Number 531


Clint Clobber's hectic day


DeWitt Clinton Clobber was a creation of animation director Gene Deitch for Terrytoons. Here's a 1957 model sheet Deitch did of the character.

"Clint Clobber's Day" is from Mighty Mouse Fun Club Magazine #5, 1958. It's funny, almost like a storyboard for an animated cartoon. Deitch, who relocated to Prague, Czechoslovakia in the late '50s, is considered a legend among animators. I find this artwork and style completely charming and evocative of that era of the 1950s when the cartoons were created.

Among his many other accomplishments Deitch had done a comic strip called Terr'ble Thompson for a short time in the '50s, then turned Terr'ble into the animated Tom Terrific, which I watched on the Captain Kangaroo TV show. Even in the late '50s I was too old to be watching a show which featured characters like Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Greenjeans. I just dug Tom and his dog, Mighty Manfred.

Deitch also has two sons, Kim and Simon, themselves legends amongst the comic community for their groundbreaking work in underground comix.