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"Daniel Frank is a very funny guy with a funny weblog." --- Mark Evanier.

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Saturday, September 08, 2007

Posted by Daniel Frank at 7:54 AM

My brother notes various facts that contradict the King of Kong narrative (includng the fact that the "why is the champ afraid to compete" throughline was somewhat Roger & Me-esque).

My complaint is more simple: How do you do a documentary about a classic arcade game and not use any songs from the Pac-Man Fever album? There's even a Donkey Kong song.

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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:30 AM

I was curious what the Net had on the subject of Superintendent Hassle, a sort-of reverse-Superintendent Chalmers in the Archie world. Principal Weatherbee would worry about the superintendent's visit; Archie would mess up; the superintendent would assume the snafu was on purpose for whatever convoluted reason and say "Good job, Weatherbee".

Obviously there's nothing. I did find this Wikipedia page on Alternate Universes in Archie Comics. I'm surprised the inclusion of Little Archie wasn't more controversial.

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Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:21 AM

So an odd element in the current Peanuts collection (from 1965-6) has a character yelling "Sydney or the Bush" and Charlie Brown looking at the audience and asking "Sydney or the Bush?" This occurs twice.

Mr. Google reveals that it's an Australian saying meaning "all or nothing". I'm curious as to its origin in the strip. Was there a 1965 Australia-mania fad similar to the one from the late eighties? Did Schulz hear the phrase by meeting an Australian, going to Australia, or getting a fan letter from Australia?

Google also reveals that the joke was considered hilarious enough to be included in a 1969 Peanuts cartoon movie.

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Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:08 AM

Speaking of this remarkable age we live in, when I was a kid, I knew that the good Popeye cartoons were the black-and-white ones. If I wanted to see one, I'd have to sit through three or four terrible cartoons from whatever local channel broadcast Popeye cartoons. Now I can just watch all black-and-white cartoons on DVD!

An interesting commentary was by animators Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua for "Blow Me Down". They're so happy to see Popeye interact with Mexicans that they don't mind that they're stereotypes, just like how I like seeing Jewish stereotypes in cartoons and old movies.

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Posted by Daniel Frank at 7:55 AM

Sony is finally packaging the Three Stooges shorts in chronological packages rather than just putting three films on a disc. Story here. The means we can look forward to getting some good Shemps on disc!

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