Jon Mirsalis on Piano Charles R. Bowers, the notorious figure of animation's early days, best known for his work in the 'teens animating the Mutt and Jeff comic strips among others, slipped into obscurity just about the time when his most fascinating and challenging works were being done. In the twenties, in collaboration with Harold L. Muller, Bowers created a brand of object-slapstick, combining live-action with stop-motion animation, whose inherent Surrealism was not lost on Breton and Kyrou. In these comedies, eggs hatch Ford automobiles (which then nurse from the mother auto), a Christmas tree grows out of a farmer, a mouse shoots a cat with a revolver, Charley grows a bush which in turn sprouts cats... "Whether they show us kittens growing from pussy-willows...or a herd of elephants being driven into the Capitol building in Washington, D.C....the films of Charles Bowers and Harold Muller are truly exemplary tales of marvelous poetic humor, whose disquietingly magical laughter arises-to quote André Breton on It's a Bird-from 'the very heart of the black star'" (H. R., Arsenal, Surrealist Subversion).