MeTV Toons is Here!

The title says it all!

I don't have cable, so I haven't looked at it yet. As of me writing (5:20 PM EDT) The Tom & Jerry Show is playing (not to be confused with that awful flash show on Boomerang). 

The website is pretty awesome, too, with articles, quizzes, and videos. I found out I was insane, though. I took a Road Runner "complete the title" quiz and got an 100%. Yikes!

It was interesting to see that Histeria! and Freakazoid! are on the schedule. Will Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs start playing too? That'd be cool!

I'm going to make one prediction: I think "new content" will eventually start playing on this channel. Sure, it was said it wouldn't but these kind of channels eventually lean on something like that (can you scream Wabbit and Bunnicula?) This isn't even a bad thing: a classic cartoon channel will have a neo-classical series.

All good!

Public Domain Mickey and More in Video Game Rubber Hose Rampage

I can't believe I didn't discover this until, like, last week. 

Last month a video game came out called Rubber Hose Rampage from Revie Studios, made up of as many "rubberhose" public domain cartoon stuff as possible. Yes, this is the further adventures of the public domain Mickey. 

Here's the description on Steam:

In the near future, Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots, become sentient and slowly take control of the world's nuclear weapons. Five billion lives ended on August 29th, 2027. The survivors of the nuclear fire lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines. The chatbots which control the machines, sent two cyborgs back through time to 1928 disguised as cartoon mice. Their mission: to destroy the leader of the resistance, the captain of the riverboat, Steamboat Willie.

Uh...what?! Remind me to buy as many Pogo volumes as I can before 8/29/27!

I mean, the graphics are horrendous. They are cartoons traced over. Recognizable here are the bee from Eatin' on the Cuff:

(Why is Mickey using pea shooter?)

And the Big Bad Wolf from Pigs in a Polka:

Note that neither of these characters are rubberhose.

It is generally believed to be a ripoff of Cuphead, a 2017 video game sensation. For those who know nothing about video games, it's a game totally devoted to rubberhose animation, and it is absolutely beautiful. I have never played it (yet!), but from looking at gameplay from it it gets everything right, even the grainy film look with traditional animation. It has done a lot to introduce my generation to older animation (even though I discovered it via television and DVDs). 

Here's the trailer:

But there's a bigger question here: will you play it?

First Preview for The Day the Earth Blew Up and a New Donald Duck Short

There have been two exciting things in the animation world!

Last November I reported that a Looney Tunes movie is supposed to come out soon. Well just a few days ago we got a preview:

Looks pretty funny. That Daffy "crack" gag seemed a little un-Looney Tunes, but it was funny, and that's point, right?

I was slightly disappointed it was flash animated, when it was said to be "fully" animated all those months back. But it sure isn't Clutch Cargo!

Another duck got center stage recently. Donald turned ninety on the Ninth (fittingly), so a new short came out called D.I.Y. Duck. At three minutes, it is directed by modern-day legend Mark Henn, and is his final project. It reminded me a lot of The Looney Tunes Show episode "The Shelf", but I don't think it was a ripoff--it was more Donaldesque.

It was pretty good. It is far more respectful to the source material than 2013's Get A Horse! was, which a friend of mine refers to as being "arbitrary" throwback animation--accurately. It's set up like the 1950s Disney cartoons but with a contemporary setting, which I always like.

Henn was always a great talent. His animation of Mickey Mouse softly crying at Tiny Tim's grave in Mickey's Christmas Carol is one of my favorite pieces of animation ever. It's up there with Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.

The fact that the short was traditional made it even better. It did do a thing I don't like: reused music and voices. But overall it was worth my time.

Of the two, I guess I found the preview funniest but D.I.Y. Duck was a great throwback to Disney, which is deader nowadays than any other style.

Depressed About Pogo Volume 4, Among Other Things

(Two articles that were supposed to be published in March and April have been published: one on Golden Age DVDs and another a review of The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comicsnull. Check 'em out!)

