"The Great Fear"

I was standing on my front porch this bright sunny day. My neighbor's blinged-out Cadillac Escalade was parked in front of my house, and I suddenly had a Detroit flashback.

In those days, the favored car among pimps was the Buick Electra. Usually they would be was kitted out with wire wheels, continental spare tire, curb feelers, fringe at the top of the windshield, and pillows on the parcel shelf. With the continental kit, these cars were about twenty feet long, literally. The pimps themselves had a dress code that consisted of polyester suits with wide lapels and flared trousers, platform shoes, shades, excessive gold jewelry, big hair and a wide brimmed hat.

About twenty years after I left Detroit, I was working on a movie where several of the main characters were pimps (Yes, really.) At this point in history, many non-pimps were delving deeply into the modern pimp aesthetic. At this time, automotively speaking, that meant a big SUV, preferably black, although pearl white was acceptable, with big wheels and super low-profile tires, illegal window tint, and of course, lots of Pep Boys accessories. You couldn’t buy the car without an appropriate uniform and that meant a T-shirt, baggy shorts, designer sneakers, backwards baseball hat, and the requisite shades and gold jewelry.

That was over twenty years ago. Those trends haven't exactly gone away. In fact several luxury manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz and Lexus have been building giant SUVs catering to today's most decadent consumers. This you call "progress?"


(Disclaimer: This Journal is not intended to be an endorsement of pimps or pimping.)

This is a mostly completed animated advertising video from 2022. There's a long story here, but I'll try to make it as succinct as possible.

One of our clients decided he wanted to publish kid's books, and hired my old pal Scott Shaw! to illustrate them. At some point our client wanted to make an advertising video to plug the books. He wanted cute, full animation for sub-Saturday morning money. We ultimately made this very inexpensive video, but it was never shown. This was because A: One of the books being plugged was never actually printed, and B: Our client was supposed to supply a music track that failed to materialize.

Scott did the storyboards and layouts. I directed and animated, and did the digital cel painting. Dennis Venizelos did the background rendering. Russell Calabrese and Joe Campana did the compositing and video mastering.

Gather 'round people and listen to me
To the wonderful story of philosophy
The wisdom I bring you is really quite grand
And I know when you hear it you'll soon understand

Greed, greed, greed! Is really a noble endeavor!
Greed, greed, greed! Own everything always forever!
Greed, greed, greed! Makes a civilized society!
Greed, greed, greed! Is the one thing that's really important to me!

Don't worry if others are missing a meal
They too think success is the one thing that's real
They'll envy the way you can screw everyone
And know that the winning is all of the fun

Greed, greed, greed! Makes you a superior creature!
Greed, greed, greed! Will be your distinguishing feature!
Greed, greed, greed! Your destiny since you were born!
Greed, greed, greed! The good lord had made them all sheep to be shorn!

For the second time in three months, metal thieves stole the wires off the telephone poles. Our internet service was down for a week, but it's back now.

Our internet was out for over a week, but it's back now. Once again, a band of metal thieves stole the wires right off of the poles, and gutted the junction boxes in our neighborhood. I will resume posting shortly, as I have a back-up of drawings now.

This was one of Jules Verne's lesser known novels. It didn't escape during his lifetime, the manuscript was discovered under a table leg early in 1973. By December of that year it was published by Eyre Methuen, but was quickly withdrawn after receiving a cease and desist letter from the estate of film producer Mike Todd. In the letter Todd's heirs claimed to have a copyright on "The World."

The story concerns a character called Patchy-Dense Fogg, brother of the famous Phileas. Patchy was of the belief that most ordinary mortals would require more than eighty days to go around the world, and would say so to anybody who would listen.

One night at the London pub known as "The Root and Crown" our hero Patchy had gone a few pints past his limit. He proceeded to stand up and loudly announce that he could make a trip around the world in five years and fifty-seven seconds and dared any man in the place to contradict him. It is here that the proprietor of this establishment, one C. Costa Monger, decided to make a friendly wager.

