Sherman Magic

Imagine having Richard Sherman sit down and play a personal piano concert just for you. That sense of intimacy is exactly what you get with Forgotten Dreams, the splendid must-have CD (produced by Grammy Award-winning James Jensen) of haunting piano pieces both composed and played by acclaimed and award-winning composer/lyricist Richard Sherman. If you are a fan of Richard Sherman's music from films, theme parks and TV shows (and who isn't it?) you will love this new recording, a loving collection of 15 pieces Richard has composed as personal reflections, compositions I'm sure he originally wrote for himself and close friends, but that can now be enjoyed by everyone. These intimate musical interludes range from the soulful to the melancholy to the upbeat, each skillfully and expressively played by Richard himself. There's a stylish sophistication to these pieces that are different from the Sherman songs we know so well, though I certainly would not consider any Sherman song lacking in either style or sophistication. (By the way, it is beyond annoying to still encounter people, especially those who should know better, that still insist the Sherman Brothers wrote songs for "kiddie" movies. As anyone who reads this blog surely knows, the Shermans wrote songs for everybody of every age, and no one—least of all Walt Disney—considered the Disney films and other productions to be exclusively or even mainly for "kiddies.") I myself have listened to Forgotten Dreams many times and each time I discover another nuance in between the notes, an additional richness, a new musical emotion. Be sure and add this beautiful musical experience to your musical library—it's available at AcousticMusicResource.com, at Amazon: Forgotten Dreams, and iTunes. As Poppin' Guitars co-producer Bernadette Bowman has said, the "M" in Richard M. Sherman most definitely stands for magic.

Writer, Cartoonist, It's All The Same

Not much activity here in Tulgey Wood lately, and those ever-present deadlines on other projects are the reason why. This comic-book page (click on the page for a bigger view) written and drawn by first-class comic artist Evan Dorkin explains it all for you. (Change the word "Cartoonist" to "Writer" and you'll get the idea.) Did I say first class? Actually Dorkin, an Eisner Award-winner, is in a class by himself. Check out his stuff at his website and his blog (and be aware that some of his stuff, unlike most of the material recommended here in Tulgey Wood, is not family-friendly) and discover the demented comic genius that is Evan Dorkin. (The comic page seen here is actually the back cover of an issue of Evan's superlative anthology comic Dork!) In the meantime I'll try and get out from under and do some more posting soon.

Christmas in July (with Winnie the Pooh)

Five months from today is "the dearest day of all the year" (according to the song "December the 25th" from Scrooge), but who can wait to celebrate? So for at least today it's Christmas in July here in Tulgey Wood. To celebrate here is a classic 1973 illustration of Winnie the Pooh making like Father Christmas, much to the annoyance of Rabbit. Where is this delightful artwork from? Stop by Tulgey Wood in December to discover the answer and see more of this Pooh artwork created just for Christmas.

Youth In Revolt!

The 1950s saw a rise in awareness of juvenile delinquency and this phenomenon was reflected in the motion pictures produced in that era. From low-budget efforts such as Crime in the Streets (1956) and The Delinquents (1957) to the big-studio, high-profile productions such as The Blackboard Jungle (1955) and most famously Rebel Without a Cause (1955), that paranoiac decade boasted a bevy of big-screen blockbusters focusing on teens running amuck. However, if you are looking for a film about youth in revolt, look no further than Johnny Tremain (1957), Walt Disney's live-action feature about the young silversmith apprentice who joins up with other revolutionaries in colonial Boston. Pictured above is one of the many fun pieces of memorabilia created to tie-in with the film's release in June 1957: an unusually oversized coloring book the cover of which portrays an exciting scene (that by the way never actually occurs in the movie). So enjoy this Independence Day-related artwork, featuring a true Disney "youth-in-revolt"—and for some additional Fourth-of-July fun be sure and read my article about Johnny Tremain at D23.com. (Special thanks to great Disney writer and great friend Barb Layman for giving me the title for this post.)

