#mouse the witching cat

[odditiesnoctobermidnightroad]

"Witch's Skin"

Mouse should be proud of the witch she is. She's come such a long way.

This is part of our Mousecapade event. Find out more about Oddities in October/OdditiesnOctober on our site or on Etsy.

[cornflakesdoesart]

sketchdump of mostly cats and mostly comms I'm working on atm but the witch kitty and the kitty sitting under the flower tangle is personal work :-3

[dragon-inc]

[tymime]

Public Domain cartoon characters from Golden Age comic books

Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit going (mostly) into the public domain is a pretty big deal. In the next ten years a lot of animation from the 1930s will wind up in the hands of all artists who want to use them. But did you know there's a huge amount of cartoon characters from the 1940s that are totally free to use? It isn't just cartoons that starred on the silver screen that have fallen out of copyright. (Of course, I'm using the word "cartoon" somewhat loosely...)

See, when US copyright law was revised in 1976 and went into effect in 1978, works created before 1964 were required to have their copyright renewed before the end of 1980, or else they would become public domain. Hundreds if not thousands of Hollywood movies and other types of media had been made by studios and publishing companies that went bankrupt and were completely dissolved decades prior to this new law. This included the cartoons made by studios such as Bray, Van Beuren, and many others- but it also included comic books.

If you weren't a big comic book company like DC or Marvel, chances are you shuttered your doors sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s. And during the 1940s, with the rise in popularity of Looney Tunes, Woody Woodpecker, Tom and Jerry, and Droopy, comic book publishers were printing tons and tons of comic books starring wacky, slapstick-oriented animal characters. Most of these titles went out of copyright, and there are lots of fun and interesting characters to be found in them.

One of the most historically notable is Supermouse. When the first Mighty Mouse cartoon premiered, he was called Supermouse, but what they didn't know was that Pines comics had already taken the name, and successfully sued for copyright infringement even though they were both parodies of Superman.

One of the most interesting titles I've come across is Funny Films. The conceit of the series is that these are actually cartoons you can watch in a movie theater, except it's a comic book. A bit confusing, I know.

The end result is a series of fourth wall breaks so absolutely thorough in their scope that the fourth wall really doesn't exist anymore, barring actually jumping out of the page (or your computer screen) and blowing up your living room. They talk to the audience, jump out of the screen, and even show up late for the cartoon to start. This is of course the bookends to a whole bunch of slapstick gags and goofy dialogue.

Another interesting series, especially if you're a fan of Archie, is Hi-Jinx. They basically took the premise of teeny-boppers in high school and made them into funny animals. Most of the stories have something to do with swing music and dancing.

And although they're crudely drawn, one of the more unique character concepts is Pussy Katnip, found in various titles scattered across the mid-1940s, usually buried amongst a bunch of more normal stories with ordinary human characters. Pussy Katnip looks like one of your classic film noir glamorous beauties, except she's an anthropomorphic cat. Think Minerva Mink but feline. She may appear to be a femme fatale at first, but she's actually a crimefighter. To do this she chugs a mysterious beverage that gives her enhanced strength and intelligence. She's sort of a mystery-solving superhero.

Her appearances are random and kind of hard to find. Here are the titles of the ones currently circulating online: All Your Comics (1944 issue) All Top Comics (one-shot) All Good Comics Everybody’s Comics (1944 issue) Green Mask v1 #11 Ribtickler v1 #1 All Great Comics (1945 issue) Book of All-Comics Green Mask v2 #2 Rocket Kelly #2 Zoot Comics #1

Often these comics, especially in the early '40s, remind me of the artwork of underground comics of the '70s- not quite rubberhose, not quite Looney Tunes. The kind of thing you might find on a punkabilly album cover.

And ocassionally you'll come across characters with a suspiciously familiar name:

One thing to watch out for is the occasional Donald Duck knock-off, some more obvious than others.

Now you may be asking: Where can I read these comics? Simple: https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/ Just be sure you have the right software to read them. I use cooViewer. Another incredibly useful resource is www.comics.org.

So if you're like me and you're too impatient to wait for Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to fall out of copyright, and you want to do something more unusual and unexpected, there are dozens and dozens of comic books with silly, wacky characters that can be utilized in your own original stories, cartoons, and what have you- and you can monetize them too!

[bluebird-in-a-cagedrawing]

My ocs:

Abigail

Red the fortune teller

Aquaria the Water lady

Fire Lily the demon

Melinoë the princess of nightmares

Banner:

Rocky Flame

Mieray the moon mouse

Mikaela the cat cookie

Rosella the harvest candy Witch

Lady Miza

Banner:

[goobersplat]

Halloweeny Trinket Boxes

Haunted House box, Pumpkin witch and cat box, Scarecrow box, Mouse on pumpkin box

[bakertoons]

A Bunch of Fine Fellows

My first art for 2024! All of my major characters in one picture, including those that won't be introduced in "Lauren Ipsum" until later. I hope you all have a good one! I appreciate all the support from everyone! Especially my Patreon backers. Support my work here!

[bethanythebogwitch]

Suletta being the main character of a show with so much manipulation, political machinations, and actual war crimes is like watching Game of Thrones through the viewpoint character of Mickey Mouse

[rockhousejai]

Some AU stuff

[thebigpalooka]

A little witch and her familiar, and matching bows for Halloween <3

[birdybomb]

Trick-or-Treat!

[odditiesnoctobermidnightroad]

From Feb 1st to the 14th, buy a set(5 per each variant) of either printable or digital Oddity-tines for you and your loved ones, via Etsy (etsy.com/shop/FrankiLewshop =5$ each) or Patreon! (patreon.com/frankilew/shop =10$)

 Printable. Digital. Two Pack on Patreon.

Everyone loves em' even Shelby doo.

Get them for the familiar in your life. You'll be helping to support Oddities if you do!

[furbygone]

The council has been expecting you.

[hollifo]

Candlelit Coven | Drawtober | Ink & Watercolour

Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh go léir. Happy Samhain to one and all!

[whole-fruit-pie]

Minimal Valentine's day drawings

[dapperrokyuu]

Pondering WHA with the same question I do with all fantasy series: So, like, do regular animals exist in this world? Just read about an "owlcat," but do owls and cats exist as well? We havent SEEN them but seeing as I dont know how we couldve come up with the term "owlcat" without the existence of them, I can only assume they do.........