Here's a poster I just designed for the FIRST ANNIVERSARY SHOW of the PHILLY COMIX JAM, a local cartoonist's group that I organize. More on this later.

In the meantime, why not check out our website and blog.

This HENRY cartoon was drawn by his creator Carl Anderson between 1932 and 1934 for the SATURDAY EVENING POST. Look for a new HENRY cartoon every Monday. Find out more about HENRY here.

This HENRY cartoon was drawn by his creator Carl Anderson between 1932 and 1934 for the SATURDAY EVENING POST. Look for a new HENRY cartoon every Monday. Find out more about HENRY here.

This HENRY cartoon was drawn by his creator Carl Anderson between 1932 and 1934 for the SATURDAY EVENING POST. Look for a new HENRY cartoon every Monday. Find out more about HENRY here.

I was reminded of this drawing by R. Crumb after I heard former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan's, mea culpa referring to his being blind-sighted by the subprime mortgage crisis. Greenspan was, as many don't know,  a deciple of the queen of laissez-faire capitalism, Ayn Rand, in the 1950's when he was a young saxophone player and student of economics.

This drawing first appeared on the back cover of WEIRDO Magazine #15 (Winter 1985/86) at the height of the Reagan presidency. Greenspan was appointed Fed Chairman two years later.

Looks like Crumb was right after all.

At least Greenspan had the good sense to marry the saucy Andrea Mitchell.

Drawing © 1985 R. Crumb

This HENRY cartoon was drawn by his creator Carl Anderson between 1932 and 1934 for the SATURDAY EVENING POST.

Look for a new HENRY cartoon every Monday. Find out more about HENRY here.

This HENRY cartoon was drawn by his creator Carl Anderson between 1932 and 1934 for the SATURDAY EVENING POST.

Look for a new HENRY cartoon every Monday. Find out more about HENRY here.

Art Clokey - October 12, 1921

I think that GUMBY is one of the greatest designed characters in the last fifty years. That particular shade of green not found in nature. That flat body design with flaring legs. Those mittened hands on tubular arms. That asymmetrical pointed head! Art Clokey's GUMBY first appeared in 1954 and has been in and out of the public consciousness ever since. I also think the GUMBY toy is one of the greatest toys ever made. You can have Gumby doing just about anything and he looks cool doing it. Partnered with his orange pony pal, Pokey, the pair are unbeatable. The success of Gumby is that he is truly an "every-man." The sight of Gumby also seems to add an air of psychedelia to any situation. Gumby has a calming yet energizing visage. No need to freak out, man!

The GUMBY toy first appeared in the mid 1960s and was hugely successful. Everybody had a GUMBY. Of course, the major problem with the GUMBY toy was the wires in his arms eventually broke and the rubber tended to rot. Unfortunately, my own GUMBY from this era is lost to the ages. The GUMBY toy vanished by the early 1970s. There was a resurgent interest in GUMBY in the mid 1980s due, in part, to nostalgia and new bendable GUMBY and POKEY toys started showing up. Since then, GUMBY toys have never completely left the scene. This past summer I picked up a new mini edition of bendable G & P to stand on my shelf with the rest of my collection.

The trademark bump on Gumby's head was inspired by a picture of Clokey's father, Arthur Farrington, taken when he was 18. You can see a cow-lick on one side of the head, the sight of which amazed the young Clokey. The post-buddhist Clokey has also stated that the bump represents an extra bump of wisdom. The head bump certainly ads to Gumby's uniqueness and seems to make Gumby "Gumby."

The GUMBY TV show is unfortunately not so great. He first appeared on TV in 1956 on the  HOWDY DOODY SHOW and graduated to his own show a year later. New episodes were produced through 1968. There was also a revival of new episodes in 1988. It's fun to watch the primitive claymation in the early shows but the stories are often unengaging and repetitive. Gumby's the schlemiel to Pokey's schlimazel. Gumby gets them in trouble and Pokey gets them out. Clokey and company were really cranking them out. The GUMBY show tended to get worse and worse as they got slicker and slicker. Frankly, the DAVEY AND GOLIATH series, also produced by Clokey in the early to mid 1960, are superior thanks to good scripts by children's book author, Nancy Moore. Ultimately, the problem was with the character and look of Gumby. He was an every-man but a pretty bland every-man. Because he is heavily abstracted he doesn't quite fit in almost any situation. Curiously, the GUMBY toy seems to transcend this problem. Still, there is a magic to these hand crafted clay characters moving around on cheap cardboard sets that I almost never get from computer animation. A visceral tangible quality of the fantastic made real.

I think one of the coolest things about the GUMBY show was it's great theme song. It's a catchy number that really gets you ready for a cartoon. It's a strange concoction of harp, electric guitar, drum set, children singing and xzylaphone. It starts slowly with a harp intro, then goes into a frothy pop confection. Here, listen for yourself. You can thank me three weeks from now when it's still running through your brain.

You can find out more about the whole GUMBY/Clokey thang here and here.

Why not pose a GUMBY toy on Art Clokey's 87th birthday!

GUMBY and POKEY are © Premavision, Inc. and Prema Toy Co.