We open our coverage of Cartoons Magazine‘s second year, with the January 1913 prose articles written by or about actual cartoonists of that time.

Click on the above & below pages, to see/read larger versions.

Above, a page on Edward S. Reynolds and his mascot character, “Tige”, who with time caused Reynolds to become better known as “Tige Reynolds”.

Beneath, Matthew Caine, writing on (and depicting) the struggle to capture the likeness of subjects.

Below, George W. French writes about his daily single panel cartoon series Anxious Moments, appearing in the Chicago Record Herald.

Doug Wheeler

As previously established, I like my comics weird and exotic, and fitting that bill nicely is Sensational Acromaid Comics, an eight page, black, white and red comic published in England during the post war period. Although none of them really took off during this era lots of creators and publishers tried their hands at doing American style superheroes with various degrees of failure. I want to call Acromaid a powerless costumed adventurer, but neither term is exactly accurate. Although not super powered Acromaid was more than a bit of a bad-ass and although she has a distinctive wardrobe (red evening gown and matching buccaneer boots) it’s hard to call it a costume exactly.

She was the creation of Dennis Malcolm Reader, a British artist who was fascinated with American superheroes and who’s art was influenced by (strangely enough) both Milton Caniff and Joe Shuster. According to the Lambiek Comiclopedia he created such British superheroes as ‘Powerman’ (Super-Duper, 1946-49), ‘Electro Girl’ (New Jungle Comics, 1947-49), ‘Rick Larson’ (Four Deuces), ‘Both 3000′, ‘Burt Steele’ (Bestofall Comics), ‘Wonder Boy’ (G-Boy Comics), ‘Acromaid’, ‘Venus’, ‘Phantom Maid’, ‘Johnny Wilde’ (Hubba Hubba), ‘Tim Craig’ (Atomic Bombshell). And me being me, I hope I get the chance to read them all.

Here’s a rave for Craig’s Comics About Cartoonists from Rants and Raves columnist RC Harvey.

http://gocomics.typepad.com/rcharvey/2012/11/comics-about-cartoonists.html

You can now go ahead and order your copy of Ditko Monsters V 1: Gorgo, due next month from Yoe Books!

http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Ditkos-Monsters-Volume-Gorgo/dp/1613775520

And don’t forget Craig’s Little Penis, sure to be a popular novelty book for the valentine in your life. Order now!

http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2012/12/craig-yoes-little-penis.html

Finally, meet Craig Yoe on Thursday, January 10th at The Strand in NYC, signing The Art of Betty and Veronica alongside Archie legends!

http://www.strandbooks.com

In this week’s news, we’ve been hearing about President Obama’s nominations for changes in Cabinet members for his second term.

Meanwhile (late 1912/early 1913), President-Elect Wilson had the slightly different job of making his initial Cabinet choices (and at this date, had plenty of time yet — his Inauguration wasn’t until March).

Above, Woodrow Wilson coming up empty, by Ole May, from the February 1913 issue of Cartoons Magazine. Beneath, from December 1912, cartoons by Herbert H. Perry and others.

Doug Wheeler

Woodrow Wilson

We’re not accustomed to writing obituaries here, especially since a lot of the comics and music we share are from artists long gone anyway. But we’ve been itching (get it?) to share this piece by Dave Brubeck and since he just passed away on December 5th there’s no time like the present.

Although Brubeck composed the music for “This Is America, Charlie Brown” it would be too easy to make that comics connection. Instead we’re presenting this somewhat obscure track from the “Dave Digs Disney” album. It’s his jazzy take on “Heigh Ho” from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

Now I have a question for those erudite ITCHers out there who majored in English or have a degree of some sort. Why is it “dwarfs” and not “dwarves”? We say “shelves” for the plural of “shelf.” We say “elves” for the plural of “elf.” Why don’t we change that F to a V when there’s more than one dwarf? It’s food for thought.

You can ponder that burning issue while you listen to Dave digging Disney. Just click the link below and enjoy.

Heigh-Ho - Dave Brubeck Quartet

Even way back before I got heavily into Golden Age comics (and decades before I ‘discovered’ funny animal comics) I liked Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal. As a concept anyway. I was introduced to them via X-Men artist Terry Austin, who liked to sneak them into illustrations, like in this page from Marvel Fanfare #18.

I liked how the name sounded, the weird incongruity of a funny animal team, usually built around predator and prey, being comprised of a pig and a seal. I especially liked the surreal notion that once upon a time Marvel Comics successfully published funny animal comics.

