#broom hilda

[popculturebuffet]

Here Comes Garfield: The Fantastic Funnies (A Comission For Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome one and all to Here Comes Garfield, my look at all things garfield. For the rest of the year this feature will mostly be a look at the 11 garfield specials, minus babes and bullets which I covered previously, as well as his appearence in Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue for last 420.

So for those just joining us: I'm a lifelong comic strip nerd, ever since my dear Aunt Paula gave me her spare copy of the Indespensible Calvin and Hobbes in the 3rd grade. From there I slowly glommed on to other strips over the years: From FoxTrot, to Doonesbury, to Get Fuzzy to Zits to Cul De Sac, to recent faviorites like Pheobe and Her Unicorn, Crabgrass, the Steenz version of Heart and the City, and Breaking Cat News, which i'm wrapping a huge retrospective of soon, and whose place this retrospective is taking on my friend Emma's Patreon slot.

I love talking about this fine art, fitting your best work in just 4 panels, all the wonderful characters many simply don't know exist, all the weird shit that happens.. it's good stuff. So naturally I also gained a love for specials based on them. And while I loved the Peanuts ones and will climb THAT massive mountain someday, as a tween.. my faviorites were Garfield's and it's how I fell in love with the fat cat, the cool cat the nobody's cool cat.

While younger me did like garfield as a strip, especially that one arc where Garfield gets caught in a window blind and it conttinues to suck in an escalating number of people

Truly the "Snoopy's Awkward Nephew" of Garifield comics. Pure art. But while I liked it, it was watching the specials on the DVD garfield as himself that sucked me into the character. The DVD"s were released around the time of the first movie and releases of Garfiled and Friends to cash in and they certainly got my money. 12 specials, all ranging from excellent to watchable, and all wil lbe covered this year.

However before I can tell you that story, I have to tell you this story: See while Here Comes Garfield was Garfield's first SPECIAL.. it wasn't his first apperance in animation. Two years before that Garfield lept onto screens and into the inky depths of animation with a short but scene stealing apperance in the 1980 special the Fantastic Funnies, an apperance I honestly didn't even know existed till recently, but is such a weird and important piece of garfield history I had to cover it and Emma was on board to comission it.

So what exactly IS the fantastic funnies you may ask. Well i'll tell you.. you may ask. The Fantastic Funnies was a sequel to the earlier special The Fabulous Funnies, a celebration of comic strips interviewing various creators and including a live action on animated bit with Rob Reiner. I haven't seen it but if there's enough intrest I might cover it. The special was a hit for NBC, with CBS regretting having passed over the idea when animation maestro and peantus producer Lee Mendelson suggested it. After they remembered he'd pitched it and they'd been stupid at all of course, as is the executive way. They called dibs on the next time.

The next time was 12 years and an animated series that didn't do so good later, and CBS was front and center for the Fantastic Funnies, taking the concept but spiffing it up: this time the interviews were, with two exceptions, each accompanied by an animated short, there was an animated bit to start it off, and we also got a few musical numbers and live performances from the broadway cast of annie.. well two of the broadway cast of annie bu tthat's still more of the broadway cast of annie than has been on this blog so touche Fabulous Funnies, touche. It's the most 70's thing to come out of 1980 and i'll be covering the whole thing under the cut.

Fantastic Funnies is hosted by Loni Anderson, who at the time was on CBS' hit WKRP in Cincinatti.. and what i've seen of it is excellent. She hasn't really done anything else i've seen, but she seems nice enough.

This makes it awkward as hosting wise she feels shoved into the special. The script she's given feels awkward, with her only genuine enthuasim coming from Barney Google. I honestly wish I could be as jazzed about Barney Google and his go go gooogly eyes as Loni Anderson apparently was in 1980. I AM that jazzed about Snoopy's awkard teenage nephew

But it's not the same alas.

I can't even blame her as anderson was already frustrated with her pay for the series she did do and would demand more from the network leading to a brief exit from WKRP. I can't be too hard on her for not giving a fuck about an extra gig they saddled her with she didn't ask for with a script written by a block of wood on several pounds of qualudes. She did her best under the circumstances.

The circumstances also include getting animated as a cartoon, lucky, and getting to introduce a panel of various comic strip all stars of the time.

Okay so going row by row, with the strips self titled unless otherwise stated.

Front Row: Charlie Brown and Lucy (Peanuts), Nipper (Wee Pals), Dennis the Menace (US Comic), Nancy and Sluggo and Little Orphan Annie. Second Row: Blondie and Dagwood, Dick Tracey, Barney Google (Snuffy Smith), Alley Oop and Prince Valiant

Third Row: Pogo, Tumbleweeds, miss Peach, B.C., Beetle Bailey

Back row: Michael Doonesbury (Doonesbury), Broom Hilda, Drabble, Cathy and Hagar the Horrible

And in their own section because dogs apparently don't get bleacher seats at Walden, where I assume this is taking place as the only college out of these strips, we also get the dogs and one very special cat in their own section.

So Snoopy, Daisy (Blondie), Fred Basset and Garfield who are all about to throw down when Lonnie announces they have to get back to the human world for the show. But before that a song they all prepared, and it was at this point in the special I had to ask myself the tough question:

I still don't know. But yes the song is like living in a living nightmare and I don't care for it. It's thankfully short and Broomhilda takes them all to the real world. But that's a story for another day

Sadly not that day.

