Flying Shoes

One of the least-used cartoonist's tricks in making talking heads look visually interesting is to have the characters in a state of perpetual movement while having a dialogue. Whether it's a ninja team from Naruto debating strategy, or Calving engaging philosophical ideas while on a sled or wagon, these scenes gives the audience a feeling of engagement that goes further than having two characters just chatting on two opposite sides of a coffee shop.












So when the anthropomorphic birds of Shoe get from point A to point B via their wings, it's considered unusual enough for them to point it out. Too bad that the conversation that ensues isn't as interesting or memorable as their calling themselves out to it. It's somewhat ironic that these animals who literally have their alternate method of transportation attached to their arms don't have the energy to actually use their wings to get around.












It's also ironically relevant that this time-honoured ability to make dialogue interesting via constantly moving backgrounds hasn't been fully embraced by cartoonists who rely on a lot of dialogue in order to get their point across. It's as if they're intimidated by the aspect of having to create new backgrounds every time even though the relative positions of the moving characters stays the same.












On the one hand, they're letting their abilities atrophy to the point of hardly making use of their physical advantages. On the other hand, people are generally more likely to use alternate and faster modes of transportation to get where they're going if it's across an uncomfortably long distance. In a world where birds general mode of transportation is driving fancy DeSoto cars across the street, this kind of aberration can seem rather unusual. It would be like people's general mode of getting around was restricted to using automobiles instead of just walking around. Oh wait...












While it's certainly physically possible to hike across border lines, it would take up a tremendous amount of time and energy to be able to do so. There's no need to kill yourself to cross miles of land when there are time-saving methods available. Hence the inherent logic of birds taking a plane to get to where they need to go. This also raises up the physics riddle of whether a bird is heavier or faster when it's flying inside an airplane.

Binkly and Doinkel

Back in an earlier entry, I expressed some remorse for not keeping the originals of a childhood educational pamphlet because I had no idea what the exact names of the twin aliens were. It was only by the sheerest fluke of luck that I noticed a certain book; Canuck Comics while browsing the 741.5 shelves, the comic section of the library that's normally reserved for comic-related items not grouped together in the Graphic Novels section, and was where comic paperbacks were located until they got their own shelves devoted to them.


















The cast from left to right are: Stig, Mister X, Samurai, The Electric Warrior, Onésime, Le Sombre Vilain, Ududu, Capitaine Kébec, Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Red Ketchup, Kelvin Mace, Cerebus, Northguard, Doc Stearne: Mr. Monster, Brok Windsor and Neil the Horse.

Most people would've only noticed (and recognized) the off-model version of Cerebus on there. But it was only after taking a second look that I noticed a certain infamous Red-haired FBI agent arguing with another guy in a trenchcoat. (Kelvin Mace, a hilarious private eye who's just as high-strung as Red Ketchup is, though sadly, it only lasted two issues before the artist died) Some history of the tragic history of the short-lived series can be found by co-creator, Ty Templeton here.

Some further readings of the text showed that Quebec comics have had a long and fractured history. They've been highly influenced by European and American comics, which has led to their diversive output, but has also severely limited their commercial potential compared to their better-known competitors. No popular publication of any Quebec comic save for Croc and Safarir magazines lasted over two years, and most folded sooner. I would be very surprised if anybody could name more than five cartoon faces on this page here.


































Despite the overwhelming odds against homegrown cartoonists ever getting published, there's still an abundance of potential artists wanting to devote themselves to the ninth art, no matter how offputting the odds are. One of my greatest surprises was when I saw two Asian teenage girls do some penciling, inking and colouring of pages of a BD comic for a school contest. Not Manga - Bande Dessinée, with 4-layered rows, hand-drawned sound effects, big-nosed protagonists and everything. I couldn't read a word of it, but expressed my admiration for their efforts and wished them luck on winning. I have no idea if they won the prize or not, but would be curious to know the results. The link I was given could only be accessible via internal school memberships, so I had no way of finding out.





























At first, I was disappointed, because the only mention of Red Ketchup were confined to a brief sentence description as being a spinoff of Michel Risque, and a rough black & white panel of him breaking a certain linebacker's arm. I would've contented myself with making scans of the wraparound cover until I took another flip through the book and noticed that there was a certain cover that gave me the first lead I'd had in over a decade. If that picture hadn't been there, I would've missed it completely without a second glance.


































