Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog

There aren’t just comics in the Cartoon Library! Here are some freshly processed LPs related to comics, cartoon art and conventions from the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection. Ah, two of the most collected items in history, together at last!

Maybe we’ll have a listening party in our new building next year.

First up, recordings from The 1975 San Diego Comic-Con, including an opening address from Ray Bradbury! If any of you recognize anyone in the high-contrast banquet photo on the back, please let us know!

Below: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the first four 15-minute episodes of the CBS radio series from 1932. Dick Tracy in B-Flat, or For Goodness Sake Isn’t He Ever Going to Marry Tess Trueheart? featuring Judy Garland as Snowflake, Bing Crosby as Dick Tracy, Frank Sinatra as Shaky, Bob Hope as Flattop, Dinah Shore as Tess Trueheart, and Jimmy Durante as The Mole- this was a live broadcast for the troops overseas in 1945, put on by the Armed Forces Radio Service. Gravely by Robert Bloch, the author of Psycho reads his short stories on this album with cover art by Gahan Wilson from 1976! Lastly, Al Capp on Campus, a collection of Capp’s speeches given to college students.

Below, Songs of the Pogo, lyrics by Walt Kelly and music by Norman Monath- but wait- SUNG by Walt Kelly himself! With the help of Fia Karin, Mike Stewart, and Bob Miller. The Terry and the Pirates original radio broadcast, with the charming description on the back “In these, Terry is where he belongs- where the Dragon Lady is scheming, where Pat Ryan is punching, where it is always sometime in the thirties, somewhere in China.” Finally, another edition of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and the Dick Tracy original radio broadcast.

Below, art by the one and only George Herriman for Don Marquis’ Archy and Mehitabel, narrated by David Wayne, with the voices of Eddie Bracken, Carol Channing, and Percival Dove. The Phantom Limbs album Romance, featuring art by Gray Morrow, Charlotte Weaver and Jim Lawrence. The soundtrack to the first animated feature film to receive an X rating in the United States, Fritz the Cat. And finally, Popeye the Sailor Man, musical stories from the original TV scripts, narrated by Harry F. Welch. The back cover of this album states “The Rocking Horse Players and Orchestra have written and produced hundreds of happy records for young folks to provide them with hours of fun-a-plenty.”

Below, the original radio broadcasts Blondie, and the exclusive Wonder Woman stories “The Amazons from Space”, “The Secret of the Magic Tiara”, and “Wonder Woman Versus the War-God”. A Daily News/Chicago Tribune split of Frank King’s Gasoline Alley and Frank Willard’s Moon Mullins radio broadcasts. Lastly, The Official Adventures of The Shadow, written by John Fleming with cartoon illustrations.

The original radio broadcasts of Alex Raymond’s Jungle Jim, followed by Peanuts stories come to life in the voices of Kaye Ballard and Arthur Siegel- which came to fruition when Charles Schulz showed up at one of their performances and the two actors/Peanuts fans acted out a few of the strips they had memorized. The 1966 Batman and Robin soundtrack, and the original radio broadcasts of Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond.

And finally, quite possibly the ultimate album artwork in this latest batch, The Groundhogs Who Will Save the World? fully illustrated by Neal Adams.