Thursday, April 12, 2007
Mr. Hooper & his upaid gambling debts
ToonClub's topic this week is Sesame Street. I had no idea what to do. So many characters, skits, cartoons, it was too much for me to process any good ideas. Then I remembered poor old Mr. Hooper and that he died in the early 80's. They had an episode where Big Bird found out about his death and how to deal with it. The actor who played him really did die and this was PBS's solution. I wondered HOW Mr. Hooper died (not the actor just the character) I dunno if they explained that. I figure he got "rubbed out." You live by the sword, you die by the sword. Maybe he owed a lot of scary people a lot of money. Maybe he was formally known as Marcello "Specs" Fiorillo, and "Mr. Hooper" was the life the Witness Protection Agency gave him. Maybe he was some poor unsuspecting shop owner who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I dunno, but I think a major spit storm went down that day on Sesame Street.
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5 comments:
this is one of my favorites you've done. i like how you make everything in the picture matter. i like that you don't avoid backgrounds.
I think that Mr. Hooper probably looked a little too much like "Specs" Fiorillo for his own good... when you get older, you start looking like everyone else who's old. Poor Hooper.
This is as great as it is disturbing... lots and lots of both of those things in this one. You're amazing, man... and I continue to love your style.
All I remember is that song that you sing to Jingle bells that goes; "Mr. Hooper let a pooper, right on Santa's leg". Or if you prefer you can say, "Mr. Hooper let a pooper, right on Christmas day".
All I can remember about Mr. Hooper is that he was gruff, but somehow still loveable. Why can't I pull that off? Ah well, great illustration Bryan. I'd heard somewhere that "in reality" he'd died of a heart attack, but this illustration will probably spark an international controversy and lots of people with Italian sounding names will end up in jail.
This is genius
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