A quick note: in previous articles I have criticized the erratic schedule of the Pogo series, but have recently found out two editors happened to die of cancer, explaining why it has taken so long. I apologize for my rashness. But, apparently, they have reached the point where searching for "scarce" source material is no longer a problem, so why is Volume 9 delayed until July 2025?

But anyway, I recently bought Pogo Volume 3. Though a fine book, it is the absolute worst regarding annotations. About half of them are not reported by Mr. Harvey, including a few references that I already knew, but others may not. The annotation in the series is exceptionally poor, but I would rather have that than anachronistic commentary! 

The actual content was as funny as ever. I particularly thought Kelly's satire of both sides of the Red Scare was great. It is also a subject of fascination for me, as a fellow artist, who does not possess the acid political satire gene. As funny as it is, I would have preferred Kelly be a little more subtle with it. As I've mentioned before, the political irony of films like High Noon (the blacklist) and Kelly's Heroes (Vietnam) is a lot more powerful because it isn't totally obvious; the subtext is concealed. I think if Simple J. Malarkey (Red Baiters) and Cowbirds (Soviets) were less obvious, it would be a lot more powerful. Those who agree with either of them would feel silly when they realize what they are laughing at.

Strangely, Mark Evanier's in-book bio of Kelly there praises the political commentary to the heavens, but at least Kelly wasn't a bluenose about it like Evanier is, whose blog is almost entirely political. 

When I went to look at Pogo Volume 4, I was shocked to see it is now in the hundreds! And it's the same elsewhere! What's going on? The Fantagraphics website says it's out of stock. It can be bought as a collection packaged with Volume 3 (which I already have) for seventy dollars, which is too much for one book. It's especially piss-worthy because if I end up buying Volume 5 this June I'll have to read out-of-order, ruining the chronological groove.

Sadly, I did never get around to buying Collector's Choice Vol. 3. I never noticed before, but the lone-two-star review the lone-two-star review says there's some double-dipping (repeats from other collections) on it, which is disappointing--but why complain? For me, would you rather have none at all? Well, since there is double-dipping, they should've double-dipped the two McCabes on the Golden Collection with added music but, as I've stated before, Jerry Beck apparently hates his cartoons.

But that's all for now! More is coming, including a sad story...

New Cartoon-Only Channel, MeTV Toons

For some ten-day-old news, the cartoon world is rockin' because, per Cartoon Research, a new channel, MeTV Toons, can be accessed via remote June 25th. Essentially "1992 Cartoon Network – TIMES 100. On steroids. Available for free. Everywhere."

It appears to be a replacement for Boomerang, which continues to die an agonizingly slow death by poisoning. It will be mainly made up of Looney Tunes, MGM, Fleischer, Columbia/UPA, Lantz, Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward, and a bunch of other stuff, with "surprises". 

I do not have cable, so not much for me to be excited about. But this will be good to expose cartoons to a wider audience, mainly Gen Alpha. In other words, I am very happy!

On the site it shows that they are going to be playing more recent shows--now classics for being thirty years old--such as Two Stupid Dogs and Baby Looney Tunes. I hope, then, they'll play some Pat Ventura, television's best animation director.

I wonder if they'll play animated movies? I wish they'd do, like, Richard Williams night.

But anyway, this is fantastic news, and hopefully they're be more updates in the future! Stayed tooned!

The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics Review

Shortly after asking questions about it, I went out and bought The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics. And I was very happy! I got it at a bargain price: about twenty-five dollars, when it's usually either seven or eighty-five.

First of all, most importantly, they are not restored. Most of you cartoon/comic people prefer stuff in top-notch quality, so I felt like I should spit this out first. It doesn't bother me much, though, but it probably does you. A quality scan:

Again, doesn't bother me none.

There was almost all of what I talked about in my original post, meaning some Milt Stein, Howard Post and Dan Gordon. In fact, it was exactly the image I used as an example for the former, "Daze of Yore".

