At left is the cover of a new book, Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records. I have only skimmed this book so far, but I can safely and highly recommend it. Here is a small excerpt from the introduction by Leonard Maltin, wherein he was talking about his love of Disney music dating back to his singing The Ballad of Davy Crockett at age 4:

Yet I must confess that I know very little about the workings of the studio’s music operations, and as soon as I started reading Greg Ehrbar and Tim Hollis’s book, I found myself saying more than once, “I never knew that!”

From just my cursory glance at this book, I wholeheartedly agree with Leonard. It seems to be meticulously researched. There are mini-biographies of practically everyone that ever recorded for the company. Those alone are worth the price.

If you’d like more information about the book, you can meet one of the authors, Greg Ehrbar, Thursday night at an ASIFA Hollywood event. Here is a link to their website and everything you need to know to attend.

I wasn’t going to plug this, but now that I’ve received this e-mail from Matthew Hunter, I’ll let him do it.

I just picked up the newest issue of Looney Tunes comics from DC, # 140. It has two stories in it that you wrote and, to my surprise, you brought back Mary Jane and Sniffles! Although they’re not my favorite feature from the old Western Looney Tunes comics, they’re still a classic, and I’m glad you decided to bring them back to comics after so long! I also commend you for doing a story with Egghead and Pete Puma in the same issue!

Thanks for your kind words, Matthew. There was a post on a prominent animation forum about forgotten Looney Tunes characters recently, and listed among them were Mary Jane and Sniffles and Egghead. Well, we who write the comic books haven’t forgotten them… as much as we try.

Since only members of The Animation Guild, I.A. Local 839, receive the union newsletter, The Pegboard, I thought I would reprint an article I wrote for them about last year’s San Diego Comic-Con. So, here it is:

San Diego Comic-Con International: Is Too Much Enough?

When I set out to write this piece, it was going to be an article about the 2005 Comic-Con, but it soon became clear that my reporting skills are more suited to editorializing. As they say, opinions are like belly-buttons* – everyone has one and most are full of lint.

*Cleaned up for a family audience. What? Your family doesn’t read The Pegboard?

This year, by the time the counting is done, attendance will top 100,000, of which 17% are scantily-clad women, much to the delight of the other 82%, who are the drooling fan-boys. The last 1% are you and me, the pros who spend the rest of the year avoiding those 82%*.

*This is not true. Clearly, 37% of us pros are also drooling fan boys!

The Dealer’s Room, which is now a misnomer due to the overwhelming presence of Movie Studios, Toy Manufacturers and Publishing Companies, was crammed to the gills with booth after booth of the latest Simpsons’ toys, postcards for movies coming out at Christmas and Lou Ferrigno. Man, that guy is everywhere!

Where are the comic books, you might wonder? There are still a few of the stalwart dealers who drag out their boxes of back issues and set up tempting displays of the rare and expensive. But their numbers are dwindling and they are relegated to one end of the convention center.

The Comic-Con has become a huge PR event for the studios. Big name stars come out to plug their latest film, as long as it has something to do with comic books, animation, science-fiction, fantasy or horror. Gee, that doesn’t leave much out, except perhaps the latest romantic comedy with Jennifer Lopez or Reese Witherspoon. This year saw the first in-person appearance of Buffy herself (though not in the role of Buffy), Sarah Michelle Gellar. I can’t blame the companies for promoting their products. The Hollywood crowd draws the largest audience of anything at the Con other than the costume contest.

As far as the panels go, comics are still covered. Is it just me, or do you find that there are no panels you want to see all day and then at four o’clock there are three things on at the same time? Scheduling the panels has got to be a nightmare, but if it’s your panel, you sure don’t want to be opposite either Star Wars or The Simpsons… or the Hollywood Star in the football field-sized ballroom that sucks up three-quarters of the attendees.

One good thing for our industry, animation has become as important a part of the Con as comic books. Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney and Warner Bros. all have panels touting their newest shows and features. And there’s plenty of Anime to go around, too.

Another thing I want to know, if Comic-con is so huge, how come comic books don’t sell better? And one more thing, do you get the feeling that I’ve been bitten by a rabid Andy Rooney?

I do think they’re going to have to do something about the crowds. I have two suggestions, one relating to the other. Cap attendance at 100,000. I don’t think it’s necessary to cram any more people in and finally find the breaking point. And one way to keep attendance down slightly would be to make it pre-registration only. No walk ups admitted. I know this would upset some people. But if I have to get any closer to the guy who hasn’t showered in this millennium, I’m going to be upset and scream so loud, you might even be able to hear me in the next aisle.

A view of the Dealer’s Room from the 2004 convention. Now imagine even more people in there!

If this little rant makes it sound like I’m down on Comic-Con, I’m not really. It’s a shame it’s not the “intimate” gathering it was even ten years ago, but things change. And, of course, you’ll see me waiting in line next year to register. I’ll be behind the scantily-clad woman and 2,367 drooling fan-boys.

