Meta: Beyond The Blog- Need Your Input

Normally, this is the time of year when we take a week to do our bi-annual fundraising drive.We still might do that at a later date, but we're facing some new challenges and I want to get the input of our regular readers regarding the best way to address them. There are no pictures in this post, but if you value what we provide here, you'll read every word. This may be the most important post I've ever written.

From the very beginning, the Animation Archive project has been navigating uncharted territory. In the past, collections were organized in physical warehouses and history was published in books... But new technology demands new approaches. Today, we aim to organize large amounts of information in databases, and our commentary and analysis is presented in a blog, not a published physical book or magazine. We need to continue to think on our feet to be able to make this new process work.

Currently, there are two challenges to be addressed... The first one is purely practical. How do we insure that our progress continues to expand the way it has over the past two and a half years? Our rate of growth is governed by three things: the archival material contributed for digitization, the "sweat equity" provided by our volunteers, and cash flow. Thanks to great people like Mike Fontanelli, Marc Schimeister, Kent Butterworth and John Kricfalusi, we have more material in for digitization than we can keep up with. Dedicated volunteers like Gemma Ross, Kelsey Sorge-Toomey, JoJo Baptista and Alex Camarillo have made tremendous contributions in building out the structure of the collection. The chief problem we face is the same challenge many organizations face... How do we finance growth?

At this point, 95% of the sustaining budget for the Archive comes from contributors to our physical location... the Archive office in Burbank. The Walter Lantz Foundation, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Dreamworks Animation have provided grants and equipment to keep the doors open. We also receive funding from the thousands of general members of ASIFA-Hollywood, most of whom reside in Southern California. But although the contributions we have received through the PayPal link on the website are greatly appreciated, they don't come close to supporting the large amount of material we provide on the internet. We receive very little in the way of digitized contributions, volunteer help or funding from our internet readers- most of our support comes from people who have an interest the Archive facilities in Burbank. But I spend nearly half my time preparing material for the blog. That imbalanced division of resources just isn't fair.

The second challenge is conceptual... We're moving towards providing something entirely different on the internet than what we originally envisioned. When I first started this blog, my intent was simply to report on the progress of the project. But the postings here in the last year or so have gone far beyond that. The blog has become an important tool for distributing the information we are collecting. As the focus has shifted, my posts have become more in depth. The series of posts on Grim Natwick, Gustaf Tenggren and Milt Gross essentially constituted books, written "straight ahead" chapter by chapter as blog posts. I'm currently working on two more series that will prove to be just as comprehensive... Writing For Cartoons and a reappraisal of the art of Al Capp.

The other day, I went back and looked at the first post on Al Capp, and I realized that to fully absorb all the information there, it would take the better part of an hour. Most blogs, like Cartoon Brew and Boing-Boing are broken into bite sized chunks designed to take no longer than three minutes to read. What I'm creating here is evolving beyond being just another animation blog. I need your help to define what you want that to be.

Our primary purpose at the Archive is the creation of the Animation Database. Currently, our database contains over 3,000 animated cartoons and 40,000 high resolution scans. It would be ideal to be able to provide all of that material online, but the database currently measures in the terabytes. Serving all of that would require technical and financial resources that aren't even on the horizon yet. We need to come up with an achievable plan to work towards that goal.

The question to be answered is simple...

How do we increase the level of participation of the internet community through contributions of digitized material, volunteer labor and monetary donations?

I'm going to throw out a few ideas as suggestions. I would like to hear your opinions on these options. If you have any ideas, please feel free to offer them in the comments below.

1.) SUBSCRIPTION MODEL

Shane Glines' excellent Cartoon Retro site provides lots of material to subscribers behind a password gate. Users pay a monthly fee for access. This blog could shift to providing short teasers for larger scale content behind the subscriber wall. If the subscriber base and subscription cost was high enough, we could eventually serve up significant chunks of the Archive Database.

