NEW DRAWINGS

Two ladies dancing.

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY MILTON KNIGHT

THANK YOUR LUCKY TOONS

YE HAPPY PILGRIMS (1934)

Until proven incorrect, I will state that Miles Standish's voice is provided by Fred "Tex" Avery. (Click on image.)

THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS (1940)

A Thanksgiving Terrytoon in all its early 1940s splendor (I'm being serious).

OH, WELL...HAPPY THANKSGIVING ANYWAY, FOLKS!

DANCES WITH NAZIS

People get so sick that I can't help but laugh. "Charlie & His Orchestra" was nazi propaganda targeted to demoralize Allied soldiers who missed swing music from their homelands. There is an "underground" of jazz fans today who get perverse kicks out of the band's admitted musicianship.

Many of the players heard went on to successful postwar careers in jazz. It's been reported that, after some traveling, "Charlie", Karl Schwedler (1902-1973), died in Germany. Other sources claim he emigrated to and died in the USA.

These are all spins on American pop songs with special, perverted lyrics.

F. D. R. JONES

ST. LOUIS BLUES

LET'S GO SLUMMING

SKINFOLKS

It's all in the shade of skin. Why are klansmen "less evil" than nazis?

Look at the way they're interpreted. klansmen are not labeled "terrorists" in mainstream America. At worst, they are "zealots" who "attack".

"White Extremists". Listen to that. Sounds like they're just taking things "too far".

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY  MILTON KNIGHT
 

CARTOONIST'S HAIKU

Heavy inking on Bristol board.
Puddles of wet ink glisten. 
Old school.

-Milton Knight

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY MILTON KNIGHT

THE CLOWNISH GRACE OF STEVE MUFFATI

THE VOICE OF THE TURKEY (1950), is one of the last cartoons directed by Bill Tytla at Famous Studios, and is mostly a grab bag of elements borrowed gracelessly from WB and MGM shorts.

But the scenes animated by Steve Muffati have a clownish grace and rhythm all their own; a tasteful, lively mix of angles and curves, with effective foreshortening. I especially love his drawings of hands.

Masterful Muffati was a chief animator on the Fleischer SUPERMAN cartoons. His long career stretched into the 1960s (Joe Oriolo's FELIX series). He was the originator of the designs for Harvey Comics' earliest kiddie comics (LITTLE DOT, LOTTA, RICHIE RICH).

Showcasing his animation in a purer state is this commercial animated by him in the early 1950s

ART DAVIS AT COLUMBIA

Arthur Davis "has the most credits of any animator in history! No joke!" His work never received its due during his life or after his death, even though it was masterful and highly advanced. He was the first Hollywood animaton director to exploit staging and timing in florid cinematic terms (Frank Tashlin's work began being released in 1936.)

Cartoonist Mike Kazaleh approached Davis late in his life when Jones & Clampett were the only directors who mattered, and got, "You don't mean me. You must be wanting to know about somebody else." When Davis was asked about his cutting methods, he answered, "You cut it the way you see it."

Better known for his directorial stint at WB in the 1940s, reviewed here are four shorts from his Screen Gems period.

(Thanks to animators Nicholas John Pozenga & Mike Kazaleh for info.)

PUTTIN' OUT THE KITTEN (1937), a masterpiece in which the "story" is barely a story, but presented in an outstanding way, with cinematic wisdom.

THE PUPPET MURDER CASE (1935), with shadows & montage applied way ahead of the time of the mid 1930s.

LET'S RING DOORBELLS (1935). Simply an Art Davis tour-de-force. The spectacle comes at an unexpected point.

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL (1937).  A fearless retelling of Andersen's tale. Nominated for an Academy Award.

IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE

****WARNING: MESSAGE ABOUT DEPRESSION. DO NOT READ IF YOU BELIEVE PEOPLE SHOULD "JUST GET OVER IT". (However, if you've been "in" it, hopefully, you'll relate.)****

I get asked a lot, "If you're seeing a therapist, why aren't you feeling better?" Often the answer is the one I've got: A therapist does not "cheer you up" or tell you what to do. It's NOT a simple A-B-C question, walk out of the office and everything's fine affair. A good therapist helps you to learn the deep rooted reasons for your depression and the roots of your destructive behavior. Most people can't face that; they'd rather go to the grave in denial. The pain of facing the causes can be horrible. Only a brave person can. We are in the minority. I am thunderstruck to discover the facts of my own past, and all the years I've lost misdirecting pain. But I found it much more frightening to be tortured by psychic pain NOT KNOWING THE CAUSE OF IT. Unable to get out of bed or simply overwhelmed, etc. Now that I know more about mine, life is much less frightening, and I have greater control over it. I know what I'm doing. Am I happy? Maybe 50% of the time. Do I ever expect to be 90% happy? No. But now at least I know the reasons WHY and don't end up switching off half my brain and pointlessly chasing a false "happiness" for the rest of my days. I am now fully conscious.

