The Mystery Cartoon Character Game, ongoing.

A fine brick, but no cigar! Time for more clues...

4) My animators went on to better things. Indeed, one, who had never animated before, eventually wrote the book!
5) My producer started his studio in his (popular author) father's garage. But his (socialite) mother footed the bill.
6) I have a big round face and little round ears. Although I am ursine, I have an inevitable similarity to the dominant character of the day!

Let's see. Ursine means bear, but I can't find any cartoon bears that match the clues.

For anyone using a search engine to track down this character, don't overlook the wording of my preamble - clue zero, as it were.

Sorry, Pete, bot "Clue Zero" isn't helping one bit.

This is a hard one. I've got some research to do.

Yes, this is really bad of me. I am rather ashamed.

When I Googled "animated cartoon obscure bear" a site about the character came up in 5th place - what I failed to realise was that it was prioritized because Google remembered I had looked at it earlier, when I was checking out the clues. I thought it would come up on any search, but not so!

Here are the final clues:

7) Van Beuren's Cubby Bear was created a couple of years after me. Was his the success I could have had?
8) My animators included Tom and Robert McKimson, Jack Zander and Preston Blair.
9) At first the studio seemed to be doing so well that the producer moved it from his western-writer dad's garage to a building on Beverly Boulevard.

It's ok, Pete. I finally found the answer. It's Binko The Bear Cub.

It's likely that EmeraldIsle has once again identified this obscure character. Since PeterHale made a point of mentioning California, my mind ran to the state flag of California, which has a grizzly bear upon a mountain. I would have Yahoo'd (not Google; too many tracking scripts) this bear, thinking the studio was tapped to produce some "hooray for California" animations, partially funded by the state's department of commerce and industry. But of course, at this point, this speculation is all tangental at best.

It is indeed Binko the Bear Cub - a character so obscure neither he nor his studio are listed in BCDB!

The clues explained:
1) The titles of the 4 films are: Arabian Nightmare, Hot Toe Molly, Binko the Toreador and Sand Witches. David Gerstein has discovered a copy of Hot Toe Molly (Hot Tamale - gettit?) in a private collection. An April Fool post claimed to have found Arabian Nightmare, the other completed film.
2) Bob McKimson recalled that he and brother Tom left Disney's to join Romer Grey because he was paying $80 a week. They were earning $25 a week at Disney's and Walt offered to double it to keep them, but couldn't go any higher. So it would seem that Grey was throwing money at his project. Given that he had no distribution deal the situation couldn't last - when his start-up money ran out and his mother refused to give him any more, the studio closed.
3) As explained above.
4) To quote Michael Mallory's AWN article, "The talent roster Grey managed to assemble for his studio reads like a Golden Age who's who: Preston Blair, Pete Burness, Ken Harris, Jack Zander, Bob McKimson, Tom McKimson, Cal Dalton, Bob Stokes, Al Gordon, Paul Allen, Stanley Overton, Lou Zukovsky, Volney White, Andy Partridge, Frank Powers, Bob Simonds, Bruce Smiley and Riley Thompson. For many of the artists, several of whom (like Romer Grey himself) were barely out of their teens at the time, it was their first experience with animation." The Walter T. Foster how-to art book #26, Animation by Preston Blair, was for years the bible for would-be animators.
5) Romer Grey was the son of Zane Grey. Apparently Zane's sons felt overshadowed by their father's success.
6) Binko was pretty much a Mickey Mouse clone.
7) The Romer Grey Pictures, Ltd studio lasted from 1930 to 1931. Van Beuren's Cubby first appeared in 1933. Volney White went to New York, to join Paul Terry. Did he take the idea of a bear cub with him?
8) As mentioned in 4.
9) Preston Blair recalled the move in an interview. Volney White's brother had a truck which they loaded up with the studio contents. Volney's sibling insisted that Preston ride on the back of the truck to keep an eye on the load. Because the truck was full, Preston hung on to the side, and came close to being crushed when the brother took a corner too tightly.

References to Romer Grey's studio had cropped up in the reminiscences of the animators involved, but it wasn't until plumber Rollin Nesmith, working in the basement of the Zane house, by then in other hands, got curious about the boxes stored there. He happened to have previously worked as a sketch artist and recognised the importance of the stuff he found - it was all the artwork and documentation from the studio when it closed. Since it was all junk as far as the current owners were concerned, Nesmith removed it all and spent the next decade archiving it.

Read Michael Mallory's AWN article here.






Binko the Bear Cub lights up for Hot Toe Mollie





Thanks for saving my face, Emeraldisle! Over to you...

You're welcome, Pete, and thanks. Now on to the next one:

1. Officially, I'm the oldest made-for-TV cartoon character.

2. My sidekick is one who'd devour me in real life.

3. My buddy and I preceded a cartoon duo from another famous studio by eight years, and a way more popular one by ten years.

Hmm, could this be Ignatz Mouse, from the Krazy Kat series? I know they began life as newspaper strip characters, under contract to the Hearst publishing empire. I know Hearst pretty much strong-armed Fred Quimby into making cartoons based on his property, The Katzenjammer Kids; I think it likely Hearst also thugged another studio into making cartoons around his Krazy Kat property.

No, OUB. Not Ignatz. I have a totally different character in mind.

This sounds like Crusader Rabbit.

Absolutely right, Saltyboot! Great job! Now for the clues:

1. He's the oldest made-for-TV cartoon character, going back to 1948.

2. His sidekick is Ragland T. "Rags" Tiger.

3. Officially premiering on TV in 1949, he preceded Hanna-Barbera's "Ruff And Reddy" by eight years, and the very similar "Rocky And Bullwinkle," by ten years.

Take it away, Salty!

Thanks! Now here's mine.

The title of my short is a play on an American patriotic song.
This was the last theatrical cartoon my director did.
I am an equine character.

Can't figure it out. Besides, I've had two turns in less than five days, so someone else should take a stab at it.

I've got it it, I remember reading about this one on a cartoon blog a while back.
It's Charlie Horse form "It's a Grand Old Nag"
1. The title is a play on You're a Grand Old Flag
2. This was Bob LCampett's last theatrical short.
3. Equine means horse, the main character is a horse.

That is correct! I also read about the cartoon on a blog.

Here we go

1. We are a father and son team.
2. Yep, the usual kind where the son looks exactly like a small version of the father--and while in this case there is mention of a mother, none is to be seen.
3. The father is vaguely based upon a (possibly) real fabulist. The son is merely a creative add on.

I do know this, but once again, I'm stepping aside for someone else.