THE CARTOON CRYPT: More on Peeping Penguins (1937)

THE CARTOON CRYPT

I watched Peeping Penguins on the Fleischer Color Classics compilation dvd Somewhere in Dreamland again this weekend, and I was correct that it is missing footage (in addition to the previously mentioned altered soundtrack missing the song “Curiosity Killed the Cat”). The penguin playing and almost killing himself with a loaded rifle has been eliminated from the sloppily edited version on the Dreamland dvd. You can get the full version on a shoddily manufactured but chock full of great stuff compilation called 150 Cartoon Classics. Or you can just watch it online:

You’ll want Somewhere in Dreamland for the rest of the Color Classics, though (except for the one it doesn’t include)… in spite of its flaws it is a fantastic and almost complete compilation of the Color Classics:

I’ve extracted the song Curiosity Killed the Cat (along with some of the rest of the soundtrack) as an mp3 which you can download here.

Read more about Peeping Penguins on The Big Cartoon Database here.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Arch Dale’s Doo Dads at Punch in Canada : September 2nd, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S HEY! KIDS! COMICS!

TODAY’S FEATURED COMICS: Today is an easy pick, in spite of there being the usual bunch of great stuff. My friend John Adcock at Punch in Canada has started posting a bunch of gorgeous examples of the obscure but wonderful comic The Doo Dads by Arch Dale. I haven’t seen that much of Dale’s work, as it is exceedingly difficult to see! It has never been reprinted, and if you want to read more of it you’ll probably have to hunt down the actual newspapers from when it was printed. What I have seen of his work has left a big impression.

Dale is often seen as a Herriman clone, and clearly Herriman was a large influence on him. It is terribly unfair to dismiss his work for this, though… his work is unique and he very much has his own voice and style.

John also shares the story about how he scanned a huge stack of these strips he borrowed and then had the files corrupt or disappear on him… it just makes me wanna cry. Fortunately these scans survived. Boy would I like to see more of this stuff… someone, please make a book on Arch Dale! You Canadians can get government grants for this sort of thing can’t you?

See the first post here and the second one here… sounds like there is more to come!

INTERESTING LINKS: September 2nd, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S INTERESTING LINKS

TODAY’S FEATURED ITEM: I’m Learning to Share posts images of a mysterious hideously illustrated vintage teevee tray that seems to be painted by an artist copying the characters from different sources. I have two of these trays also… my daughter was eating sugar cereal on one sitting on the floor watching Fleischer cartoons just this weekend. Can you identify what artists the artist of this tray was ripping off? If so please do so in the comments here, or better yet on I’m Learning to Share’s post. I’m betting the monkey is a poor rendition of some Lawson Wood image. Click the image above to go to the site and see a better photo of the illustration.