20 years ago, when I was fielding material for my San Diego Comic Con annual show, The Worst Cartoons Ever, an episode of something called “Chris Welkin, Planeteer” was submitted for my approval. I approved! It was one of the worst pieces of animation I’d ever seen! I loved it!
The copy sent to me was heavily watermarked with a large time code in the center. As is, it was unusable for my show. Then the submitter withdrew offer to allow me to use it. Bummer. Oh well, I figured now that I knew it existed, it was a matter of finding another film collector who might loan me a copy to digitize. I searched for years without luck.
In July 2023, Roy Thomas posted a fond memory of the Chris Welkin Planeteer comic strip that he grew up with (in his fanzine, Alter Ego #183). Apparently the strip was a byproduct of the 1950-1954 “Space Cadet” fad among young boys then – inspired by the likes of television’s Captain Video, Space Patrol and Tom Corbett (among others).
The strip was by pulp and comic book writer R.R. Winterbotham, with Caniff-like artwork by Art Sansom. The daily comic (syndicated by NEA) ran from 1951 through 1954 – with a color Sunday that lasted another 10 years – ending in 1964.
What Roy Thomas didn’t know was that the strip was adapted to animation in 1954 by the infamous Sam Singer. I sent a letter into Alter Ego informing Roy of an animated adaptation, he printed it in the next issue. That in turn, brought me private e-mail response from comics historian Arthur Lortie – who sent me some information he had compiled on the cartoon spin-off. Here are a few quotes from his email:
On June 19. 1954, Billboard Magazine announced two syndicated cartoon series: Paddy the Pelican and Chris Welkin, Planeteer. Welkin was planned to consist of 130 12 minute episodes, of which at least 5 had been completed. It was produced and distributed by Medallion Productions.
The July 3 Billboard had a story out of New York dated June 26: “Medallion Productions this week opened its local office to pitch its new animated film property, Chris Welkin, Planeteer. The quarter hour strip can be bought at a price which starts at $100 and goes to $250. It is based on a comic strip currently carried in 200 newspapers. Heading the office here will be Alfred Ettlinger, father of John Ettlinger, who is president of the firm.”
In addition to Paddy Pelican, Singer produced Bucky and Pepito, Pow-Wow the Indian Boy, and Courageous Cat are among others. The show was written by Norman Jolley (“Space Patrol”) and the voices are by Marvin Miller (Gerald McBoing Boing) and Virginia Gregg.
Longtime friend Jeff Joseph of Sabucat Productions acquired many of the Sam Singer film elements years ago – and found two episodes of Chris Welkin among them. My life is now complete. Without further ado, here they are – enjoy!
Jerry Beck is a writer, animation producer, college professor and author of more than 15 books on animation history. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon Movies and Disney, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He has curated cartoons for DVD and Blu-ray compilations and has lent his expertise to dozens of bonus documentaries and audio commentaries on such. Beck is currently on the faculty of CalArts in Valencia, UCLA in Westwood and Woodbury University in Burbank – teaching animation history. More about Jerry Beck [
Great curling triangles! I’ll never criticise Clutch Cargo and Rocket Robin Hood again!
These cartoons are remarkably prescient in two respects: (1) Chris Welkin is a “planeteer” decades before the term was coined for Ted Turner’s Captain Planet cartoon series; and (2) the Flying Triangle spaceship is a dead ringer for the flying triangle spaceships in the popular Asteroids video game that would come out in the future year of 1979.
The cliffhanger at the end of Episode #2 leaves many questions unanswered. Will the people of Earth ultimately be conquered and enslaved by the Ichthusians? If Venna gives Rocky Starr enough peritron shocks, will his voice change? Will Professor Butt ever write up his paper and become world famous, and will he ever find his slide rule? Is Atom City anywhere near Roswell? Will Oton see an orthodontist about that unsightly diastema between his upper incisors? Will Venna crash her Flying Triangle into the planet Venus, or will she survive to take a gig turning letters on “Wheel of Fortune”? Galloping asteroids, I feel dizzy….
Well, DC’s Tommy Tomorrow led his intrepid Planeteers in comic books some years before Chris Welkin made it into print…
The biggest flaw with these two shorts is surprisingly NOT the animation, but the pencil shading throughout each of the two shorts. Look at how the character’s heads are detailed – the eyes, noses, and foreheads ranged from looking like oil smears to making them look like sunburn victims, with the mouths and chins being entirely white so as to not obscure the flapping lips.
Chris Welkin definitely earns its place in the running of “worst cartoons ever”. It’s not outright unwatchable, but it’s the sort of sci-fi pulp that was in no short supply in the postwar years and Sam Singer’s production does nothing to make it stand out.
As a curious epilogue, one of the comic’s stories would later see inclusion in “The Dalek Outer Space Book”, a British annual themed around Dr Who’s iconic nemeses.