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY MILTON KNIGHT

A musical short featuring Yvonne ("Lily Munster") De Carlo.

 

NO.

Fuck Starbucks. As always, people are being distracted by horseshit.

Eddie Cantor Depression comedy song that pretty much tallies up today.

SYNDICATION SUBMISSIONS

Sent these around in 1987. Didn't try real hard. I don't enjoy working in this format. For every decent gag, I'd come up with 8 turkeys.

"Elizabeth", a lively tune played by Debroy Somers' Band.

 COPYRIGHT 2015 BY MILTON KNIGHT

MORNING THOUGHTS

They've made an inspiring movie about the building of Trump's fortune. It's his birth reel.

***

They're remaking MR. BELVEDERE with a CGI dog. Now I suppose he'll shit on babies' heads when they dirty their diapers.

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY MILTON KNIGHT

IN SOLITARY

From my first novel: Wheezy is in prison, victim of a gang attack, & now in a solitary cell.

Wheezy (...) convulsed pointlessly on the cot. Eventually, he gave up. He laid on his side, in the same fetal position he had been assuming since his arrival.

Food arrived at least a few hours later in the form of a watery broth.

“Hey, I’m cuffed! What am I supposed to do with this??” Wheezy called after the guard.

 “Suck it!” answered the guard as he went up the hall.

Indeed, on the plastic tray was an unwrapped straw. Wheezy had to suck up his dinner.

It was at least a day later that a medic came in to look his wounds over. It was the same doctor who had given Wheezy the violent anal probe. Wheezy’s face froze in a steely eyed snarl of hate. The doctor ignored it, did his cursory look over, and rose to leave. Wheezy screamed at him, “You Bastard!!” The door clanked shut. “YOU BASTARD!!!”

In the hall, the doctor coolly said to a guard, “You hear that? He called me a bastard?” The guard made a mental note that “Wheezy” Gibson was a danger to himself and others. 

 COPYRIGHT 2015 BY MILTON KNIGHT

ON WAKING UP

The drawing I completed last night really looks good. It's great to wake up to see a good job on your board. Other times I cringe & go back to bed.

MY FAIR MIDNITE

When I created Midnite the Rebel Skunk for Blackthorne to publish, it was because they wanted a super-crusader type. This was as far as I wanted to go, and they accepted it. Shows how much freer things were in 1987. All that mattered was flooding the market.

I was happy to learn that some people turned on to the character who weren’t necessarily “comics readers”: women (some with what are now called ‘curves’, and male appreciators of black beauty (“I know what you’re doing. She’s built like a sister.”). I also observe that I’ve had my interest in Tempest Storm and burlesque since at least age 24.

At the time, I was not a regular at conventions; my experience of comic books was mainly the Golden Age stuff, and I had no idea that there were concepts of “good” comics and “bad”. The character apparently met with great hostility in “comics fandom” (I wouldn’t hear the word “furry” or know that it was a fetish for some years to come), and Blackthorne was switching to superheroes but went out of business before I saw how things would really have gone if given a chance.

A Harry Reser group plays "Hello Montreal", a jolly Prohibition song.

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY MILTON KNIGHT

ALONG GINZA LINES

I haven't seen this freedom of line in decades. The cook's inking on the left is thick just because they expressed the character and the artist. It was modern cartooning still rooted in the Asian line tradition. The unpredictability of this kind of work scares art directors & cartoon fans to death now. But I think "normal people" will still accept it. Hell, they do when they see it!
THE DOWNFALL OF THE GINZA by Saseo Ono, 1930. Illustrates employment crisis for cooks & prostitutes in the Ginza amusement center.

"The Music Goes Round and Round", played by the Columbia Jazzband (Japanese).

 

VAMPIRA HATH SPOKEN

Vampira (Maila Nurmi) said that black people have a greater appreciation for fantasy than whites.

"There Ain't No Maybe in My Baby's Eyes" by The New York Syncopaters.

THREE FACES OF MISH MISH

The MISH MISH EFFENDI cartoons were an irregular series produced in Egypt by the Frenkel Brothers. Here are three introduction titles, all from within the same period; 1935-39.

A main title.

End titles. It's an interesting thing about Mish Mish; everyone who's seen him likes him.

AIN'T SHE SWEET? played by The Radiolites.

I CHANGED MY MIND!

It's a man's prerogative. Decided I've more to say, so I'm keeping the blog going.

Drawing does revive some of the ol' ego; instead of complaining about what's out there, I know I'm superior to it.

Peppy song. "Fire!" by Earl Oliver's Jazz Babies, 1926. 

Later, MK.

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY MILTON KNIGHT