60 Years of Rocky and Bullwinkle

November 19, 1959 - ABC debuted it's newest show "Rocky and His Friends" and parody and puns were never done better! 
The show featured the adventures of a flying squirrel and his talking moose budddy as they fought the forces of evil from that mean little country, Pottsylvania and it's most sinister agents Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale.
The show also featured the time traveling adventures of Mr. Peabody and Sherman and the bumbling Mountie, Dudley Do-Right.
We also got the great parodies of Aesop's Fables and the fabulous Fractured Fairy Tales.
Television was never greater or better written with this classic show!

80 Years of Marvel Comics

80 years ago this fall saw the debut of the first ever Marvel Comic Book entitled "Marvel Comics". The comic was an anthology title that starred The Human Torch by Carl Burgos and The Sub-Mariner by Bill Everett. These characters among others would start the long dynasty of classic characters that would go on the change the American comic book.

55 Years of Underdog

October 3, 1964 saw the debut of one of the best loved cartoons to come out of the Golden Age of TV cartoons, Underdog. Everyone seams to love the bumbling hero as he saves the day and his true love, Sweet Polly Purebread.

Quick Draw McGraw 60th Anniversary

It was around this time 60 years ago that Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera's second syndicated show made it's debut.
"The Quick Draw McGraw Show" starred a bumbling horse (and sometimes sheriff) McGraw and his sidekick Baba Looey, a prairie dog. Their adventures were parodies of westerns with Quick Draw getting the worst of it in shoot-outs (usually by his own hand) and usually saving the day by accident or by the competent Baba Looey.
The show also featured shorts starring Augie Doggie and his father Doggie Daddy and also the bumbling private detectives Snooper and Blabber.

The Amazing Spider-man

Just a recent sketch of my favorite super-hero.

60 Years of the Silver Age Green Lantern

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the second Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. Premiering in Showcase #22 and drawn by the great Gil Kane, this version of the Green Lantern was more based in science-fiction than Alan Scott was in the 1940's.

55 Years of Jonny Quest

Hanna-Barbera's last foray into prime-time television was the realistic adventure series "The Adventures of Jonny Quest", premiering September 18, 1964.
Created by cartoonist Doug Wildey, Jonny Quest is about the globe-trotting adventures of an 11 year old boy, his scientist father Dr. Benton Quest, his adopted brother Hadji (from Calcutta, India), his government bodyguard Race Bannon and fearless bulldog, Bandit.
Together this "family" traveled all around the world solving mysteries usually involving Dr. Quest's experiments, research and inventions. They took on many evil-doers including Dr. Quest's biggest rival, Dr. Zin.
Popular since it's debut, the show would be revived a couple of times and also a long running comic book series in the 80's as well as other merchandise.

70 Years of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote

It started out as a one-shot parody of all the chase cartoons that have been popular since animation started. But the popularity of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote proved to much for Chuck Jones and Warner Bros. Studios to let go at just one cartoon.
Over the course of thirteen cartoons starting with "Fast and Furry-ous, Chuck Jones created a series of classic cartoons that would help define the humor of Warner's "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" shorts and remain as popular today as they were when they were first released to movie theaters.

50 Years of Scooby Doo

On a Saturday morning (September 13, 1969) Scooby Doo and The Mystery Inc. Gang made there debut. One of the longest running shows on Saturday mornings Scooby and his gang solved crimes of all types especially those who tried to disguise themselves as ghosts or monsters.
Having a huge resurgence with the start of Cartoon Network, Scooby and friends have endured for fifty years and still is as popular today as when he debuted.

80 Years of Andy Panda

September 9th, 1939 saw the release of Walter Lantz's newest cartoon star, Andy Panda. "Life Begins for Andy Panda" would start a whole new era for Lantz's cartoons and pave the way to introduce new series and stars in the coming years.

70 Years of Mister Magoo

September 8th, 1949 saw the release of the first ever Mr. Magoo cartoon "The Ragtime Bear". Magoo would go on to win two Oscars for his theatrical cartoons and have a long history on TV including the Christmas special adaption of Charles Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol".
Here's to 70 years of the nearsighted cartoons birthday!

75 Years of Smokey Bear

75 years ago, the National Forestry Service started using a young bear cub as the spokesman for it's fire prevention posters all around the United States. Since then Smokey Bear has told people to play it safe in our forests and to always prevent forest fires.

50th Anniversary of Man's First Trip to the Moon

50 years ago this month, man took his first steps on the surface of the moon.
In honor of that historical event, Here's a sketch of Huckleberry Hound as a spaceman ready to launch. 

20 Years of Spongebob Squarepants

July 17, 1999 - Nickelodeon debuts a show about a little sponge that lives in a pineapple under the sea. Spongebob Squarepants would go on to conquer the animated world and become Nick's most popular show.
HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY SPONGEBOB!

Happy Birthday Taz!

65 years ago today - June 19, 1954 - Warner Bros. Pictures releases the Looney Tunes cartoon "Devil May Hare" starring Bugs Bunny.
This is the first appearance of the ravenous, spinning maniac, The Tasmanian Devil. Taz would go on to co-star in four other cartoons with Bugs and one with Daffy Duck, "Ducking the Devil", my favorite of the original 'toons with Taz.

100 Years of Barney Google

June 17, 1919, one hundred years ago today, Billy DeBeck debuted his classic newspaper strip character "Barney Google".
Barney was very popular appearing in hundreds of newspapers around the world. A very popular song was written about him and twice he was adapted to animation. In the silent era of movies a series of live-action shorts was produced starring Barney and his famous race horse, Spark Plug.
In the mid-1930's, DeBeck introduced the hillbilly character Snuffy Smith into the strip. He who would become so popular that in the mid-1950's Snuffy and his family at Hootin' Holler would take over the strip and continue to this day.

85 Years of Donald Duck

June 9, 1934 was the debut of Donald Duck in the Silly Symphony cartoon "The Wise Little Hen".
Donald would go on to surpass Mickey Mouse in cartoons, comic books, newspaper strips, merchandising and so forth.
My favorite version of Donald are the classic comic book stories written and drawn by Carl Barks where he also debuted the multi-billionaire, Uncle Scrooge McDuck.

50 Years of the Love Bug

March 13, 1969 saw the wide release of the little red, white and blue VW bug named Herbie also known as the Love Bug. Becoming a Disney staple it has spawned four sequels and a TV movie and has gone on to be one of Disney's best filmed live action movies.
Here's my tribute to the little bug that could.

70 Years of Beany and Cecil

As stated above Beany and Cecil started life as puppets and became smash hits. Thirteen years later Bob Clampett revived them as cartoon stars and the rest is history.
This is my tribute to these great characters.

Celebrating 90 years of Popeye

 This year marks the 90th anniversary of Popeye the Sailor. Introduced in the "Thimble Theatre" comic strip, Popeye would go on to take the lead role and become one of the most successful and popular characters of all time.

 Above is my re-creation of the first appearance of Popeye when Castor Oyl and Harold Ham Gravy hire him to sail their boat to the casino resort, Dice Island.

 Here I did a sketch of the two ages of Popeye from his first appearance by Elzie Segar to the final look Segar came up with at the time of his untimely death.

Even Superman gets in on the celebration of Popeye's Birthday!