DeFur

This delightful picture is from my new favorite blog Tiny Bunny Woman.

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.

Fellini's Fumetti

Not many people know that the great Italian film director Federico Fellini was once a cartoonist.  Before breaking into the movie business to write and direct movies such as La Strada, Satyricon, 8 1/2 and La Dolce Vita, Fellini produced a number of comic strips, a lot of caricatures and spot cartoons for various magazines. Fellini also did poster designs for many of his films, storyboarded sections of his movies and caricatured many of his actors. He frequently did cartoons on his sets - many of them apparently quite risqué. The above Geppi La Bomba Atomica strip is from 1940. It has the look and feel of a Happy Hooligan strip.

Fwoppy?

I introduced a new character today.  It's a nerdy female rabbit who visits from the fifties.  She'll be hanging around all week. I don't have a name for her yet so if you have any ideas, let me know in the comments.  The best suggestion will get a signed sketch!  Heck... any suggestion gets a signed sketch.

Now For Some Action

Craig Yoe posted a Super Rabbit strip over on his awesome Itch Blog.  I believe this is a sample from his long awaited Golden Collection of Klassic Krazy Kool Kids' Komics.

Cartoon Mascots

Every World Cup since 1966 has featured an official cartoon mascot.  Apart from the ill-advised "Ciao" for Italy in 1990 and the beyond awful German Goleo VI (and his talking ball Pille) in 2006 they are all pretty good.  Despite looking rather charming I'm not really sure what Germany was thinking with Tip & Tap.  Maybe back in 1974 it might not have looked quite so creepy.  The Stryker character was designed by Warner Brothers Studios for USA 1994. They've done a lot better than the Olympic mascots. Who can forget Atlanta's disastrous Izzy/Whatizit (although Cobi for Barcelona 1992 is perhaps the greatest sporting mascot of all time).

The World Cup mascot for 2010 is Zakumi who is a leopard (apparently).  My guess is they really wanted to do a lion but Germany used one for the previous tournament. 

Zakumi comes complete with his own comic strip written by Rico Schacherl & Stephen Francis, the two creators of the popular South African cartoon, Madam and Eve.
 

There's a bunch more strips here.

World Cup Fever

I make no apologies for being a soccer fan.  Even though I've been living in the US for the last 20 years I still have the sport in my blood.  I did a special World Cup strip yesterday to commemorate the start of the tournament in South Africa. Notice the official flag and ball in the first panel.  It's details like that which raise this strip to the heights of mediocrity. Also, Eightball is holding a vuvuzela, the plastic horn that you'll hear constantly throughout the tournament which sounds like a swarm of killer bees.  I know many people who think that would probably make the game more exciting. 

The Darker Side of Rabbits

When I submit my roughs to my editor I rarely get a strip rejected outright.  The original version of today's strip, however, was deemed "too dark".

While I agree that having one of your characters cut one of his/her appendages off is a bit gruesome, I did want to retain the "finger-in-a-box" joke.  I tried several ways to make it so that Weenus suffered to consequences of being such a sicko but it was still kinda gory until I solicited a cameo appearance form the always wonderful Lio by the prolific and mega talented Mark Tutulli.

Somehow the idea of it being a fake plastic hand is much more palatable.

Enthusiastic Magic

From today's Macanudo by the great Argentinian cartoonist (and one of my big influences) Liniers.  I love the arm in the last panel.

Puff the Magic Rabbit

Over at Cartoon Snap today they posted a full Presto Pete story from 1947. I don't know much about Presto Pete other than that he's a magic rabbit who appeared in the DC series Animal Antics which ran for 23 issues between 1946-1949.  The cover of the first issue features another version of the ol' rabbit pulling a magician out of a hat.

The Big Apple

Here's today's strip, appropriately enough posted from New York.

Flatcorn

There still seems to be problems over at GoComics.  Only four strips updated today (there's usually 250!!!) and Rabbits was not one of them.  No doubt they'll come through eventually but meanwhile, here is my Monday strip in all its glory.

Sunset Gray

This is tomorrows Rabbits strip which doesn't seem to be loading on the GoComics site so I'm posting it here so it won't be wasted.  I really enjoyed doing the little gray painting on the canvas. I guess there's no law anywhere saying that inspiration has to be rational. Notice Doodles the Duck flying through the trees bottom right.

Radio Lemon

I've been doing some exclusive radio segments for the essential and rather awesome Tall Tale Radio podcast.  If you're even slightly interested in cartooning and you're not a regular listener then.... well a pox on your Micron Pigma pen.  Host Tom Racine does a fabulous job asking his very famous guests about their craft.  Past show include Mark "Lio" Tatulli, Dave "Speed Bump" Coverly,  Richard "Cul-de-Sac" Thompson,  Dan "Bizarro" Pirarro, some guy called John Glynn,  Nick "Perry Bible Fellowship" Gurewich and and many more all listed in a convenient archive here. So far I've done four mini segments called "The Lemon List" which cover cartooning history and related bits.  There are direct links to them here:

- The One About Screwball Comic Strips

- The One About Vintage Comic Strips You've Never Heard Of

- The One About Zippy the Pinhead

- The One About TV Cartoon Theme Tunes

I'm currently working on a show about cartooning history books If there's anything you'd like me to cover in forthcoming shows, let me know. 

Magic 8-Ball Ghosts Against Squirrels

A great illustration from Jon Kelly Green's excellent illustration and music blog.