Sheldon Mayer Weekend Concludes!

Good morning, Kids! Let's wrap up our Mayer Weekend with stories featuring Dizzy Dog (my favorite Mayer character) and Doodles Duck. Both stories come from Comic Calvacade No. 58 (August-September 1953). First up, Dizzy!

With his enormous puppy ears, tiny red bowler hat, and oversized bow-tie; Dizzy was a quick-tempered little street pup that had a persevering-if-innocent nature. In his innocence (which many characters in his universe perceived as dimness), Dizzy was often vulnerable to various wise-guys and those . . . well, less innocent (as we shall see in today’s first story).

Yet in Mr. Mayer’s masterful hands, Dizzy seemed always protected by a beneficent universe. Nothing could ever relieve Dizzy of his innocence OR his temper. That’s why I love him.

Exemplified well in this story is a Sheldon Mayer hallmark: Every character is unique and well-developed; each seems capable of a unique life, a unique personality – even those characters that speak only a line or don’t speak at all (check out the long line of characters waiting to get tickets for the big fight)!

Next up, Doodles Duck

“His Funny Animal stories are little comedic masterpieces,” said friend and artist, Jim Engel, recently when discussing Sheldon Mayer. Well said, Jim (Mr. Engel is the artist responsible for the beautiful banner atop the Big Blog)!

More about Mr. Engel after this wonderful Doodles story.

Speaking of pal and Big Blog patron, Jim Engel: As mentioned, Jim and I share a mutual love for the characters of Sheldon Mayer. As such, Jim gifted me a number of years ago a piece of original art featuring Bo Bunny, Dizzy Dog, and Doodles Duck (see immediately below). It hangs on my wall as a cherished possession.

Following that piece is a more recent inking from Jim of the same characters. Feast your eyes, kids. Isn’t it easy to see why Mr. Engel is one of my favorite cartoonists and artists?

For those wishing more from Mr. Engel (and, trust me, you do), please click HERE to investigate!

I will see you all again very soon. Until then, I hope you are all warm, safe, and happy! --Your friend, Mykal

DICK DUCK, DUCK DICK by Jim Engel

This is a big, happy post for the Big Blog. This is the post in which I unveil my new banner done by cartoonist, Jim Engel! I am very grateful to Jim. I have always thought his work wonderful and am proud to have his original art as the banner for this blog. It’s just so darn perfect! Thank you, Jim.

Let’s call this Jim Engel Day! The following is a Dick Duck, Duck Dick story that originally ran in EB’NN No. 6, January 1987. But the pages that follow are not taken from the comic – not by a long shot! These are the page stats with the original zip-a-toning (the grey tones) from which the comic was printed. Jim scanned them in and sent them to me for this post.

This is the cover for the issue of EB’NN that Jim’s story appeared. Jim wasn’t entirely happy with it, but I’ll let him tell you about that . .

When discussion the posting of the Dick Duck, Duck Dick (jeez, that is so clever) story, Jim and I exchanged emails. What follows is an email I received from Jim explaining the history of the story and its publication and is posted here with Jim’s permission. It is posted here verbatim save my bold highlights:

"Hi, Mykal---

Since our earlier email exchange, I was thinking about that Dick Duck "No Sweat" story, and trying to recall why I did it in the first place... it wasn't INTENDED for Now Comics in the first place.

While "Dick Duck, Duck Dick" was running in THE COMIC READER, I was contacted by a guy (who I later met at the Chicago Con), who was interested in a long (well, longer than the 1-page TCR installments) self-contained DD story for a very slick 'zine he was putting out... I'd be in good company---I can't remember who all he said he'd lined up, but I know Alex Toth was to be in it, and that alone made me say yes (interestingly, when TCR started Dick Duck & Chuck Fiala's "Bullet Crow--Fowl of Fortune", Alex Toth was the guy who wrote in saying he enjoyed our strips after a disgruntled reader suggested we be dumped in favor of more pages of Superman newspaper strip reprints)...

In an effort to get it done in a reasonable time, I turned to DC inker Dennis Jensen. I have never been inked by anybody else (besides myself) and been happy with the results, but Dennis was doing phenomenal things with my late friend Alan Jim Hanley, so I asked, & he said yes. I wasn't thrilled with the results, not because Dennis isn't a GREAT inker (he is), but just because I've come to realize nobody else is YOU...

Anyway, that original book never came out, so I offered the story to Dean Mullaney at Eclipse (Who declined. "Too convoluted.", he said. I hadda look that up. It WAS, and "convoluted" is now a regular part of my vocabulary). Next up was Denis Kitchen, who slated it for an issue of SNARF that also never came out. Eventually, friend Chris Ecker asked if he could re-print the TCR duck pages (in B&W---they were color originally). I said yes, and when he found out there was a longer story, he asked about that & I said okay.

The cover drawing on that book wasn't intended as a cover... it was just s'posed to be used as a B&W inside cover spot illo. Dick Duck was originally saying "Jump back, Mark Eden--I got a return engagement here!". "Mark Eden" was a reference to the Mark Eden Bust Development ads (for women) that appeared in old magazines (and me mocking Ebb'n's gargantuan pecs). Unbeknownst to me, the drawing was (badly & incorrectly--DD is white) colored, and re-lettered to NOT make fun of Eb'nn (or anything ELSE, cuz now there was no JOKE), and turned into a very lame looking cover. If I'd been asked to do a cover, I'd have done a proportionately sized action scene, and colored it myself.