For now the special settles int' it's formula: Lonnie introduces a cartoonist, they talk about how their strip came to be, we get an animated segment about it. The only exceptions to the last part are Wee Pals, which instead has it's creator voice over one of his strips directly and Prince Valliant, who gets jack shit.

It was at this point I also realized a bit of an issue. While I mentioned my love of comic strips.. most of the ones I adore come from the late 70's onward, with Doonesbury and Peanuts being the big exceptions. I don't have anything against strips from before that time, I've read what I could of Pogo and want to read more and Krazy Kat is still well loved for a reason. I've also recently gained an appreceation of popeye thanks to Randy Millholand's take on the franchise.

The thing is I started devouring every comic strip I coudl in the 2000's. It was a great time for that as every strip got at least ONE collection, so even if you didn't read the newspapers, you could get a sample of a wide range of strips in book form. Boondocks even got a hilarious title out of it for it's first book.

So I got to sample a wide range of strips, many of which I still read today: Get Fuzzy, Zits Pooch Cafe, For Better or For Worse, Baldo, La Cucaracha, Cul De Sac, Lio, Luann, Rudy Park, Adam@Home. Many strips I first found in collection and binged later. Sadly this went down in the 2010's but thankfully the kids comics boom has meant many newer strips have gotten collections. It's why I have collections for heart of the city and crabgrass on my shelf.

But as you may of noticed... most of those either started in the 2000's or in the 90's. Most of the kings features based strips simply didn't get collections and thus I didnt' notice them.. and by the time I could i'd mostly heard of them by reputation as dinosaurs that would go on till the heat death of the universe via various legacy artists who wouldn't really change a thing.

And I do GET why: a lot of these legacy strips.. are ran by family members who want to honor the legacy and may simply not feel comfortable altering the strip too much. I'm not asking that dagwood suddenly become a t-rex... i'd love that, but I get i'm not everyone's target audience. Not every strip can be Pooch Cafe and go entirley off the rails AND still be every bit the strip it always was AND be good

It's hard. So I do have some sympathy. It's not limitless: while I get not doing so say in the 2000's when handing your strip off to another cartoonist, let alone your DAD'S strip wasn't a thing unless they were going to stay the course, in the 2020's and late 2010's we've had a bunch of great reboots and soft reboots of legacy strips: Randy Millholand of Something Positive fame did such a fantastic job on popeye sundays he got a weekly slot with olive and popeye, giving other creators the chance to do their own olive oyl strip basically alongside his. Mark Tatulli got tired of doing heart of the city (Lio both continues and slaps hard) and rather than phone it in or end it, handed it over to the talented Steenz, whose work on the strip is both something entirley diffrent but something entirely fresh and fun with some tight continuity. Olivia James made people care about Nancy for the first time in decades and has a nice dry wit. And while Henry Barjas keeps the soapy stylings of gil thorpe and hasn't changed as much as his contemporaries he still isn't afraid to shake things up having Gil go through a divorce, get two new assitant coaches, a third assitant coach who was once his arch nemisis and making the teen cast far more diverse including trans and non binary characters, being one of the few creators to do so in comic stripery.

While I don't want you going after these old men, and please for the love of god DO NOT GO AFTER THESE MEN. I do not want that. I may gripe, but these seem like decent guys just ones who won't evolve and have no reason to. I'm just outlining why maybe i'd rather read strips that keep growing with age or have fresh new voices rather than "Dagwood still hasn't left the 1950's and when theyt ry to it's embarassing for everyone involved. "

I.. didn't mean for this to turn into a screed on legacy comics that never really changed but it makes it all the more special tha ta lot of these creation stories for these comics still fascinated me.

The big standout was Wee Pals, a strip I hadn't heard of as it ended in 2002. Wee Pals was created by Morrie Turner, a cartoonist and protege of Charles Schultz who bemoaned the lack of black characters in the newspapers. Charles told him why not make one, and Wee Pals came about, with Turner diversifying the cast to drum up intrest creating one of the more diverse casts in earlier comic strips as a result. Nowadays it's a tad quaint, but I can't fault the man for trying to make comic strips less white and i'm glad I know this pioneer exist. I'm also mildly annoyed his strip wasn't animated, as it was one of the funneist present, with our heroes talking about one's pet chameleon.

There were other intresting stories too: Cathy Guthwise based Cathy on her own life, just changing Cathy's job from cartoonist to "whatervers funnier". Broom Hilda, a strip about a wtich, was something his creator tried pitching as an add character first. IT's small stuff but it always fascinates me how a strip comes about.

The only outright hilarous one is Johnny Hart, who kept trying to sell a caveman character, his friends asked him to put up or shut up so in his words "He drank 4 beers and the caveman slowly came into focus." He just.. outright got hammered to fuck because that was a normal thing in 1980 and created a classic comic strip out of it that later became obessed with jesus. Amazing.

The interviews are neat and while I may not like these strips I respect their creators.. and the creator of Hagar for putting on a viking helmet. Good stuff.

As for the animated segmets.. their eh. Like I said most of these strips are pretty gag a day and it seems like the shorts just flat out animated a strip. Which can work as it does for the raeson we're all here, garfield will come soon I promise, but for the most part it just dosen't land for me

In two cases they just flat out take bits from pre existing specails: For Doonesbury they take a bit of Joanie at the daycare.

