The Quagmire Komix Werkz

Comix 4 the Cognoscenti

[joshquagmire]

The Easter Egg Dragnet Caper finally concludes, or does it?  Will the Easter (aka "random passerby") Bunny ever return? If she does, will she finally score a slice of carrot cake? For that matter, will Rudie even return? From the lack of feedback she gets, seems a coin-flip... http://www.bunzandkatz.com/2023/05/25/rudie-easter-dragnet-caper-pt4 That aside, sorry 'bout the delay, never thought it would take this long to finish the page... Just was sort of a combination of computer and health glitches that slowed production down to a crawl... Next page, we'll be back to Bunz & Katz' continuity, though may take a bit longer to finish...

[joshquagmire]

And now for something old an' ummm, something older -- pretty soon (May 26th to be precise) marks “The Receiving of RA”, a ancient Egyptian Holiday – from waaaayyyy back when they were building the Pyramids an’ really seriously needed a holiday! Which brings us around to this bit of fractured filmography – For hours of fun (well, maybe a minute of fun) Can you spot how many Bogart movies are referenced?

   Wednesday May 24: As no one else seems inclined to post an answer  -  in the final panel Katz mentions that Bogie is towing them to Martinique, the Caribbean Vichy French island where the 1944 film, "To have and have not" took place - and also where Bogie first met Lauren Bacall - so he's not doing too badly...

   In 1946 Bob Clampet parodied the film in a Merrie Melodies carrtoon, "Bacall to Arms" (actually this was made at the point where Clampett left the studio, so it was finished by Arthur Davis)...

[joshquagmire]

As our moderately muddled tale of Crime and Easter Eggs continues, Rudie, (the Fat Man's chief enforcer) is on the alleged Easter Bunny's tail... er, trail... http://www.bunzandkatz.com/2023/04/20/easter-dragnet-caper-pt3 Late Thurs night Page #3 has been uploaded, so just click the link to, "Wuxtry Wuxtry, Read all about it!"

[joshquagmire]

As we're currently doing Cops an' Easter Bunnies with Rudie (Santa's chief enforcer) in a Dragnet pastiche, I thought another Cop pix might be apropos – Yes, before there was Dirty Harry - before Joe Friday - even before Eliot Ness, there were the Keystone Kops! You want to talk about "Police Brutality" - you want to talk about "Excessive Force" – well you shouldn't talk to those guys, unless you want to get bonked on the head or a pie in the face! When they were on patrol, no one was safe! (occasionally not even the Crooks)... As such, thought you might enjoy this Keystone Kop pix from 2017... The basic movie frame is from: "Abbott and Costello meet the Keystone Cops" (a mediocre flick in general, however the extended Keystone Cop chase at the finale is a lot of fun and makes watchin' it all worthwhile! (or just fast-forward through to the chase)) ...Following that is a how-to piece I did for a friend to demonstrate some of the photoshop magic used to kludge together the pix...

Kelly's pose was inspired by an old pulp cover from the '40s, of a shapely damsel similarly draped over the cowling of a Japanese fighter plane... Bunz & Katz were naturals for the pix, as were the Gophers & Pandora (Kitty version), while Taffy is short enough to perch on the running board without blocking anything essential... But who to put into the far left of the truck bed stymied me for a bit, 'til I realized that Ossifer Moxie of the LAPD Cosplay Division would fit in nicely... Here she is, uniformed as Chaplin from, "Easy Street"...

[joshquagmire]

Late Easter night uploaded the 2nd Easter Dragnet page... (click the link) http://www.bunzandkatz.com/2023/04/09/easter-dragnet-caper-pt2 Who could be the criminal cretin behind our admittedly unlikely plot? The alleged Easter Bunny? The one-armed man? Professor Moriarty? My next door neighbor? Noooo, it's probably not him... Also, why do all the Bunnies look so similar, and what about the deadly mongoose egg? Rudie has only two more pages to solve it all,  let's hope her sleuthing skills are up to the task!

[joshquagmire]

It's April Fooz day, so indulge me with a bit of wish fulfillment... Note, the Mesazoic Bobbies previously appeared at:  http://www.bunzandkatz.com/2020/12/15/once-upon-a-time-in-pangea and:  http://www.bunzandkatz.com/2021/01/13/nightmare-in-slumberland

[joshquagmire]

This year, as we present four pages of hard boiled holiday fun, we're getting an early start on our Rudie Easter special... http://www.bunzandkatz.com/2023/03/28/rudie-easter-dragnet-caper-pt1 In which we waste some time on a Dragnet style police procedural – Can Rudie crack the case in 4 pages? Is the Easter Bunny Villainess or Victim? Is there no perfidy that the writer might get away with?? Let's hope so, I'd rather not be iced by Rudie...

[joshquagmire]

It would seem that Bunz doesn't like Yodelers... Unfortunately for her, our new Bunz & Katz page is an all singing, all dancing Fuhrer Follies sing along... so click the link and get ready to dance! http://www.bunzandkatz.com/2023/03/21/der-fuhrer-der-better-pg298

[joshquagmire]

St. Patsy's day somewhat snuck up on me this year... I've been so focused on the Easter story that wasn't 'til I was reminded of St. Patsy's Day last night that I kludged together a piece for Rudy an' the gang...  My advice for tonight, go light on the green beer an' stay well clear of the green meat an’ potato dumplings... Those things aren't 'sposed to be green!

