Froggaffe

I LIIIIIVE...!

So here's a Frog/Giraffe combo for ya, since I haven't posted any new arts here for a while.

PLUG ALERT! - My Cardboard Life

Near the end of May this year, I attended another visit to the London Comic Con at the Expo where, amongst other fantastic artists and guests there, I picked up this cute little book - Cardboard Colin and Paper Pauline.

 The premise is very simple yet adorable. Two friends, a cardboard boy and a paper girl, getting cutesy and silly from their various conversations. What caught my eye most of all was the fact that the artist, Philippa Rice, makes her comics completely out of cut-out paper and cardboard and other various material scraps. Quite a novel way of being unique and recyclable!

Feel free to check out more of Colin and Pauline from their webcomic, My Cardboard Life, as well as buying their lovely little merchandise from their shop =D

BBC - Small People's TV - 1998

The first time I saw this Children In Need promo back in 1998, it made my heart sing. This was what truly made up the Children's BBC at the time: long before Digital TV, long before Sam and Mark, long before everything became outsourced and "American-imported".

THIS, my friends, was a perfect history of British Children's TV from the BBC, by the BBC. With as much of the "gang" included as possible - stop-motion, live-action and traditionally animated =)

I'd have loved to know who was responsible for the animation throughout here. Could be from their respective studios (who were probably still in business) at the time, but at a hunch I'd call on Cosgrove Hall for the stop-motion segments.

The little chap here, BTW, was played by one Scott Chisholm; in what would be his acting debut just aged 5, he would later expand his career in various other shows such as Casualty, The Giblet Boys and Things To Do Before You're Thirty.


But enough chatter. Here's the video below to enjoy and reminisce...thank lord that 83% of the shows included have already made their way to DVD... le sigh.



PAST HEADLINES:

Children's classics go back to the future
Children's TV trailer turns Scott into a star

Voiced by Daws Butler

Anyone who has worked in the voice acting biz will tell you their favourite actors from the past - either from personal experience working with them or learning how to relive the animated characters they originally helped to bring to life.

Some of the most popular names that crop up have been Mel Blanc and Daws Butler - both who have had legacies larger than Russia, both who served their various companies well, and both who have worked together long-term, notably when Hanna-Barbera Productions first opened up shop.

Although he made his name first at MGM and then later Hanna-Barbera, Daws Butler also lent his voice to many commercials and animation shorts. What I also respect about Daws was the fact he shared his talents and skills with the world, training young people of the time the fine art of voice-acting, making them the stars they are today - just ask Nancy Cartwright and Joe Bevilacqua =)

Without Daws, we'd probably never have the likes of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear nor Quick Draw McGraw to recall and enjoy countless times over...that is if you happen to be as big a HB fan aside others.

If you'd like to know more about Daws Butler - or Hanna-Barbera in general - be sure to check out Yowp's Early Hanna-Barbera Cartoons blog with plenty of interviews, newspaper cuttings and in-depth episode reviews!

Meantime, here's some other vids featuring the vocal talents of Daws himself.


This cute short is one of Sesame Street's often-recalled segments, featuring an Elroy Jetson-type narrator. Rather like the odd concept of a photographic train yard, which helps the lil' J stand out - even odder when one finds an A4 Pacific in an American Railroad yard!!


Daws was also fondly remembered as the voice of Cap'n Crunch, mascot for Cap'n Crunch cereal. The animation, I believe, was produced by Jay Ward Productions:


This last one's my personal favourite - next to being a voice actor, Daws was also a nifty writer, collaborating and voicing this set of Bosco Chocolate Sauce adverts with veteran animator/musician/cartoonist Bud Luckey. Rumour has it that the third, larger bunny here might be voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, but please feel free to correct me:

Alas Poor Simpsons...

So this year in March has seen the 24th anniversary of the Simpsons - who at this time boast of 26 seasons, 486 episodes and a feature-length movie to boot, all the time earning billions and billions and billions of dollars in whatever merchandise Matt Groeing and his crew can come up with next.


.....but at what cost...?

Any long-term Simpsons fan will tell you that the show, the characters and its creativity today are far from their glory days - they've long since scraped through the barrel and have since been digging up dirt. Characters are now stereotypes, continuity has been "restarted" several times over and any couch gag that runs longer than the episode is a sure sign that the writers are, ever so slowly, running out of decent ideas.

The sad fact is that the only way Simpsons is ever going to remembered by was for how far downhill it has run with every new season that is made. More to the point, since Family Guy came on the scene, the Simpsons's attempts at trying to "better" them in terms of cutaway gags and unnecessary shock value is stupefying.

There is a VERY thin line between quality and quantity - look at any short-lived series that lasted only 1 Season, 13 episodes tops. I'd sooner rewatch those over and over again then have more episodes produced and run into the ground, thus losing every inch of the original quality.


And speaking of quality, even the animation has taken major steps back. The original Opening Sequence was the last-remaining speck of good quality the show has ever had, and comparing it to the new version, there's no contest which I prefer.

I am fully aware also that the first few seasons plus the original shorts that aired on The Tracy Ullman Show are not everyone's cup of Joe since they were originally produced and animated by Klasky Csupo - of Rugrats and Duckman fame - which have often been criticised of being "ugly" and "crude".

Personally, going by the current Simpsons in animation and writing - as well as Fox Network having at least 5 shows sharing the same art style and "dysfunctional family" concept - I'd happily settle for "ugly" than "bland" any time in this life.

And just for the Hellavit, here's some screenies of how the Simpsons used to look and act, as well as a selection of some of my favourite Tracy Ullman shorts - ugly they appear, but they're short, sweet and FUN.

Now view a selection of the shots from the brand new playlist!

PLUG ALERT! - Andrew Morrice

Fellow comic readers: Are you tired of seeing Marvel and Manga Novels plastered in every comic/book shop you go to?

Do you remember the good ol' days when comics were chock-a-blocked with humour and mad characters alike?

Do you long to relive those days again...?


Well if you check out the artwork for one Andrew Morrice, then you can! With characters like Stan the Crow, Taffy the Flame, Snide and Snout and the gleesome threesome April, May and June, you can relive the glory days of the Beano and Ha Ha Comics once more with an artist that uses genuine 100% traditional methods to reproduce ha-larious stories of days gone by.

...well, what are you waiting for?? Get over to his page and buy his books!

Dragon Character Design