For those less drenched in the deep and complex lore of doonesbury as the werido who has a ton of print books and bought digitals of strips he already had and books he already bought years ago just to have a copy on kindle: Joanie Caucuss was once a house wife, who got tired of it and her husband clinton and hitched the first ride she could away from his sexist ass. That ride happened to be with strip lead Mike and his best friend and revolutinary Mark on a motorcycle trip to find america. They took her back with them, she joined them at their commune, and soon got a job in daycare while trying to become a law student, which is the status quo the special used. Soon after she'd become a law student, head to berkley, find the love of her life and a long LONG list of other stuff up to present day where she works as a campaign manager on occasion during her alleged retirement.

It's not a bad bhit, but I get the sense they wanted to pick the least political thing they could.. yet weirdly DIDN'T go with the musical number or the dinner the group have. Or you know just accept doonesbury is political and include frank discussions of the 60's in this special.

For Peanuts, they just include an animated bit of snoopy singing suppertime from your a good man charlie brown. It's new animation far as I can tell, as the bit wasn't in any of the specials and they woudlnt' adapt the musical till the mid 80s. It's fine I just question why they didn't recycle anything from the specials.

Finally Cathy is from it's special, but fits, with her "wanting to have it all". A very cathy joke and frankly had I not found out she has three specails, i would not have been able to tell.

As for the other material either recycled from the fabulous funnies or made for this special, i'm going in no paticular order.

Beetle Bailey: Beetle runs away from sarge to try and get out of doing the obstacle course

Hagar the horrible has a trite bit about his wife telling him to take out the garbage VIKINGS DON'T DO THAT. YOU SO SILLY HAGAR.

Dennis the Menace keeps drawing out bed time because kids do that, even immortal children who aren't all that menacing.

By now your starting to get what a mountain it was to climb this special: short interview, unfunny skit, short interview unfunny skit, rinse repeat, toss away my sanity. I TRY to be positive on this blog, try not to be a dickhead.. but this special is so damn boring half the time. The interviews are kinda neat but the animated bits are just.. so lame.

So as a break let's talk what else the special did to fill time. Loni Anderson sang the radio themes to Popeye and Little Orphan Annie. IN the former's case.. that's all you gets. No adventure, no high seas just her singing the popeye theme. We dont' even get a musical number from the popeye movie because it hadn't happene dyet. I want to hear bluto say i'm mean over and ove rand over again. I"m that desperate.

Annie DOES get the cast of the broadway show, a huge hit then and forever, to do two numbers, both iconic and both well performed: The first is I dont' Need Anything But YOu, the cute duet between Annie and Warbucks, and then of course Tommorow best sung by bill the cat.

But the kid they use here does pretty good herself. They have it sung at the only playground in budget for some reason, but they did their best.

We also get a truly batshit bumber about peopl eneeding their funnies, from reading them as they go down the fire pole to IN A MOVING CAR. Yes even serial murderers need their funnies as they mow down pedestrians. It's nature's way. I do relate to tha tboost you get from reading them every day, I do so and I have to use three diffrent sites: one for andrews mcmeel, one for king features, and one for the webbcomic kevin and kell. So I get it. Three's also a closing number I ran away form.

The final non torture bit is Johnny Fever from WKRP. Due to a news strike he's tasked iwth reading the comics and drmatically reads flash gordon. Howard Hessman is hilarous as always, the bit is fucking great, and it woke me up after several strip adaptions put me to sleep. good stuff.

Back to my cycle of torment, and we have a Blondie cartoon and one of the few animated bits in the specail that was intresting. And unintetionally hilarous as Blondie gets dagwood THIS haircrime done to him.

What makes it funny is that not only is this haircut too much even for the 70's, but Blondie LOVES it, as do the kids.. despite all three of them having never updated their styles. Granted Blondie's hair game is timeless, so I get her point but it's just a .. weird plot to pick for blondie.

Naturallyt his being blondie instead of forcusing on the problem of "his wife wants him to try a hair cut that makes him not feel himself" it's in part him worried tha this friends and co workers will laugh. I mean they will, it's as if Luke Skywalkers hair started to eat into his brain, but that shoudln't be your takeaway and him washing it out while Blondie's alseep solves nothing and isn't funny. "Haha he can't be honest with his wife and she's going to later cite this incident to thier marriage counclier". Granted I would ENTIRELY read Dagwood's hair causing a divorce between them, but i'm not sure that's an arc Blondie readers want. I do wnat reprints of golden age blondie as it apparently involved Dagwood having to get disinherited to marry blondie, getting drunk, and other soap opera stuff more intresting than Dagwood trying to single white female mark hamill. Huh now THAT'S a Disney + series i'd watch. get on it disney

The other really fun one is Marmaduke. This one's just kidna fucked up. Marmaduke want sto go sleep in the same bed with the kids, which can somehow fit all three and is adorable so I don't get why not, but the dad tries to make him go outside because that was the thing with dogs. It hasn't aged terribly with charlie brown because snoopy clearly likes having his own pad and the inside is larger than most mansions, let alone the brown house

And when the whole thing burned down in one of the more sobering strips in the series run