2.) SALES BASED SUPPORT

We recently offered an eBook of Zim's Cartoons and Caricatures. The proceeds funded the purchase of a 1.5 TB hard drive, which was pretty good for a start. Every month, we could have a different digital product for sale, or provide subscriptions to packages of products, delivered over the course of a year.

3.) ADVERTISING BASED FUNDING

We've been struggling with this option for some time without a great deal of success. Currently, we receive about $100 a month from our banner advertising- not nearly enough to be able to fund content creation. In fact, when the banners were installed, traffic fell 10% and continues to be sluggish. I believe the advertising is an annoyance to many viewers.

4.) SOLICITATION OF DIRECT DONATIONS

We have been struggling with this model for the past couple of years as well. Every six months we do a "pledge drive" where we outline our accomplishments and ask for support. Response has been below the level we need to continue to grow the project. I've avoided doing more than two pledge drives a year to keep the focus on the project, not fundraising. I doubt if we could increase that without alienating our readers.

5.) REPURPOSING CONTENT

We currently have over 500 articles in our archive of posts. Although we provide related links at the bottom of each post and maintain a jump page with links to every post organized by subject, I don't think many readers are using them. If I reduced the number of new posts I do each week and filled in with "reruns", I could continue the blog pretty much the same as it is now.

6.) DIGITAL VOLUNTEERS

I have been trying to encourage readers to help build out the biographies in our Cartoon Hall of Fame. However the lion's share of the biographies there have been written by local animation students from ASIFA-Hollywood Board member, Larry Loc's classes. I would welcome ideas for how to get more volunteer support from the internet readers.

7.) DIGITIZED CONTRIBUTIONS

Every day, I see posts around the "blogosphere" with wonderful scans of articles, illustrations and artwork that would be terrific additions to our collection. I have contacted many of these bloggers asking that they scan at archival resolutions and contribute their images to the Animation Database. Very few of them do this. I would welcome ideas for how to encourage more digital contributions.

Those are the ideas that have been bouncing around in my head lately. I would appreciate your suggestions. If you consider this blog to be a valuable resource, please take the time to add your own thoughts to the comments below.

Thank you
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Volunteer Call: Pick Up in Mid-Wilshire and Burbank

I'm looking for a volunteer who can pick up two video editing decks in the mid-Wilshire district and deliver them to us here at the archive in Burbank. If you can help us out with this, drop me an email at sworth@animationarchive.org. We will also be needing some help soon with moving some material in Burbank. If you have a truck or large car and can help out with that, let me know. Thanks!

On an unrelated subject, check out This Link!
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Meta: Scanning, Traffic & Intern Opportunities

Magazine cover by Vernon Grant.
Thanks to Gabriel Valles
for sharing this with us!

• If you are digitizing rare material from your own collection, please consider scanning at a resolution 600dpi or higher and send your scans to us to add to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.


• Last month, the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive blog served over 200,000 articles. This is our all time record for traffic. In a few days, our SiteMeter button in the sidebar will register its 1 millionth unique visitor! Many thanks to all of you who have linked to us from your websites and blogs, and those who have told their friends about all the amazing art to be found here.


• Now that school is starting up again, we are looking for interns who are interested in helping out at the Archive. Hours are flexible, depending on your class schedule, and you might be able to arrange class credit for your work through your school. Call me at 818 842 8330 during our regular hours (1pm to 9pm Tuesday through Friday) if you are interested.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Illustration: Gemma on Illustration

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping examples of classic illustration.


You might remember me mentioning Gemma Ross the intern from Dartmouth who did incredible work on designing our database last Spring. Well, she's back for a little while until the end of Summer, and she is making great strides to take the database to the next level.

As she works on the database, Gemma has had the opportunity to see a lot of the amazing cartoons and images in the archive. She's been thinking about everything she's seen and has posted some of her theories to her blog, Los Gemeles Adventures! It's extemely gratifying for me to sit back quietly and watch the changes in the interns we have working here. Being surrounded great cartooning and wonderful artwork of all kinds has opened up their horizons and made them better artists and better people.

