WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN?

                                                                The shadow knows!

(With a tip of the hat to Sergio Aragonés!)

ANTONIO IS SEVEN!

Today is my grandson ANTONIO's 7th Birthday!
I can't believe it!
Time doesn't fly...it zooms by!

MORT DRUCKER!

Mort Drucker was born March 22,1929 in Brooklyn, New York.
His work and caricatures at MAD Magazine, beginning in 1956, soon became legendary.  Mort's artwork was the first thing that attracted me to Mad Magazine back in the Sixties, and I became an ardent fan of his drawings.  Mort Drucker's on-target depictions of celebrities were my inspiration to become a full time cartoonist.
Of course I never aspired to emulate him and my drawing style differs sharply from his, but he was the reason I kept buying Mad even into the 2000s even though I believed the rest of the magazine was going rapidly downhill.  When Mort ceased to submit his work to the magazine, I stopped buying it.
Anyway, happy 90th birthday to one of my heroes...the one and only MORT DRUCKER!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mort_Drucker

You can celebrate ST. PATRICK'S DAY even if you're not Irish!

And of course there are many ways to remember St. Patrick's holiday which must include watching some great classic Irish-themed cartoons!
These two are my perennial favorites!

1951 - WEARING OF THE GRIN. Written by Michael Maltese and directed by Chuck Jones. The expressions on Porky's face make this, one of the funniest entries in the Merrie Melodies library!

 

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4831na

1958 - DROOPY LEPRECHAUN - MGM-Hanna-Barbera Productions. Directed by Michael Lah.  Droopy's last theatrical cartoon is memorable for Spike, the Irish dog who's obsessed with catching a leprechaun! 

Opening scenes from DROOPY LEPRECHAUN:

Anyway, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

GIRLS! - (The Wonders of Photoshop)

                              This image may seem utterly ridiculous and impossible but...I can dream, can't I?

The World of Entertainment Today...

I think this may be an age thing but it seems harder each year for me to find good entertainment...

The LAUREL & HARDY Comic Book Collection

Being a Laurel and Hardy fan since my early childhood, I was pleasantly surprised back in 1962 when I discovered Dell Publishing's first Laurel and Hardy comic book and immediately began to look for all their following issues. The names of the writers and artists on these are sadly unavailable.

Unfortunately, only four issues were produced before the title was discontinued.    

                                                     

 Later on, Gold Key comics took another shot at it and published two more Laurel and Hardy issues, in 1967. 



Again, in 1972, DC Comics tried one more time to promote a Laurel and Hardy comic with so much luck, they only came out with one lone issue.   

 
Today, thanks to the internet, it's very easy to track down most of the Laurel and Hardy back issues, even dating to the St. John comics from the late forties.


It is even possible to locate some rare foreign editions like these from England, Spain and Mexico.

                                                                                                                                                                 
                                 

OSCAR NIGHT...

...and this happens when you're NOT rooting for any of the nominees!

Remember STAN LAUREL

54 years ago, we lost Stan Laurel, a comedy genius and my own personal idol.

From Wikipedia:

In January 1965, Stan Laurel underwent a series of x-rays for an infection on the roof of his mouth. He died on 23 February 1965, aged 74, four days after suffering a heart attack on 19 February.  Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!" A few minutes later, the nurse looked in on him again and found that he had died quietly in his armchair.

At his funeral, silent screen comedian Buster Keaton said, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest, I wasn't the funniest, this man was the funniest."  Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy as a friend, protégé, and occasional impressionist of Laurel during his later years; he read "The Clown's Prayer".  Laurel had quipped, "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again."  He was interred in Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery.

At Forest Lawn Cemetery, a plaque was placed reading:

STAN LAUREL
1890 - 1965
A MASTER OF COMEDY
HIS GENIUS IN THE ART OF HUMOR BROUGHT GLADNESS TO THE WORLD HE LOVED.

Joining the Laurel and Hardy appreciation society, the Sons Of The Desert, I was fortunate enough to meet Stan Laurel's daughter, Lois Laurel Hawes and visit Stan's final resting place with her, back in 1980, during the Sons of the Desert Second International Convention in Hollywood.

God Bless Stan Laurel!