The Mystic Order of the Koo-Koo-Ma-Hatcha!
Good morning. Let’s turn on the time machine and watch an original nightmare cartoon from last century’s Depression-era cultural dreamscape: “Bimbo’s Initiation” (1931). This classic animation from the great Max Fleischer is a surrealist haunted house story as much as it is a edgy, pre-Hays Code, Betty Boop classic.
Join the Mystic Order of the Koo-Koo-Ma-Hatcha!
“Bimbo’s Initiation” is currently featured on the Fleischer Studios front page — or you can catch it on YouTube
If you like this kind of thing, you’ll also dig Fleischer’s “Swing You Sinners,” which transpires in an uncanny graveyard. Both films are detailed in Cracked.com’s article, “5 Old Children’s Cartoons Way Darker than Most Horror Movies.”
Michael Arnzen is an award-winning author of horror fiction and an English professor at Seton Hill University, where he has taught writing since 1999. His trophy case includes four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his often funny, always disturbing stories. Join his social network at michaelarnzen.com.
Sad to hear that @microcosms editor and horror writer/poet Stephen M. Wilson has passed. His poetry lives on. http://t.co/sTj4sx8XBa - 3 days ago
Latest posts by Michael Arnzen (see all)
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- Live Instigation - 04/14/2013
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The Goreletter is my free e-mail newsletter rich in strange microfiction, offbeat humor, horror poetry, reviews, surprises, contests, and tiny oddities. Recipient of the Bram Stoker Award! Subscribe today.
05/20/2013 at 9:55 am 
05/11/2013 at 6:32 pm 
Wonderful! They showed these bizarre old cartoons on TV when I was a kid in the 1950′s–this explains a lot about how me and my generation turned out!