Saturday, July 17, 2010

Things I learned from reading Kraken, by China Mieville

He claims this cartoon as an influence. Would never have heard of Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising otherwise. Clearly belongs in the canon... (Respecting modern sensibilities, I will mention, but not link to, the Harmon-Ising series of "Bosko" cartoons, clearly already banished from the canon when I was younger and probably destroyed by now, other than these few shards found on You Tube...)

2 comments:

David Chute said...

You've been so over-discreet here that people not already well-versed may have no idea what you're talking about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosko

"In his book, Of Mice and Magic, Leonard Maltin states that this early version of Bosko "was in fact a cartoonized version of a young black boy... he spoke in a Southern Negro dialect... in subsequent films this characterization was eschewed, or perhaps forgotten. This could be called sloppiness on the part of Harman and Ising, but it also indicates the uncertain nature of the character itself."

Tulkinghorn said...

Thanks for the clarification. It certainly wasn't eschewed in the cartoons I saw.....