Created by Al Jaffe, the artist better known for the Mad Fold-In, the series featured work by artists such as Joe Calcagno, Harvey Eisenberg, Al Fago, Al Genet and Mike Sekowsky. Al of which is information taken from the series Wikipedia entry which is pretty much all I know about the comic because actual issues (or even illegal digital downloads) are still frustratingly hard to find. I was lucky to this issue of Piggy Pig from (speaking of illegal) I.W. Publishing a.k.a. Super Comics. They published four issues of the series in 1958 which reprints material from a 1945 issue of Silly Tunes (or so the Grand Comic Book Database tell us).

I’m still no expert on funny animal comics, let alone Golden Age funny animal comics, but I can tell you I like what I’ve read of Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal - and wish I could read more.

So okay, I’m taking a breath for January, after having posted with ridiculous frequency last year. I’ll be drawn back into it soon enough.

For now, some filler material I scanned awhile ago. The above episode of Maud, by artist Frederick Burr Opper, appeared on the rear cover of the September 13th, 1906 issue of Hearst’s American Home and Farm.

Click on the above picture to enlarge & read it.

Doug Wheeler

— Doug

Let’s start the new year right with something short and fairly awful, Donald and Mickey Annual 1974 from Fleetway in the UK. Some of the contents are reprints of American Disney material, some appear to be European (and not very good). And then there’s this insanely off model Mickey Mouse style I’m going to go ahead was drawn by British hands. I make that assumption because I keep seeing examples of Mickey in the UK that are just appalling; it’s like either the artists didn’t care or were working from zero reference material. I mean, check out the Mickey on the cover; he’s positively Soviet looking.

And then check out how Mickey is drawn in this sort story, “Making a Splash!”.

And for bonus ick points, here’s a close-up of Mickey without his shoes. Maybe it’s just me, but I always find it extra ooky whenever see either Mickey or Goofy appears sans shoes or socks.

And then there’s this activity page; OK, sure, Mickey looks just fine…

…but check out what he’s wearing. A long jacket, with a tie? What the hell?

And here’s a How To Draw Mickey page; I wish I could they could shown it to the artist who drew “Making a Splash!”

It’s New Year’s Day and almost everybody has the day off. Except me. I’m here slaving away at official I.T.C.H. Headquarters to bring you my usual Tuesday installment of this blog, where I regularly present comics-related music for your listening and dancing enjoyment. No thanks are necessary, it’s my pleasure.

Which is not to say I don’t plan to knock off a little early! After all, it’s a holiday and I’d like to relax a little. Even though it may appear that I am some kind of superior being, with my vast collection of comics and music, and my near-infinite knowledge of all things comical and musical, I am human after all.

So, since I’m basically phoning it in today, I’ll give you an easy one. In fact it’s so obvious, I’m surprised I haven’t thought of it until now! Here I’ve been digging in my archives looking for hidden treasure while this one was hiding in plain sight. Sometimes you need help to see the forest for the trees.

Today’s low-hanging fruit mentions not one, but two comic book characters. When I tell you which ones you’ll guess the song immediately: Superman and the Lone Ranger. Even though these two timeless characters never met (as far as I know) or appeared in the same comic together, they did appear in the same song together.

You know he’s a hero with a hat size of 132!

Wear it in good health, just don’t tug on it.

Have you guessed yet? Well hurry up, I don’t have all day.

Yes, it’s Jim Croce’s mega-hit, “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.” Back when this record was in the charts, radio listeners heard the names of Superman and the Lone Ranger at least once an hour. It’s a Comics Tunes smash hit record!

Since you’ve all heard Jim’s (autobiographical?) version I thought I’d play this excellent cover by Josh Turner.

Start off 2013 right and click the link below to listen. And don’t mess around with Jim, Slim, The Lone Ranger, Tonto, or Superman. You’ll thank me later.

Josh Turner - You Don’t Mess Around With Jim

As we start 2013, let’s look back fondly on those we lost in 2012…in this case Hostess.

http://mycomicboardbanners.blogspot.com/2012/12/hostess-saves-day-4.html

King Features comics characters cavort in this government-produced propaganda pamphlet on eating.

http://randomactsofgeekery.blogspot.com/2012/12/government-comics_31.html

Here’s a New Year’s greeting from The Dark Knight himself.

http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2013/01/today-in-comics-history-batman-does-not.html

Finally today, a fond goodbye apparently to the Golden Age Comic Book Stories blog which, after no updates lately, seems now defunct.