Charlie Brown dutifully helped him plan his new house

Honestly I could talk about Snoopy's house burning down all day but it's not what you came for. You came to hear me tell you how it relates to Marmaduke. My point is Marmaduke just has a regular ass Dog House, and just wants to sleep in bed. I get this was normal at the time, it used to be the norm that dogs woudln't sleep in bed.. but my Dog YOshi curls up on my mom' sbed every night and maddie, my other dog , only dosen't when she's not on her own bed restfully asleep as she is as I type this. what i'm saying is maybe just maybe forcing dogs to live outside at night was cruel jackassery and maybe letting the big old dog curl up at the foot of the bed or, if he prefers tucked in while old man bastard can sleep outside and think about his life choices. Also i'm shocked this wasn't the plot of either marmaduke movie. It's so perfect. One man's journey to be a better dog owner .. or Marmaduke repeadely hitting him in the nuts with a tennis ball machine and other various objects. I"m not picky. Also i'm not touching either of those films unless someone pays me the 15 dollars it'd take to comissoin it. I'll review plenty of garbage on my own time, but I have limits. Pete Davidson is very much a hard and fast one. Owen Wilson is fine though. We love owen in this house.. but even he can' save cgi marmaduke and we all know that.

Pogo also takes a bit from the then upcoming film I go Pogo.. a guy I don't know tries to take two passing critters for a ride using the old shell game.. only to have put something under every one. i'ts a nice joke and it works well, and the gorgeous claymation. Given it's both election based and based on a comic i'd like to know better, me reviewing that .. would still be 15 if anyone wants it but far less of my own personal hell. But i'm more likely to do that one on my own. Fun fact: pogo's election storyline's inspired bloom counties, which I will be covering this year or at the very least the 1984 one.

BC has some bit with a turtle. It sure does exist

Broom Hilda asks who the fairest in the land is and her mirror calls her second. She responds by breaking it. This bit.. was actually funny. I'm not sure Broom Hilda would be for me as it's main gag seems to be "Gee isn't a woman chasing men against their will funny" which

Same other way around or with non binary folks. But I did like this and her horning in on mike's close up

She looks like she's about to hit on him but adorably so and he looks just.. so done with it as he always is. I mean.. I can't have turned out worse than Mike's actual first marriage. his second is pretty ballin though.

Mama has her Son say that life is a song.. onlyf or her to sing about him neglecting him. Get it because guilt tripping is funny! This is apparently most of what Mama is.

Finally before our main event we have tumbleweeds with sexual harassment as some lady refuses to let tumbleweeds go. And that's not me being lazy that's his actual name. Though to it's creator's credit he retired rather than let it become "a zombie strip", so good on him.

Okay now for what you all came to see

Also garfield

Garfield's first aniamted special was MOSTLY worth the pilgramage here. While ti's only a few strips repeated, it's fascinating for just how diffrent it is from Here comes Garfield a few years later.

For starters the Fantastic Funnies used an early design for our faviorite cat, not the iconic entirely weird by this point earliest garfield but one more in between, not quite upright yet, but not nearly as realistic as day 1 garfield.

To the classic peanuts team of Mendelson and Mendez's credit they did a wondreful job, likely why they were chosen to produce the specials till the companies backing peanuts asked them to stop helping out rival specails, and this version of garfield heavily resembles what he was like in the strip this frame is based on

It's also telling how fast Jim Davis was evolving the special that by the time it aired Garfield had already changed his look up a bit, if still not fully to his more classic 80s look.

It's not a HUGE change, just a little thinner, with the bigger change being in how he sit's/stands

It's just a testament to how slowly but surely the character evolved in apperance over his first decade or so and part of what makes this intreresting: while the specials help chart this evolution, and helped cause it as Jim needed to draw Garfield with SKinnier legs for the opening dance number of here comes garfield, it's nice to have this bit of his evolution frozen in amber.

The voices behind the characters are intresting: to my shock Thom Huge ALWASY voiced john and basically only stopped doing it when he retired. Thom did voices for commericals and was an old frat brother of Jim Davis who Davis asked for help with this special. While the producers would recast huge for Here Comes Garfield, he sent them a tape and became THE voice of john in the same way Lorenzo Music became THE voice of garfield.

WHile that's weird enough... what makes this special stand out besides the earlier designs... is Garfield's Voice. It's not Lorenzo Music, who would DEFINE the character in my eyes and is THE garfield, no question, though Frank Welker and Bill Murray are admirable.. but Radio DJ and voice guy Scott Beach.

Beach is take is intresting as both Murray and Welker clearly take from Music, while Beach largely does his own thing. Instead of the dry, sarcastic bored tone Lorenzo perfected, Beach has that but it sounds more like Jean Shepard'ss narration in a christmas story. Shepard isn't bad but his voice for Garfield is less relaxed, mor ebooming and confident. It dosen't COMPLETELY fit and makes the short feel a tad weird.. but it's also hard to judge the voice as, like I said EVERY voice after took cues from Music. he left the perfect blueprint. The fact Chris Pratt isn't that dry, sarcastic , laid back voice the character has been defined by hasn't helped his case voicing the character at the time of this review. Beach does a good job, but he just didn't quite fit and it's hard to compare a 2 minute performance with dozens of hours worth of material from Music. Beach did a decent job, but he just wasn't the right guy for the part, simple as that. his voice just didn't fit Garfield's give no fuck nature that well.

Finally we have the specific strips adapted. nd the garfield wiki was a huge help here. Seriously fan wikis can have a bad rap but many are done by dedicated people who save me a LOT of work and do a lot of through research> Kudos guys, thanks for your help. So the wiki has each strip adapted. Excluding the "I have feet? " one we have

Not bad choices: they get all the garfiled bases: he dosen't like catching mice, likes food and Jon weight shames him a lot. Simple, quick and well done.

