Comic Gleanings

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From the Toy Hoard: Marx Disney

 

After mentioning the Marx Disney figures yesterday, I figured while they were close at hand I might as well take pictures of them and post them. We got seven of them, originally, out of a big cardboard bin where they were mixed, indiscriminately. How we dug around! This was at a toy store in San Antonio, early '70's, I would say. We got Orange Mickey, Green Donald, Pink Goofy, Dopey, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, and Pink Jiminy Cricket. That Pink Jiminy was already missing a foot, but as he was the only one there we had to have it, despite any reservations Mom might have had. His appeal, of course, was that he was more or less in real-life scale. So was Tinkerbell. I'm not sure where our Tinkerbell is, whether if she is somewhere else in the Hoard, or if Susan (or maybe her girls) have her now. We got the others (including duplicates) from various places over the years, so that finally we had the entire set, including a complete Jiminy. I didn't realize until much later that they were the same sculpt as the Marx Disneykins, scaled up (or more likely the Disneykins were scaled down from them). 

(Hubba-Hubba!)

Into the Archive: Bullwhip .. Bullwhip Griffin

 

Bullwhip Griffin, by Sid Fleischman (Avon, 1963; Original title By the Great Horn Spoon!; this printing 1971)

Novel that the 1967 Disney movie The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin was based on. It starred Roddy McDowell as Eric ‘Bullwhip’ Griffin, Suzanne Pleshette, Karl Malden, and Hermione Baddeley (‘Mrs. Naugatuck’ on Maude). The songs were by Richard and Robert Sherman.

But this is the novel, and it’s a little different. Illustrated by Eric von Schmidt in a style rather reminiscent of Quentin Blake (or should I say vice versa). It tells the story of a 12-year-old boy and his English butler and their adventures in the California Gold Rush of 1949. After his Aunt Arabella loses all her money, Jack takes their English butler ‘Praiseworthy’ Griffin to California to make their fortune. Their trip is bedeviled all the way by a crook named Cut-Eye Higgins, who steals their money and then a treasure map that they are gifted. When Higgins is at last caught and sentenced to hang, Jack and Praiseworthy (who has been dubbed ‘Bullwhip’ Griffin for a gold-dust weighted punch he has delivered) are tasked to dig the grave. While doing so they discover the gold bonanza that has been eluding them up to this point. Giving up mining for good, and with the extra money that the toughened-up and methodical Griffin makes in a boxing match with ‘the Mountain Ox’, they meet Aunt Arabella and her daughters, who have followed their example and gone West. The newly financially secure Bullwhip, who has been carrying Arabella’s picture devotedly, finds the courage to ask her to marry him. His new ambition is to become the first lawyer in the West.

I can’t quite place where we saw the movie, whether in the theater (I can see Pop agreeing to this ‘Western’ for children) or on TV on The Wonderful World of Disney. And I’m not too sure how or why we got this, though I’m pretty sure ‘when’ was when I was in the Fourth Grade. I suppose its Disney connection was enough of a recommendation for it. I don’t know when it went out of the Family Archive, either.

Sid Fleishman, who only passed on in 2010, was famous for his novels for children and adults, his screen adaptations, and his books about stage magic. He won the 1987 Newbery Medal for his children’s book The Whipping Boy (whips again!), based on the custom of having a commoner take a young Prince’s beatings for him.

Action Figures to Be Noted

 

Speak of the devil and his horns will pop up. After just saying things seemed to be slowing down, these Disney Mirrorverse toys and Classic Popeye figures come to my attention. While Sinbad (looks a lot like Bluto, don't he?) comes from the classic color cartoon, the others were characters from the 1930's comic strip. 

Toybox (71): The Wonderful World

 

There was an incredible run of Disney movies in the 1990's, and they were accompanied by an incredible run of action figures from Mattel. Aladdin (both movie and TV series, 1992 -94), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), and Tarzan (1999). I have quite a few 'sets' to go with them: a Cave of Wonders from Aladdin, a Pride Rock from The Lion King, and a Gypsy Cart vehicle and a Cathedral set (which was largely made of cardboard and did not survive too well). There is a TON of accessories, especially from Pocahontas and Hunchback. I have the Laverne gargoyle somewhere.

Memories of Scratchy Family Records

 

The Shadow Library: Duck!

 

Walt Disney Donald Duck And His Nephews...Foreword by Carl Barks...Abbeville Press

Walt Disney Uncle Scrooge...Foreword by Carl Barks...Abbeville Press

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life And Times...Written & Drawn by Carl Barks...Celestial Arts

Three large anthologies featuring the Disney Ducks. It's funny, but I didn't think of them as exactly in The Shadow Library because I gave them to family members, and can see them whenever I like.