Theory: Parody- More Whack Comics

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.


Today, we present more parodies from Whack comics... But first take a look at the picture above. It's an an early advertisement for the Joe Kubert School. 3D comics and movies were all the rage then. Television was beginning to cut into ticket sales at theaters, and producers were looking for a technical advantage over TV to give them an edge. But the fad quickly fizzled out. Movie audiences and comic book readers were more interested in the quality of the movies and comics than the number of dimensions. Today, DVDs and digital media downloading are cutting into the traditional media markets. Some producers are beating the drum for 3D again. Let's hope they realize soon that people are more interested in quality entertainment than formats.

The following story by Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer trumpets their publication of the world's first 3D comic book, Three Dimension Comics in 1953. Strangely enough, the comic this was published in, Whack wasn't in 3D!








PARODY

In my last post on Whack comics, I left something unsaid, hoping someone would pick up on it in the comments. J.J. Hunsecker was the one who finally mentioned it...

I find it kind of ironic that you're using Whack as an example of parody, since it can also be said to be a ripoff of MAD.

It's important to understand exactly where the line lies between exploiting an existing concept and plagiarism. Whack doesn't plagiarise Mad magazine... it simply uses the same basic format- a parody comic book. It doesn't ripoff Mad magazine any more than Roy Rogers ripped off Gene Autry or Star Wars ripped off Star Trek. They are simply working in the same genre.

MIGHTY MOOSE
Here's an amusing parody of Paul Terry's Mighty Mouse. The Super Rodent himself even makes an appearance! This is a "second generation parody". Mighty Mouse himself was a parody of Superman.








FLUSH JORDAN
Flash Gordon was also a comic inspired by the success of another similar comic. Alex Raymond created the strip to compete with Dick Calkins' science fiction comic, Buck Rogers. Here, Flash gets "Whacked"... and Bing Crosby is dragged into the mess too!







Thanks to the Estate of Milton Caniff for allowing us to digitize this.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Ripoff vs Inspiration: Chaplin's Shadow. Also see... Jim Tyer's Funny Animal Comics, Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper, Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, and Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.3.09
.

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Filmography: Tytla and Terry-Jekyll and Hyde

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 7 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great cartoons to study.



Today, we continued to digitize our collection of Terrytoons. The second-tier golden age studios have been given short shrift in animation history books. It's unfortunate that book after book about Walt Disney and the Warner Bros. cartoons continue to be published when other studios, like Terry-Toons and Walter Lantz have never been adequately covered. The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is gathering together information on these studios with the hopes that we can raise the awareness of these neglected cartoons.

Here is a fabulous Terry-Toon featuring Mighty Mouse... Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll & Hyde Cat. You might remember the recent postings we published here with John Canemaker's notes to a gallery exhibit of artwork by Bill Tytla, (Part One / Part Two). After leaving Disney during the strike, Tytla worked for a brief time at Terry-Toons before moving on to Famous Studios. This is one of his best cartoons for Terry during this period.




In particular, pay attention to Tytla's wonderful transformation sequence...








The animation of the cat running across the rooftops has a creepy sort of "man in a cat suit" feeling. At Terry-Toons, the animators were given much more latitude to handle scenes in their own particular style. Tytla takes full advantage of that in this cartoon.






Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll & Hyde Cat (Terry/1944)
(Quicktime 7 / 13.8 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

If you found this post to be interesting, you should also see... Canemaker On Tytla Part One and Part Two, The Temperamental Lion 1940, Catnip Capers 1940, Jim Tyer's Barnyard Actor 1955 and Terrytoons Lobby Cards

Many thanks to John Kricfalusi for donating this great cartoon to our archive.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Filmography: The Temperamental Lion 1940

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 7 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great cartoons to study.

Today, we digitized some great Terrytoons model sheets that Carlo Vinci's family loaned to us...






This one is particularly interesting to me...



...because it's from one of the very best Terrytoons of the time, "The Temperamental Lion". Connie Rasinski created the goofy Bert Lahr lion character as the "King of the Jungle" for the classic cartoon "Doomsday" (1938) as well as "The Nutty Network" (1939). The model was adapted a bit in the late 1940s for "The Lyin' Lion", a film that includes some funny Jim Tyer animation...


...but the character was never better animated than he was by Carlo Vinci in this short... Check out his great scene of the lion singing!







The Temperamental Lion (Terry/1940)
(Quicktime 7 / 14.5 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Many thanks to the Vinci family for sharing their treasures with us!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

11.18.08
.

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Biography: Carlo Vinci

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 4 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great biographies of important artists.

If you only get information about animators from books on the history of animation, you might think that the Warner Bros directors and the "Nine Old Men" were the only important figures in the development of animation. But there are many books yet to be written about unknown artists whose achievements are right up there with the more familiar names.

Take for instance, Carlo Vinci...



Carlo Vinci's career spanned half a century. He received many honors as a fine artist before joining the staff of Terrytoons in 1933. For the next two decades, he was one of their top animators, specializing in dancing scenes...


Click to see a larger view.
John Kricfalusi describes Vinci's style as being as if Carlo invented animation himself, having never seen anyone else's animation. He was the master of the basic principles we read about in the Preston Blair book or Illusion of Life, but as you watch Vinci's syncopated, sinewy dancing scenes, you have to wonder if he didn't have a few extra principles of his own!

Carlo left Terrytoons and moved West to join his old friend Joe Barbera at MGM in the mid 50s, but soon after he arrived, the studio closed down. Joe Barbera got him a job at Disney, where Carlo animated on the Disneyland TV program. His pace was so fast, he was told to slow down, because he was producing so much quality footage, he made the rest of the animators look bad.



When Hanna and Barbera opened their own studio to produce TV cartoons, Vinci was one of the first three animators hired. He reinvented his style to work within the constraints of television schedules and budgets on shows like Ruff & Reddy, Huckleberry Hound, and Yogi Bear; but he really made his mark on The Flintstones. Every six weeks, Vinci animated an entire 24 minute episode of The Flintstones by himself!

Carlo retired at the ripe old age of 72, and passed away in 1993. We are very fortunate to have the assistance of his family in compiling a biopedia entry on his career. It includes photos, frame grabs, notes by John K and Joe Barbera, and movie files of his great film, "Mighty Mouse In Krakatoa" as well as clips from The Flintstones. Check it out...

Carlo Vinci Biopedia Entry

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Media: Terrytoons Lobby Cards

Mike Fontanelli brought by a set of Terrytoons character lobby cards for us to digitize. "It's pretty unusual to find sets of cards" Mike explained, "because collectors back in the 70s would pull out the Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckyl and trash the rest." Terrytoons are vastly underrated. ASIFA-Hollywood is fortunate to have a complete syndication package of Terrytoons on broadcast quality 3/4 inch masters. We've digitized nearly 900 Terry-Toons to date.

Many thanks to Mike Fontanelli for lending us these great lobby cards to scan...










Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

7.16.08
.

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