Gemma Ross on Classic Illustration

More Pretty Things From Gemma

Dulac's The Tempest

The beautiful illustrations Gemma comments on were contributed to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive by Minh Lai of Nocloo.com. Minh's site is worth bookmarking. It's a treasure trove of classic illustration and a great tribute to the artists who created these amazing visuals.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Meta: It's Time To Support The Archive

WARNING! This post contains concentrated cartoon goodness! Link to it from your website or blog. Tell your friends!

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive / 2114 W Burbank Bl. Burbank, CA 91506 / 818.842.4691 / Office Hours: Tuesday through Friday 1pm to 9pm





IT'S TIME TO SUPPORT THE ARCHIVE
The Archive has been in operation now for a year and a half. Every six months, we recap and look back on everything we have accomplished to date and remind you that this is all possible because of your support. We hope that you will appreciate the work being done here and find value in it. If that's the case, you will want to contribute so we can accomplish even more.

So far, we have digitized well over 7,000 images and 2,500 animated films. There are over 300 articles hosted here on the Archive blog covering a wide range of subjects. The blog is followed by readers all over the world, and our traffic is averaging 150,000 articles a month. We've mounted three major exhibits in the archive space. The animation database is now up and operating, and volunteers are working nearly every day to enter and cross link all the movie files, images and data. Most importantly, we have brought a wealth of information to you... information you can use, like the $100K Drawing Course... information about the history of the medium we all love... and perhaps most importantly, information about the pioneering artists to whom we owe our gratitude for creating the art form of animation.



As you browse through these links, keep in mind that the material presented on this website is just the tip of the iceberg... for every image or cartoon you see here, we have digitized a hundred more just as amazing. The amount that has been accomplished in the past year and a half is impressive. It's time to roll up our sleeves and take it to the next level. To do that, we need your support.

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Here are the top ten reasons the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive deserves your support...

10.) Special Exhibits At The Archive



The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has mounted several major exhibits. At our facility in Burbank, you can see a collection of animation drawings from the Fleischer Studios, including Grim Natwick's first character designs for Betty Boop. Also on display is the desk that Les Clark used at Disney's Hyperion studio from 1927 to 1938... from Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Steamboat Willie to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs... they were all animated on this desk. Come down any day between Tuesday and Friday and take the tour...

DISNEY DRAWINGS (ending soon!)

THE ART OF THE STORYBOARD
(See also... John K's Stimpy's Invention Part One and Part Two, Ren & Stimpy in Big House Blues Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Alvin Show: The Whistler)

THE GOLDEN AGE OF MEXICAN LOBBY CARDS
(See also... Ernesto Garcia Cabral Part One / Part Two / Sci-Fi and Horror Lobby Cards / Mexican Lobby Card Fiesta)

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9.) Features On Playboy Cartoonists



In the 1950s and 60s, Playboy magazine employed many of the most talented cartoonists of the day. There's a lot to learn from these beautiful and deceptively simple cartoons. Many of them are models of color harmony, composition and staging. There's also a wide variety of styles, from the fast watercolor washes of Eldon Dedini to the carefully rendered airbrush work of Alberto Vargas. Style is something sadly lacking in theatrical animation today. These cartoons have style in abundance. We were lucky enough to be able to digitize a collection of vintage magazines courtesy of Archive supporters, Mike Fontanelli and Chad Coyle. Here are some of the artists we've profiled so far...

