Pete the Pup

Mousetrapped, Part I, Page 12

rkmilhollandJanuary 16, 20243Mousetrapped
Mousetrapped Part I, Page 12

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Still having technical issues – and now they’ve speard to my tumblr domain. This week’s not goin’ great.

Finally, we meet Dinkly Doodle and Weakheart. Dinky and Weakheart were Walter Lantz creations for Bray Studios, preceeding Pete the Pup by a few years. They followed a rather similar format to Pete’s later cartoons, though.

Also, if you’re interested in watching some of these old shorts, Tommy José Stathes has you covered.

Here’s hoping tomorrow’s a better day. Gotta go draw my other comics now. –R.

Mousetrapped, Part I, Page 9

rkmilhollandJanuary 11, 20242Mousetrapped
Mousetrapped Part I, Page 9

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And thus we come to Julis Cat, one of the two protagonists of Disney’s early Alice Comedies. I altered his design a bit, combining the designs of an early cat character who likely was the basis for the character and the final design in the Alice series. Why?

Because later Julius was a Felix the Cat clone.

This wasn’t by accident, either. Disney redesigned Julius, apparently under duress from his distributor, Margaret Winkler.

If you get the chance to watch the Alice comedies, Juluus is often unhinged. Honestly, calling him a “protagonist” feels like a stretch. He’s a complete jerk.

Also appearing in this comic, Little Red Henski – the “villain” of the cartoon, “Alice’s Egg Plant.” In that cartoon, Alice and Julius run an egg farm (where Julius enjoys cracking a whip at the hens). Little Red Henski is an evil commie who shows up and commits the evil act of… telling the hends they deserve better treatment and unionizing.

Walt put his anti-union stuff out there early. -R.

Mousetrapped, Part I, Page 5

rkmilhollandJanuary 5, 20243Mousetrapped
Mousetrapped Part I, Page 5

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Oops. I forgot today’s blog post.

So, yeah, Pete the Pup (not to be confused with the dog from the Little Rascals) was a silent era cartoon character from Bray Productions, created by Walter Lantz – later of Woody Woodpecker fame. Most of Pete’s shorts involved Pete and a live action man, with Pete causing mischief.

As for why Pete’s in this comic? Mickey needs friends, and most of his Disney pals are off limits for the next two years at leasat. Plus, I don’t wanna feel beholden to the established continuity and relationahips. That’s one thing I always hated when comic book companies rebooted their lines. If DC reboots again, you know Batman’s relationships are going to be the same, his personality is going to be the same, his history is going to be the exact same. To me, this is a chance to try something different. I don’t want to change Mickey’s personality too much (aside from dropping the animal abuse with the parrot). But I don’t want to retell all of Mickey’s comic stories from Floyd Gottfredson. They’re amazing comic but they’ve already been done.

Also, a fun connection – after Disney lost control of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and he and Iwerks went off to create Mickey, Walter Lantz found himself working on Oswald’s cartoons.

Speaking of Pete and other Lantz projects, a bit back there was a kickstarter for a re-release of a lot of his lesser known cartoons, cleaning them up and all that.

A friend involved in the project said it’s chugging along well and described it as 2/3rds done. If you want to learn more, you can go here. I’m looking forward to it being available to those of us who didn’t get to back it.

Okay, that’s all for today. I might post some art updates over the weekend, but the next strip is Monday. I’m trying to figure out if I want to keep going five days a week or not. -R.