The balls drop at midnight.

I found this ad on a random Ebay listing. I'm starting to think that Japan might be a strange country.

What! Is! This!

Continuing our series of Freaky-Ass Japanese Toys, here's Mickey Skellington!

Freshness Magazine reports that Japan's Medicom Toy Company is producing this Mickey Mouse/ Jack Skellington mashup. Available for purchase April 2010. Mark your calendars, black-clad teenagers!

Rodents In Disguise

Oh, Japan, you've done it again:


Mickey Mouse as Optimouse Prime. Link.


Mickey Mouse as Octobermouse Prime. Link.

Mouseton Calling

Rolling Stone and Boing-Boing agree: the Japanese make some strange toys.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Images from the Grand Comic Book Database

Why yours, Ebeneezer...

...the richest man in the cemetery!

Donald Duck Christmas Toys

Link.

Link.


Link.

Link.


Link.


Link.

See also:
Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul: Sweden's bizarre tradition of watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve.

Captain EO Strikes Back

Great news for fans of weird Disney and the King of Pop: Captain EO returns for a limited engagement at Disneyland. This movie really has to be seen to be believed...it's even more bizarre than you'd think "Michael Jackson in Space in 3-D" has any right to be. The movie was directed by Francis Ford Coppola (!) and the Executive Producer was George Lucas (!!), and it stars a half-butterfly half-monkey wuzzle thing known as Fuzzball. If that's not enough to put asses in the seats, then I don't know what is.

Slow News Day

Dateline: Mouseton, October 1943

EXTRA! Talking mouse reads newspaper, sweats

From the story Mickey Mouse and the 'Lectro Box.
Gimmick stolen from Dateline: Silver Age.

Disney Underground

This. is. awesome.

Uncomfortable Moments in Disney Comics, Part 5

From The Uncensored Mouse #2, Eternity Comics, 1989

Big Lizard In My Backyard

Dinosaurs: Disney and Jim Henson Productions' contribution to the early 90's wave of "blue collar" sitcoms.

Dinosaurs was a parody/homage/ripoff of Rosanne's brand of working class family comedy, with healthy doses of Simpsons-style satire and TGIF-approved catchphrases. For a brief, shining moment this puppet show was all the rage with the kids. And boy, was it dopey.

The show wasn't bad- the animatronic puppeteering was typically excellent work from Henson's Muppet performers, the writing was sharp, and Stuart Pankin's voice acting (as Earl Sinclair, the dad) was terrific. But the baby....oooh, that baby:



I still cringe whenever I hear that voice. I'd rather sit through a Family Matters marathon than that baby's blunt-object shenanigans. It's funny because he tries to kill his Dad, ha ha!
Uuuuucccchhhh.

The saving grace of Dinosaurs was the show's frequent detours into Al Gore territory, as in the unforgettable series finale. Be warned- once you've watched it, you can't un-watch it:




Damn, that's some bleak stuff for a kid's puppet show. An entire generation of young adults gets queasy whenever it starts snowing. Thankfully, Dinosaurs showed us all the error of our ways, and now we never have to worry about massive climate change caused by shortsightedness and greed ever again.






Buy Dinosaurs DVDs here. The ever-informative website Jim Hill Media has an interesting article on a lost episode. The Dinosaurs released an album. The baby made a music video.

Duh, stay outta Riverdale

Since all comics bloggers are required by law to have at least one Archie post per calendar year, here's the cover to Archie and Friends #137:

Hey, who's that over Archie's right shoulder?

That's not a bad Dewey (Louie? Who can tell?)- recognizable, but changed just enough to avoid a lawsuit. That off-brand Donald though, woof. Looks like the crappy new Howard the Duck got lost on his way to Oktoberfest.
Anyway, it looks like a fun issue, and I look forward to skimming through it on the checkout line at the Stop and Shop.

From Archie and Friends #137, by Fernando Ruiz, available at finer comic shops.


EDIT: Timo Ronkainen informs me that the ducks are actually Super Duck and his nephew. I'd never heard of Super Duck before...you learn something new every day!

Don Rosa Draws Mickey Mouse

According to the ever-reliable Internet, Don Rosa has stated many times that he finds Mickey Mouse to be a boring character, and he has no desire to ever write a Mickey story. Too bad...I think he draws a damn good Mouse.

All images from Geir J. Netland's Unofficial Don Rosa Gallery.

Hey, how's your news?

Roy E Disney, dead at age 79.

Abandoned Walt Disney World water park. (Via Boing Boing)

"Princess and the Frog" gets good reviews.

Freaky Tim Burton "Alice In Wonderland" trailer hits the internets.

(He Was a) Hotel Detective

He's got his ears to the walls and he's tapping the calls. If you've got a secret, boy, forget about it!

Why don't ya check him out.

Lost in the supermarket

Mickey Burgers.

Mickey Pretzel.

Mickey Waffles.

Mickey Cake.

Mickey Eggs.

Mickey Oreo.

Look! Epic Disney/ Marvel Mashup

Boing-Boing just posted this, the last word on Disney/Marvel mashups.

Beautiful, aint it? By T Campbell and John Waltrip.

Mickey Rodent!

From Mad Magazine #19, 1955. Written by Harvey Kurtzman, Art by Will Elder.
Read the entire story here.

Pertwillaby Papers

Here's why Don Rosa is awesome: he was drawing Uncle Scrooge stories before he ever drew an Uncle Scrooge story. This is an episode of The Pertwillaby Papers, a comic strip Rosa started as a college student and continued in the fanzine The Rocket's Blast Comicollector. Many of Rosa's Uncle Scrooge stories had their origins in the Pertwillaby Papers, including his first Duck story, "The Son of the Sun."

Fantagraphics collected several Pertwillaby Papers storyarcs into the comic books "Don Rosa's Comics and Stories" #1 and #2 in 1983. I was lucky enough to score a copy of #1 on the Ebay, but have yet to come across #2. Apparently there were plans for a #3, but it never actually went to press.

I love this strip. The art style reminds me of the yellowing cartoons that hung on the wall of my old college hangout, but the plots are like something from an Indiana Jones movie. (Yes, I said "old college hangout." Shut up.) If Fantagraphics or some other smart publisher were ever to put out a nice hardcover collection of this material, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Great stuff from a great cartoonist.