Dran is a street artist and illustrator with a deliciously perverse sense of humor that brings to mind Bill Plympton at times. Note: if you visit the site be aware that there is music accompanying it and that it can be a bit loud.

dran [Artist’s Site] : who killed bambi?

“I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.”

George Carlin, Splenetic Comedian, Dies at 71 [NYTimes.com]

The first 2 parts of the “lost” film Italian Spiderman has been up for a week or two now and it looks to be just as ridiculous — and awesome — as the trailer had indicated. Give me Franco Franchetti (R.I.P) with his porn-star moustache and pump-action shotgun over Toby McGuire any day.

Italian Spiderman Movie - Episode 1 and Episode 2 [YouTube]

Upon first meeting Fulton I was struck by the choice of facial hair, its sparseness said —at least to me — that this was a headstrong youth whose taste was of dubious quality. My first impression of the boy was one of revulsion, I admit. Later I would be shocked to discover the fame and high regard he had earned from the other rent boys and members of my particular circle. It was only upon seeing him again — devoid of that hirsute monstrosity — that I understood why.

Bernard, John. Oscar Wilde: Images From the Life Of Britain’s Most Famous Homosexual With Commentary Taken From His Many Correspondences London: Leatherman Press, 1929.

Mustache Health, Special Update [Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century]

The Chinese, for all their questionable practices, have at the very least seen fit to make it easier for English speaking tourists visiting their country, a prime example of which is pictured above. How else is a female visitor supposed to know in which direction she should turn in order to have lady-bits looked at? The Chinese know that not all Westerners are of a level of intelligence or education to know what the acronym OB/GYN stands for, let alone what medical arts a gynecologist practices. With this in mind the hospital did the only thing it could in such a situation, using the diction that even the most moronic Occidental outlander would understand: obscenities. In turn it becomes crystal clear where the speculum wielders can be found.

Conversely the department of “Fetal Heart Custody” brings to mind a wing of the hospital full of labyrinthine corridors and rows of bank-teller windows manned by the dour faced, low-level minions of some Kafka-esque bureaucracy dealing in prenatal cardiovascular systems in which parents desperately run from window to window in a futile effort to fill out all the proper paperwork necessary for completing the construction of their infant; an image that may possibly be closer to the truth than I realize.

Excuse me, I Am Here For My Cunt Examination [Weird Asia News]

The sheet music for the verbosely titled “We Men Must Grow a Mustache: That’s One Thing the Girls Can’t Do!” which, one must assume, is a call to arms to curb the influx of faux follicular facial adornment that some females are fond of, a call that only the tinny twang of a ukulele can properly convey.

The denizens at Wikipedia seem to feel that it is representative of humor aimed at the general acceptance of homosexuality during the 1920s. Certainly the illustration plainly shows a homosexual, who are known for both their razor-sharp sideburns and for having the ability to bend their spines at painful and awkward right angles, a trait that scientists believe was developed so that they could reach the leaves on the uppermost branches of trees. Truly astounding creatures.

Sheet music for the song “We Men Must Grow A Mustache.” [Wikipedia] : Thanks, Anders!

As you know yesterday was Brownlee’s birthday which meant that today I had to take an extra long shower. It’s no use though, no matter how long I scrub I just can’t get clean. In any event here is a nice little animated sandwich of spoof-tastic Fox Kids and Kids’ WB cartoons between two, moist slices of anime. I hope they will entertain you, our loyal readership, and I pray that, perhaps, they will help me to repress the events of last evening. Please, God…

• FLCL: We’ve entered the final half of this spectacular mini-series, and only two more to go. Will you just look at those eyebrows.

•Eek! The Cat and The Terrible Thunderlizards: Eek! did a number of film spoofs during its run and the two that stand out, to me, are “Lord of the Fleas” in which Eek is trapped in a shopping mall with some penguins — one of whom hysterically exclaims “Shut-up, Piggy!” — and this episode entitled “Eekpocalypse Now!, which thoroughly hits upon every major joke one could make about Coppola’s film. This one is for the adults, unless you were an eight year-old who loved movies about Vietnam. The Terrible Thunderlizards was its own show but was later merged with Eek! to create a variety show more like our next two entries.

•Tiny Toons: “A Quack in the Quarks” is the second episode of this seminal show and features a loose parody of Star Wars and a plethora of fourth wall shattering humor. In this episode Plucky Duck is kidnapped by aliens to Planet X to save it from the nefarious plot of Duck Vader. This was the beginning of a real golden age of Warner Brothers cartoons in the late 80s/early 90s that include Animaniacs, Freakazoid, and the Animaniacs spin-off Pinky and The Brain. Oh, and a Watchmen reference!

•Animaniacs “Super Strong Warner Siblings” is a brilliant send-up of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers which always marked the end of cartoon time. Animaniacs also did an Apocalypse Now parody which, while excellent, did not follow the plot as closely as Eek!. Next up is one of the many “Good Idea, Bad Idea” clips followed by my favorite, Pinky and The Brain. In this episode, entitled “Battle for the Planet”, Brain once again acknowledges his Orson Welles influence by attempting to fake an alien invasion ala the Mercury Theater’s broadcast of War of the Worlds.

•Paranoia Agent: Someone has some unpleasant secrets…

Saturday Morning Cartoons XXVI [YouTube]

The power of Ectomo is both wondrous to behold and terrifying to contemplate, as any ectomite knows all too well. Certainly it is a wonder closet of dazzling proportions but it also has a dark and unholy box perched on its top shelf, high up where little ones can’t get to it. Things lurk in this neat little package, things not fit for the minds of man, let alone his spawn.