After finding the proper name, I was able to make a customary search on some more background details. One thing that perplexed me was that the cover design on that particular issue was completely different from what I was expecting. Even the species of Sniffer the dog had changed. Turns out that they were part of a series of three issues, the third of which I was more familiar with. However, the interlude between the first and third were miniscule compared to the mass discrepancies of the second, which might as well have been done by a blind person doing abstract artistic representations. (Sorry, Diane Demerais)

They were originally puppet-figure features from the National Film Board on Safety Awareness.
Sadly, the originals have been lost to time, and only the scripts still remain in their archives. All that's left is a 17-minute video that can be seen in its entirety here:

I have to say that the nostalgia value of seeing the inspirational source material is not quite as inspiring as the actual 16-page comic I saw them from. It wasn't exactly high literature or art, but it was entertaining and dramatic enough in its own right, particularly where the household chemicals of corrosives, poisons, flamables and explosives were anthropomorphized by Fingers, Bones, Torchy and Boomer.




















The only other possible relevance that this would have for modern-day S-hero fans is that the artist Owen McCarron, contributed to 'Spidey's Super Stories' and 'The Mighty Marvel Superheroes Fun Book' at Marvel in the late 1970s.

Along the way, I contacted a certain Nathan Shumate who bragged about acquiring the comic for his personal collection. I asked if he was interested in posting the relevant pages. With any luck, we should be seeing the reason why I have such fond memories of this comic up sometime soon. ...That is, if he ever gets around to finding the elusive comic among his personal effects. Until then, I won't be holding my baited breath, but be waiting with sheer anticipation until the scans are shown. All that's left to do is wait.

Stay tuned.

Old Gal, Kogal

(With appologies to Stan and Jan Berenstain)

Old Gal.

Old Gal, Kogal.

Kogal. Kogal. Kogal. Kogal.

...WAIT!

JUST right?!?

Just right. Just right. Just right.

Kogal. Old Gal.

(Loosely inspired by Too ______ For Love!)

Playing, Swimming and Eating in July

July 1st, is a significant date to Canadians everywhere, because it means that the year's already halfway over, and we should get started on our New Year's Resolutions and plans that we've been putting off since the beginning of the year, but haven't gotten around to yet, because of outside distractions, work and family. It also means that Summer's halfway through, and we start acting like Calvin running around like a chicken sans head, we've got to pack as much activity in those brief months of blistering heat before the onset of familiar cold fronts come back upon us again. Though with Global Warming, the winters haven't been as brutal as they've used to be, which has kind of wrecked havoc with our Canadian sentiment of toughness in the face of brutal sub-zero temperatures, and have reduced us to simpering wimps in the face of a mild breeze.




















Oh, and it's Canada Day too. The fact that Canada Day and Independence Day are so close together despite celebrating different years is just another one of those odd coincidences separating Canadians from the Americans.











When I first saw this, I didn't see what was wrong with the offered swimsuits in Elly's direction. I thought they were reasonable choices for swimwear, since the model's bodytypes and the customer's looked basically the same. Goes to show I don't have much fashion sense, huh? This is another theme that was heavily borrowed from Cathy, along with her two close friends, Charlene and Andrea, who were direct copies of Connie and Annie.


















This is also one of the rare instances where the extra image below matches the theme of the main cartoon above.





















Here's a true story; when my sister was young, she was something of a tomboy daredevil, and enjoyed climbing up high places. My parents had to barricade the shelves and counters, because she would constantly climb up them and precariously teeter herself dangerously close to the edge. One time, my parents were at the tennis club when they suddenly noticed that she was nowhere to be found. A frantic search was conducted which concluded when they found her at the swimming pool next door. Somehow, she'd managed to climb all the way up to the top of the high-diving board where she promptly fell asleep. Fortunately, she was found before an unfortunate accident occurred.



















The kicker? This all happened when she still under two years old.











Yes, she somehow managed to make her way all across the tennis court to the swimming pool to up the rungs of the ladder, all without anybody noticing a lone baby acting without supervision.
The result of this was that the pool installed a safety net around the diving board just in case anybody fell off the wrong side and damaged themselves on the pavement below.



















