Halloween Music!

Halloween is best enjoyed with some appropriate eerie music to set the mood for going out trick-or-treating at night. These are my favorite Halloween music CDs: 

Apparently, Halloween music can be anything that sounds creepy, frightful or which has any mysterious or ominous sounding word on the title, judging from the Halloween playlists on Spotify, iTunes and every other Halloween Hits list.  All in all, Halloween music is always fun and welcome.

DON MARTIN looks at Monsters!

I have always admired the work of cartoonist Don Martin, who worked at MAD magazine from 1956 to 1988, which, of course, were the golden years of that publication. His cartoon style was unlike anything I had seen before, and it completely blew my mind. His grotesquely designed characters and his ridiculously exaggerated sound effects always made me laugh out loud!

I was really sorry when he departed MAD over royalty disagreements with Mad's publisher, William Gaines but I loyally followed him over to Cracked magazine, where he stayed six years before branching out with his own magazine which unfortunately, didn't do well.
Don Martin kept working on other projects until his death on January 6, 2000 in Coconut Grove, Florida at age 68, from cancer.

In memory of this extraordinary artist, here we have a few monster inspired cartoons, to celebrate the impending Halloween season.

                                              

13 Days Before Halloween...

 As Halloween draws closer, I'm reposting these few Halloween-inspired cartoons from several seasons ago:

 

                                    

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN!

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) is the first film in which the famous comic duo meet the classic monsters from Universal Pictures' horror films. In my humble opinion it is also the best of them.
Bud and Lou play baggage handlers Chick Young and Wilbur Grey who get involved with Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster when a crate holding the remains of the Count arrives at the railway station in Florida, where Bud and Lou work as baggage clerks, to be delivered at McDougal's House of Horrors, a local wax museum.
The film contains some of Abbott & Costello's best routines and some of the one-liners are true gems, like this one:

The film is also notable because it was the "swan song" for the Big Three of Universal's Monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and the Werewolf made their last appearances in a Universal film here.

                                         

 Bud and Lou made some other subsequent horror spoofs for Universal: "A & B Meet the Invisible Man" (1951), "A & B Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1953) and "A & B Meet The Mummy" (1955).

                    But their crowning achievement in horror comedies was certainly the first one.

Abbott and Costello have always been among my favorite comedy teams, second only to Laurel & Hardy, but in the 1940s, they were the top box-office draws, remaining there for several years. Their brand of comedy was more suitable to the taste of war and post-war audiences.

They also had a successful run on television with the "Abbot and Costello Show" (1952-1954) and their legion of fans remain adoringly faithful to this day.

Traditionally, I always reserve October for a horror film marathon, with the classic Universal films holding a special place in the line-up.

So, here's to the classic Universal monsters and to Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, who will always keep a special place in my heart. 

My Son's Birthday!

OCTOBER : THE ARRIVAL

                                                                      "You rang?"

THE WORLD BACK IN ANCIENT TIMES.

Mister Magoo's 70th Anniversary

The first Mister Magoo color short, THE RAGTIME BEAR, was released September 29, 1949 by UPA Pictures.

 Today we mark Magoo's 70th anniversary.

The character of Mister Magoo, the nearsighted fellow who amazingly stays out of serious bodily harm while going erroneously into many hazardous and life threatening situations, was created by John Hubley, Millard Kaufman, Willis Pyle and Sherm Glas.

His full name is Quincy Magoo and he's a graduate from Rutgers University, his beloved alma mater.
He's very often accompanied by his nephew Waldo, who's a bit dim-witted and can't help his uncle from staying out of trouble.
       

Mister Magoo has always fascinated me since childhood and I hold very fond memories of his theatrical cartoons and his TV Christmas special.

There have been some recent projects to reboot the character but, happily, they haven't met with any kind of success. We can still enjoy Magoo in his original form through his 1950s cartoons, his later TV shows and the various comic books and paperbacks that have been printed over the years.

Mister Magoo was voiced by Jim Backus, and he was always associated with the character.

So now, to celebrate Magoo's 70th birthday, here we have some samples of his multiple misadventures:

There have been several Mr. Magoo figures and assorted merchandising items.

And, a few times,  I have even slipped Mr. Magoo's image into my own editorial cartoons:

Thank you, Mister Magoo, for those very happy times. 

"Oh, Magoo! You've done it again!"