Bullwinkle Bonanza!

I spent some quality time in my new favorite store Half-Price Books and with excellent results. I picked up a sweet copy of Keith Scott's detailed and lengthy The Moose That Roared, a look at the work of Jay Ward and Bill Scott, the creators of Rocket J. Squirrel and his best buddy Bullwinkle J. Moose. How the Moose and Squirrel came to be, what preceded them,  what happened to them and such like is the stuff of this highly readable volume. The level of detail in what I've already scanned is most impressive.

I also found a copy of this 1996 coffee table tome The Rocky and Bullwinkle Book by Louis Chunovic . This one is a visual feast, but a bit hard to actually read. It's got useful information, but precious little of it for a book this size, almost in many ways the reverse of the Scott book above, a book which prizes style over substance. But it does have value.  The detailed episode guides for the show is the highlight along with a gaggle of behind-the-scenes promotional materials produced by the staff. Since I got this book for a tiny fraction of its fifty dollar price tag, I'm more than pleased.

And finally I found and picked up a copy of Fractured Flickers, a dvd gathering up all of this obscure Jay Ward production. It's an offbeat blend of some small animation but mostly live action as Hans Conried hosts a show that takes vintage silent movies and "fractures" them by altering the storytelling and adding some off-the-wall dialogue which in many instances can be quite funny. There are also seqments in which Conried interviews various celebrities. It's a clear attempt by Ward and company to move beyond animation, but alas a failed one lasting only one season if that. It's a neat thing to have for any Bullwinkle fan though as the zany humor of that show is much in evidence here.

All in all a great Frostbite Falls haul indeed!

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