Here is the last update I’ll be posting until the convention actually starts.

It looks like the only panel I’m doing this year is the Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain event. I’ve already listed that it’s Thursday, 4:00 - 5:00, but now I can tell you it’s in Room 6B.

The other event I told you about, Scott Shaw’s Oddball Comics, is Saturday from 4:30 - 6:00, which is very good, because it doesn’t conflict with Mark Evanier’s Quick Draw! or Voice Panel. Here is the official description: 4:30-6:00 Scott Shaw! Presents Oddball Comics— Direct from his live stage show at Hollywood’s ACME Comedy Theater, award-winning cartoonist Scott Shaw! (Simpsons Comics; Weird Tales Of The Ramones; Captain Carrot And His Amazing Zoo Crew!; The Flintstones, etc.) presents the wildest version yet of Oddball Comics (www.oddballcomics.com)—”the craziest comic books ever published”—as seen over the past four decades! See why Stan Lee says, “Scott Shaw!’s hysterically hilarious Oddball Comics is the wildest, wackiest exposé of some of the craziest comic books I’ve ever seen!” Room 5AB

And if my recommendations aren’t enough, here is the complete Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday schedules. Now you know everything you need to know about Comic-Con, except where to park your car. And that one is a trick… there’s no place to park your car.

With the Con starting in just a week and a half, here is another update:

First, here is a link to all of the panels that Mark Evanier is moderating. You can’t go wrong attending one of Mark’s panels. He knows what questions to ask and is mighty witty his own self. I especially like the way he handles the fan audience. For instance, at the Voice Panels, when it comes time to take questions from the crowd, he warns them that if anyone gets up to the mike and tries to audition, they will be immediately ejected. That always elicits a rousing cheer from the others. But specifically, the panels that I plugged here taking place on Saturday are Quick Draw!, which will be from 12:30 to 2:00 in Room 6CDEF and if you stay put, the first of two Voice Panels (the other being on Sunday) will follow from 2:00 to 3:30.

The Writer’s Guild panel, “Something Funny This Way Comes” will be on Saturday from 10:30 to Noon in Room 4. Tentatively scheduled guest writers include Patric Verrone (Futurama) and Mike Reiss (The Simpsons, The Critic). Other guests will be finalized shortly.

Here is the official description of Jerry Beck’s Worst Cartoons Ever: 9:00-10:00 PM Worst Cartoons Ever— Animation historian Jerry Beck (Cartoon Brew.com) presents an all-new, all-hilariously bad collection of the worst animated cartoons ever made. This program, now in it’s fourth year is quickly becoming a must-see convention favorite! New episodes of Mighty Mr. Titan (the limited-animation physical fitness guru), Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero (a spaced-out space cadet), and Super President (a one-man weapon of mass destruction) will be joined by new, equally horrendous examples of bad animation art—all real, all unbelievable, all crap-tacular! Room 6CDEF

And here is another treat. Just prior to Jerry’s show, Robert Smigel will be present. In case the name isn’t familiar, he is the writer/creator of SNL’s Saturday TV Funhouse and also the voice behind Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog as well as the “Clutch Cargo” lips of various famous people on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Here is the official description of his event: 7:30-9:00 PM SNL: Saturday TV Funhouse with Robert Smigel— Join the Emmy Award–winning writer, producer and creator of Saturday Night Live’s hilarious animated “TV Funhouse” segments, Robert Smigel, for a presentation and discussion about the upcoming DVD release of SNL: The Best Of Saturday TV Funhouse. Featuring clips of “The Ambiguously Gay Duo”, “X-Presidents”, “Saddam and Osama”, “Mr. T” and other favorites, as well as notable “lost” cartoons, banned from the airwaves forever. Q & A to follow! With appearances by animator/director Robert Marianetti and—possibly—Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog. Note: Ladysmith Black Mambazo will not be present. Room 6B

All in all, it seems to be shaping up to be a great convention, although I hear that pre-registrations are up about 20%, which means they better take a cue from Vegas and pump some pure oxygen into that dealer’s room, since there will be absolutely no room left to breathe!

Well, this will teach me to make blanket statements without doing better research first. Several more people have pointed out that Five O’Clock Whistle was used in some other cartoons. Here is an e-mail from my buddy Jerry Beck:

To follow up on J. Lee’s comment (and not to belabor this), Stalling used FIVE O’CLOCK WHISTLE as a short (almost unnoticable) music cue in several cartoons. LITTLE RED RIDING RABBIT is certainly the song’s claim to fame. But it was also heard briefly in COAL BLACK AND DE SEBBEN DWARFS, sung with different lyrics in the Army camp scene, where So White is frying eggs (”The five o’clock whistle it just blew, I’m fryin’ eggs and pork chops, too…”).

And Jaime Weinman points to another wolf-sheepdog cartoon, Ready, Woolen and Able, played when Ralph and Sam are at the time clock punching in.

Thanks to everyone for writing. I don’t care if I’m right, as long as I’m accurate… or something like that.