Overall the garfield shorts for this special are excellent. It's a short bit but it gets the character down and it's easy to see why, despite being the new kid on the block at only two years old at the time, garfield's the one who go ta specail out of the deal.

Now does he make the specail worth watching?

I mean if you like comic strip history like me, you'll get something out of it. There's a bit on the inductees into the hall of fame, but even then it's a long slog of interviews that are fairly short and shorts that are both short and tedious. The good bit here or there cannot save this.

Other than Garfield .. there really isn't much to write home about for the casual viewer or if your a fan of Peanuts and Doonesbury like I am, as both bits can be found elswhere. It's easier to either fast forward to the bit with a comic you like or find the garfield bits in their own little video, of which there are plenty. I'm glad I reviewed the special.. but it just hasn't aged well and probably wasn't that fun to begin with. Even as much as I ranted about how much I didn't know the strips.. i'ts still presented so dryly even if it had strips I liked more in it, it'd still be a bit of a slog. There's just not enough genuinely good stuff or loveable nonsense to keep this afloat. Skip the special but DO check out the early garfield stuff. It's brilliant.

Next Time: The first proper special as Garfield must save Odie from the pound.. after he grooves to Lou Rawls a bit. As is nature's way. Thanks for reading.

[smashedpages]

Back in this post, we noted that my pal Russell Myers has been drawing his newspaper strip Broom-Hilda with no assistance since it debuted back in April of 1970.  That's over 19,000 daily and Sunday strips and he ain't about to stop.  As you probably would assume, newspaper strip artists work way ahead of schedule and Russell is way, way ahead.  If he quit tomorrow, which he has no intention of doing, he already has enough Broom-Hilda strips completed to take him over the 20,000 mark.

--Mark Evanier on Russell Myers’ historic run on Broom Hilda

[regularcomic]

[doublebattled]

"We already had one cult making my life difficult and I don't have the goddamn patience for another."

[jetcat-14]

hi! saw ur post :3

how would you think a double date with sketchbook and frilda would go? just a thought LMAO

-🦋👾

Well I see it somehow going like this

They plan the whole night out to 2 things Dinner and then Star gazing and I mean by Planning It's all Johanna and Frida's Idea and Kaisa and Hilda go along with it .

At the restaurant Kaisa and Johanna sit at there own Table and Hilda and Frida of close there tables are right next to each other .

Johanna looks over at her Daughter who is smileing while Holding hands with Frida and it makes her happy .

Later at the Star Gazing Hilda is naming off all the star names (Because to be Honest I feel like it's something she would know ) and Frida listens and is kind of shocked Hilda knows them all .

Kaisa at this point has taken Johanna up on her broom and they are sitting above the Girls looking out of the night sky .

Or Course Frida and Hilda are Jealous when they realize they are up in the sky but Kaisa just looks at Frida and goes .......'Your close to being able to do this'

Then Frida and Kaisa walk Johanna and Hilda home and drop them off .

Kaisa Kisses Johanna Goodnight and Frida and Hilda well look at each other and then Hilda leans in and kisses Frida (there still kind of scared showing there feelings for one another in front of anyone just mainly kissing)

Kaisa and Frida both watch Johanna and Hilda walk into the flat and they both look at each other and say .

'We are really lucky aren't we'.

[blaithnne]

It’s March and all I can think about is Hilda’s family’s varying approaches to spending Halloween together (mainly costumes)

Hilda takes it SO seriously, and refuses store bought costumes. She makes all her costumes herself and makes them as terrifying as she can, full sfx and fake(?) blood everywhere. Though one year when she doesn’t have time she just dyes her hair brown and says she’s normal now

Tontu is the opposite, he’s got a bunch of old storebought costumes in Nowehre Space so when Hilda drags him into her Halloween shenanigans he grabs some god awful £4 Tesco certified costume and calls it a day. It doesn’t even come close to fitting

Johanna I can see going one of two ways - either she’s low effort in a cute way, like she just grabs a broom and draws a spider on her cheek and is like “I’m a witch :)”, OR she gets just as into it as Hilda and immerses herself fully in whatever character she is. The kids love her, the adults judge her. I know for a fact however that she LOVES handing out candy to kids

Idk if Halloween would be a thing in Elven culture, it doesn’t sound like a very elfy thing. I think Alfur would be really interested in the historical origins of Halloween and learning about all the traditions old and new. In terms of costumes I think Hilda would dress him up as a poisonous bug or something to fuck with people, and he’s not overly impressed about it

Baba loves all the candy, and the fact that this holiday mostly takes place at night so she gets to be involved! I think she’d rip apart any costume that people try to put on her though

Bonus - Lauren keeps getting told to change because her costumes aren’t appropriate for the kids. She doesn’t really lean into the scary aspect of Halloween costumes, per say. Oh also she dresses Twig up in cute costumes (and tries with Baba but gives up pretty quickly)

[blessyourhondahurley]

Suptober day 4 - Commencement

Castiel completes his training with Rowena, and it all goes very fast after that!

A new part to my 2019 series Rowena's Shop

Suptober prompt: Nimbus Flufftober Prompt: Cinderella Moment Fictober Prompt: “Do you even know what this means?” Inktober Prompt: Dodge

(Read on AO3)

“Oh, well done, Castiel! Very well done, indeed! You've gotten it exactly right! Look!!”