I know there are some "inside jokes" & references in the story, but I haven't looked at it in a long time...a couple I DO recall (without looking) are establishing the police chief in Dick's world as "Michael O'Mouse". Hence, as an Irish cop, he'd be MICKEY O'Mouse. Also, my older brother Rick was a cop back then, so "Officer Rick Eagle" was a reference to him. Most obscure, but highly amusing to ME, was the sort-of pun in the villain's name--"The Ghoulish Archie Pelican", which I came up with while running the title of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO" through my head... I'd never used the character before, but wanted to suggest Dick Duck had encountered him BEFORE, and make him DD's Red Skull or Moriarty.

At that late point in time, I was just somewhat happy the story was seeing print at all... I've always held full-time illustration and/or design jobs, and my comics output (miniscule as it is) was always more a hobby than anything, but when I finally DID do something, I hated to see the effort wasted...

Best, jim"

Again. Thanks, Jim. – Mykal Banta

Leggo Lamb in "What Are Friends For?"

I have long been a fan of Jim Engel’s smooth, sumptuous work. His story here, from Critters No. 18, September 1987, would have fit snuggly within the pages of 1940s era Ha-Ha or Giggle Comics without a hiccup, alongside work by Dan Gordon, Jack Bradbury, or Lynn Karp.

Engel has it all going on here: Great art and layout, a smart (and very funny) story, and great characters. I really want to see more of Grover Cleveland Goose, who makes me laugh out loud.

Next, we have a great treat!

In preparation for this post, I contacted Jim Engel requesting permission to blog his story, and he proved very generous. He was kind enough to share some of his memories about this particular story and cover. As it happens, Jim is a great student and fan of Funny Animal comics, and elements in this story pay homage to many past and current masters of the genre. Let’s start with Jim’s thoughts about his cover, which is posted again here in a much larger size (just click!) so details can be easily seen:

About this cover, Jim says: “This was really fun to do. Editor Kim Thompson asked me to do a cover and lead story for this (great, and missed) "funny animal" anthology comic. I did a story featuring "Leggo Lamb & Grover Goose" (they're sitting on the right railing & bottom step respectively). For the cover, I wanted do something that evoked an old Dell annual cover, and celebrated my love of funny animal comics, so I included the other two characters (not mine) that appeared in that issue (Lionheart, the cat in the yellow jacket, and The Blue Beagle, the superhero at top left on the stairs), my characters from The Comic Reader, Dick Duck (Duck Dick) and Pavlov (heading left on the sidewalk), and Mickey Mouse (that's his yellow shoe & red pants on the left).

It's hard to make out here, but each comic shown represented one of my favorite funny animal comic artists---Blue Beagle's reading a Mickey Mouse comic (Paul Murray), on the step next to him is an issue of "Giggle Comics" with Super Katt on the cover (Dan Gordon), the bunny's reading "Hi-Jinx Comics" (Jack Bradbury), Leggo Lamb's got "Pogo" (Walt Kelly), to the right of Grover Goose are “Yogi Bear" (Harvey Eisenberg) & "Scamp" (Al Hubbard), left of him is "Dizzy Dog" (Sheldon Mayer). Grover's reading "Uncle Scrooge" (Carl Barks), and Lionheart's reading "Fox and Crow" (Jim Davis).

Finally, I wanted the whole thing to look like a still from an animated cartoon, so I drew the background separately, did a color guide, and my friend Don Toht, a wonderful "realistic" illustrator, rendered it (beautifully) in water colors. I inked the characters on a separate page, and then took it over to my friend Ray Cioni's animation studio (Cioni Artworks), where Ray copied it onto a cel, and I spent an evening there painting the cel with his cel vinyl paint... The result, I think, turned out very well. Don & I opted not to sign it and mar the "movie still" illusion."

In our email correspondence, Jim also remembered several more tidbits regarding this story, some further honoring the masters; some relating to family and friends. Panel details discussed are enlarged and highlighted (click).

About the splash panel (above), Jim says: "in the splash panel (pg. 1), there's a Coo-Coo Comic...Super Mouse is my favorite funny animal comic book character ( not only are Hughes' stories hilarious, but what a roster of artists that DREW it---Stein, Gordon, Hubbard, Bradbury)...

There's also a Beany & Cecil, one of my favorite Bradbury books, and Bob Clampett was a friend of mine, too.

And there's a (made up) Don Rosa's Comics and Stories--Don is also an old and good friend of mine..."

About the above panel: "On page 2, panel 4, that's me on the book page under Leggo's thumb . . ."

This one is my favorite! About the above panel, Jim remembers: "Page 6, panel 1---on the newspaper 'CAL-MART' refers to my sons, Cal & Marty... it also says 'ANNIE ENGEL BORN 5/20/87'--my daughter was born the year i did this story. Also on that newspaper page is a caricature of my good friend Mike Tiefenbacher, who edited The Comic Reader, where my Dick Duck strip ran, and who also collaborated with Chuck Fiala & I on DC's 'Funny Stuff Stocking Stuffer'..."

And finally: ". . . along the top edge of the last panel on pg 8, you can read 'Hey, Bennett!, a shout out to my good friend (and great cartoonist) Dave Bennett (who's also THE expert on Jack Bradbury), and "SHAW!" a shout-out to my OTHER great L.A. cartoonist pal, Scott Shaw!"

In summation, Thanks, Jim - I really enjoyed your thoughts and I appreciate your generosity! -- Mykal Banta