Yowp!

Apparently the Tom and Jerry franchise wasn't strong enough in 1946 to carry it's own comic title so they had to share with "Our Gang" (a.k.a. The little Rascals).   They did make up for it in issue #50 with a wonderful rabbit in a magic hat storyline that you can see here. Thanks again to the excellent people over at Comicrazys for the scans.

The Rabbit Vanishes

This screenshot comes from my third favorite movie of all time, "The Lady Vanishes" directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1938.  If you've never seen it you're in for a treat.  This delightful rabbit sequence occurs during a fight scene between Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) and Philip Leaver who plays an Italian magician called The Great Doppo. The movie is a wonderful combination of thriller, romance and comedy.  I think I've seen it about ten times now and every time I notice new little details.  This movie also introduces the wonderful Charters and Caldicott to the world. This charmingly obsessed cricket-loving duo unavoidably evoke Laurel and Hardy but their quintessential English eccentricity is probably what elevates the movie from a great one into a classic.

Jumbo Topper

Max Fluegelman with world’s largest top hat.  I'm not sure which would be more impressive, pulling hundreds of rabbits from this super prop or one big one.  Via.

Kool as a Kukumber

I sighed with great pleasure when I read the last panel of today's Krazy Kat re-run over at the Daily Ink.  It's so wonderful in every way,  particularly the pun-crazed multi-limbed Ignatz and the sudden appearance of Krazy's miniature parasol.  I love the cucumber character as well. Herriman's daily strips don't get nearly as much attention as his Sunday masterpieces. Note here his use of panels to help the flow of the dialog with a literal compression and release of frame sizes.  He crams a lot of text into the two central panes and adds a block of black the center to balance the composition of the piece. Pure genius.  I'm probably not supposed to be reproducing it here so I'd better add a plug for the essential Daily Ink site here.

Rechargeable Rabbit

Today's Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog features a magic trick with a rabbit, thus qualifying it for this blog.  Canadian Jonathan Mahood does a fabulous job with this strip which started on Comics Sherpa along with my own humble creation.  I'm a huge fan.

New and Old

Over at the Daily Ink, King Features have just started offering some extra vintage cartoons including the original  Billy DeBeck styled Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, and this little known gem (above) by Jimmy Hatlo called "Little Iodine" who was a female Dennis the menace type character.  I really love the overall feel of the feature which was "ghost" drawn by Bob Dunn.  So much action and detail and excellent use of black.  The character was a spin off from Hatlo's much more well known strip "They'll Do It Every Time" and apparently ran through the mid eighties and was even made into a feature film in 1946.  King Features also just announced the launch of a new feature called "Oh, Brother!" (below) drawn by Jay Stephens (who is responsible for the most awesome Oddville) and written by Shylock Fox creator Bob Weber, Jr.

I'm a huge fan of Jay's clean retro style which will reproduce nicely in today's shrinking newspaper real estate.