For several years now, comics historian/writer Frank Young has been offering reams of prime material on his blog Stanley Stories free of charge. Now is your chance to show some genuine appreciation. Frank has put together a wonderful illustrated bibliography of John Stanley’s 1940s comic book work, which you can purchase for $2.99. Details at this link. This is an important piece of comic research, as no one has attempted to document, or at least chronicle, what Stanley did outside of the Little Lulu series. More to follow in the future, hopefully.
Category Archives: comics
Yow!
Wolfie’s Christmas in July
A little bit of festive cheer from Dell’s New York office, featuring Famous Studios’s ever-charismatic pair Blackie the Lamb and Wolfie. Originally appeared in Animal Comics #14 (April-May 1945). Story and pencils by Walt Kelly, inker unknown.
Filed under classic animation, comics
Floyd Gottfredson Vol. 1
I’ve written about what makes Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse sublime and unquestionably superior to the animated counterpart several times in the past, so I won’t repeat myself. But it bears constant reiteration that Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: “Race to Death Valley” (Vol. 1) by Fantagraphics, a collection people have been waiting decades for, is a must for your comics/animation library.
This is the start of the reprinting of Gottfredson’s entire run of the Mickey Mouse daily strips, something comic fans thought they’d never live to see. The restoration of the Walt Disney-Gottfredson written story, Death Valley, has been something of a project of David Gerstein’s for at least half the time I’ve known him, and it’s easily the best version you’ll ever see of this historic story, not to mention every single other strip presented. (For completeness’s sake, the Disney/Ub Iwerks/Win Smith collaboration and first Mouse serial Lost on a Desert Island is also featured.)
Gottfredson hadn’t quite come into his own in the period covered in this tome (April 1930-January 1932), but you can see the art evolve from slightly crude beginnings to something that isn’t quite the classic Gottfredson Mickey look. By the end of the book, colorful costars like Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar (rarely ever more than just incidentals in the animated cartoons) are just as refined and well-developed as the main mouse is.
My hat’s off to David and his chums at Fantagraphics. I’d pre-order Vol. 2, due out in October, had I not bought this at full price today (worth every cent though). That second volume should feature stories like Treasure Island and Blaggard Castle, where Gottfredson begins his period as the single most accomplished comic strip storyteller. And still, the best is yet to come.
(Incidentally, I see I am thanked in the book by David for support and inspiration. Making all those jokes about Walt Disney’s Sylvester Shyster the Crooked Jew has finally paid off.)
Filed under comics, floyd gottfredson
Stanley Stories
I’ve spent some much needed time looking over Frank Young’s blog/shrine to comic book auteur John Stanley, and it got me thinking again about what an underrated talent Stanley was and still is. His intelligent work with child characters predates Peanuts by several years and is far darker and more profound than anything Charles Schulz did with his strip in fifty years. His obscurer handling of animated characters like Woody Woodpecker and Tom Cat are gems well worth discovering, and reprinting, if there’s a market for that sort of compilation. While I’m not crazy about his work in the “teen scene” comics in the 1960s, it still remains some of the most interesting work a comic writer/artist did in his later years.
By no means limit yourself to my few recommendations linked below. Spend endless hours reveling in the goodness that is John Stanley!
Bongo and Bop: “A Breather” (1961): Bill Williams’s art makes both the stories highlighted here worth reading, but the shorter one is a truly brilliant piece of cynic comedy.
Johnny Mole (1944): To reiterate my comment: a big hulky man who abuses a child and pays hush money is overcome with remorse and disgust at his abuse and freespending, all while the kid enjoys it? In 1944?!
Tubby: “The Gourmet” (1948): I consider this Stanley’s greatest story.
The First Little Lulu Comic (1945): These are neat little gems, but they’ve never been reprinted with the original artwork, which Frank’s provided.
“Tom Cat” (1948): This one is just perverted. Read. Now.