[joshquagmire]

Apropos of our previous pix, here's another effort along a similar theme – a Tintype of Bronco Bunny & Kalamity Kitty filming a less than successful gun fight, while making the classic B–Western, "Shootout at Gower Gulch"... "Gower Gulch" or so I've been told, is the intersection of Sunset & Gower in Hollywood, far down in what was once the "poverty row" for small movie studios... Back in the 20s & 30s there was a li'l saloon on the corner, where ex-cowhands would hang out between jobs as riding extras – the Posse, the Outlaw gang, Indian raiders, or most any movie part that required riding a horse or driving a wagon or stagecoach... When a studio needed riders, they'd send someone down to hire whoever was there – eventually these riding extras became known as, "The Gower Gulch Gang"... They worked day to day with no security and no insurance, doing their own riding stunts... if they were injured on the job, the studios offered no help, it was just their tough luck... There's a fascinating book, "The Hollywood Posse" written by Diana Serra Cary, who's father was one of these ex-cowboy riding extras for many years, riding for Bronco Billy & Tom Mix, to Cecil B. DeMille's crusader epics...

[joshquagmire]

Welcome to Silvertown, located at Corriganville (in the Simi Valley, a bit north of Los Angeles) where many a TV an' Movie bad hombre bit the dust,  it's Bank was robbed more times than can be remembered... Even John Ford's US Cavalry rode out of Fort Apache at Corriganville and through movie magic, reappeared in Monument Valley...  In the Saloon you might've rubbed elbows with the great and near great,  Randolph Scott, Gene Autry, John Wayne, The Cisco Kid,  Hopalong Cassidy (drinking Sarsaparilla), Edgar Buchanan, Audie Murphy,  Gene Kelly, Robert Mitchum, Max Baer, Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, Rin-Tin-Tin, Roy Rogers, Clayton Moore & Jay Silverheels (The Lone Ranger & Tonto),  Captain Midnight, Marshal Matt Dillon, Hoss Cartwright an' all his clan to  Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone or Claude Rains from "The Adventures of Robin Hood",  Richard Boone as Paladin, Steve McQueen the bounty hunter, Nick Adams as Johnny Yuma, or Harvey Lembeck as Eric von Zipper... even Ray (crash) Corrigan hisself...

Today it seems its Bronco Bunny and Kalamity Kitty's turn ta shoot it out... But after emptying Kalamity's Navy Colt an' Bronco's rusty 44 without hittin' anything important, they wrestled around in the dust for a bit, till the Director called time... Then they headed for the Silvertown Hotel for a long soak in the bath an' arguing over who got to use the hair conditioner first... It's all gone now, burned to the ground in the 60s by wildfires, but the memories still linger, on celluloid and video tape...

[joshquagmire]

On Thursday we uploaded a new page – as Katz’ really Trrrrffic plan begins to unravel in possibly unexpected ways, http://www.bunzandkatz.com/2023/03/01/motivation-pg297 Katz seems set to direct possibly the worst musical since, "Springtime for Hitler"!  It's an All Singing, All Dancing, All Bloody Awful Blitzkrieg of good taste!  Don't miss it if you can!!

One more Bunz & Katz page to go, of the most tasteless musical invasion ever – then as Easter is a bit early this year, I think we'll break into the continuity to launch into our 4 page Easter Special, featuring Rudie, the Fat Man's chief enforcer, plus a certain bit-player Bunny (who may or may not be the Easter Bunny – or maybe somebody else)...  Sometimes it's hard to tell...

[joshquagmire]

As around the world weird weather changes continue, here in Los Angeles we're experiencing only our second "Blizzard" in... well... in EVER... Truth to tell, our "Blizzard" is mostly just intermittent heavy rain, wind, and the occasional flying puppy dog...  Still I'm glad that I don't have to go out in it, I can stay inside an' keep workin' on the next B&K page... Until perhaps I float away – Anyone got a snorkel I could borrow?

[joshquagmire]

Having finished with the Fan-Tastic #2 pages, seems we're back to Bunz & Katz' continuity, just click the link... http://www.bunzandkatz.com/2023/02/22/rendezvous-pg296 ...As they rendezvous with the Kaptain von Krakkt and his scurvy crew of the U-115 and the Greenland burg...

[joshquagmire]

Okay, we finished uploading all the Fan-Tastic #2 pages on Saturday... (Kind'a thought they might get more reaction)... So it's time for Cutey an' the gang to head on out to make way for Bunz & Katz...   With apologies to Leiji Matsumoto or anyone else with a cosmo blaster... 

www.bunzandkatz.com

[joshquagmire]

Once upon a time, waaaaay back in 1981 there was a li'l fan-zine (a Filksong-zine actually) called Fan-Tastic #2, a friend of mine published this zine and for reasons which are obscure to me now, he asked if I'd contribute a few of the comix stories which I'd been working on to the 2nd issue... The upshot being, I illustrated the back cover and contributed the first Cutey Bunny and Space Gophers stories to see print... (about a year before Army Surplus #1)...   http://www.bunzandkatz.com The story pages and back cover comprise 7 pages - so I thought for a Valentines gift I'd upload them (one per day for the week), starting with the back cover, then a 2 page Bunny story followed by 4 pages of Gopher goofiness... Other than the back cover, (to save myself a bit of effort) these will all be on the Bunz & Katz web page, but you can click the link every day to take you to the latest page...

[joshquagmire]

Around this time of year, Rudie tends to get a bit techy… click the link to find out why… http://www.bunzandkatz.com/2023/02/02/the-groundhawg-caper Back when I first came up with Rudie, I scribbled out about 10 page roughs – over time I've used about six of those, this Groundhawg bit being one of them…