A short conversation and a handshake later, a wager was made for the sum of five pounds, six shillings. It was agreed that Fogg would leave London the next day accompanied by his hilarious manservant Candyfloss Ragout, and return exactly five years and fifty-seven seconds later.

By closing time, Mr. Monger began to become a little concerned. There was a lot of money at stake, and he wondered if he shouldn't do something to tip the odds into his favor. He called for Edwin Meek, the man who swept up the floors around the pub, and ordered him to follow Fogg on his journey, and see if he couldn't speed things up a little bit.

Does Fogg succeed in his mission? Well, I don't want to give away the ending. Instead I suggest you track down a copy of the book and read it for yourself. It will be worth it.

I was in the hospital for the last two months, accompanied by an aggressive infection that messed me up in eighteen different ways. I am still recovering, but at least I'm home now and feeling much better.

For me, anyways. Our service was down for nearly a week. It would seem that some metal thieves stole the wires right off of the telephone poles in my neighborhood. Anyways, it's back now.

Tuesday
Trash is waiting at curbside
Trucks roll
People watch from the inside
Green bin
What's the secret that you hide?

There's an old grey mattress and an office chair beside the green bin
I would take them home but then the folks would stare beside the green bin
So I guess I'll go and leave them standing there beside the green bin


Green Beans on the blue plate special
With orange carrots and purple meat
Green Beans on the blue plate special
There's lots of worse things you can eat


I'm a jan-i-tor
At the boss's store
And my boots is flat
And so's my hat
Oh I scrub the floors all the live long day
But it's not much fun
And it's not much pay
Then I stop my mop right at five to say
Git me my Chev-ro-let
I'm gonna go away


He wore black spandex trousers
Designer tennis shoes
And a white plastic helmet with a mirror on the side
And he had a 12 speed 'cycle that didn't stop for lights
That moron was the terror of 1st and Crescent Heights


He went inside our only lavat'ry
Just to have a little bit of privacy
But outside the door they're queuing
And they wonder what he's doing
Making funny sounds inside our lavat'ry


I used to make widgets
I made the very best
Now nobody needs them
And I'm feeling so depressed
I worked so hard
My whole life through
Now my dreams are shot
And there's nothing left to do
So now no more I bother
With fripperies and such
And I don't believe
I care very much


My main complaint
Is plainly that it ain't



***********

You have reached 911. If this is a life-threatening emergency, please hang up, and dial 911.

For some of you music fans out there, the next two paragraphs here may be redundant.

John Hartford was a singer and songwriter, and he could also play different string instruments. He was particularly fond of the banjo. A lot of Americans including myself were first exposed to his music on "The Smothers Brothers Show" and then on "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour". Of course his friend Glen had a huge hit with a cover version of Hartford's "Gentle on my Mind".

Time passed, and John faded out of the spotlight. He took a hiatus from recording, reportedly to earn a steamboat pilot's license. He did return to the studio, but if you weren't looking for the records you weren't likely to stumble across them.

*********

Flash forward to the early eighties, and a friend had two tickets to see Hartford at The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Ark at this time was a large living room in big old house. Hartford appeared by himself with just his instruments, and it was a great show.

That rekindled my interest in his music, and I discovered that he was still recording. I started seeking out his LP's while hitting the used record shops. I'd become a fan once again.

*********

Flash forward again to the mid nineties. At this time I was drawing the finished artwork for my graphic novel, "The Suit", a story I had written in 1989. As I worked on the pages, two songs would occasionally come to mind, although neither of them actually mirrored the plotline of The Suit. One was the closing number of The Kinks "Arthur" LP. The other was John Hartford's "In Tall Buildings".

Here is a TV film of Hartford miming to his original RCA recording of the song, unreleased on vinyl at the time.

Sorry, I don't know when or where this commercial was made.

