Carbon Alley - 3/30/07

Hope you like my Bill Watterson tree...

Romanian Snowman Redux

Check it out. Romanian cartoonist Smoking Cool Cat got back to me about his awesomely ambiguous snowman cartoon, which I shall repost again. The translation is as follows:

"Where have you been, Lenuto? For two hours I have been looking for you!"

Because of the hilarious setup, we don't need to speak the lingo to catch the drift, but it's fun to find out what it really says. And as an added surprise, he sent me a follow-up with some Carbon Alley action going on:

I think it's just about the greatest thing ever. It's nice to know that with all the chaos and confusion in the world today, there really can be a global community. Thanks again, Octav!

Ramjet es Fonny

John K has been going on about Roger Ramjet lately, and I'm glad, because I was under the impression that it was a lesser version of a Jay Ward joint, but while I kind of half-smirk at Fractured Fairy Tales, I actually laugh at Ramjet. As John points out, the voice talent is top notch and the quick cuts really add to the humor.

So here's one from YouTube. You will laugh too. Before it starts though, I have to state for the record that the Roger Ramjet song is pretty much the most excruciating cacophony of snot-nose voices I've ever heard. I can't listen to it. No lie. It's like chewing on tinfoil. And I know that's probably sacrilege to anyone who proudly sang along as children in snot-nose voices of their own.

Space Wolf

This animated short by Graham Annable was brought up over at Drawn! earlier in the week. It be funny.

Carbon Alley - 3/23/07

Beetle Bailey Awareness Training

You know, I think we've all became a little complacent when it comes to Beetle Bailey. I too am guilty, although I have to state for the record that for the last several years it has been one of the very few I read in the paper. I'd probably still read Snuffy Smith too, but that's another story. But do you realize that Beetle debuted on September 4th, 1950, an entire month before Peanuts hit the papers? And Mort Walker is still alive and kicking them out every day! Now, there's no comparing the genius of Schultz to the often pedestrian humor of Walker, but there's something to be said for longevity.

So read Beetle Bailey, dammit, and respect your comic strip elders! I plan on doing some extensive non-Wiki-fied research on this subject, so yes, there will be further Beetle Bailey Awareness Training.

Carbon Alley - 3/16/07

Still More Crumb

It's a day after the initial post and I'm still thinking about Crumb. Watch the documentary and you will see that he is a phenomenal artist, and despite his cartoonist leanings, he can crunch out realism with the best of them. I was surprised at how dark the film became toward the end. Crumb's brothers are (were) completely messed up. He seems like a social sophisticate compared to them. Casualties of your typical deceptively antiseptic fifties childhood with a raging father and a crazy mother.

I wish I had a book of his so I could just scan something instead of rooting around the web, but the above drawing sums him up nicely. There's an interesting interview with him on the Guardian from a couple years ago.

I Have Seen the Crumb

Good ol' R. Crumb. I just finally saw the documentary whut bears his name. I've never been a huge fan, but I'm coming around. Above is an example of the stuff of his I dig, but I have trouble with his seventies-ish post-psychadelic sexual-preversion type stuff. Regardless, his purity of expression is inspiring, that creation of something different, progressive, experimental, and such. You know, as opposed to the conservative adherence to a style of drawing or a way of setting up a joke. Food for thought.

Carbon Alley - 3/09/07

Romanian Snowman

I recently ran across a blog from a talented young Romanian cartoonist named Smoking Cool Cat, and this particular cartoon cracked me right up. I left him a comment asking about it, but it looks like the blog has been abandoned for several months.

So, what the hell is this guy saying? The possibilities are endless. You know, he kinda looks like Buster Bluth. "Lucille two is not a "b", Mother!!!"

Carbon Alley - 3/02/07

More Fun With In-Betweens!

This here is Flip the Frog by Ub Iwerks. Flip is obviously "maaad" and evidently not going to take it anymore. We know this from the specific facial distortion that matches the inflection of the word. Or, it could simply be that he has "haaad it with yaaams."




In any event, upon hearing of Flip's departure, an emaciated walrus appears and belches out the tune to "Oy, Frankie, We Barely Knew Ye."





"Well that settles it," Flip says, and is off to audition for Dickens, you Dickens, a play that is, according to the Bloom Picayune, "of negligible import." Regardless, "The Dead" are beside themselves with joy.

A Stupid Thing

What more can be said about this? It's just a stupid thing.

Carbon Alley - 2/23/07

Carbon Alley - 2/16/07

Now! Accordions!

FIVE DAY FREE TRIAL!?!? Hell, I'd make noise for five days. See how fun the world was in 1960? Why, on a warm sunny evening, you could stroll out on the porch in your penny loafers and you'd hear the gentle HEEEEEEHAAAAAW of accordion music wafting in from every which-a-way.

Carbon Alley - 2/09/07

Godspeed, Dwiggo!

It's time again for crazy screwed up comics from long ago that I swiped from Barnacle Press. Here, from 1913, we have Home Wanted by a Baby! in which little orphan Baby shows up on a doorstep, has to face terribly incompetent and neurotic adults, escapes, talks to some random animal, and continues on to the next doorstep. And this happens in every strip, every day, for months.

Here's another one if you don't believe me.


Yes, Baby's catchphrase seems to be "Wow!" I don't know if this is a horrible attempt at onomatopoeia in a strange, turn-of-the-century kind of way, but it may just be a very early occurrence of self-referential humor as even Baby can't believe what's going on in the strip.

In any event, it's attributed to one Clare Victor Dwiggins. I'd like to think that it's not just a pseudonym for some unknown stooge in the newspaper's rank and file. I know in my heart that Dwiggins was a real person, and that he ran around the sidewalks of New York honking a bicycle horn at pretty girls like Harpo Marx.

Screw it. I'm going to go on the record and admit that I love this strip.

Carbon Alley - 2/02/07