Here is some additional information on the previous post. J. Lee writes:

Stalling used “Five O’Clock Whistle” once more, as the end gag music for the first wolf-sheepdog cartoon, “Don’t Give Up the Sheep” in 1952. A nice loud, boisterous rendition, too, as Ralph’s backside is getting paddled.

And thanks to Jaime Weinman’s Something Old, Nothing New Weblog, here is a link to YouTube and the original version of They’re Either Too Young or Too Old from the movie Thank Your Lucky Stars as sung by Bette Davis! Personally, I think it would have been funnier to have Bugs Bunny playing Bette Davis.

On this Independence Day, I thought it would be appropriate to “Thank Our Lucky Stars”

Happy July 4th! I thought I would start out my cartoon sheet music series with the two entries above, both featured in the same short, 1944’s Little Red Riding Rabbit.

The first song, Five O’Clock Whistle (By Josef Myrow, Kim Gannon and Gene Irwin) is sung by the bobby-soxer Red. It was written in 1940 and recorded by Woody Herman and his Orchestra. That’s Woody on the front of the sheet music. As far as I know, this is the only time it appeared in a Warner Bros. cartoon. Red’s voice is provided by Bea Benadaret, who did many voices for Warner Bros., including originating the characters of Granny and Witch Hazel, before they were expertly assumed by June Foray. Bea went on to star on television as next-door neighbor Blanche Morton on Burns & Allen, Pearl Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies and finally Kate on Petticoat Junction. She returned to her animated roots as the voice of Betty Rubble on The Flintstones. I always thought Red was supposed to be a kind of Martha Raye character, but I’d be willing to bet that her punctuating her sentences with “… to have!” is some radio comedienne’s catch phrase.

The other song is They’re Either Too Young or Too Old (Lyric by Frank Loesser, Music by Arthur Schwartz). It was written in 1943 for the movie Thank Your Lucky Stars, a wartime movie populated by a bunch of Warners contract players. Listed on the front are Humphrey Bogart, Eddie Cantor, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, Joan Leslie, Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Ann Sheridan, Dinah Shore and Alexis Smith. The premise of the song is that all the good men are off at war and the ones that are left behind are either too young or too old. It plays in the cartoon during the Freleng favorite gag sequence multi-door chase. It returns as the final music cue before the iris out.

This is one of Freleng’s best cartoons. The sheer number of gags and the pace are top notch, but Carl Stalling’s music score really helps carry it. There are two other significant songs in the short that I’ll talk about another time.

No, not to the NASA launch, but to the Comic-Con International (nee San Diego Comic-Con). Today is July 1st, which means I got the battery fixed in my calendar watch. It also means it’s only 19 days until the Preview Night and 20 days until the official start.

Here are some highlights that you might want to remember:

Thursday, 4:00-5:00 PM. You already know about this one. It’s the Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain Panel, with yours truly. If you want the full details, go here.

Saturday, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM. “Something Funny This Way Comes”. Sponsored by the Animation Writers Caucus of the Writers Guild of America, west, this panel will explore writing comedy for animation. Gordon Bressack, whose picture you can see if you go to the link above, will moderate. Panelists will be announced shortly and I’ll update here when they’re set.

Saturday. “Quick Draw”. Mark Evanier’s Comic-Con game show where he pits the fastest cartoonists alive against each other. Sergio Aragones, who draws the Mad magazine marginals as well as the Groo comic book, is not only fast, but extremely funny. So is Scott Shaw!, a multi-talented cartoonist and animation director and storyboard artist and all-around good guy. The third artist is still TBD. If you’ve never seen this, it’s one of the highlights of the con. Mark throws challenges at the artists, each of whom has their own overhead projector so you can watch the drawings develop. It never fails to entertain. Don’t miss this one.

Saturday. “Cartoon Voice Panel”. Again, a Mark Evanier specialty. Each year he assembles a panel of well-known and unbelievably talented voice actors to talk about the business and cold-read a script. I’ll let Mark tell you who’s on the panel this year when he’s ready to announce it, but this is another event that is always entertaining. I might even have something to do with this one, if only handing out scripts. Eh, it’s a living.

Events that I don’t know when they’re scheduled yet:

“Oddball Comics”. Speaking of Scott Shaw! and entertainment, Scott will be reprising his one-man show of Oddball Comics. If you don’t know what those are, click on the link on the right and visit Scott’s site. But as hilarious as it is reading about these freaks of art, it’s twice as funny hearing him talk about them. Even if you’ve seen the show before, Scott always changes it up, so it’s worth seeing again.

“The Worst Cartoons of All Time” Jerry Beck is once again assembling an assault to the senses. Yes, these are truly bad cartoons, in every sense of the word. However, these are so bad, they’re funny, especially when viewed with an audience. You’re guaranteed to have a rottenly good time.

And that’s all I know about right now. As it gets closer, I’ll alert you of anything else of interest that I find out about.  See you at the Con.