Comfy and dozing in his overstuffed armchair, Dean can hear Rowena's words of effusive affirmation drifting in through the curtained doorway to the back of the store. The cooing, approving tone of her voice is one she's never used with him, of course, but Cas has been drawing it out of her more and more often lately as he's neared the completion of his studies. From the sound of it, he's just ticked another box on the list of spells he needs to master before he “graduates,” whatever that word means for a literal sorcerer's apprentice in the Year of our Lord 2023.

He's starting to doze off again when his boyfriend comes bursting through the doorway, a wide, gummy grin on his handsome face.

“Did you hear?!? I did it!!” he trumpets.

Dean stands to give him a hug. “I heard, honeybee! Nice work!! Does that mean you guys are done for the day, or are you taking a break? Maybe we could go grab a late lunch...?”

Cas gives him a firm, full-bodied squeeze, then pulls away, shaking his head. “No, beloved, I did it. That was the last one. I'm finished. Do you even know what this means?”

Dean watches, mouth agape, as he murmurs a few sibilant words and flicks a finger. The cozy glow of the shop's chandelier dims as a nimbus of luminescent power gathers around Cas's head. The blue highlights in his hair coil and eddy, then the color surges, flowing down the man's body and draping it in a floor-length brocade cloak that perfectly matches his gorgeous eyes. It's a Cinderella Moment if Dean's ever seen one.

“Holy shit,” he mutters.

“Indeed,” Rowena intones sarcastically as she walks into the room. “Eloquent as ever, I see.”

“Hey, screw you, Broom Hilda,” Dean snipes back. “Forgive me for being in awe of my boyfriend the fucking wizard.” He rolls his eyes at her and turns back to Cas. “So, what happens now? Can we celebrate? Go out for a nice dinner? Or should we just skip to dessert?” It's a cheesy line, but God help him, that little display of power got him so freaking turned on. If Rowena wasn't here he would 100% be on his knees right now.

Cas seems to be on the same wavelength, because he's got a dirty smirk on his face. He opens his mouth to respond, but Rowena throws up a waggling finger.

“Ah ah ah, there'll be plenty of time for that sort of business later. Right now I need your help with the last o'my cases.” She gestures behind her, at a teetering pile of steamer chests that definitely was not there a minute ago.

And the same-wavelength thing must still be in effect, because the two of them reply in unison, “Wait, what?”

“I've been stuck here long enough, boys. Now that you're ready, Castiel, I'll be goin' walkabout for a bit.” She points again at the trunks, an imperious quirk to her brow, and the two men scramble to fill their arms.

Rowena herself picks up the tiniest, daintiest little handbag and leads them, shuffling under the immense weight of her luggage, out the side door to the alley. Her car, like her a sporty little compact number of indeterminate age, make, and origin, seems much too small to hold so many massive cases. But of course, like magic, it all fits neatly into the boot, with ample room to spare.

Dean slams the lid down, then rounds on her. “So, what, Cas finished his training five minutes ago and you're getting outta Dodge? How long are you gonna be gone? What's gonna happen to the store? Wh–”

Whatever other question he'd been about to ask dies on his tongue when she snaps her fingers. (He's honestly not sure whether she did a silencing spell on him or he's just terrified of her.)

“It's tradition, you utter gowk. I've nothing more to teach our Castiel, and the shop practically runs itself, has done for centuries. And, much as I loathe to admit it, you've become quite an exemplary assistant in all the years you've been lollygaggin' around here waiting for your fella to do his lessons. The pair of ya'll do fine. And I'll be back around, in a few months or years or... Well, eventually. Cheerybye, boys!”

And she's gone, in a puff of sweet-smelling exhaust.

Dean and Cas stare at each other for a full minute, slack-jawed and stunned. Finally, Dean gathers himself enough to break the silence.

“Honeybee,” he says hoarsely. “What the fuck.”

[fenotheidiot]

@blaithnne sorry for tagging you but i remember sometimes you had some dreams about Hilda, specifically around Johanna and i just had a dream about her too so i had to tell you about this cuz this is crazy.

FUCK it was horrible. Ok so the dream was where there was another Hilda Movie again and there was a part 1 and 2. Idrk what happened in part 1 but i was watching part 2. I guessed something happened to Hilda that made her.. not herself..

Idk how to explain this but.. inside Hilda's head there were like.. 3 version of Hilda, a normal one, i forgor what's the 2nd one, and 3rd one.. uhmm.. how do i say this.. i don't want to be rude but let's say it's the uhh.. unhinged autistic one and only one of em should control Hilda which should be the normal one. The 3rd Hilda is very chaotic. So.. let's just say these 3 version of Hilda like this:

A: the normal one

B: i forgor but let's say she's the mysterious one

C: the unhinged one

I was watching a scene where Hilda heads to the top of a tower looking for someone that's about to get away. She opened a door and there was no one there except for a giant hole on the wall, i guess the villain escaped. Frida and David are in the sky flying with broom sticks (i guess Frida lend David her other broom stick) and checks on Hilda who's trying to find the villain

Btw in the previous part of the movie, the part one she was like cursed i guess? And have..wild super powers that she unable to control? And (A) got lost deep in her subconscious and trying to gain back control or back to normal i guess. (A) kinda knows what is happening outside but she doesn't have full control over her own body. The other part of herself was in control (i think it was the (B) one)

She finally got back to the main control area if the brain i guess and (A) saw (B) and (C) in that room. (B) was controlling and (C) was just sittin there. (A) then trying to fight back for the control so (A) and (B) were fighting. While both of them get distracted, (C) starts to take control. Idrk what happened but (C) starts to get manipulated by the mysterious villain and made her seeing what not actually there. (C) starts panicking like crazy and releasing her powers chaotically. Hilda has powers like Monkey D. Luffy or Jake the dog i guess where she's able to stretch and resize a part of her body and those powers hits Frida and David, KILLING THEM BOTH. After the havoc is finish, (A) just realized what happened outside and she saw both of her friends brutally died bcuz of her action and she was fuckin DEVASTATED !

