Thursday, July 31, 2008

Blame the syndicate


Alley Oop bursts into the Bender’s studio swinging his ax and what does Jack do? He cowers in a corner and points his finger at Carole.
“All I can do is draw whatever Carole writes,” he whimpers.
Sheesh! It reminds me of the episode a while back when Guz cowered in his cave while King Tunk took control of Moo.
And then what does Carole do? She blames the Syndicate! Brilliant! A nameless, corporate bureaucracy is ultimately to blame for all of Oop’s problems.
In fact, I think she nailed it. I too blame the syndicate - for hiring the Benders to do the Alley Oop strip in the first place!
So what is Oop going to do now? Bust down the doors at United Media? Or give up and go home in defeat just in time for his big surprise party?
It’s a shame the Benders didn’t take their cue for this storyline from Stephan Pastis who draws the “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip. He recently had a segment in which he introduced a caricature of himself which had a twist that most Alley Oop readers could appreciate...

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Alley Oop meets YouTube

On a whim I did a quick search of YouTube for anything about Alley Oop. Wading through the bazillion references to the popular basketball dunking manuever, I came across these curious clips harkening back to a 1978 cartoon show I was completely unaware of.
The first clip is the intro to the cartoon series called Fabulous Funnies featuring what I believe to be is Foozy. The short-lived show featured animated versions of comic strips such as Broom Hilda, Nancy and Sluggo, Katzenjammer Kids and Alley Oop.



The second clip is of a video review show that pans one of the Alley Oop episodes found on an old VCR tape. It is the only other clip I could find that had any pictures of the Alley Oop characters. Even the video versions of the old Alley Oop song by the Hollywood Argyles doesn’t show any of the Alley Oop characters.



Y’all can provide your own withering reviews of the Fabulous Funnies version of Alley Oop in the comments below.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Who Can It Be Now?


I was on vacation for awhile and it looks like things have really been cookin’ at Alley Oop Watch while I’ve been out. Things have gotten really bizarre in Alley Oop’s world lately with a sulking, thoroughly self-obsessed Alley Oop about to go postal on the current day authors of the comic strip.
`Not that the Benders don’t deserve to have Oop go postal on them, but it shouldn’t be over something as pathetic as his insistent whining about people forgetting his birthday. What he should really pound them about is turning his heroic character into such a whining wuss. Not to mention making him such a vengeful, arrogant, conceited doofus to boot. How dare those Moovians consider the anniversary of their country to be somewhat more important than Oop’s birthday! Such an outrage!!! I guess Oop is like a kid who was born on the 4th of July and thinks all the fireworks every year are for him.
Meanwhile, during the course of this bizarre, time-skipping, multi-dimensional, reality-bending scenario we have learned that Hamlin and Graue aren’t the slightest bit perturbed when Oop comes banging on their door, but the Benders are obviously terrified. What’s that supposed to mean?
Oh, and Dave Wowee is apparently an homage to Dave Graue.
Well, I have to say that the premise of the latest episode, while outlandish, is at least somewhat original and, dare I say, interesting. So good news all around for the poor, forsaken fans of Alley Oop who have had to suffer these many months through one awful series of strips after another.