away such things, I knew that there be true art here.  I knew this was something to treasure.

AND I had the best mom in the world and she spoiled me rotten.

I don't apologize for that.  I deserved it.

Drink in these beautiful "LGB patented washable covers" and see if you don't agree.

And see if you don't find a few familiar books from your own past.

Bob Clampett's Beany & Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent.  We had a B&C board game when I was a kid too.  I was born after the TV show was done airing in my area, so my exposure to these great characters was here first.  I was probably in my 30's before I ever saw an episode of the cartoon and in my 40's before I ever saw the puppet show.  I was sure glad I had this when I finally did!

A Hanna=Barbera cartoon that wasn't even a cartoon at the time.  Didn't stop the drawings from being funny though...just looka that twisted horn dinosaur!  Awesome!

That's right.  I know my colors!  Incredible art in this one.

I learned an awful lot about dinosaurs from this book.  Most of the info is now out of date, but these paintings are wonderful!

As a very small child of 4 or 5 years old in Montana reading this one, I remember turning to my brothers Richard and Mike and saying "Wouldn't it be neat if this place was real?".  They smirked, called me a dumb kid and told me it was.  When I was 22 I moved to California where I knew no one, had no where to live and no job prospects.  This is the first place I went, just in case I had to turn tail back home.

I wish I was small enough to play on a toy boat!

The paintings in this one still have me mesmerized as well.

Hanna-Barbera's early "menagerie characters" look even better in book form than they do on their shows, if you ask me.

Ah, Marge's Little Lulu.  What a bunch of appealingly ugly little kids.

Very off=mode for an officially sanctioned book.  Disney did that kind of things for their albums a lot too...it really lends to the fairy tale aspect.

The aforementioned late-comers to the stacks.  Loved none the less.

Another cartoon from before my time...but when I started learning about cartoon history (you know, the IMPORTANT kind of history) I was ahead of the curve because of this book.

I'm sure I was exposed to other takes on Ma Goose as a kid, but this is the one in my minds eye.  Could there ever be a more perfect Simple Simon than Goofy?  I don't think so.

Another book with some really striking paintings.  That bunny and his magic nose are so deeply ingrained in my brain, I don't thinkyou could get them out with a crowbar!

Disney's Winnie is as iconic as Milne's Winnie.  Not often a character can embody two such distinctly different looks and feels and work well in both.

Never understood this one.  School was a chore I could have done without.  learning was great, but did I really need to be subjected to that environment 7 hours a day?  I don't think so.  These drawings were worth being exposed to, though.

Now for the main answer to "Why do I still have these" and maybe you hadn't thought of this yet "Why were they right where you could find them when it came up on Facebook?".  The answer is simple.

Little Golden Books make me happy.

Talk to you soon.

Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook! - 8-3-12

Last peek at my sketchbook for the week.  I flipped back to the beginning (from before I put it away, not getting how sketchbooks work, probably back in 2008-9)

I think my concept here on page 1, was to make the sketchbook an anthropological notebook written in the 1920's and 30's by the worlds dumbest explorer.  See here the hilarity as he discovers an elephant (not knowing that they'd already been discovered) and miscategorizes it as an insect.  Hilarity ensues?

Then I think I got the concept of doing a strip featuring EVERY comic and cartoon character EVER created.  Not thinking about the logistical nightmare of telling an understandable story with 8 million characters, I just thought it would be cool to see.  I kind of did that any way (and will again) with my "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Book Super Heroes" thingy I do here from time to time.

Here's me attempting (and liking) my take on the Duck's (Donald and Daffy) and then being thwarted by that dang hard-to-draw-for-me-anyway, Mickey Mouse.

My horrible Mickey meeting Daffy Duck, Superman and Ko-Ko the Clown at what ever event I imagined them all meeting at.  Batman and The Yellow Kid look on.

You see, I'd never really drawn other peoples characters before.  I have always (from a very young age) known that it's the cartoonists style that makes the feature cool, the character comes second.  Jack Cole's Plastic Man is awesome.  Joe Staton (who is extremely talented in his own rigth) doing Plastic Man was a bad take on a character and missed the point.  So at 45-6 years old, I was trying to see if I could even draw them, and have them be recognized.

Here's a sketch of me looking bad-ass with my posse:  Goofy, Donald, Mickey, A horrible Bugs Bunny, the Golden Age Green Lantern and being evesdropped on by a very Bob Clampett-y Tweety Pie and a sloppy Sylvester.  Over all a decent Mickey there.

Which brings us back to the present as I doodle myself some more.

Sketching trying to find a new avatar for facebook and Twitter and the like.

Not the way Van Gogh spent his time...but I am a cartoonist...and that's a wonderful thing.

Thanks for sifting through this with me this week.

Talk to you soon.