This is very much like the old time radio serials. What it really puts me in mind of is Ruff and Reddy with Professor Gizmo. Clearly, the art of limited animation was still in the experimental stage. Within a few short years, Hanna and Barbera plus others would be relying on solid voice work to make up for budgetary shortcuts in the animation. Still, there are a few bits of interesting movement in these episodes to break up the overall static look, suggesting what a bigger budget might have accomplished.
I’m glad you were able to “unearth” these fascinating raw gems!
Now that you mention it, this could easily have been a radio show repurposed for television after the fact. Unlike the HB toons and others, it’s written to work with no visuals at all. And such visuals as we get barely hint at anything not described on the soundtrack.
Conceivable they intended to market this to television AND radio, with one soundtrack to serve both media. Radio drama may have been fading, but was far from dead in the 50s.
At least they spent money for voice work. Marvin Miller didn’t come cheap. (Oh. I see he got a screen credit at the end).
These remind me of the NBC Telecomics, with static panels and very little animation.
Yowp
That has to be the closest equivalent to Ed Wood I’ve ever seen in animation (particularly the idiotic narration). As bad as the artwork is the voice work is even more amateurish. Hard to believe some OCD case was hoarding his copies of this, with digiral watermarks no less.
I know I’m in the minority here, but I found these quite enjoyable.
Also at my time of life I’m very easily entertained.😁
“Absolutely amazing! It can’t be a cartoon, it doesn’t move like one.”
Ever see the Merry Marvel Marching Society cartoons from the mid-1960’s? Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and Submariner (one hero featured for each day of the week). The stories came directly from the comics and they practically just moved the camera around. Whatever animation there was, was truly limited,
Hiss-terical! Makes Clutch look like Fantasia! lol
And Chuck Jones called Yogi Bear “illustrated radio”? Sheesh.
I’ve long wondered whether Space Patrol alums Marvin Miller and Norm Jolley’s involvement with “Welkin” were what led Space Patrol’s director Dik Darley to create “Space Angel” a few years later. Also, Art Sansom created the syndicated strip “The Born Loser” which was successful enough for him, and NEA, to drop “Chris Welkin”. Sansom clearly had a number of wildly different drawing styles at his disposal.
This is nowhere near the “worst cartoon ever”. I have seen “critically acclaimed” cartoons that are a million times worse. These are only bad on a surface level. A lot of the Disney cartoons look good on the surface, but are outright mentally damaging to children.
Being a Disney fan, I completely disagree with that statement. It’s as bad as saying something similar to Warner cartoons (which were not made for children in mind either).
I used to be friends with a guy who was completely brain-damaged because he internalized all the “be a good little slave” messages in the Disney movies/cartoons. He never stood up for himself, and never tried to better his life because Disney told him that it’s better to be meek and humble than to be a winner. He had a mental breakdown when, after showing some younger relatives the Disney “Legened Of Sleepy Hollow” cartoon, they (correctly) told him it was boring.
Now we know why Paddy Pelican was so awful, even by Singer standards. I think Singer was pouring what meager resources he possessed into the Welkin cartoons instead. I’d have accepted the product for its semi-decent storyline, even if mere illustrated radio. But get rid of his sidekick’s catch-phrases.
I haven’t clicked “watch” yet, but as a fan of “the worst” stuff (I love Plan 9 from Outer Space), it should be fun…
Unfortunately, Singer and company had no way of knowing the big secret of limited animation, which would become obvious a few years later with HB, The Marvel Super Heroes and much of Japanimation: You don’t animate the jaw, only the lips.
That said, a less cheesy and leaner narration and better layout would be nice.
Actually, the jaw and mouth movements were quite reminiscent of early Japanimation, as I see it. In that sense, the video portion of this series could’ve lent itself for dubbing into many languages and hence could’ve been distributed worldwide for broadcast on foreign television networks, or for viewing at foreign theaters..
Incidentally, there is one animator in particular that actually does make the jaw-and-lips method work for TV animation: Don Lusk. That’s because his jaws are animated in a much more subtler motion with respect to the characters’ speech patterns, as human jaws would actually move in real life. Being among the second generation of Golden Age animators, his style lent much graceful and lifelike motion to every part of the characters he animates. I fathom he wasn’t one to contently buy into the established notion that producing limited animation for television meant sacrificing quality for the sake of cutting costs or meeting a deadline, especially if you’re a truly talented artist who is confident and determined enough to make quality productions that turn out appealling enough to the eyes as to make a lasting impression on the viewing audience.
Hanna-Barbera’s 60s’ action/adventure cartoons had jaw movement in many scenes with lip sync and it worked quite well. My guess is that the jaw movement was dropped to further limit animation and save time & money.
This Chris Welkin just two mouth positions; open & close and looks worse than Synchro-Vox lips. At least Japanese mouth flap had inbetweens to pendulum the mouth movement.