There is a lot of Walt Kelly, and I mean a lot. The biggest surprise was the inclusion of the short-lived Pogo Possum comic series, which was, as expected, great, although too much green (Kelly evidently had nothing to do with the coloring). This was especially good, since The Complete Dell Comics are overpriced so much it'd make Fantagraphics blush. There was a little bit of the prototype Pogo too.

There was a good helping of Carl Bark's Duckverse, including a brilliant picaresque story called "The Hypnotizer Gun" (apparently hypnosis was a fetish with Barks). Unsurprisingly, the Fox and the Crow stories were more clever than the actual cartoons.

Fans of MAD Magazine will be happy to see some of Harvey Kurtzman's Gross-inspired silliness.

Only real problem with the volume was a massive overepresentation of Lil' Lulu, who was never a fan favorite in any circle I can remember. But there was only one Milt Gross story! Though this is not the editors' fault, but Flipper and Flopper were the ugliest things I've ever seen.

Finally, does it strike anyone as odd to read a children's anthology edited by Art Spiegelman?

Overall a totally essential edition to the cartoon fan's small shelf.

Golden Age Cartoon DVD Collections I Embarrassingly Don't Have

What with Collector's Choice Vol. 3 being announced, I may as well reveal my darkest secret: there are a few essential cartoon DVDs I don't own!

Most of them are because of price. A lot are more expensive than the gun that killed Lincoln, so I have to balance out how much I'm willing to spend or ask for for my birthday or Christmas. Also I've mostly turned towards building up my animal comics collection, which is more helpless. Also, I have a life outside of cartoons!

I have a pretty good representation of Looney Tunes, mainly all of the Golden Collection and Super Stars, among others. Of the A studios, the Warners stuff is the worst series, being mostly jumbled and occasionally random.

The only cartoon DVD collection that I have complete is the easiest to do, and that is pre-1958 MGM. I have all of the Spotlight Collection and the Screwball Classics, as well as the Droopy one-shot. (I have the Gene Deitch Tom & Jerry DVD but not the Jones one. I actually like the former a lot, but that's for another time.)

Disney is still not complete. I just have a few of the features and seven of the Treasures. The Treasures are the 20th Century version of The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire; they are priceless. Even the worst is a classic. Bravo, the late Roy E.!

I have both volumes of the dead-too-soon Woody Woodpecker and Friends collection, which turned me onto my obsession with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, heightened by the Disney ones, too. They're pretty good. All that's missing are commentaries, and that's a minor quibble compared to the great amount on the rest. Plus, you can't sell much with Paul J. Smith, which is all that they have left!

That's really it. I don't have any Thunderbeans or anything like that because my main interest in animation is the A studios, so I'm not banging down any doors for a Betty Boop or a Popeye. I will bang down a door for a Mighty Mouse, though!

Well, the ugliest first: Porky Pig: 101. I can't seem to find any way to get this baby. Currently on Amazon it is forty dollars. And for only a few black-and-white Porkys?

I have been trying for a while to get the Jolly Frolics DVD, which is the only UPA cartoons of goodness, in my humble opinion. TCM doing a cartoon DVD is pretty cool, now breaking the barrier between "cartoon" and "film".

Warners has screwed most everybody by selling a Blu-Ray-only called the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection, packaged with a sparkly POP! Funko, making it impossible to get. Thankfully, all these years later, it's down to forty dollars, so someday it's more likely I'll have that baby.

The most recent here is the Platinum Collection. I'm not obsessed with getting it solely because I get the impression it is only 30% "new-on-DVD".

So that's my confession. What's my penance?

Why Public Domain Spells Bad News For the Future

A quick post. I've been busy with artistic projects, mainly a comic book, so I'll be less a monster poster, but I'm still blogging. I ain't retiring this thing any time soon.

