Comic book writer Fred Van Lente and cartoonist Ryan Dunlavey have teamed up to create Comic Book Comics, a concise illustrated history of comic strips, comic books and yes, animated cartoons. I just picked up a copy at my local comics shop this week and all things considered, it’s pretty good. Jack Kirby and Max Fleischer seems to get extra attention in the first issue. Among the names who will be profiled in forthcoming editions are Stan Lee, Walt Disney, Roy Lichtenstein, R. Crumb, Winsor McCay, Will Eisner, Osamu Tezuka, Harvey Kurtzman, Art Spiegelman, Steve Ditko and Bob Kane.

Courtesy of Marc Schirmeister, The Asifa Hollywood Animation Archive has posted the complete 18-page Crimebuster story from a 1942 issue of Boy Comics. The story, written by Charles Biro and drawn by future stooge-in-law Norman Maurer, uses the fictional Acme Animation Studio as a backdrop. There are references to animators with some familiar sounding names (Gordon, Tyre (sic), Lovey (sic), Foster). Read it here.

A very strange comic strip I’m really starting to enjoy. Today’s Lio by Mark Tatulli.

We already have enough problems identifying the sex of Tweety… Now this:

Today’s Family Circus by Bil Keane (father of Disney animator Glen Keane).

Recently sold off on ebay was a series of six sample comic strips for a purported Oswald The Lucky Rabbit daily comic strip from the late 1930s. David Gerstein grabbed images of them, and Andrea Ippoliti posted them on his Classic Cartoons website.

Any further information on this attempt to make Oswald a regular in the “funny pages” is appreciated. Any ideas on who might have drawn this, or what year this was created?

Yesterday’s Bizarro by Dan Piraro.

A recently published panel cartoon by Guy Endore-Kaiser and Rodd Perry.

(Thanks, Steve Segal)

I love cereal and I love cereal box characters, so it’s no wonder I got a kick out of this week’s series of Mother Goose and Grimm comic strips.

(Thanks, “Uncle” Wayne Daigrepont)