Hey, all you necrofowliacs! Welcome to the next installment of this “Dead Duck” episode, “CARTOON JUNKIE!” Here’s your trivia fix:
- I’d done a few gags in “Mother’s Goofs” with Sno Whyte’s afro falling victim to bad haircuts and magic spells gone awry. This sort of “sunny side up” haircut was one of my favorites that I created, so I brought it back for this story.
- It could probably be argued that most products in the early 60′s were still manufactured in the U.S., making the Taiwan reference a bit inaccurate. It could also be argued that you wouldn’t see a black cartoon character on TV (in a non-racist capacity, at least) until the 1970′s. I wasn’t about to deny using Sno Whyte because of such inconsistencies, so I said screw it. Anachronism rules.
- I love the flat and wonky design of the floor boards in the first panel. It’s one of my favorite tell tale traits of UPA style animation.
- The “pulling a rabbit out of the hat” gag was absolutely, unabashedly and unapologetically lifted from “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. If you’re making an homage to that show, how could you do it without referencing this great moment?
- Between Dead Duck and Zombie chick, Dead Duck was the trickier to redesign in the UPA animation style, since his profile is naturally flat already. Zombie Chick, however, is one of the curviest and most three dimensional characters I’d created (even without her breasts), so there was plenty of room to go the opposite way with her design.
- The background shattering was a gag I came up with, as a neat visual and a funny way to segway into the rest of the story.
See you on the next page!
–Jay
I am constantly amazed by your incredible store of cartoon history, Jay.
Sweet R&B reference, too. No doubt about it.
Kind of you to say, Pat!
Nice emulation of style Jay. I actually sat and watched some Rocky and Bullwinkle the other day, and you’ve nailed it. By the way, your shattering the wall segway bit is genius.
Thank you!
I may be losing valuable brain cells, but I think you meant to write “S-E-G-U-E”. “Segway” is that two-wheeled electric thingamabob mall cops ride on.
Anyhow, it’s good to see DD and ZC back.
Sounds like a mistake I’d make, all right.
I’m a fan of creative scene transitions, as well as silly forms of transportation.
Me too!