Comic Book Letter of Comment: Scroogian Symmetry!

…Or, How “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon” Before June – Became Something to Remember in November.

…Or, aren’t you glad this isn’t just another embedded video?



Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge opus “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon”(Originally appearing in UNCLE SCROOGE # 24, 1958) has long been a favorite comic book story of mine, ever since I first read it “postage-stamp panel-sized” in WALT DISNEY COMICS DIGEST # 6 (1968).

Below: Cover of UNCLE SCROOGE ADVENTURES # 13 (1989) featuring a reprint of “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon” – New cover art by Don Rosa.

Such a favorite is this tale that, on May 05, 2008, when I was invited to participate in the DVD documentary feature “Donald Goes to Press” for the Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald Volume 4 (1951-1961) DVD set, I mentioned it prominently.

To digress, I DO hope you’ve managed to get a copy of what we now call “CHRON-DON # 4”, as there were only 39, 500 copies run and, despite being released about 15 days ago, it’s already becoming somewhat difficult to find. (More on that HERE and HERE and you can read more about “Donald Goes to Press” HERE).

Two days after my tribute to this Carl Barks classic was committed to video, Gemstone releases UNCLE SCROOGE # 375, on May 07, leading off with a reprint of … “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon”.

Fast forward to November 11, 2008: Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald Volume 4 (1951-1961) is released on November 11, and the world (…okay, make that fewer than 39, 500 folks, considering the likely speculative hoarding of the set) gets to hear me wax nostalgically over the greatness that is “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon”.

Then, a mere eight days later on November 19, Gemstone releases UNCLE SCROOGE # 382 containing my Letter of Comment on the appearance of the story in May’s issue # 375… in which I say many of the same things I say in the DVD documentary. Here’s the LOC:

“I’m afraid to open my mouth! My brains might fall out!” – Scrooge McDuck, America’s first “Cash-tronaut”, from Carl Barks’ “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon” in UNCLE SCROOGE # 375.

I’ve been waiting for you to reprint this outstanding tale, just so I could pull this favorite quote to open a letter of comment! …And it’s a good thing he DIDN’T open his mouth, as those aforementioned brains would just bump-up against the inside of his space helmet – and what an image that would have made!

Clearly a product of 1950s Sputnik Fever, “The Twenty-Four-Carat Moon” saw Scrooge, Donald, and the nephews in their own “space-race”, with rival tycoons and the Terrible Beagle Boys taking the place of rival superpowers, to claim a golden planetoid hidden behind the (as of then unseen) dark side of the Moon.

Alas, the “dark side” aspect of the story will forever doom it to be a period piece when seen from a late 20th or early 21st Century perspective. But, the comic-book gods smiled upon this opus when I first saw it in its initial American reprinting as the featured attraction of WALT DISNEY COMICS DIGEST # 6 – released in late 1968, not long before Apollo VIII became the first manned craft to circle the Moon! That gave our dauntless Ducks one final chance to be the first and only beings to see what lurked behind our Moon, and made this Barks epic just that much more special to me at the time!

(End of Letter of Comment)

…And, to the Harvey Comics fans out there, YES, that “Cash-tronaut” line was a tribute to those dreadful Richie Rich “verbal gag” covers (…or would they be “gag reflex covers”?) of the 1970s.

So, Carl Barks’ “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon” becomes prominent for me over two days in May and again over eight days in November. In May, I discuss it for video, re-read it and write a Letter of Comment in two days. Half a year later, in November, I watch the DVD discussion and read the published comments in eight days. “Scroogian Symmetry”, I call it! (…I mean, if you HAD to call it something, what else COULD you call it?)

I don’t know what all this rambling means, but it must mean something… beyond the notion that, by now, you may be wishing I just embedded a video of another old Hanna-Barbera cartoon instead! ...Fear not, I’ll get back to that soon enough!

Huckleberry Hound in “Piccadilly Dilly”

“Give a man a fish and, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Give me an embedded video, and I’ll watch it. Teach me how to embed videos in my Blog, and I’ll endlessly inflict them on you in alarmingly large numbers!

Yes, this Blog HAS become rife with embedded videos of late. But, if you like Lost In Space or early Hanna-Barbera cartoons it can be a beautiful thing. At least I think so…

“Piccadilly Dilly” is a favorite Huck Hound cartoon that has not been released on DVD. It was written by Warren Foster, going back to the “Jeckyll and Hyde thing” he did for the Friz Freleng Bugs Bunny classic “Hyde and Hare” – but with a different ending.

I particularly like Foster’s dialogue in this one. When Huck converses with “Doctor J.” about his formula, his exchanges with the captain, or when he just cluelessly blathers on to himself. And ya gotta love Hal Smith’s maniacal laughter as "The 'Dilly"!

So, enjoy the great Daws Butler and Hal Smith, and the additional incongruity of Huck as a London Bobby with a Southern drawl.



C’mon, WB… put the rest of Huckleberry Hound out on DVD!

Just One More Lost In Space CGI.

I really don’t know what to make of this, other than it is one damned amazing effort!

I’ll assume it’s only one more ambitious fan-effort (of many to be found). And that maybe “homemade CGI" is the 21st Century replacement for “fan-fic”. (You can see some other examples of CGI-reimagined Lost In Space openings in my previous post HERE!)

The names “involved”, that are seen at the end – and I’ll assume they are not used with permission, if a fan product – would seem to be there to give the notion of some "authenticity" (...if nowhere but in the author's fantasy), but imagine if something like this could be "legitimately" done – or even created for a possible video game.

…So, if this thing “disappears” someday, I will not be very surprised, so do enjoy it while it’s here to entertain you – and consider “what could be or could have been"!