And then at the end of the movie had CRAZY plot twist revalation where the Villains was actually JOHANNA AND VICTORIA VAN GALE who are consuming/using the miseries of Hilda, Frida, and David so Johanna and Victoria able to live a life together somewhere AND BE GAY TOGETHER bcuz they both are cursed too i guess. They both had villainous laughs..

[nightmare-the-mercenary]

Hilda Crane was flying on her broom, looking for someone to mess and to have fun with them.

@liam-and-co-rp-zone

*Alexander was walking around through the night, humming to himself as he enjoyed the cool air*

[tnybunnihops]

🌷The A-Z of shows to watch while regressed 🌷

Obviously these aren’t all of them, just a few that I could think of :)

Arthur, Adventure Time

Bluey, Blues clues, Bananas in Pyjamas, Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom, Bee and Puppycat, Ben 10

Carebears, Curious George, Charlie and Lola

Dinosaur Train, Doc McStuffins, Dead End: Paranormal Park

Ever After High, Elena Of Avalor

Fireman Sam

Guess How Much I Love You, Gravity Falls

Hey Duggee, Hilda, H2O Just Add Water

In The Night Garden

J -

Kung Fu Panda

Little Lunch

Mister Maker, Mickey Mouse, My Little Pony, Miraculous, Masha and the Bear, Mako Mermaids

N -

Octonauts

Peter Rabbit, Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, Peg + Cat

Q -

Room On The Broom

Steven Universe, Scooby Doo, Spongebob, Sesame Street, Strawberry Shortcake, Sarah and Duck, Sofia The First

The Gruffalo, The Magic School Bus, Trollhunters

U -

Vampirina

We Bare Bears

Y -

Zog

[fowlfish]

Broom Hilda and her vulture pal Gaylord. After finding the strange old 1970s "Fabulous Funnies" cartoons featuring these characters, I had to play with them for a bit!

I get a huge kick out of the weird tone one finds in old '70s cartoons, especially when the animation is janky 90% of the time but has brief seconds where the characters turn smooth and expressive. That mix of good & bad quality stirs my creative mood!

[smashpages]

Sunday Comics | Comic strips pay tribute to Charles Schulz’s 100th birthday

Family Circus, Macanuda, Broom Hilda and many more featured the Peanuts in their strips on Nov. 26.

[regularcomic]

[tomoleary]

Voice For Children Signed "Cartoon Jam" Print (Stabur Graphics, 1986)

“This panoramic print features perhaps the largest number of cartoon licenses granted for one project, as well as what might be the most cartoonists participating in one cartoon jam for a commercial print. The scene also features the first licensed appearances of Walt Disney and Walter Lantz characters co-starring in the same piece. It's a veritable ‘orchestra and choir’ of characters singing for the welfare of children as the ‘Voice For Children.’

“Signed by: Stan Lee, Charles Schulz, Walter Lantz, Jim Davis, Johnny Romita, Milton Caniff, Mort Drucker, Jack Kirby, Bill Keane, Mike Royer, Moebius, Sergio Aragones, Hank Ketcham, Kelly Freas, Bob Thaves, Jim Unger, Jack Hannah, Don Dougherty, Jerry Van Amerongen, Leonard Starr, Arnold Roth, Tom Batiuk, Mike Peters, Harvey Kurtzman, Al Jaffee, Morrie Turner, Mel Lazarus, B. K. Taylor, Marty Murphy, Dean Young and Stan Drake, Russell Myers, Jim Meddick, Dick Locher, Mort Walker, MacNelly, Johnny Hart, Fred Lasswell, Paul Coker Jr, Irwin Hasen, Ray Salmon, Dick Browne, Will Elder, Bud Sagendorf, Dick Moores, Joe Martin, Jack Davis, Bob Foster, Judd Hurd, Frank Ridgeway, Al Williamson, Bernard Kliban, Bill Mauldin, and more.

“And featuring these characters: The Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Ms Peach, Mama, Wizard of Id, B. C., Nancy and Sluggo, Robotman, U. S. Acres, Gasoline Alley, Dondi, Conrad, Broom-Hilda, Mama, Wee Pals, Luann, Animal Crackers, Terry and the Pirates, Wright Angles, Dick Tracy, Family Circus, Benchley, the Neighborhood, Charlie Brown, Peanuts and Snoopy, Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Hagar the Horrible, Groo the Wanderer, Cathy, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, Popeye, Blondie, Woody Woodpecker, Little Annie Fannie, Mr. Abernathy, Little Orphan Annie, Dennis the Menace, Herman, President Ronald Reagan, First Lady Nancy Reagan, Buddy Hackett, Snuffy Smith, Garfield, and Alfred E Neuman.”

