A lot of folks seem unaware of them but several recently-released DVDs contain interesting documentaries on great cartoonists and comic book artists. The new Josie and the Pussycats DVD has a 20-minute featurette on the life and times of the great Dan DeCarlo. It features Casey Kasem, Bill Morrison, Scott Shaw!, Paul Dini, Dan's widow Josie, some folks from the Archie company and one or two other people...oh, yes. I'm in there, too. We're all talking about Dan and his work and it's very nice for what it is. The DVD, The Fantastic Four: Extended Cut, features a documentary on Jack Kirby. I'm in that one, too.
Not long ago, Warner Home Video put out Space Ghost and Dino Boy: The Complete Series 4-DVD set that offers all of the original cartoons of those characters. Most of Disc 4 is a long (72 minute) documentary about the great comic artist, Alex Toth, who designed most of the Hanna-Barbera adventure shows of the period. Alex was a fiery, controversial presence in our field and in some of our lives...and to its credit, the feature on him does not gloss this over or sidestep the fact that he was, at time, an angry and difficult person. Testifying to this are a number of Toth colleagues — Joe Kubert, Irwin Hasen, Bruce Timm, Mark Chiarello, John Hancock, Paul Pope, Ruben Procopio and others, as well as Alex's four kids. It's a very good, detailed portrait of Toth and if you've ever been interested in his work, you oughta see it. (If you've never been interested in his work, you ought to see his work.)
You can order the entire Space Ghost and Dino Boy DVD set here but if you have no interest in the old cartoons and just want to see the Toth documentary, see if your local DVD rental place will just let you just check out Disc 4. You can rent individual discs via Netflix.
I love the fact that I can ask a question here on my weblog and get an answer. John Giriat sent the following...
I enjoyed your tribute to Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and wanted to add what information I know about Glenn Strange injuring himself during filming. I was lucky enough back in the late 1960's to correspond with Glenn while he was working on Gunsmoke. I asked many questions about his film with Bud and Lou and this is what I found out. Near the end of the film, Glenn Strange picks up Lenore Aubert, who plays Dracula's assistant Sandra, and throws her (really a stuntman) through the laboratory window. The first time this was filmed the stuntman came tumbling back into the set and Glenn, in trying to catch him, broke his foot. The second time they filmed this, you can see Glenn take a step back when it looks like it may happen again (you can see the stuntman's foot bounce back up a bit). Lon Chaney Jr. put on the Frankenstein make up and appeared in only one scene, where the monster is running amuck in the lab and knocking over things. If you look close you can tell its not Glenn. The rest of the film shot on the dock, Glenn is playing the monster again but he has a cast on his leg under the monster's pants. This is why he seems to be walking awkwardly. Glenn told me they worked all through the night to film that last sequence on the dock because Bud and Lou had to be in court the next day. By the way, I really enjoy your website. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, John. And for those of you who are now eager to see this movie again, I posted this link some time ago to the eight-and-a-half minute Castle Films abridged version which, amazingly, manages to tell a rather coherent version of the story. It includes the scene where Strange throws "Lenore Aubert" out the window, as described above.
October 2, 2007
