2007 Review: 10 Milt Gross

As the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive completes its second year in operation, it's time to review the accomplishments of the past year. Here's a countdown of the ten most important subjects we've covered in 2007. See if your list matches mine. (View the complete list.) Click on the pictures to see lots more on this topic.


From "Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part Four" May 18th, 2007
NUMBER 10: MILT GROSS

Thanks to Archive supporters Mark Kausler, Marc Deckter, Kent Butterworth and Marc Crisafulli, the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has a fantastic collection of comics by Milt Gross.


From "Fulfilling The Milt Gross Challenge" October 17th, 2007

Milt Gross is one of the greatest cartoonists who ever lived, but most of his work has been out of print for many years. He was a master of both words and images. His books Nize Baby, Dunt Esk De Night In De Front From Chreesmas are classics of ethnic New York dialect humor. His masterpiece, He Done Her Wrong, which Gross described as "The great American novel- and not a word in it- no music too", tells a story entirely in funny pictures.


From "Banana Oil!" August 21st, 2007
Milt Gross began his career as an animator in New York, and his comics reflect the same sort of baggy pants humor and keenly observed exaggeration that one might find in a Fleischer cartoon. His style appears loose and free on first glance. Every frame bursts with new and interesting ideas. But behind the energy and fun are carefully thought out compositions and expressive posing. Like Chaplin and Keaton, Gross was a master at making hard work and concentration look easy and natural. Students of animation can learn a lot from studying these techniques.


From "Dave's Delicatessen" July 24th, 2007
Currently, the only book by Gross that remains in print is He Done Her Wrong. This is a shame, because as great as this book is, there's a lot more to Milt Gross. The humor in Gross' comics is timeless. Thanks to Mark, Marc, Marc and Kent, the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has become one of the best places to study his work. Stop by and view the Sunday pages and daily strips in our archive database sometime soon.

Go To Number 9 on the list of Top Ten Subjects of 2007

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

Milt Gross: Banana Oil!

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


The hoi-polloi are out in droves tonight to celebrate this great day!

It's Marc Deckter Appreciation Day!


All of Marc's fans and admirers are jumping on the bandwagon, writing appreciative blog postings. Here's John K's.

For the past couple of weeks, we've been working on digitizing a batch of nearly 200 Milt Gross Sunday pages and dalies that Marc generously loaned to us. That adds up to over a million laughs!


Three cheers for Marc Deckter!


And as I always say... if you're one of those folks who don't click on the images because you don't think it's worth the time it takes to read... YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING!

Banana Oil Dailies (1924)







Count Screwloose & Dave's Delicatessen Sunday Pages (1930-1933)






For more Milt Gross cartoon goodness, see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages and Dailies Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five. Also see... Milt Gross' Cartoon Tour Of New York Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

Many thanks to Marc Deckter for sharing this wonderful stuff with us!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

Comics: Milt Gross' Dave's Delicatessen

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Archive supporter, Marc Deckter stopped by today with a pile of deteriorating Milt Gross Dave's Delicatessen dalies. The newsprint had become brittle and brown and the strips were fragmenting into chips. I put them carefully on the scanner and digitized them before they had a chance to turn to dust.


Milt Gross is one of the underappreciated cartoonists that the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is dedicated to documenting. Between these wonderful early examples courtesy of Marc Deckter, the Sunday pages lent to us by Mark Kausler and the great book A Cartoon Tour of New York from Kent Butterworth, our collection of Gross is second to none. If you haven't seen any of our previous articles on Gross, check out the links at the end of this post.

And as I always say... if you're one of those folks who don't click on the images because you don't think it's worth the time it takes to read... YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING!



























Read John K's comments on this post...

For more Milt Gross Sunday pages, see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four. Also see... Milt Gross' Cartoon Tour Of New York Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Chic Young's Blondie, Rube Goldberg's Side Show; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views

Many thanks to Marc Deckter for sharing this wonderful stuff with us!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!