Back when I was in my “early double digit years”, this is precisely the sort of thing I would play and replay in my head. New episodes, Dick Tufeld narrated “Third Season Next Week Scenes” for earlier episodes like “Deadly Games of Gamma Six”, “The Astral Travler”… and, of course “The Keeper”. (Yes, I suppose I was always TV Sci-Fi geeky to some degree… SO WHAT!)

But now, it seems that the more motivated members of geekdom, can now create those “in-your-head” scenes to share with the rest of us! Do we live in a WONDERFUL AGE, or what!

Oh, and look for “Space Station K-7” from Star Trek’s “The Trouble with Tribbles” at about 1:34 and Forbidden Planet’s “Robby the Robot” (a two-time guest star on the original Lost In Space) at about 1:40. …Enjoy!



So, don’t cha wish it was “for-real”?

The Amazing Things Fans Can Do Today! Lost In Space Third Season Opening – Remastered and Customized!

It never ceases to amaze me what dedicated fans can do these days.

Here’s the original Third Season Opening to Lost In Space, followed by customized openings to the episodes “The Condemned of Space” and “Visit to a Hostile Planet”!

Not only are they redone in CGI, but each opening is “custom to the episode” by utilizing shots of the cast THAT ARE ACTUALLY FROM THAT PARTICULAR EPISODE!

In other words, the credit shots of Guy Williams, June Lockhart, Billy Mumy, Jonathan Harris, et al used for the credit sequence for “The Condemned of Space” are actually from “The Condemned of Space” (in the comet’s path), and ditto for “Visit to a Hostile Planet” (runaway acceleration).

To digress, I’ve always been one for having differences in the opening credit sequences for different seasons of a show – as was the case with Lost In Space, Star Trek, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., F-Troop, Land of the Giants – and certain cartoons like Scooby-Doo Where Are You and DuckTales.

In fact, shows like U.N.C.L.E. and I SPY would actually work scenes from the episode into the credit sequence, just as has been done here.

Conversely, just try to pin down when any given Simpsons episode was from! You just CAN’T DO IT!

With different or changing opening sequences, you always know (at least approximately) when – or from which season – the episode you are watching is from.

But just imagine taking it to extremes with opening credits sequences that are SPECIFIC TO THE EPISODE! Apparently, someone did… Enjoy!

1: Original 1967 Third Season Opening.

2: "The Condemned of Space" (Custom CGI)

3: "Visit to a Hostile Planet" (Custom CGI).

Jets, Giants… and “Bear”, Oh My!

Week Eleven in the 2008 NFL Season is a great place to be if you are a New Yorker!

After a hard-fought overtime victory over the arch-rival New England Patriots 34-31, the New York Jets sit alone atop the AFC East with a record of 7-3, while the New York Giants do likewise in the NFC East at 8-1!

UPDATE: Make that Giants record 9-1 for Week Eleven (...as of Sunday, November 16) with a 30-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens!

I don’t think both teams have EVER been in first place at the same time THIS LATE IN THE SEASON, ever before!

To celebrate, here’s an embedded video of my all time favorite “football cartoon” – Yogi Bear in “Rah Rah Bear”!

It dates from the second season of THE HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SHOW in 1959, was written by the great Warren Foster, and was magnificently voiced by the equally great Daws Butler and Don Messick. Butler, of course is Yogi, but also delivers Ranger Smith’s one-or-two lines in this one. And Messick (who normally spoke for “Mister Ranger”) is superb as the football game announcer.

“Rah Rah Bear” is a prime example of why I love the early Hanna-Barbera cartoons… even though, for many of my early, formative years (…until I finally watched a “real” NFL game), I thought the game of football was played by two lines of “really big guys” running full-tilt directly into each other!




Ironically, as I post a Blog entry that, at least in part, celebrates the New York Giants’ success, I link to a cartoon that results in their defeat! Sorry, Eli. …Enjoy!

CHRON DON – GONE DON!

This Blog continues its obsession with Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald Volume 4 (1951-1961) with my revisiting the local BEST BUY where I picked up my two copies on the Tuesday morning of release.

By Thursday evening, in the five-o-clock hour, all copies of CHRON DON 4 were SOLD OUT! There were three vertical “shelf places” full of them 2.5 days ago… and now they’re all gone.

I certainly hope each one went to “deserving homes” where they will be viewed and enjoyed for years to come. But, as past Treasures sets with LARGER press runs have already proved, I’m certain that some have fallen into the hands of (Boo! Hiss!) speculators as well!

FREE THE CHRON DONS!!!

“Don for the Count” – a Senseless Census of Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald Volume 4 (1951-1961)!

I can officially confirm that the press run for Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald Volume 4 (1951-1961) is 39, 500 copies (as I warned HERE).

So, given my two purchased copies, and one each known to have gone to friends David Gerstein and Chris Barat, that leaves a potential of 39,496 still up for grabs. Get yours before the speculators move in, as has been the case with previous sets of Walt Disney Treasures.

Considering there were 165,000 copies of Volume One, and a diminishing number with each successive volume, it’s possible that there are persons who might (should they someday desire to do so) never be able to complete the series. 165,000 to 39, 500 is quite a decline even when spread over four volumes.

Shifting gears, the documentary feature “Donald Goes to Press” appears to have turned out very well. How can you not love a chronology that takes you on an artists’ tour from Al Taliaferro (featured) to Flemming Anderson (briefly glimpsed) and beyond! (THAT, my friends, is a LOT of ground covered!) Your thoughts on it – and the set in general – are welcome in my Comment Space.

The 45 minutes of my interview session were nicely distilled into a small portion of the feature’s approximately 13 minute running time. I see no cuts beyond the rough cut I’d seen earlier.

…Maybe one day, after you ALL watch it, I’ll list some of the things I discussed that didn’t make it in.