In my teen years, my friend John Foss and I were passing a yard sale when something caught his eye... a toy unicycle. I say it was a toy as it was made of pressed steel and had a non-pneumatic tire. It was painted red and white like the popular tricycles of the time. Still, something clicked within him, and he bought it and took it home.

My friend was determined to ride the thing. He tried hard, somewhat handicapped by the cheap construction of the toy, but ride it he did. He eventually saved up some money and bought a more official-type unicycle (used) and became very good at riding it.

"You oughta learn to ride it!" he said to me. I was, by some orders of magnitude, the more clumsy of the two of us, so the idea seemed intimidating.

Still, it looked kinda fun. And we had, since grammar school, rode our bicycles together all the time.

So the next thing you know, my friend is trying to teach me how to ride it. I fell down a lot (the first thing you need to learn is how to fall down... really) but I ended up getting the hang of it. John soon bought a newer unicycle and gave me the one we'd both been riding.

John soon learned to do trick riding. I didn't get a lot better, but just kept riding the unicycle the "normal" way. After we got out of high school, John went east and ended up riding in a circus for a while. I went downtown to pursue a cartooning career (I was originally roommates with my other high school pal, Don Simpson who also wanted to break into cartooning, but that's a story for another time.) The unicycle made for good transportation downtown, as you could easily take it into a building with you.

As my twenties passed, I rode the unicycle less and less. I had developed some hip problems that made it harder. At this age, I'm not certain I could ride one anymore.

When I was first learning to ride the unicycle, I knew it wouldn't be easy. I've always had a rough time doing anything that required physical coordination. But I figured that if I could do that, I could do anything.

Later I met one of John's friends from the circus. He was a professional juggler and he tried to teach me how to juggle. He assured me that anybody could learn. As it happened, I was never able to juggle for more than a few seconds at a time.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. Once again I present this little seen cartoon from Christmas past. It was produced by Ken Mitchroney and directed by me back in the mid-nineties. This show was originally padded out with four public domain cartoons. They have been mostly edited out in this video.



Cheers!

MK-

Two friends passed on this month. Both musicians from Cleveland, both kind men of multiple talents. Joe Siracusa, drummer, songwriter, dancer, gourmet chef. Will Ryan, actor, songwriter, cartoonist, ukulele enthusiast. I'd first met Joe when I was doing some cartoon research some 30+ years ago after Herb Klynn gave me his phone number. Will and I met shortly after I came to LA, and we ran around in the same circles most of that time since. Will was a close chum, we talked for hours about anything and everything. We did projects together, and he was always great fun to work with. If I started in with the stories we'd here for months. I will just say the world is a sadder place without them. But honestly, neither Joe nor Will ever would have wanted to leave the world a sadder place.

It's been ten years since I started this FA page. I want to thank everybody for watching, and making it a fun experience.

In the summer of 2019, I was invited to Warner Bros. to attend a screening of the Looney Tune films that were being produced at the time. Truthfully, I was not keen on seeing how the new regime were mutilating my favorite cartoon characters. I went anyways, because I knew the theatre where the films were being shown was near the backlot. I brought a camera, and got there early to take some pictures. I'd been on the backlot before, but this was the first time I'd brought a camera.

One of my favorite times on the lot happened one night in 2006. I was invited to pre-release screening of "The Ant Bully," a CGI feature that I had done some story work on. Before the screening a bunch of my co-workers from the movie met for supper at The Smokehouse, an old, colorful restaurant with plenty of animation history that was near WB. To our surprise, our director John Davis showed up and paid for everyone's meal.

It was pretty late by the time the screening had ended. The gate where we had all entered was locked, and we were instructed to drive through the backlot to get to the only manned exit. Hot zing! I put the top down on my roadster, and drove through the lot slowly. In the dark, it looked just like it did on the late show. I was waiting for Humphrey Bogart or Jimmy Cagney to suddenly pull out from around the corner in a shiny black sedan.

