Mike Barrier’s Funnybooks has prompted me to dig into my holdings of funny animal/”animated” comics, particularly the ones not published under the Dell label.
Mike doesn’t think much of the non-Western books beyond “missed opportunity,” but aren’t all failures technically missed opportunities? But I retain a number of animated and live-action shorts and features that aren’t very good for the simple fact that one gem might be there, so may as well hang onto those comic books (Dell or otherwise) too.
The crucial test: if it gets the laugh, it’s a winner. And it’s a lot harder to get them on the printed page when you don’t have any of the other arts and sciences to support you. Generally, I’m bored to tears reading the inane stories and artless artwork by ex-Disney layout men and moonlighting Famous animators that populate Comic Cavalcade, Funny Stuff, Ha Ha Comics, Coo Coo Comics, and Giggle Comics. There are three active exceptions: generally anything of Sheldon Mayer’s at DC, The Fox and the Crow (by Jim Davis or not), and Dan Gordon’s Superkatt.
Milton Knight, a great cartoonist in his own right, wrote a wonderful appreciation of Gordon and his character at Cartoon Research last August, so rather than repeat those same points, I’ll direct you there.
Gordon was one of the shining lights of the New York animation and cartooning industry, and I’ll cover his story in detail in my forthcoming book. Almost every one of his contemporaries spoke warmly of him and his talent. He brought a Hollywood/Tex Avery-style self-awareness to the East Coast, was responsible for whatever merit Mr. Bug Goes to Town has, directed the wildest Popeye cartoons and had an amazing graphic style that Milton analyzed very well. Gordon studied as an architect which may account for his unconventional comic staging.
As I reacquainted myself with my sizable collection of Giggle Comics, I found myself laughing out loud several times at the sheer preposterousness of Gordon’s stories. The one in Giggle Comics #29, which I’ve posted below, with its self-awareness and “grown men shouldn’t read comics” detour, is a prime example. While there are quite a few “Superkatt” stories that, as Mike Barrier wrote, “sputtered and stalled well before the concluding page,” there are surely more than a few funny moments that warrant reexamination. A Superkatt reprint anthology would indeed be heavenly (so long as it emphatically isn’t by Yoe Books).
The Harvey Comics product was always about duplicating the feats of the New York animated cartoons in both sheen, design and staging, even before the company got the license for the Famous Studios characters. Here’s an oddity from Nutty Comics #6 (February-March 1947) that’s a direct ripoff of not a Famous pair, but a Terrytoons pair: the genial Dimwit and Percy.
