“A faxed exchange between rival movie producers Don (Days of Thunder) Simpson and Jeff (Dick Tracy) Katzenburg: Simpson boasted to Katzenburg, “Wherever you go, you won’t escape the Thunder!” Katzenburg retorted, ‘Wait ’til you see how big my Dick is!’”

Bob Kane claims that actor Conrad Veidt’s appearance in a 1928 silent film inspired the creation of The Joker!

Usually I spotlight a comics character or a cartoonist for my Comics Tunes feature. This Tuesday I’m going to mix it up a little. I’m featuring an artist.

The Ventures, seen below in a classic photo that makes them look like they’re waiting for a bus, are one of the most successful recording acts of the rock ‘n roll era, if you measure success by how many records they released. I don’t count how many albums the Ventures recorded, I measure them by the pound (a ton of LPs the way I figure it).

The Ventures hold another record in addition to the record for making a lot of records. They also cut more comics-related tracks than anyone else. (Unless some astute Arf lover can think of a group that had more!)

Yes, there were albums of nothing but super-hero songs, and several artists recorded entire albums of just Batman tracks, but The Ventures had more songs about more unrelated comic and cartoon characters on different albums at different times in their career than anyone in their right mind would dare.

I took the Liberty (inside joke) of clumsily editing together some of the Ventures’ best into one four-minute comics medley. Listen for The Pink Panther Theme, Dick Tracy, The Batman Theme, Roadrunner, and Snoopy vs. The Red Baron, by simply clicking on the bar below…

(if no bar appears please click here to listen)

Next Tuesday, more comics tunes!

“RCA Engineers tested the Transmissions of a television signal in 1928. They daily trained their cameras on a Felix the Cat doll, making him TV’s first regular star!”

“A store in Arizona sold The Little Mermaid video wrapped in plain brown paper! A woman had complained that the cover showed an unmentionable part of the male anatomy in King Triton’s castle!”

The scatologically driven cartoon South Park started as a joke “Christmas Card” video circulated among Hollywood insiders. George Clooney (who was the voice of Sparky, the gay dog, in a later episode) pirated 100 copies to show his 100 closest friends!

Asked if The Honeymooners influenced the creation of The Flintstones, Bill Hanna said, “Jackie Gleason was going to sue but was talked out of it by his lawyers!”

This kid is FAR too enthusiastic in his rendition of The Mickey Mouse Club Song…

Squirrel Gulch, Colorado, was renamed Steve Canyon in honor of the character created by Milton Caniff!

George Herriman sometimes referred to Krazy Kat as a male, sometimes as a female!