My sister's always been more adventurous than me, and I've been jealous of her for being so. The ironic thing is, back when we were children, I used to be more outgoing and friendly, and my sister was more conservative and hated the slightest change in routine, such as removing a carpet. She cried for months after the fuzzy layer was removed, and was only consolated by keeping a piece of leftover fabric nearby. She also expressed similar sentiment upon news that the wallpaper was going to be replaced, and once the new wallpaper pattern was on the wall, she expressed her resentment by marking her height with a large X on the new wallpaper. That mark is still there today. In addition, she was akin to keeping various oddly-shaped sticks she'd found lying around in her room, leaving the surroundings looking like a miniature indoors forest. With that kind of temperment, it's not surprising she later grew up to be an artist.




















Here's the second time Michael shows up with a mustache in a cartoon that looks oddly familiar. I wonder where we might've seen it before? A lot of the old FBOFW Sunday comics that hadn't been reprinted were reused with April taking the place of Elizabeth's role.

Optical Allusions

Back when comic characters having large eyes meant having ping-pong sized bug-eyed expressions instead of Manga doe-eyed childish appeal, precautions had to be made to ensure that no other tiny "dots" be seen within the interior of the eye, lest it cause confusion. A slight printing error could cause the unintended result of having two eyes, each looking in a different direction. In the sixth panel of the Broom Hilda comic, Broomie is simultaneously looking at Gaylord and Irwin at the same time. This feat can only be accomplished by similarly affected historical figures, such as Liu Ch'ung from Ripley's Believe it or Not!


































Another example would be Marvin here, where he's reacting both in shock to being found escaping, and looking at the headlight from a backwards glance. While I know that's the most logical choice, I prefer to think that he's doing a miniature version of cartoon characters looking everywhere at once during a hazardous situation. At times when I'm stressed, I find it difficult to keep my eyes still, because they're constantly darting all over the place, looking for something to focus on.

















I'd hoped to find another example, but I was unable to do so. Seems that finding these kinds of mistakes are just as rare as the symptoms they come from. So I'll expand on to another field of visual optics. Sometimes when I look at a cartoon panel, I'll have some difficulty finding the face. This isn't a form of Prosopagnosia where every face looks the same, but somewhere along similar lines when I'm not exactly sure where the face begins and ends.

As a kid, I used to have extremely vivid daydreams that felt as real as a movie screen. These would last several seconds and only faded away when the image I was thinking of superimposed itself against the background or foreground I was currently looking at. I receive this familiar sensation when I stare at these unfamiliar faces. Here, the front cover looks like a large potato-head guy anticipating using a gun on a nerdy bird picking flowers. It wasn't until I took a zoomed back that I saw where I was mistaken.

















Having been accustomed to Herman's breaking the rules by constantly showing his characters from behind (a cardinal sin in cover philosophy, where the main characters are always facing the audience), I thought that Captain Miaou's hat was his face and nose. His clenched fist, the belt on his chest, raising the gun and facing his intended target all led me to believe he was looking back instead of forwards. His lack of facial features and my lack of awareness of the character designs also threw me off. I'm sure that until you took another look, you fell to the same trap.


































When faced with something unfamiliar, I use the closest possible reference and follow up from there in the hopes that it'll match. In the back cover of The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, there was a creature that looked like one of the birds from the second Gantz mission. It sure looks a lot like a toucan doesn't it?























However, when I cracked open the fat tome, I eventually came across the page where the one-eyed Gnomelet originated, and found out that I'd mistaken where his mouth started. The colouring of the hat looked like a beak, and the stubby arms and legs were almost unnoticeable.






















There are all kinds of instances where I'll see a second face that was unintended by the artist, and wind up being like one of those upside-down double faces, only more closer to the illusion of seeing a rabbit and a duck at the same time. The absolute worst are the ones where there are extreme close-ups, making it almost impossible to tell what I'm looking at. Has this ever happened to anybody else?

Herman's Most Common Name

For a single-panel strip titled Herman, you'd expect that there be numerous references to the man himself, since he's the titular character. Strangely enough, his name was mentioned more often in the early strips, and when he was called, it tended to happen while he was off-screen or his face was obscured.






















It's somewhat of an ironic thing that you were more likely to see names other than Herman mentioned in the strip. There was a recent archive of comics shown referencing the Parkers, though they're only a fraction compared to the other names that regularly pop up.

A quick survey through my personal collection showed some names that goes as follows: One-shot names include Herbert, Dave, Ron, Frank and Wagstaff. Some slightly more common names would include Joyce, Miller, Mildred, Muriel and Williams. More frequently used names would include Wilson, Lily and Harry.






















