The Cat on a Hot Thin Groove: The Complete Collection of 78rpm Artwork from the Legendary Record Changer Magazine [Hardcover]

Gene Deitch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

A visual feast of swingin' cartoons for jazz lovers. On the long road to becoming an Oscar-winning animation director, Gene Deitch became an intense jazz fan. At the age of 21, he discovered The Record Changer, a jazz collector's magazine filled with fanatical,scholarly, and purist essays about jazz as well as listings of hard to find jazz albums. Every jazz swinger in the 40s was called a cat (as in cool cat), derived from the West African word "Katta", a human), so Gene Deitch created a cartoon feature for the Record Changer titled " The Cat" ,which quickly became a fixture at the magazine. He also started drawing the covers, which graced almost every issue from 1945 to 1951 along with the "The Cat". Deitch stylistically virtuoso images exquisitely embodied the essence of jazz and became a visual paean to the joy of collecting and appreciating jazz.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

As creative director at UPA studios, whose bold, abstract style (e.g., in the Mr. Magoo cartoons) influenced all movie cartooning, and at Terrytoons, where he created Tom Terrific, Deitch was a leading figure in 1950s film animation. Just before then (1945-50), he contributed prolifically to The Record Changer, a jazz magazine, drawing dozens of graphically bold issue covers as well as gag cartoons in his midcentury-modern style (think Virgil Partch meets Gerald McBoing-Boing). The cartoons feature "the Cat," a hardcore record collector and jazz purist based on Deitch himself. In them, the bald, bespectacled jazz lover chases down rare platters, argues the superiority of traditional jazz to bebop, and otherwise airs his obsession (in one cartoon, he turns to horticulture because cactus needles were thought to cause less wear than metal ones on shellac 78s). Deitch's breezy annotations bolster the cartoons' evocation of the postwar jazz scene, and this oversize volume, containing all of the Cat and the covers as well as other drawings, is a hipster's delight nonpareil. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

As creative director at UPA studios, whose bold, abstract style (e.g., in the Mr. Magoo cartoons) influenced all movie cartooning, and at Terrytoons, where he created Tom Terrific, Deitch was a leading figure in 1950s film animation. Just before then (1945-50), he contributed prolifically to The Record Changer, a jazz magazine, drawing dozens of graphically bold issue covers as well as gag cartoons in his midcentury-modern style (think Virgil Partch meets Gerald McBoing-Boing). The cartoons feature "the Cat," a hardcore record collector and jazz purist based on Deitch himself. In them, the bald, bespectacled jazz lover chases down rare platters, argues the superiority of traditional jazz to bebop, and otherwise airs his obsession (in one cartoon, he turns to horticulture because cactus needles were thought to cause less wear than metal ones on shellac 78s). Deitch's breezy annotations bolster the cartoons' evocation of the postwar jazz scene, and this oversize volume, containing all of the Cat and the covers as well as other drawings, is a hipster's delight nonpareil. (Gordon Flagg - Booklist )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; 1st Fantagraphics Books Ed edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560975261
• ISBN-13: 978-1560975267
• Product Dimensions: 14.3 x 11.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,096,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Cat is Back, June 19, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cat on a Hot Thin Groove: The Complete Collection of 78rpm Artwork from the Legendary Record Changer Magazine (Hardcover)

Great 1940s comics that capture the world of the jazz fanatic circa 1945-1950. Deitch's artwork is clever, original, somewhere between Virgil Partch and Harvey Kurtzman -- far above the amateurish efforts one associates with fanzines. Anyone familiar with the loonier aspects of record collecting will find much amusement in these cartoons (The Cat berates one guy searching a huge pile of records with, "That's the 'A' master which is relatively common!"). Deitch also drew some interesting covers, reproduced here in full color. Anyone into vintage comics, records, and/or jazz will dig this.

The packaging is a bit overkill. The width of the book is huge, but there is a lot of white space on the inside pages. A smaller size would not have detracted from the artwork, and would have made this a more affordable book. Also, nobody seems to have proofread the copy, as there are quite a few typos.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Fantastic, June 6, 2003

By 

OilCanBoyd (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cat on a Hot Thin Groove: The Complete Collection of 78rpm Artwork from the Legendary Record Changer Magazine (Hardcover)

This book gets seven stars. At first, I think I thought it had something to do with Mad Magazine, like Spy Vs. Spy. What I found was a goldmine. Rarely do I see books dealing with geeking out on something. Gene Deitch clearly loves Jazz Music. This book documents a dope artist, blossoming into greatness through an interest in an outsider sound. His honest comments on obsesive geekdom, as well as race relations, are appreciated. A super cool gift, as well as a beautiful, beautiful book. the OilCan highly recommends.