"Animaniacs" Returns To TV on Christmas Eve: 12/24/12

A six hour Christmas-themed marathon of Animaniacs episodes airs today/tonight on THE HUB.  The marathon starts at 4 PM Eastern, 1 PM Pacific, with a partial repeat later in the evening.  Faboo!

Happy Holidays!

Santa Claus by Haddon Sundblom -- Part 2

For most of my younger days (the late 50's and the 60's), every time Christmas rolled around, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company rolled out a new full-color Christmas ad in all the national magazines.  The ads featured what became the definitive image of Santa Claus as rendered by the brilliant artist Haddon Sundblom.

Below, four of Sundblom's non-Coca-Cola Santa images.  

                                 Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Pinky and the Brain Christmas Card

 
Merry Christmas to all!  

And don't forget The Animaniacs Christmas Eve Marathon, starting on December 24th, 2012, at 4 PM Eastern, 1 PM Pacific, on the HUB.

Merry Christmas from Metuchen High School!

Holiday Greetings from Metuchen High School's student newspaper, The Bulldog's Bark, Metuchen, New Jersey.  

Merry Christmas from Yakko, Wakko and Dot, Freakazoid and Pinky & the Brain

Warner Bros Animation Studio holiday card, circa 1995

Rusty Mills -- Animation Director

Liz Holzman, Tom, Rusty Mills, Nelson Recinos, Jon McClenanhan, on their way to the Emmy Awards, mid-1990s

Rusty Mills, the Emmy-winning director and producer of many of the very best episodes of Animaniacs and Pinky & the Brain, passed away on Dec 7, 2012, at the age of 49.     Rusty leaves behind his beloved wife Andrea, his son Evan, his family, friends and colleagues who loved and admired him, and cartoons fans around the world who will be entertained by his great work for years to come.    

Please contribute generously to The Rusty Mills Cancer Fund at --

http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/Rusty-Mills-Cancer-Fund/35172

Editorial Cartoons -- The Bulldog's Bark -- Metuchen High -- Spring/Summer 1972

The Metuchen High School musical in the spring of 1972 was The Man of La Mancha, starring Kevin Campbell, Emily Schlein and Danny Segal.   For the school newspaper, I decided to plug the musical and do my editorial cartoonist thing at the same time.  

By the end of May, graduation was looming, and the two likeliest prospects for post-high school education were college or Viet Nam.

Below, my last editorial cartoon for The Bulldog's Bark, June 16, 1972.  I'd been a friend and classmate of Bulldog's Bark Editor-in-Chief Larry Goldman since first grade.  This was his final edition as well.   Larry gave me some extra room on the page for this last cartoon, so I went with multiple panels. 

I saw Larry and a bunch of  my Metuchen High School classmates a few weeks ago at our class reunion.  What an awesome group!  What incredible individuals!   

And Larry brought along every edition of the Bulldog's Bark... things I hadn't seen in decades.  ( I think Larry has the only copies of some of those!)    

. 

Editorial Cartoons -- The Bulldog's Bark -- Metuchen High -- Summer/Fall 1971

More editorial cartoons from Metuchen High School's The Bulldog's Bark. 

Apparently the open campus concept from last spring did not survive into the autumn at MHS.  That's vice-principal Tim Lear manning the rack.  

In the autumn of 1971, women's sports became a hot topic, and the female athletes at MHS would soon  become full member of the previously all-male Varsity Club.   Hard to believe that hadn't happened back in the early 70's, but it hadn't!  

 

Caricatures include Bruce Rockman, Patty Germain and Karen O'Shea.