This occurred to me when I noticed a certain name, Mildew, started showing up quite frequently. Mildew is such an an usual name that it garnered my attention. In fact, Herman could've been retitled Mildew, and no one could've telled the difference. (Of course by then, Mildew would have to be renamed Herman. Go figure)


































There seems to be a kind of pattern to the usage of Mildew. usually accompanied with his ineptitude at the workplace. I haven't checked to see if there's a similar theme with the other names as well, though it's certainly possible.


































This Mildew Sunday comic below is also the most frequently reprinted, shown in the newest Herman Classics books, 2nd volume page 45 and 5th volume page 175 respectively. Just another reason to have a more comprehensive collection.

















I also prefer the discolouration of the boss' face here, since it gives the sensation of his robotic nature showing through.












At first I thought that Mildew was the most commonly used name, but a tally showed that there was another name that outpaced the previous results by two. The winner for the most used name other than Herman and Mildew is... Ralph.

















Yeah, that doesn't sound quite as impressive as it should be, right? I think a book even that said that Ralph was basically a dog's name. Maybe sticking with Herman wasn't such a bad choice after all. It's certainly has more resonance than Ziggy.

The Orbit Project

Earlier this week, I got a proposal from a commentor who offered to scan his personal collection of Orbit dailies that he'd clipped out in his childhood. I suggested that he post his weekday comics on his site, and I post the Sunday comics on my site. He readily agreed, and has just recently founded his Orbit Project here.


































This is a joint operation between two modest Orbit fans who're hoping to increase the size of our current collections. This is the kind of thing I'd been reaching and hoping for - to contact and communicate with other newspaper comic fans who have fond memories of the comics they read in their childhood, and collaborate together to create a more comprehensive collection. If there are any Orbit fans out there who'd like to contribute, be our guest.


































Now if there could only be something similarly done to Graves Inc...


































As of now, there's only a select few comics on the main page, along with some fan art, a promotional contest ad, and three comics found via an online newspaper microfiche archive with the highlighted search results paintbucketed out. If we could figure out how to access their backlog, we could exponentially expand our collection further, since the Sunday comic continues off from where my last Orbit comic ran out.

EDIT - there are now the first two months of dailies on the site now. The dailies really help fill in some of the holes from the Sunday comics.


































I'll be posting a few more scans that haven't been seen, along with the ones that have already been posted before so they'll appear in chronological order. But I'd like to pace out the remaining Orbit comics in conjunction with my other perceived future topics so this site doesn't remain Orbit-centered. On the plus side, once I run out of Orbits, there's still plenty of Duffy comics by the same cartoonist that I haven't shown yet. I'm sure you can guess what I'm aiming at for here...


































The deteriorating condition of Dr. Valvelock's ship would become a reoccurring theme, very similar to Spaceman Spiff's constant crashing down upon alien planets. It could be said that it might be safer for Chakotay to pilot the ship himself.


































Another feature I liked about Orbit were the various aliens that would appear briefly.


































This is one of the rare Orbit comics I have where the throwaway title panel isn't included. One the one hand, the use of extra space helps focus on the above and below panels, making it more dramatic than usual. On the other hand, I have absolutely no idea as to what it could've been named. Pretty much every Sunday Orbit comic had a condensed two-three word summary that would perfectly tie in and fit whatever was going on. Any takers?


































For all the visual imagination shown, it should be pointed out that Orbit was very much a children's comic, as these two strips show.


































If there are any potential undiscovered Orbit fans out there who'd like to contribute, feel free to do so. And if you're one of the few who's looked back on this strip with rose-coloured glasses, don't feel ashamed. We've all had our little interests with childish things that we've later outgrown. Even now, you're probably wondering why today's children enjoy the stuff they watch and read when yesterday's stuff was clearly better.


































Okay, I have to admit a certain fondness to 80's Saturday Morning Cartoons, such as Gargoyles, The Real Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, Garfield & Friends, Alf Tales, Gummi Bears, Muppet Babies, Tiny Toon Adventures and all kinds of weird shows that would never get past the production board today. It's children's lack of knowledge of these legendary shows that makes us lament for the "good old days". Things would be simplified if they were rerun on cable channels, but who has the time and money, as well as the rights?

(End rant mode)

Go out there and find some Orbit comics and send them here! Contact garsspace at rocketmail dot com for more details.