Merry Christmas from Metuchen High School!

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

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. 

Editorial Cartoons -- The Bulldog's Bark -- Metuchen High -- Winter/Spring 1971

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

Here's the cartoon that accompanied a smart and insightful editorial by MHS senior David Welkowitz, from the January 29, 1971 issue.  

Caricatures from left:  Diane Ziemer, followed by Pete Carney and Pat Bailey.

Perhaps the funniest of all the editorial cartoons I drew for the Bulldog's Bark,  here's one that appeared in print after a series of bomb scares at the school.  I'm sort of surprised they printed it.  

April 13 1971, The Bulldog's Bark,  Metuchen High School

This next one didn't get printed as originally planned.  I don't remember what my original caption was, but the day before publication it was deemed "inappropriate."  My caption was whited-out and a new one was scratched in by the editor.  I think the editorial was something about loosening the rules and having a more "open" campus.   That's a caricature of Vice Principal Timothy Lear (not Leary) on the left, and I suspect he may have had a voice in the change of caption. 

May 21 1971,  The Bulldog's Bark,  Metuchen High School

Editorial Cartoons -- The Bulldog's Bark -- Metuchen High -- Spring/Summer/Fall 1970

More editorial cartoons from the Metuchen High School student newspaper, The Bulldogs Bark, from 1970.  

Being a proud member of the Metuchen High School track team under coaches John Novak and Pete Schuder, I couldn't let our team victory's at the annual Middlesex County Track Meet go unnoticed, especially since our little school knocked off some very big schools to seal the win.  It was MHS's first Middlesex County Track Championship ever. 

June 5, 1970, The Bulldog's Bark, Metuchen High School

These next two cartoons seem to comment more on student mores and changing attitudes than anything too political.    

September 25, 1970, The Bulldog's Bark, Metuchen High School

 November 25, 1970, The Bulldog's Bark, Metuchen High School

And in the December holiday issue, it appears I was still pretty freaked out about the prospect of shipping out to Viet Nam if the war didn't get wrapped up in the next year or two.  

 December 23, 1970, The Bulldog's Bark, Metuchen High School

Editorial Cartoons -- The Bulldog's Bark -- Metuchen High -- Winter/Spring 1970

From the February 27, 1970 edition of  Metuchen High School's newspaper The Bulldog's Bark, the following cartoon accompanied an editorial on chronic tardiness.

Environmentalism was starting to make its presence felt.  The very first Earth Day was less than one month away -- April 22, 1970 -- when the following editorial cartoon ran in the March 26, 1970 edition of the school paper.

 

Editorial Cartoons -- The Bulldog's Bark -- Metuchen High -- 1969

Directly below is my first illustration for the Metuchen High School newspaper, The Bulldog's Bark.  This cartoon was published the week before the big Thanksgiving Day football game against arch rival Highland Park.

We lost the game.

The following month, my first cartoon on the editorial page referenced the holiday season, the ongoing war in Viet Nam and Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon earlier in the year.

Robert Hegyes: "Bobby"

Friend, comedian, actor and home town hero Bobby Hegyes passed away yesterday at the way-too-young age of 60.  

Bobby grew up in  Metuchen, N.J., and my brothers Jim and Pete and I knew him from our high school days.  I played football with Bobby on the Metuchen High team.  He was a fierce competitor and a force of nature on the field as well as off.  He caught the acting bug early and performed not only in  school productions but in "Summer Theater Under the Stars" at nearby Roosevelt Park.   Bobby pursued his education and career in acting with the same intensity and dedication that he applied to most things in his life.   

"Hey, Mr. Kotter, I got a note!"

Everyone in Metuchen was thrilled when  Bobby landed a starring role on a network TV series in 1975.   Bobby was only 24 when "Welcome Back Kotter" premiered.  He played one of the "Sweathogs," a foursome of incorrigible and wise-cracking high school students who amuse, challenge, and learn life's lessons from their beloved  mentor/teacher, Mr. Kotter.  

Bobby performed the role of Juan Epstein, a Puerto Rican Jew from a large family who had Latin good-looks and great comic timing.  His co-stars included Gabe Kaplan as Mr. Kotter, and John Travolta, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and Ron Palillo as the other three sweathogs.  

 

Back in July of 2006, when I married Annie Malley, Bobby and his wife Cynthia Wylie attended the wedding.  In the wedding photo above, my brother Jim Ruegger, Bobby and Cynthia share a laugh during Paul Rugg's performance of "Manny the Uncanny."

Bobby was charismatic, infinitely likable and one-of-a-kind.  

Thanks for the laughs, Bobby.  You will be missed by your family, your friends and your fans.  

Happy Holidays!

Buster Bunny Cel -- Tiny Toon Adventures

Buster Bunny

One of my favorite cels of Buster.  Can you name the episode?  Do you remember the scene?  Do you know which studio animated this episode?

Acme Looniversity team colors (including their varsity jackets) matched the colors of my home town team, Metuchen High School (Metuchen, New Jersey).  

"The Warner Brothers Cartoons" by Will Friedwald and Jerry Beck

‎2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of "the bible" of Warner Bros. cartoons: "The Warner Brothers Cartoons" by Will Friedwald and Jerry Beck.  It offered up plot summaries and credits for every WB short cartoon from 1929 to 1969.  It included overviews of the studio, profiles of the major cartoon stars, the directors, actors, animators and artists, and offered historical context for many of the cartoons.  Packed with intensely researched and invaluable information.  An awesome book.  Infinitely readable.   And published by Scarecrow Press which, at that time, was headquartered in my home town of Metuchen, NJ!    

 

Happy anniversary, Jerry! 

Jerry and Will's "Warner Brothers Cartoons" book has been retitled and repackaged as "Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies:  A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons."  Highly recommended!    You can find that book and others by Jerry at this link:   Books by Jerry Beck

The Premiere of Platypus Duck -- Part 3

In "The Premiere of Platypus Duck," the search for the platypus duchess takes the platypus trio to the big city, where they find the duchess performing at the Sydney Opera House.  (The platypi's home burrow is modeled after Jorn Utzon's design of the Sydney Opera House.)  College pal Brian Fuld provided the voice for the stage manager and announcer at the opera house.  

Below, a painted background of the Sydney Opera House used in the cartoon, plus the preliminary rough sketch.  These were based on photos provided by Kenny Altorfer, one of my parents' very best friends from Metuchen. 

More to come...

My First Cartoon

Coming this week:  images from my first cartoon, "The Premiere of Platypus Duck."   Original cels and drawings were preserved for the past 35 years by my mom in a trunk in the basement of her Metuchen, New Jersey home.  (The animation cels look brand new!)

The "Flashback" image above is from the eleven-minute cartoon, which tells the story of the evolution of the duck-billed platypus from 250 million years ago to the present...and to the future.