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Bowl Of Noses

The First Pixar Short

Hope The Younger and I believe we have seen all the Miyazaki films now, including Animal Treasure Island, Lupin The 3rd, and Pom Poko. Our UrgeToComplete is turning us to Pixar, and luckily Anne Thompson tipped us to this the other week. “The Adventures Of Andre And Wally B” was the first Pixar short, way back when Pixar was a division of Lucas Film. Now the question is, have we seen every Pixar film? Once we check these boxes, we might as well move on to TheEntireHistoryOfFilmEVER!

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Bowl Of Noses

Peanuts Without Telepathy

“The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show” was a Saturday morning show that ran in ’83 & ’84. It was a direct lift from the Peanuts comic strips with nothing added except when absolutely necessary. You can kind of figure out what the three panels were if you try hard. It created some problems though: without Snoopy’s thought balloons how were you supposed to know what he was saying since DOGS CAN’T TALK? So you lose a few punch lines. You also recognize quick that Peanuts rarely gave a happy ending. Who needs a happy ending? Things going wrong is always more fun to watch, isn’t it?

Thanks Macleans!

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Bowl Of Noses

Old School Cartoons


Early on in his days H2Y asked “Why is old school so much cooler than new school?”  Volumes could be written on that, but here in The Bowl we just prefer to serve up another helping and hope that the sweet flavor of the old points the way.

Toon Tracker is an excellent website that has a horde of forgotten cartoon relics to amuse and delight: Hot Wheels, Abbott & Costello, Mighty Mouse.  Now all you need is a rainy day and screen time limit release and the surfing will be swell!

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Bowl Of Noses

Little Nemo


The Champion Cartoonist Of All Time has got to be Windsor McKay.  He created Little Nemo In Slumberland, Dreams Of A Rarebit Fiend, and Gerty The Dinosaur, to name but a few.  He was one of the original pioneers of cinema and used to do a trick act where he performed live on stage as if he was training Gerty, who was actually nothing more than a filmed dinosaur.

Little Nemo is hours upon hours of fun for any kid of any age.  McKay drew with architectual precision.  He had full page panels that would work equally well upside down as right side up.  His imagination knew no bounds.
We feel safe in saying that none of other hero drawers could do the work they have accomplished without him to pave the way — so imagine how dull that world would be: No Miyazake, no Tex Avery, no David Weisner, no Chris Ware, and so on and so on and so on.

There is a great collection of his work on-line at the Comic Strip Library.
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Bowl Of Noses

Free PEANUTS (If you act fast) !


Everyone knows that PEANUTS is one of the greatest comic strips ever, right?  But did you know that NEW animated episodes of it are available for free download at the iTunes store.  Better act now and get them onto your iPod, or your parents’ iPod that is.  

We don’t know how to link directly to the iTunes store (please tell us if you know how) so you have to click on this link and then click on the link there that will direct you and then download.  But do it now because it is only for a few days!
And check out the free online Peanuts library at the comics.com website.
Categories
These Are Those Things

Political Monsters by Gerald Scarfe

I have always dreamed of Alternative Careers.  Within that is the subset of Imaginary Alternative Careers.  Pursuits may be a better phrase; I dislike Career as it supposes that work is distinct from life.  The use of our labor is one of primary choices, inherent to whom we are — or rather I think it should be.

But back to the dreams: I once wanted to be a cartoonist.  Unfortunately that takes talent and craft. I once also wanted to be a journalist and also to work in politics — basically I wanted to both observe, comment, and to change things.  
Gerald Scarfe is a political cartoonist who’s stock in trade captures another one of those dreams: monsters.  For me it might have been more of a “monster shepherd”.  I envy that character on Doctor Who who collected all the beasts across time — but of course I would want to live with them, at least not these days.
BBC has a great slideshow profile on Scarfe and his work.  He’s sort of the Brit Ralph Steadman, but you probably know him best from Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
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Bowl Of Noses

Cartoons From Around The Globe #2

I don’t know much about The Tale Of The Cat And The Moon, but I do know it’s beautiful.  I love the style of drawing and how it plays with the black and white.  It deserves a million views.