THE SUNDAY FUNNIES

Welcome to a new feature here at the Institute. Pull up your favorite comfortable lounge chair, grab your cozy loafers, and shake out your favorite virtual comics section from the newspaper–it’s time for The Sunday Funnies here at the Disney History Institute.

Over the decades here at the Institute I was always on the lookout for non-Disney cartoons that were in some way related to Disney. As you might imagine, since Disney dominates our popular culture, there are a lot of cartoonists that “use” Disney in their work. So check in here at the Institute every seven days for The Sunday Funnies.

The inaugural offering has several layers of Disney to it. American cartoonist Bil Keane was born in Pennsylvania in 1922. His cartoon The Family Circus first appeared in newspapers on February 29, 1960 (Leap Year) and continues today in syndication. King Feature Syndicates, the publisher, claims it is the most widely syndicated cartoon in the world. The inaugural offering for The Sunday Funnies dates from February 21, 1978.

The caption reads: “Let’s sit in the back near the candy counter.” (Click on the cartoon for a larger image.)

The Disney film Pete’s Dragon was released on November 3, 1977. As most of you Disney history die-hards have probably already located, this Sunday Funny features Elliott the Dragon from the film (look towards the back of the cartoon to see the movie playing and Elliott in his typical happy incarnation). This is the first layer. The second?

The second layer features a young animator that left Cal Arts in 1974 to work for Disney animation. His first work was done under the tutelage of Nine Old Man Ollie Johnston for The Rescuers (1977). Shortly after this work he went on to do animation on Elliott the Dragon for Pete’s Dragon. His name was Glen Keane, and many of you know that he became a superstar of Walt Disney Feature Animation. It just so happens, his dad was Bil Keane and so it was a father paying homage to his son that brought Elliott to the Family Circus. And now, as Paul Harvey would say, “You know the rest of the story.”

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