Source

[lemonjawbreakers]

An, Ann, N Anny Monster AU

So I was watching mad monster party (a classic) and it made me think of an AU with the girls. Here all the Cul-de-sac kids would be adults and reuniting on Evil Island, after being summoned by the infamous Dr. Jekyll and the council of monster’s. 

The An’s currently live together in a small village, making money scaring the locals and just enjoying life until there summoned and are suddenly re-united with their old pal’s. Including the now older Kanker brothers.

An Creature - Creature from the black Lagoon (was going to do werewolf but I can see An living in the swamp). Her pod (family) was very strict, and territorial, trying there best to keep An in line. Yet her love for human junk out weighed her fear of them and it cost a lot of issue’s. So after they couldn’t send her to boarding school, they sent her away for safety of the pod. An is much happier as a result, freedom, a whole basement to herself and can make a mess. She is sad about the locals running away from her though.

Was terrorized by Jay (a Frankenstein with Siren parts) who loved her voice and just how strong she was when they were little as An was told to stay away from boys and sirens so he caused her a bit of panic. When they got older hey bonded on human video games and the two developed a small friendship but lost contact after graduation. Re-connecting however has bubbled up a few unwanted feelings.

Ann Hilda Jekyll- Daughter of Dr Jekyll and a witch, Double-N now lives with her friends in the an old castle conducting experiments and creating potions. Even trading/selling her potions for some small change. Uses potions to hide her witch side (in this AU she’d have green skin and other ‘witchy features) just don’t let her use her dads concoction. She becomes a real witch lol

Which is ironically how Larie became attracted to her. Larie a science experiment himself (with extra parts from a gargoyle to fly with and horns) began to bug her. Mostly because he was bored an she was easy prey, until she takes her ‘medicine’. Then her other side knocked him threw a window, fixed up his wounds an apologized to him. He was just so taken back that he fell in love.         So he began to pursue her and then lost touch at graduation (Double-N bolted out the door). Meeting again has caused a lot confusing feeling because he hasn’t given up but has grown a lot.

Anny Nosferatu- Obviously a vampire but unfortunately for Anny she’s a direct descendent of Nosferatu, which hasn’t helped her image. Being stuck between her families high expectations, comparisons to her much crueler older sister, and Karen mocking her as being the lesser Vampire, it’s not hard to see why she jumped at the chance to leave. Anny also say this as a way to prove herself that she’s just as good so she enjoys terrorizing the locals.

Met Tee when they were really little and he had gotten lost. Being the first experiment out of his brothers and having gorgon parts caused people to freak out at his eyes that hypnotize people instead of turn them to stone. Anny being the outcast herself stood up for him and they became friends until she’s forced to leave. A few years later they met again, but she forgot him and he hadn’t given up. Like the other’s they lost contact after graduation (Anny clung to Double-N’s broom as the bolted out the door). But now she’s back and he’s hot, help.

--

Will do the Kanker brothers and the rest of the Cul-de-sac (maybe some oc’s) on other post’s. This is it for now, tell me what monsters you’d think the girls or the other kids would be.

[welcometothewarren]

Riddles Wisely Expounded (Child 1, Roud 161, aka The Three Sisters, Juniper Gentian and Rosemary, Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom, etc) is a ballad dating back to the 15th century, originally about a woman winning a riddle contest to ward off the devil, then in later versions to win a noble knight's hand in marriage, then back to warding off the devil in the still later Appalachian variant The Devil's Nine Questions (aka 99 & 90).  I had a good laugh reading about the circuitous history of the song way back in the merry month of May and immediately thought, "I could make this about Loki."  

Quite frankly, there have been so many versions of the song that it was surprisingly easy to find four traditional couplets from Riddles that lent themselves shockingly well to mythic interpretation.  (I am particularly proud of the puns that came out of horn/thorn.)  I only changed one answer - traditionally, snow is whiter than milk. (The more common answer to lead is sin, but I took my answer from a version recorded by Paul Clayton and Jean Ritchie.)

If you want to hear a traditional recording of The Devil's Nine Questions, I highly recommend Texas Gladden, Anna & Elizabeth (they have a crankie!) and Sophie Crawford.

Image: Countess Hilda Sophie Charlotte Reventlow & Countess Malvina Anny Louise Reventlow by August Heinrich Georg Schiøtt (1840s, detail)

Lyrics:

Now you must answer my questions 9

     Sing 99 and 90

Do you go alone or are you mine?

     And who is the weaver's bonny?

What is whiter than the milk?

     Sing 99 and 90

And what is softer than the silk?

     And who is the weaver's bonny?

Bone is whiter than the milk

     Sing 99 and 90

And down is softer than the silk

     And I am the weaver's bonny

What is greener than the grass?

     Sing 99 and 90

And what is smoother than the glass?

     And who is the weaver's bonny?

Envy is greener than the grass

     Sing 99 and 90

Flattery's smoother than the glass

     And I am the weaver's bonny

What is louder than the horn?

     Sing 99 and 90

And what is sharper than the thorn?

     And who is the weaver's bonny?

Rumor is louder than the horn

      Sing 99 and 90

And hunger is sharper than the thorn

      And I am the weaver's bonny

What is heavier than the lead?

     Sing 99 and 90

And what is better than the bread?

     And who is the weaver's bonny?

Grief is heavier than the lead

     Sing 99 and 90

Your blessing's better than the bread

     And I am the weaver's bonny

Now you've answered my questions 9

     Sing 99 and 90

No more alone, you're one of mine

     And you are the weaver's bonny