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Hobo Moon (2023)

Næht Mære
Lightning rips through the black midnight sky
 Revealing the moons mad, chaotic grin.
 Children awake in their beds
 Screaming for their mothers to come in.
 Rain taps upon the window
 Like some lunatic who begs to be let in.
 Thundering gods battle over earth
 As the devil begins to grin.

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Dr. Seuss (1970)

In celebration of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, born on this day in 1904, I present to you Horton Hears a Who!

Horton Hears a Who! is a 1970 animated television special based on the 1954 Dr. Seuss book Horton Hears a Who! It was produced and directed by Chuck Jones and was first broadcast on March 19, 1970. The special contains songs with lyrics by Seuss and music by Eugene Poddany, who previously wrote songs for Seuss’ book, The Cat in the Hat Song Book.

Directed by Chuck Jones and Ben Washam

Voiced by Hans Conried, Chuck Jones, and June Foray

Narrated by Hans Conried

Music by Eugene Poddany

Horton Hears a Who! is a children’s book written and illustrated by Theodor Seuss Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss. It was published in 1954 by Random House. This book tells the story of Horton the Elephant and his adventures saving Whoville, a tiny planet located on a speck of dust, from the animals who mock him. These animals attempt to steal and burn the speck of dust, so Horton goes to great lengths to save Whoville from being incinerated.

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

Horton the Elephant

The above quote is the most popular line from Horton Hears a Who! and also serves as the major moral theme that Dr. Seuss conveys to his audience. Horton endures harassment to care for and ensure the safety of the Whos, who represent the insignificant. Horton Hears a Who! has been well-received in libraries, schools, and homes across the world. Much of the plot has been incorporated into the Broadway musical production Seussical.

Creator and fancier of fanciful beasts, your affinity for flying elephants and man-eating mosquitoes makes us rejoice you were not around to be Director of Admissions on Mr. Noah’s ark. But our rejoicing in your career is far more positive: as author and artist you singlehandedly have stood as St. George between a generation of exhausted parents and the demon dragon of unexhausted children on a rainy day. There was an inimitable wriggle in your work long before you became a producer of motion pictures and animated cartoons and, as always with the best of humor, behind the fun there has been intelligence, kindness, and a feel for humankind. An Academy Award winner and holder of the Legion of Merit for war film work, you have stood these many years in the academic shadow of your learned friend Dr. Seuss; and because we are sure the time has come when the good doctor would want you to walk by his side as a full equal and because your College delights to acknowledge the distinction of a loyal son, Dartmouth confers on you her Doctorate of Humane Letters.

You’re wrong as the deuce
And you shouldn’t rejoice
If you’re calling him Seuss.
He pronounces it Soice.

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Hobo Moon (2022)

Nightmare

After crawling through the muck and the mire, I collapsed on the muddy bank of the swamp gasping for breath. Suddenly the most frighteningly bizarre creature I had ever encountered approached me with a look of curiosity. I recognized it as my cartoon character Nightmare, created during a spell of the most ferocious writer’s block. Unlike my other characters, I knew very little about Nightmare other than its unpredictability, having been created during a bout of alcoholic depression and severe writer’s block, as I have mentioned. But something was telling me I was in a great deal of danger. I had to run.

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Dr. Seuss (1973)

Dr. Seuss on the Loose is an American animated musical television special, first airing on CBS on October 15, 1973. The special is hosted by The Cat in the Hat, who introduces animated adaptations of the Dr. Seuss stories The Sneetches, The Zax, and Green Eggs and Ham.

The Sneetches was intended by Seuss as a satire of discrimination between races and cultures, and was specifically inspired by his opposition to antisemitism.

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Wilfred Jackson (1952)

As progress brings the city directly around a little house, she grows more and more depressed.

Walt Disney’s adaptation of The Little House is based on a 1942 book written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton who is quoted as saying, “The Little House was based on our own little house which we moved from the street into a field of daisies with apple trees growing around.”

Burton denied it was a critique of urban sprawl, but instead wished to convey the passage of time to younger readers. Being a very visually driven book, many times Burton changed the amount of text to fit the illustration:

“If the page is well drawn and finely designed, the child reader will acquire a sense of good design which will lead to an appreciation of beauty and the development of good taste. Primitive man thought in pictures, not in words, and this visual conception is far more fundamental than its sophisticated translation into verbal modes of thought.”

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Hobo Moon (2020)

I’ve been on the road the last week enjoying the wilderness before the tourists start mucking it all up again so I haven’t been able to post anything in a little bit. This is one of the drawings I did on the road. I hope you enjoy this and the new Looney Tunes Cartoons episode I posted. Thanks for watching HMC!