One must assume, however, that some will find their way into Ectomo’s stash, perhaps when it was left out on the table; after all, these things do happen and the occasional moment of forgetfulness can be forgiven. Not so in this case, however. No, faithful readers, no in this case we must turn our stern eye of judgment toward one Nathan Myers, a gentleman with a wanton disregard for human life and a destroyer of innocence. Mr. Myers is responsible for the most heinous of crimes he has shown his no doubt wonderful and carefree eight year old daughter Ectomo’s secrets and wrought untold damage.

Once exposed to the tentacled, crawling blasphemy contained therein his once lighthearted progeny at once fell into a deep morass of babbling, incoherent madness; her eyes, no doubt, displaying the same dual irises portrayed in In The Mouth of Madness. Her mind shattered, she shuffled off and immediately took up a waxy writing implement and began to work feverishly, trying desperately to put on paper the horror that now assaulted her mind’s eye in a futile attempt to make sense of it.

The product of this sick experiment was this piece, entitled “Sun Goes Like This”. As you can see, clearly the dank recesses of Ectomo have wormed their way into every aspect of the poor little girl’s world, rendering everything a tentacled nightmare. A parade of transmogrified beasts — Shoggoth, perhaps — travel through an empty wasteland under the scorching gaze of a mindless, Cthulhoid sun, led by what appears to be a banished Innsmouth resident upon a R’lyehan death-horse. Truly a bleak and terrible world and a warning to all: the power of Ectoplasmosis is mighty and not to be wielded by those who would prove irresponsible. Take care, Nathan Myers, your daughter’s lost sanity rests on your head.

As Eliza mentioned, it has been a Very Bad Week here at Ectomo. Why, just yesterday I was sitting in the break room at the office, having a cup of coffee and reading the New York Times of which, as a Jew, I partly control, when Brownlee walked in looking slightly upset. So, in my usual fashion, I ignored him.

Continue Reading…

Paramount Studios released a series of shorts between 1932 and 1934 under the umbrella title of Hollywood on Parade in which they exhibited nearly every star they had in their stables singing, dancing, or playacting. In this particular clip, from 1933, Mae Questel gives a rare on screen performance as Betty Boop, the animated minx she voiced for eight years. She’s set do a song routine with a couple of mannequins but Béla Lugosi, revisting his role as Dracula, cuts the performance a bit short, proclaiming, “Betty, you have booped your last boop.”

Betty Boop Meets Dracula [YouTube]

Witness the candy deliciousness that is Saturday morning cartoons: creamy, comedy goodness in a sweet, crunchy anime shell!

• FLCL continues its meteoric, guitar wielding, robot spooging, sexually awkward descent into madness, in the second episode, “Firestarter”.

• Some of my earliest and fondest memories of Nickelodeon involve Rocko’s Modern Life. Featured today are two episodes, “No Pain, No Gain” and “Unbalanced Load”. The intor is the version from season two, featuring the talents of The B-52s.

• I am no fan of Seinfeld so I maintain that Duckman is the best work Jason Alexander has ever done. “The Noir Gang” does a fantastic job of incorporating the show’s perverted, foul-mouthed detective and porcine sidekick into a black and white film noir motif.

• If you had told me that a re-boot of Max Fleischer’s Felix the Cat would be worth it, I may have condescendingly sniffed at the idea. However Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat was an amazing cornucopia of oddity and downright weirdness. Two episodes for you: “Phony Phelix” and “The Petrified Cheese” which features a cleverly named shamus named Seamus. “Ok, pally, let me fill you in on the facts. The skinny. The scam. The poop.”

• Paranoia Agent “The Golden Shoes”. Who is Lil’ Slugger? For Yuichi “Ichi” Taira, the most popular kid in school, top of his class in academics and sports, who plans to run for Student Council President, his golden roller blades and red baseball cap are cause for growing concern among his peers, turning his life upside down. Now, paranoid and looking for a way out of this new nightmare, he focuses his attention on foreign transfer student Shogo “Usshi” Ushiyama, convince he is trying to ruin him.

Ectoonal Emissions XVI [YouTube]

Knowing people, as I do, with what I can honestly call a Hello Kitty obsession makes the thought of the feline icon as a tattoo within the realm of my accepted, and unfortunate, reality. Said icon transmogrified into a horrific Frankensavior as the aforementioned dermal adornment, complete with a pledge of eternal allegiance, however, is quite a different matter all together.

Hello Kitty Jesus Tattoo [Hello Kitty Hell] : Neatorama

Kudos to the Japanese television program Ultraman for standing up and saying what we have all been afraid to say but know to be true, namely that the physically handicapped are all maniacal villains who, given the chance, would destroy us all. Witness what happens when this crutch-bound gentleman gets his crippled hands on a strange stone, with the ability to turn into a man in a monster suit with trowels for ears. You’ll never go in a hotel pool again once you’ve seen said monster, in a bikini, frolicking in the water. Simply horrible.

Ultraman - Gyango and the Crazy Thief (Weird Japan) [YouTube] : TV in Japan

From the Birthday Party Out Of Space, fashioned by the Clown From Beyond The Stars.

Cthulhu, uploaded by TwystNeko [Flickr] : Thanks, Evil Jim!