Comics: Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women Part Four

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.


It's been quite a while since we posted any comics from Virgil "Vip" Partch's greatest collection of cartoons, The Wild, Wild Women. If you missed our previous postings on this wonderful book, see Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women Part One, Part Two and Part Three.
















Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more by Vip Partch.

For more examples of Virgil Partch's genius, see Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Here We Go Again and Man The Beast.

Also see... George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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2007 Review: 7 Modern Animation

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 links to read more on this topic.


From Early 50s Disney Christmas Cards February 10th, 2007
NUMBER 7: MODERN ANIMATION

Amid Amidi's great book, Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in 1950s Animation stirred up a recent revival of interest in 1950s stylized animation. Just about every animation related blog had posts dealing with the subject. Back in May, a firestorm of controversy erupted around a fascinating series of articles on John Kricfalusi's blog, All Kinds of Stuff.


More than any other animator, John K is responsible for bringing stylized animation back to television. The Log commercials on The Ren & Stimpy Show and John's more recent commercials for Old Navy (pictured above) were masterful homages to what Amid terms "Cartoon Modern". But John's interest in the style isn't without criticism. His comments about the dominance of design over entertainment value in the theatrical cartoons of UPA resulted in one of the most stimulating and provocative discussions of animation theory in some time. The informed and impassioned arguments on both sides of the issue spilled over into Michael Sporn's Splog and Amid's Cartoon Brew.


My own volley in the battle over UPA was titled...
Design: UPA Done Right May 24th, 2007

Criticism of modern animation isn't without precident... Mark Mayerson posted a blistering analysis by one of the founders of the UPA style, Chuck Jones...


Chuck Jones On Modern Animation March 11th, 2007

Other posts this year that featured the modern style were...

• Story: Alvin Show Pilot Board September 21st, 2007


• Herb Klynn's The Shrimp February 25th, 2007

I'm sure there will be many more discussion of this interesting topic in the coming year.

Go To Number 6 on the list of Top Ten Subjects of 2007

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Comics: Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women Part Three

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.



Today, we continue with Virgil "Vip" Partch's greatest collection of cartoons, The Wild, Wild Women. Notice how clear the staging is, the beauty of the line and the strength of the posing and expressions.
















For more examples of Virgil Partch's genius, see Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women Part One and Part Two, Here We Go Again and Man The Beast. Also see... George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Comics: Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women Part Two

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.



Today, we continue with Virgil "Vip" Partch's greatest collection of cartoons, The Wild, Wild Women. If you missed any of the articles linked below, make sure you check them out. They're all packed with great cartooning.

















For more examples of Virgil Partch's genius, see Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women Part One, Here We Go Again and Man The Beast. Also see... George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Comics: Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women

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.



Virgil "Vip" Partch is one of the greatest cartoonists who ever lived, but the simplicity and directness of his style belie its sophistication. Born in 1916, Partch studied under Rico LeBrun at Choiuinard Art Institute, before joining the Disney studios as a story man. His influence can be seen clearly in the Donald Duck cartoon "Duck Pimples". Partch worked at Disney for four years, until his stay there was cut short by the strike in 1941.



Out of work, Partch submitted some one panel cartoons to Colliers, and they were published. This began a fruitful career as a magazine cartoonist. Throughout the 50s, he published small collections of his cartoons, grouped by themes. "Bottle Fatigue" dealt with the spell of alcohol, "Here We Go Again" was a collection of cartoons dealing with Army life, and "Wild, Wild Women" and "Man The Beast" dealt with the battle between the sexes. Partch's cartoons are absurd, visually delightful and wicked. Most of all, they are unique.



As I said before, Vip's style is so streamlined and simple, it's easy to overlook the depth of thought beneath the surface of his cartoons. His compositions always read beautifully with clear silhouettes, appealing shapes and interesting negative spaces. The lines define a solid form and simple visual clues indicate rock-solid perspective... His drawings never seem flat, no matter how stylized they are. There's a wide variety of ways of depicting different facial expressions and expressive personality that is obviously observed from life. It doesn't get better than this!



Partch's greatest book was "Wild, Wild Women". Check out these beautiful drawings. Here's yet another example of stylized cartooning done right.















For more examples of Virgil Partch's genius, see Here We Go Again and Man The Beast. Also see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Design: UPA Done Right

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see the bonus reason on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts featuring animation art.



