It's obviously half-assed and still under development, but - what the frell... Let's open the doors and let some light in here while i'm working.
At opening, most everything from the original 1940s Funny Animalphabet posts on The Voice Of ODD! has been transferred to the new format. What wasn't transferred was removed due to duplication or error. (A few characters did not actually appear until 1950)
Work has begun on listing details for each entry, but many are still just name and image with a blank information template. This is not being done systematically, rather by random impulse. This means that data complete entries are scattered throughout the listing rather than all being clustered at the beginning.
Additionally, many new entries have been added to the listing - about 100, bringing the total up to somewhere between 350-400, so far. (Though we still have yet to begin adding the "big boys" that were left out of the original census) I'm not counting as i go, but you can do a quick perusal via the Index - a simple text listing of Animalphabet entries. As work progresses, i'll indicate new listings in batch progress notices on the blog.
Eventually, i'd like to add a Creator Index, listing where you can find your favorite artist or writer. I suppose i should be working with some clever database software to build the site, but this is what happens when a blog post goes wild.
Some other possibilities:
Should we mirror old (and new) posts from The Voice Of ODD! which feature '40s Funny Animals?
Should we focus on creators? (if so, the above applies those posts as well)
Cover Galleries for characters?
There is always a link to the Introduction and the Animalphabet pages at the top of the right hand column on all pages. There is also a navigation strip at the bottom of each page. And yet, still, i feel compelled to offer you another link here:
Edit: This page was originally posted on 6 August 2018. The date has been changed to repair site function. The link above has also been changed to work with the since-changed layout.
There were a ton of Funny Animal books and characters from the 40s and early 50s. I do know that many of them were made by animators on the side which explains the character design resemblance to animated cartoons often found in them, as opposed to most comic strips which had their own styles. Even though they often had poor plots the good drawings by animators during a time when animators were expected to be able to draw pretty well makes them worth looking through. Thank you for putting together this index.
ReplyDeleteYou're quite welcome. Might as well put my personal obsessions to good use, eh?
DeleteAnd, yeah - sometimes they're more enjoyable to look at than to try to follow the stories. And sometimes "story" is severely overstating it. But they were often delightful anyway. And not infrequently deeply surreal and strange. (And then there's Ellis Chambers)
Obviously the site is still in a formative state. If you've any suggestion on what you'd like to see presented (or how), feel free to speak up.