Eldon Dedini Part One / Eldon Dedini's Satyr's & Nymphs / Early Erich Sokol Cartoons / More Erich Sokol / Jack Cole And More Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists / Doug Sneyd - Phil Interlandi / More Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoons / Alberto Vargas / Harvey Kurtzman & Will Elder's Little Annie Fanny (See also... George Petty's Ridgid Tools Calendars & his 1947 Calendar / John Held Jr's Flappers)

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8.) Art Instruction Materials



Founded by Norman Rockwell and Albert Dorne in the early 1950s, Famous Artists had three courses... Painting, Illustration/Design and Cartooning. Each course consisted of 24 lessons in three oversized binders covering a wide variety of subjects. To design the courses, Rockwell brought together the top artists of the day... Albert Dorne, Stevan Dohanos, Rube Goldberg, Milton Caniff, Al Capp, Willard Mullen, Virgil Partch, and Whitney Darrow Jr, among others. The result was a correspondence course that puts many current university programs to shame. ASIFA-Hollywood has been digitizing these powerful lessons and sharing some of them with you on this website. In addition, we have provided a wealth of educational material written by top cartoonist educators like Grim Natwick and Gene Byrnes; as well as invaluable articles on art theory.

Chad's Design For Television / Willard Mullin On How To Draw Animals / Clair Weeks' Disney Animal Studies 1940 / Fundamentals Of Composition: Part One and Part Two / Bill Nolan: Cartooning Self Taught / Grim Natwick on Animation Design / A Drawing Lesson From Walter Lantz / Owen Jones' The Grammar of Ornament Part One, Part Two and Part Three / Musical Timing Rediscovered / Originality vs. Imitation: Chaplin's Shadow / Incorporating Natural Forms: Haeckel's Art Forms In Nature / Nat Falk's How To Draw Animated Cartoons Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: How To Draw Animated Cartoons and Part Five: How To Animate / 1938 Disney Artitst Tryout Book / Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: Newspaper Strip Cartoonists, Part Two: Studying Comic Strips, Part Three: Single Panel and Sports Cartoons, Part Four: Editorial Cartoons and Comic Books

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7.) Classic Cartoons To Study



Through our Film Preservation Program ASIFA-Hollywood has rescued dozens of cartoons in danger of being lost to nitrate deterioration. The volunteers at the Animation Archive are hard at work digitizing cartoons for inclusion in our database. This will allow students and cartoonists to instantly access animated films that are not available commercially. To date, we have digitized over 2,500 cartoons... Fleischer Popeyes, Bouncing Ball Cartoons, Terrytoons and many more that haven't been seen in decades. Here are just a few of the cartoons in our collection...

Fleischer Studios: Swing, You Sinners, Mariutch, Betty Boop in Snow White & You're Driving Me Crazy / Famous Studios: Chiquita Banana / Terrytoons: Barnyard Actor, Farmer Al Falfa's Prize Package, Pink Elephants, The Temperamental Lion (1940) & Catnip Capers, Bill Tytla's Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll & Hyde Cat / H-B's The Bodyguard and Avery's Bad Luck Blackie / Uproar In Heaven (China/1961) Part One, Part Two / Ruff and Reddy and Pinky the Pint-Sized Pachyderm

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6.) Golden Age Illustration



One of the goals of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is to gather together the material that provided inspiration to animators in the 30s and 40s. Artists like Kay Nielsen and Gustaf Tenggren made the trip to California and ended up working for Disney. These books contain a wealth of inspiration for color, design and technique. We are also archiving the work of great illustrators from the 40s and 50s, like Arthur Szyk and Boris Artzybasheff. Click on a few of these links and be amazed at what you see...

Bland Tomtar Och Troll: John Bauer 1915 / Einar Norelius 1929, Einar Norelius 1934, Bauer & Norelius 1944/1949 / Kay Nielsen: East of the Sun and West of the Moon, Twelve Dancing Princesses & Hansel & Gretel / Gustaf Tenggren: Small Fry And The Winged Horse, Heidi - Wonderbook - Juan & Juanita & Grimms Fairy Tales / Edmund Dulac: Hans Christian Anderson, Poe's Poetical Works & Tanglewood Tales / Maxfield Parrish's Arabian Nights (1909) / N. C. Wyeth's Legends of Charlemagne / Frank Reynolds Paints Pickwick / Artzybasheff: Neurotica, Machinalia & Diablerie / Arthur Szyk: The New Order / Mid-1930s Colliers Illustrations / Late 40s Colliers Illustrations / Lawson Wood- The Monkey Painter

