J. Caleb Mozzoco on the work of Raymond Briggs

Freelance writer J. Caleb Mozzocco writes the comics blog Every Day Is Like Wednesday, which is linked to in my blog list. This morning he published a post about writer and artist Raymond Briggs, author of books that were adapted into animation, The Snowman and Where the Wind Blows. In his article, Mozzocco lists how Briggs' work, although not usually comsidered to be comics, in fact are just that. Here is the great article:

http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/2008/08/some-of-raymond-briggs-childrens-books.html

I've never encountered Briggs' work in their original book form, but I'm now putting it on my list at my next library visit. Thanks Caleb!

Both of the above mentioned adaptations have been featured at my blog previously and can be found here:

http://meandyouandablognamedboo.blogspot.com/search?q=Raymond+Briggs

See you this weekend at the Saturday Matinee!

Pancake Puffs!

If you've seen this already, you know you want it. If you haven't seen it yet, you didn't know you wanted it--until now. Behold--the Pancake Puff Maker!

Saturday Matinee: Batman, 1949 Serial, Part 4

Coming soon to a theater near you:



And now our feature presentation:

Chapter 4 Batman Trapped!
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9 Years of Wedded Bliss

Happy Anniversary Honey--I love you!

And here's a special song for the occasion:

Saturday Matinee: Batman, 1949 serial, Part 3

I apologize for the late post, but unforeseen circumstances kept me from posting this Friday. Therefore, I present to you now, part 3 of the 1949 Batman serial!

But first, here is a sampling of what may be appearing at your local imaginary movie house:



And now our feature presentation:

Chapter 3 Robin's Wild Ride
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Batman Potpourri

I want to thank Rich over at Comic By Comic for giving me a mention on his site today! It's right here: http://www.comicbycomic.com/2008/07/neat-stuff.html. I'm neat stuff! Please stop on by there and his other cool sites. Thanks Rich! If you're a first time visitor from Rich's site, welcome! I hope you hang around. While this is not a fulltime comics blog, I am a comic fan and do post often about them.

Rich rightfully mentions that I'm on a Batman kick, but today is likely my last Bat post for this run, with the exception of the Saturday Matinee presentation of the Batman movie serial. I'll wrap up the theme with some odds and ends now.

One piece of news to come out of the San Diego ComiCon is the announcement of a new Batman cartoon to appear on the Cartoon Network starting in April 2009, "Batman: The Brave and the Bold." This is an animated take on a classic comic book in which Bats would team up with another DC Hero (or sometimes villian) to right various wrongs. In contrast to the many Batman animated series of the past 15 years, this new series will have a lighter tone. It looks cool! Here's the trailer:



The first animated adventures of Batman appeared on TV in 1968 and animated by the infamous Filmation Studios, remembered for their prolific output at the expense of quality in many cases. In this sample, the Joker, Penguin, and Riddler attempt to turn the Batman family against each other. God, I hate the Riddler's voice in these cartoons!



The same studio tried again just nine years later to bring the Dynamic Duo to Saturday morning TV, this time with Adam West and Burt Ward reprising their legendary roles, if only in voice. Clips are really hard to find on the 'Net, but here is a featurette from the DVD release of the series examining the legendary heroes.





And that will close out my Bat-blogging. I hope you've enjoyed my offerings, and please continue to check out the Saturday Matinee for more Bat goodness. Tune in Friday!

Batman: The Animated Series, "The Laughing Fish"

I'm back--again! Another mini-vacation over and back to Batman. Today I offer an episode from the excellent Batman: The Animated Series. Debuting on the Fox network in the fall of 1992, this series took an adult, sophisticated approach to the Dark Knight, inspired both by the first two Tim Burton movies (including the Danny Elfman-composed music score) and the 1930s Superman cartoon shorts. This series was arguably the adaptation of Batman that was closest to the tone of the comic book.

This episode, "The Laughing Fish," is based on a famous issue of the comic. The Joker puts his smiling mug on local Gotham fish and demands a copyright on the new breed.

Enjoy!