June 15th, 2023

Members Click Here Membership Email Join Us!

Comic Books: Milt Stein’s Super Mouse

Milt Stein's Supermouse

Milt Stein's SupermouseMilt Stein's SupermouseFunny animal comics don’t get enough respect.

Many incredibly talented artists worked in funny animal comics… some, like Kurtzman and Frazetta, went on to fame in other genres. Yet the only artist working in this field that most people are familiar with is Carl Barks. Uncle Scrooge comics are fine, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. In the 1940s and 50s, there was a wealth of funny animal comics all drawn in completely unique styles. I have to admit that comics aren’t my strong suit, but when I see a comic like this one, I want to know more about the people responsible for them.

Here is Supermouse Comics number 4, drawn by Milt Stein. Little is known about Stein’s career. He was an animator at Famous for a time, and he worked on Tubby the Tuba for Dr. Alexander Shure’s Westbury Long Island Company, the tradtional forerunner of NY Tech’s Computer Animation Program. He committed suicide in 1977. Milton Knight has pointed out that Stein "animated some very expressive scenes at Terry in the early 40s (the girl mouse puppet in Down With Cats). I think Stein was one of the most neglected artists of all time; and he drew far more imaginatively than Barks!"

Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse

Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse
Milt Stein's Supermouse

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

Comic BooksComic Books

This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Comic Books.

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather
Share on Tumblr

Posted by admin @ 11:33 am

June 14th, 2023

Members Click Here Membership Email Join Us!

Comic Strips: Cliff Sterrett’s Polly And Her Pals

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals

Cliff SterrettCliff SterrettAl Capp once described Cliff Sterrett as “the finest cartoonist of them all”. Yet most people have never heard of him or his strip, Polly And Her Pals.

Sterrett debuted the Polly strip in 1912. Initially, it focused on a pretty girl, but as the strip developed, Sterrett turned his attention to Polly’s family- specifically, her father, known as “Paw” and her mother, referred to as “Maw”. Other characters filled out the cast- Neewah, the family’s houseboy; Ashur, the dimwitted nephew; and Carrie, Paw’s sister in law. Shadowing Paw through the panels is Kitty, the cat.

Cliff Sterrett

Richard Marschall produced a pair of books documenting the Polly And Her Pals Sunday pages from 1926 to 1929. This was the prime era of the strip, with Picasso-esque cubist backgrounds and surreal gags. If you see these books for sale, grab them. By the mid-1930s, Sterrett was afflicted with arthritis, and had turned over a lot of the responsibility for the strip to his assistant, Paul Fung. Sterrett let Fung create the dailies without much input, but he supervised the Sunday pages personally, with Fung simply providing the background detail repeated from panel to panel.

Cliff SterrettCliff SterrettMy friend Kent Butterworth brought in a stack of original Sunday pages from 1936 for us to digitize. This era of Polly And Her Pals has never been reprinted, so these delicate originals are particularly important. These oversize sheets are twice as large as the platen on our scanner, so we have to scan them in two passes and splice them together in Photoshop. With the high resolutions we’re scanning art at, it takes over an hour to digitize each Sunday page. But I think you’ll agree that it’s well worth it.

Cliff Sterrett
January 5, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
January 12, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
February 2, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
February 16, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
February 23, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
March 29, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
April 5, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
June 7, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
June 28, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
July 5, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
August 2, 1936

Cliff Sterrett
September 13, 1936

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
September 20th, 1936

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
September 27th, 1936

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
October 25th, 1936

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
November 1st, 1936

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
November 8th, 1936

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
November 29th, 1936

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
December 6th, 1936

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
December 20th, 1936

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
December 27th, 1936

Here are a couple of prime Sterrett Sundays provided by my best pal, JoJo Baptista…

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
November 6th, 1927

Cliff Sterrett Polly and her Pals
April 8th, 1928

There’s an easter egg in this last one… do a google image search for the name hidden in this comic and see what Sterrett was looking at when he created this strip!

 If you enjoyed these strips, you owe it to yourself to splurge and get one of the finest books on newspaper comics ever published. This oversize volume is beautifully printed and packed with hundreds of great Polly Sunday pages. Order it now from Amazon…

For another example of Cliff Sterrett’s genius, see Michael Sporn’s Splog, and make sure to read Rick Marschall’s great comment adding more details to the story below.

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

Newspaper ComicsNewspaper Comics
This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Newspaper Comics.

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather
Share on Tumblr

Posted by admin @ 12:11 pm

June 13th, 2023

Members Click Here Membership Email Join Us!

PODCAST: Cartoony Music Live Stream Schedule

Podcasts

Animation Resources has embarked on a podcasting series with informal screenings, interviews and seminars. Normally, these are hosted on our Members Only page, but occasionally we share them with the public. Make a note of the date and time and tune in.

AUDIO PODCAST:
Animated Discussions Podcast

Cartoony Music With Skip Heller
Download Page
Animated Discussions 011 / Hosted by Davey Jarrell with Stephen Worth and Skip Heller
Download this article

NewNewBack in 2007 when the Animation Archive was still under the umbrella of ASIFA-Hollywood, Stephen Worth sat down several times with musician Skip Heller to talk about cartoony music for the A-HAA Podcast. Each time, they chose a musician and explained how their music related to cartoons, playing a representative bit of their music. There were five segments altogether and they were a lot of fun.

Animation Resources’ programming director, Davey Jarrell ran across these old podcasts recently and thought it would be a good idea to combine all of the "Skip and Steve" segments into one Animated Discussions podcast. Join us for a musical spin through some of the funniest and craziest music ever created. Skip and Steve throw down a lot of breadcrumbs to follow for google research into the subject too, so take notes!

Skip Heller is a remarkably versatile musician. He’s performed in every style imaginable. He’s composed for symphony orchestras, played country music and blues in honky tonks, performed in jazz trios and punk bands and did music for both Dexter’s Lab and Flintstones On The Rocks. A true renaissance man with deep roots in the history of his medium, no one knows more about this genre of music than Skip.

AD011: Cartoony Music With Skip Heller
Download Page
MP3 Audio File / 1:30:41 / 176 MB Download

SCHEDULE OF LIVE STREAMS

Tuesday June 13, 2023 2pm (PDT)
Tuesday June 13, 2023 6pm (PDT)

Saturday June 17, 2023 2pm (PDT)
Saturday June 17, 2023 6pm (PDT)

Sunday June 25, 2023 2pm (PDT)
Sunday June 25, 2023 6pm (PDT)

Friday June 30, 2023 2pm (PDT)
Friday June 30, 2023 6pm (PDT)

Monday July 3, 2023 2pm (PDT)
Monday July 3, 2023 6pm (PDT)

Saturday July 8, 2023 2pm (PDT)
Saturday July 8, 2023 6pm (PDT)

Sunday July 9, 2023 2pm (PDT)
Sunday July 9, 2023 6pm (PDT)

LIVE STREAM LOCATIONS

The Cartoon History podcast will be live-streamed simultaneously to these locations. We recommend you use Animation Resources’ own streaming page to avoid disconnects by third party sites.

Animation Resources Live Stream Page
Animation Resources
(Also on YouTube and Facebook)

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather
Share on Tumblr

Posted by Stephen Worth @ 11:09 am