Misc. Disney - Unca Jeffy's Toy Box

Wayyyyy in the depths of "Unca Jeffy's Toy Box" are some treasures from deep in Jeffy's childhood. Dusty, scuffed and just a tad broken (much like Jeffy's memories) are glimpses of happiness from days gone by. ...and SOME were even licensed by Disney!

Here's a slick little Mickey Mouse ice cream truck. What could bring more light into a childs eyes than Mickey Mouse AND ice cream? Not much, says I...


Mickey's left arm is a casualty, but he can still steer that thing like a sumbitch!

Ice cream treats by the score, and for the low, low price of 5 and 10 cents!

Here's Mickey in a snappy roadster...

....he apparently got this bad boy up to a speed which blew the canopy cleaaaaaaaaaan off. Little speed demon rodent.

Speaking of speed, Mickey was apparently also into drag racing. Seems he blew a tire on this one...hell, the whole dang wheel...

...but he still looks cool. And the chicks dig him.

Coolest of all of these little Disney automobiles, this one is die-cast metal and features NOT just representatives of Disney's big 3 (Mickey and Donald) but they're getting chauffered by Pinocchio hisself. Those feature film stars always had to cater to Disney's short subject stars.

Here, in the "Nutty Mads" tradition, monochromatic, plastic extrusion mold, estra sturdy Disney pals! M-I-C...K-E-Y.....M-O-U-S-E!

"
...the cows and the chickens, they all squawk like the dickens, when they hear my little Minnies Yoo Hooooooooooooooo!".

"Quack, quack, quack, Donald Duck, Gee I think he's cute! Quack, quack, quack, Donald Duck, in his sailor suit!".

And Pluto. Couldn't talk, didn't wear clothes, walked on all fours and ever had a song of his own. So sad.

Hi kids!

Goodbye Mickey! I'm sure there's more of you in the toy box.

We'll visit you another day.

Talk to you soon.

Whitney Museum and More Vulgar Modernizm!

The Whitney Museum of Art Comic Art show covered the gambit of cartooning from comic strips to comic books to todays topic, animation.

Vulgar modernism sounds like an insult. I'd say it's pure Americana. My favorite flavor!

Enjoy!

Talk to you soon.

Vic & Sade and Walt Disney's Christmas Party - OTR Friday

OTR ear candy time again and time to smile with America's Home Folks in the little house halfway up on Virginia Avenue.

Beginning our chronological listent to the surviving "Vic & Sade" shows of 1940, are two gems which feature all the ear-marks of Paul Rhymer's wonderfully tectured writing of mid-western characterization and humor.

From January 2, 1940, Vic gets a letter from the "Starry Knight's of the Milky Way" lodge headquarters in Chicago, offering a service to have his portrait painted for the lodge hall for $50. Showing Vic's love of the pomp and circumstance of lodge life and Sade's opposing view of wasted money, the show also highlights Rush's frustration with being ignored by his elders as he tries to relate a story about Smelly Clark. This show also makes the running gag message of the $2 bill from Kleeburger's which Vic habitually ignores.

Dig in!



The show from January 9, 1940 features another of the show's running gags, with Vic trying to finish up some office work at home, this time soliciting Rush's help. While hurrying to get the chore done before Fred and Ruthie Stembottom arrive to take them for an evening drive to Chenoa, Sade opens her heart and reflects on her hot and cold relationship with Miz Scott.

A lot of indepth character studies for a daily 15 minute radio show meant to be heard only once. Genius.

Enjoy!



I finished sharing the 12 part "Speaking of Radio" documentary on "The Jack Benny Program" with you last week. So why not a little Christmas fun...

CARTOONS ON THE RADIO? Radio was so cool, they could pull this off. From December 23, 1934 and "The Heinz Hall of Fame", here's a special Christmas Party with Walt Disney and all his pals!



They really are all here. Walt (also supplying the voice of Mickey Mouse), Clarence "Ducky" Nash (as Donald Duck) and Pinto Colvig. Although Goofy has not fully been established as a major character in 1934, Pinto does the voices he originated as The Big Bad Wolf, The Practical Pig and The Grasshopper from "The Grasshopper and the Ants".

A young Walt...showman supreme:


Mickey in his black and white glory days. Though Walt does announce in this show that soon all Mickey Mouse shorts will be in Technicolor from here out:

Mickey's Yoo Hoo, little Minnie Mouse:

The Three Little Pigs:

Pluto the Pup:

Donald Duck:

Clara Cluck:

Horace Horsecollar:

And Walt brings along the Silly Symphony Orchestra to do a string of hit songs from the series with the original singers...

"Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf?" from "The Three Little Pigs":

"The World Owes Me a Living" from "The Grasshopper and the Ants":

"The Waltz (from Lullaby Land)":

One of my favorites..."You're Nothin' But a Nothin'" from "The Flying Mouse":

"The Love Duet" from "Who Killed Cock Robin?":

and "Highdy Hade" from "The Goddess of Spring":

A genuinely fun and spriteful listen...it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Talk to you soon.