John Kricfalusi's blog, "All Kinds Of Stuff" continues to be the most information packed and eye opening animation resource on the internet. If you haven't visited it lately, you'll want to check out the series of posts John has been writing on the impact of UPA on animation. I guarantee that you've never heard these sorts of opinions anywhere else, and once you digest the concepts, you'll never look at a UPA cartoon the same again.

Wally Walrus vs. UPA Part One
Wally vs. UPA 2: Stylized Cartoonists Take Their Skills For Granted
Wally vs. UPA 3: Walt Craves Respect
Wally vs. UPA Sidebar: Flat Stylized Cartoons I Like
Wally vs. UPA 4: When Milquetoasts Rebel
Wally vs. UPA 5: UPA Bred Worse Imitations
Sidebar: Spumco Stylized Cartoons: 1990



Here is just a sample of what John has to say...

If you don't know cartoon history and you just grew up watching Cartoon Network, you might think that this flat stuff is something new and "hip". It's not. It's much older than UPA, and the more graphic styles in cartoons before UPA didn't come with the wimpy trappings. Because of our association with UPA's beginnings, we assume that when we do something in a graphic style, we have to also carry over all the other attributes that came with UPA's particular cartoon vision- the blandness, the wimpy world view, the snootiness.

People usually don't analyze or break apart the elements that make up something they like. If we like it we assume that every ingredient in it is equally good. Then when we develop our own styles, we copy the bad with the good. That's what we need ANALYSIS for!

Like many artists, I have tons of influences. There are lots of things that inspire me. I try to figure out why they do and I break them down into their separate ingredients. I then decide which ingredients are the ones that are useful and discard the others that might have just come along with it, but don't actually add anything. There are good things about UPA and Disney- Tex Avery combined them and added his own world view to them and made cartoons more entertaining than either style.

John's comments cut like a sword through the "design for design's sake" school of animation. He cites Tex Avery as the one cartoon director who was able to incorporate modern design sensibilities, while still maintaining the entertainment value and humor of classic cartoons. He's dead right. This post reminded me of my favorite series of commercials... which were directed by Avery at Cascade studios and animated by Rod Scribner.



Not only is the character design modern in the "UPA style" but the movement has been stylized in a complementary manner. Why don't the current "Flat" cartoons move like this?!



KoolAid Spots (Cascade/ca.1960)
(Quicktime 7 / 6.8 megs)

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UPDATE: I was browsing through Cartoon Modern today, and I found a post that Amid did last Summer that perfectly encapsulates my thoughts about the importance of animation even in stylized cartoons...

The Importance of "Animation" in Animaton Design

One of the hardest things to get across when discussing animation design is that it's not just about character designers, layout artists and background painters. The animator is a critical member of the design team....

The primary reason, in my opinion, that so much of today's stylized animation rings hollow is because nobody ever follows through on the animation. Regardless of whether a show is animated traditionally overseas or if it's done in Flash, most contemporary TV series creators think their job is done once they've created a pretty model sheet and slapped on a bit of color styling. These few stills illustrate however that model sheets are often the least important aspect of stylized animation-- what the animator does with those designs is what truly counts.

Exactly! Great animators like Bill Littlejohn, Rod Scribner and Grim Natwick moved these kinds of designs in unique and stylized ways.

This post is causing quite a ruckus over at Michael Sporn's blog. Check out Michael's post titled Aaargh. In particular, read the comments. Here's a real doozy...

Not everything has to look or move gorgeously to be good or artful. That's one of the dumbest, scariest suggestions I've heard anyone make in animation circles.

Yow! Do people really think lousy animation is artistic?!

Cartoon Brew has jumped into... The Great UPA Debate. Will Finn (check out his great new blog, small room) writes...

I see Steve Worth's point about Kool-Aid ads and such, where perfectly admirable work is overlooked because it wasn't in the service of "Art witha a capital A". Animators who want to evaluate work on a technique level should be able to appreciate that wherever they find it and not just where the intelligentsia have enshrined it with a golden frame.

If you found this article to be interesting, see also... Early 50s UPA Model Sheets, Herb Klynn The Shrimp, Grim Natwick's Post UPA Commercials, Alvin Show: The Whistler Storyboard and Jules Engel's Color Keys.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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