Back in 1986, Fantagraphics Books published a short series of benefit comics entitled "Anything Goes." I made two contributions to this project. One was the color Captain Jack story called "The Laundromat at the Edge of Everything" (with me doing the lot-- it can seen in my scraps section) and some pencils for another story entitled "In Pictopia."

In Pictopia was written by one Alan Moore, and was to be illustrated by my high school chum, Donald "Megaton Man" Simpson. There were a few panels involving some funny animal characters that Don asked me to pencil. Similarly, Pete Poplasky penciled in a number of famous comic strip characters. Don did the rest of the pencils on this 13 page epic, and inked the whole thing. Eric Vincent did the blue-line colors.

This story was re-printed in various anthologies several times over the years (and at least two more times it was going to be printed again and then cancelled.) Often the reproduction in these reprints was bad, sometimes being reproduced by scanning the comic book and/or making new color separations. Well, it's about to be reprinted again. This time Fantagraphics is going to print it as a stand-alone story, and this time it will be re-produced from Don's original art, and from Eric's original blue-line paintings. I just saw a PDF file of the book, and it looks very good. The book will also include some extra illustrations, and several historical essays.

The celebrated Mister Moore has as of late has become a bit of a crank, and insisted that his name be left off of the comic, so don't look for his name on the cover.

I'd been pondering the idea for months, and I have finally started a separate FA page to show my photographs. Many of the photos will be the ones you see behind some of the drawings on this page. So if you've ever wondered what the pictures looked like before I put drawings all over them, you'll have a chance to find out.

It's called  MKazPhotog

I'm presently tied up with work, and will be for the next few weeks, but I thought I'd stop in and bump the last journal of mine from the top with this memory from way back when...

Once upon a time I used to actually listen to the radio to hear music. One of our local stations also used to air a comedy serial called "Chickenman" starring the very funny Dick Orkin. I would tune in Chickenman every day. On this particular station, the show was sponsored by Zerbo's Health Food Store in Livonia, Michigan. Well, I had to go check out Zerbo's because they sponsored Chickenman. Unfortunately, they were a for real health food store, with little to appeal to my naturally poor eating habits.

But then, something caught my eye. It was a candy bar. Well, not exactly a candy bar, but a health food candy bar, and it had a drawing of Bullwinkle Moose on the label! So I gleefully purchased it, and took it home.

Later, when I took off the wrapper, I could see it was covered with something that sort of looked like chocolate, but wasn't. Reading the ingredient statement, I found out it was something called "carob."

I took a bite of the bar, and it tasted awful.

But I had to eat it because not only had I paid for it, but it was a Bullwinkle bar! Eventually, I managed to eat the whole thing...

...And every week after that, I went back to Zerbo's to buy another one.

You mean you didn't notice I was gone?

Family business called me away to Michigan. I did not want to fly in a plane, so I ended up driving my car instead, a challenging proposition, as a lot of the services along the way were shut down. I'm home now, and not going anywhere for a while.

As for the family business, all I'm gonna say is that I am now the last living member of my immediate family.

Hope all of you folks out there are well and fine.

MK-

The photographs I've used as backgrounds in some of my pictures were taken by me personally, and they have been transferred from the original negatives or slides (although some of them were taken more recently with digital cameras.) The very earliest ones were taken with a borrowed Olympus 35mm camera, but I soon got the bug and bought myself an old Pentax camera at a pawn shop. Some of the pictures were taken forty years ago, and there is sometimes damage to the negatives, such as scratches and chemical stains. The color negatives tend to be faded as well. Or course there is also the problem of dirt and dust. I fix everything up in the computer before I do anything else with them, and the unintended consequence of this is that I've ended up learning a lot about using Photoshop for actual photo retouching. In a few cases I've also "painted out" some human beings who happened to be lurking in the shots. I wonder if this newfound skill might be useful for anything besides making more furry art. Maybe making more furry art is enough. I've certainly been having a good time making these images, and I hope ya all like 'em, too.

Please enjoy this "lost" Jay Ward pilot...