Triple Threat on D23

As of this writing the three lead articles on the D23 website are pieces written by me. There's an article about Johnny Tremain (just posted, just in time for the Fourth of July), another article about Swiss Family Robinson and yet another about "Gallegher" from Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. Pictured here are the three headers about the three articles—go to D23 and click on any of these headers as they cycle through the homepage and you can read the pieces, all written by Jim Fanning.

Listen Up, Big Ears: More On The Mysterious Dumbo Book

I'm sure anyone reading this blog has already read the excellent historical essay written by animation scholar Michael Barrier delving into the mysterious "Roll-a-Book" upon which Walt Disney's Dumbo (1941) was based. For years, the exact nature of this book and many details of its credited authors Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl were unknown but through extraordinary research and reporting, Mike Barrier has given as complete a look into this elusive "book" as one could hope for. As a supplement, here's a 2002 article (with photographs) published in the Syracuse, New York newspaper The Post-Standard, for Dumbo's roots are in Syracuse (which is my neck of the woods, as I grew up in upstate New York). Remember to click on any of the images for a larger view of this fascinating glimpse back into Disney history.

Coming Soon: Collect 'Em All!

In a day or three I'll post about some rare comic art that Batmaniacs in 1966 could only find at the bottom of a box of Pop-Tarts—and today you can only find at the bottom of an empty wallet.

Jack Davis Does Disney

Over at the News From ME blog a few weeks back, Mark Evanier posted about ad art created by the great Jack Davis for the NBC TV season of 1965-1966. In piecing together the incredible TV Guide mural that covered all seven nights of "living color" programming, Sunday was inadvertently left out but was included here at the TV Series Finale blog. To add to the Davis delights, here's the matching Sunday night ad from TV Guide the night of September 26, 1965. Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color was of course included ("In color, of course"). (Click on the images for a larger view.) Note that on that particular Sunday night, two weeks into the new season, Walt Disney was presenting Part 1 of "The Further Adventures of Gallegher," the follow-up to the previous season's highly-rated and critically-acclaimed "Gallegher," that I have mentioned here before. There will be more about "Gallegher" here soon, so check back to Tulgey Wood for some headline-worthy news about Walt Disney's forgotten TV classic.

Lost in Tulgey Wood

Like that recently departed TV series on ABC, things have been dark and mysterious and well, lost, here at Tulgey Wood lately. In fact, there has been no new post here since January 12. No strange Lost-like secrets are behind this odd absence. The only reason for this lack of any discernible activity is a case of extreme busy-ness, dealing (mostly) with all things Disney. Well, not that's anything has changed, but there's life in Tulgey Wood once more. There will be more posts in the days and weeks ahead, and I'll also be posting a few items retroactivelly to cover some significant events and dates. So wander once more through Tulgey Wood and, as always, you may even see the method in the midst of all the madness. In the meantime, enjoy this Big Golden Book art by that pure-gold artist Al Dempster.

Good Old No. 266

The Uncle Scrooge comic book is again back to being published, and Boom! seems to be doing an even better job of publishing this venerable title (first issued in 1952) than they are the other "classic character" comics such as Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. Of all the many great issues of the Uncle Scrooge comic book published over the years, there's a special place in my heart for issue No. 266 (May 1992). Of all the issues of Uncle Scrooge ever published, why did I pick No 266, you ask? Because good old No. 266 features an Uncle Scrooge story written by me. That's right, I had the great privilege of being published in the same comic book that saw some of the greatest Carl Barks stories—and therefore some of the greatest comic-book stories, period—ever created. So, even though Uncle Scrooge may fondly refer to Old Number One (meaning the first dime he ever earned), I fondly think of Good Old No. 266—the first issue of Uncle Scrooge in which I was ever published. (Stay tuned to Tulgey Wood, for I will post the story itself here in the not-too-distant future.)