This will finish up the stories for Looney Tunes Merrie Melodies No. 125, March 1952 (for a look at the beautiful cover, check out last post). First comes a Mary Jane and Sniffles adventure, penciled and inked by super cartoonist, Al Hubbard, who was the primary artist associated with MJ&S during the 1950s. Super work from Mr. Hubbard, per usual. (ahem) Is it just me, or does the "Mr. Cloud" of this story, pouring rain from his armpits, have tremendous scary potential?
I’ve always loved the little hot-head, Henery Hawk, both in Warner cartoons ( . . . or do I hafta muss ya up?) and in the Looney Tunes comics. Dell editors wisely left Henery with much of his cartoon fiery temper intact. A big plus for the comic stories was Henerey’s oft-times nemesis, Ollie Owl. The dialogue for Ollie, as here, is often very clever and funny. Art is by Veve Risto who worked as an animator for every major studio before working for Western from 1942 to 1964.
Last but far from least is another great Dell comics B&W inside cover from the same issue.
Real nice trees in the Hubbard one. I love when cartoonists take weird liberties with that stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these posts. Last time I saw this Mary Jane adventure I was a little kid. Who took away all of the years, and where did they put them!
ReplyDeletethese drawings are excellent. As usual when seeing the comics on your blog, I feel unworthy of viewing. I think new crappy comics have conditioned me to accept and expect poop.
ReplyDeleteDavid: I noticed that nice, fat tree myself. That's a good example of the kind of drawing I like as well. Study it very hard, it doesn't look anything like a tree; but just look at it, and it's all about treeness!
ReplyDeleteRobert: If you find out the answer to that one, my friend, tell me first!
KW: I often wonder what happened to comics and the crappy way they look. I mean, I still think there is a ton of great talent out there - men and women that can draw and sketch as well as the comics back in the day. Maybe the ink line done with a brush instead of the easy markers everyone uses now? Maybe just a question of fashion and styles that will sell? I just don't know. But comics today just don't have it.
They really don't Mykal...they don't have even a spark of it.
ReplyDeleteLuckily we have blogs like yours to salve our souls.
Thanks, Jeffy!
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about the ink line Mykal. I've been reading the surveys over at David Wasting Paper and am surprised by how few cartoonists use brushes or dip pens now.
ReplyDeleteI'd say another reason for the poopiness of contemporary comics is art school. They don't teach drawing with any rigor these days. At least that's been my experience.
Animation and comic book writer Don R Christensen wrote many of the Mary Jane and Sniffles stories. He was quite prolific.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_R._Christensen
David: Interesting point about lack of drawing skills. I had a girlfriend once that was quit an acomplished cartoonist. She told me once that most current comic book and strip artist can't draw and don't know the basics. They learn to draw only by copying drawing without understanding the underlying anatomy, light source, etc.
ReplyDeleteStan: Great info and thanks for the link. Christensen was indeed a hall-of-famer.
The lettering on the Mary Jane story is really gorgeous. It really fits the prettiness of the little girl!
ReplyDeleteJacque: I agree! I miss hand lettering.
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