I am genuinely surprised that the majority of the Cartoon Cult is actually happy about the public domain news on Mickey. I guess the reason is that people want the Thunderbean Blu-Ray of Disney cartoons since the early ones have never received a restoration in the last decade. And I must be a heretic, because I don't agree. Says Sean Dudley on Cartoon Research:

Here is the virtolic reaction from the IADB's resident Disney hater, either John K. or Marc Eliot in disguise:

Ah, I love balanced commentary!

Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you need to think of the scary possibilities here:

In the fast-approaching 2030s, the early Donald and Daffy and Bugs are next. And let's move outside of just cartoons. According to a Grunge article, Superman goes public domain in 2033, and Batman 2034 (I really don't want to imagine what these two will go through...together.)

There is something I don't understand about all this: For example, Lyons Partnership, the intellectual owners of Barney the Dinosaur, has lost lawsuits because a "parody" is not breaking copyright. Well, isn't Mickey's Mouse Trap a parody?

So, the point being, the future is a scary place, so the next post will be an escapist view, unless something else in the news turns up.

Thunderbean Mickey

I bet you never thought you'd live to see the day Steve Staunchfield would give us a Mickey Mouse set. But yes, Virginia, there is one, and it'll be here very soon. In fact, it's all ready for preorder on Thunderbean's website. It is called Public Domain Mouse Adventures.

There is no cover yet, but there is supposed to be one of those "reversible" ones, and all they have is this pencilled preview:

This is the full size of the picture, but it looks like cropped on the left is Mickey giving us the finger! This guy actually looks a lot like Mickey Rat:

It includes the three 1928 PD shorts (Plane Crazy, Steamboat Willie and Gallopin' Gaucho), plus other mouse 'toons, presumably those awful Van Beuren Aesop's Fables with phony Mickeys and Minnies. I already have all of the Mickey Mouse Walt Disney Treasures, so I'm probably not after this set that much.

What has confused me most is that--supposedly--the infamous unauthorized short Uncle Walt is included. This cannot be, because it is lost, unless they found it and nobody knew. If you're curious, it's one of those "hippies hate Disney" things, attacking him for "scaring kids". It must've been confused with Mickey Mouse in Vietnam, a badly-made and unfunny short from the Sixties that has dated--albeit dramatically (I will cover it in a future post.) 

I don't know when it will come out, but given I covered a Harman-Ising collection back in October, and it still isn't out, it'll be some time. Plus, I get the impression from Staunchfield that this has just started, since he has not mentioned it in recent Cartoon Research articles. This is understandable; restoring every frame sounds unfathomable to lazy me.

But for now, stick around for further adventures in the slow disintegration of Mickey Mouse.

Looney Tunes: Collector's Choice: Volume 3 Announced, With A Listing!

I was writing a prediction about what I thought...or hoped...would be on the next Collector's Choice, and I'll be danged if it wasn't already announced! (Here is my review of Vol. 2.)

It comes out in March, which is too soon to be true, so it most likely will be May. Here is the listing:

1. A Feud There Was

2. A Hop, Skip and a Chump

3. China Jones

4. Cinderella Meets Fella

5. Dumb Patrol

6. Egghead Rides Again

7. Elmer’s Pet Rabbit

8. Hobo Bobo

9. Honeymoon Hotel

10. I Only Have Eyes For You

11. Mexican Joyride

12. Mr.and Mrs. Is The Name

13. Of Rice and Hen

14. Pre-Hysterical Hare

15. Punch Trunk

16. Quentin Quail

17. Riff Raffy Daffy

18. Saddle Silly

19. Sheep Ahoy

20. The Mouse on 57th Street

21. The Sheepish Wolf

22. There Auto Be a Law

23. Tugboat Granny

24. War And Pieces

25. Wet Hare

Not a bad list, but unbelivably almst none of my predictions were on there except what was Art Davis or Quentin Quail. But there's always next volume! And who's going to complain when Art Davis is on there?

One bad news is that this cover looks fan-made, but sadly it is reality. But everything else is A-okay!