Media: Mel Crawford's Rootie Kazootie Joins The Circus

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about Golden Book illustrators.

Over the weekend, I received a phone call from John Kricfalusi. "You have to come over... I just came across a box full of treats I think you're going to want to scan for the archive." I hopped in the car and headed straight over without delay.

When I got there, John pulled out a sealed box and said, "If this is what I think it is, you're going to be pretty excited." I opened it up and I wasn't disappointed... The box contained a stash of John's favorite Golden Books- rare titles by Gustaf Tenggren, J.P. Miller, Tibor Gergely and Mel Crawford, among others. Every single one was amazing. As John and I dug through the box, flipping through the yellowed pages we had a great time discovering gem after gem. "Hey! Look at this one..." "Check out the colors here!" "Get a load of these textures!"



I asked John which his favorite book was, and he immediately pointed to the Mel Crawford Rootie Kazootie titles. "Crawford was a genius," he explained. "and for some reason, the books he did for 50s puppet shows were his best." I promised John that I would scan one of the Rootie Kazootie books and post it here if he would comment on what he loves about it in his own blog, All Kinds Of Stuff. As soon as he gets a chance to do that, I'll link to his post here. So bookmark this page and come back later to see what he has to say.

In the meantime, here is Mel Crawford's Rootie Kazootie Joins the Circus.


















For more great artwork by Mel Crawford, see Media: Mel Crawford's Golden Books

Mel Crawford is still actively painting. Visit his website... MelCrawford.com. Drop him an email and let him know how much you appreciate his work.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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