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5.) Historical Info & Interviews



We are in the process of publishing an important interview with three of animation's pioneers... Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera and Friz Freleng. Interviewed by cartoon director, John Kricfalusi, they speak with candor about their careers and the state of animation in the modern age. The interview is illustrated extensively with pictures and videos of cartoons so you can instantly see what they are talking about. This sort of interactive presentation takes full advantage of the power of the internet as a learning tool. There are two installments now online, with more to come in the near future. We also posted an interesting audio clip of Grim Natwick discussing his friend and former boss, Ub Iwerks, a fascinating article on Bill Tytla by animation historian John Canemaker, and a documentary on China's pioneer animators, the Wan Brothers...

Bill-Joe-Friz Interview Pt. 1 / Bill-Joe-Friz Interview Pt. 2 / Natwick on Iwerks / Three Interesting Documents / Berny Wolf (1911-2006) / Louise Zingarelli: Cool World / Biography: The Wan Brothers- Cinese Animation Pioneers / Nat Falk's "How To Make Animated Cartoons Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five / Life Magazine: Disney Studios at War / John Canemaker on Bill Tytla / Lotte Reiniger's Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) Part One and Part Two / Clair Weeks' Goodbye Book (Disney/1952) / Bob Clampett's Swimming Pool 1962 / Building Of The Disney Studio In Burbank

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4.) The Cartoon Hall Of Fame



ASIFA-Hollywood has been recognizing the important figures in the history of animation for over three decades with the Annie Awards. We continue that tradition with our online biographical wiki, the Cartoon Hall Of Fame. Thanks to the hard work of the students in Charlie Lawing and Larry Loc's animation classes, the Hall Of Fame is beginning to take shape. We still need volunteers to help us edit and format the entries, as well as people to draft the biographical sketches of their favorite artists. If you would like to help, please email me at sworth@animationarchive.org. In the meantime, check out the wonderful biographies of these greats...

James Stuart Blackton (See also... Animation Centennial 1906-2006) / Carlo Vinci / Art Babbitt (See also... Pencil Test of Art's Best Scene) / Shamus Culhane / John Kricfalusi / Ralph Bakshi (See also... Bakshi Phone Doodles) / Oskar Fischinger / Ollie Johnston / Osamu Tezuka

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3.) Classic Golden Books



We've collected and digitized an amazing library of images from the classic Golden Books of the 1940s through the 60s. Some of the finest artists in the business worked for Western Publishing on this series, including Gustaf Tenggren, Mel Crawford, Mary Blair and J.P. Miller. We are still working on digitizing the collection donated to us by John Kricfalusi, but so far, we have scanned the following books...

Tibor Gergely: A Day In The Jungle / Gustaf Tenggren: The Little Trapper / Mary Blair's Baby's House, Little Verses Part One and Part Two, The New Golden Song Book Part One, Part Two & Part Three / Al White: Rocky & His Friends & Huck Hound Builds A House / Mel Crawford: Rootie Kazootie Joins The Circus / 50s & 60s Album Covers Part One and Part Two / Early 50s Disney Christmas Cards / Disney's Uncle Remus Stories Part One and Part Two / Rojankovsky's Frog Went A-Courtin'

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2.) Vintage Newspaper Cartoons And Comics



Along with our Archive Alliance member, Digital Funnies, comic collector Kent Butterworth and the Milton Caniff Estate, we've brought you some wonderful newspaper strips, magazine cartoons, and comic books, many of which have never been reprinted. Here is just a small sampling of the material we've added to the archive database...

The Father of Cartooning: T. S. Sullivant / Virgil Partch: Here We Go Again & Man The Beast / Milt Gross: Cartoon Tour of New York, Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three / Cliff Sterrett: Polly And Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three / Hanna-Barbera: Huckleberry Hound Weekly / Harrison Cady: Bird's Eye Views / Jim Tyer: Funny Animal Comics / Basil Wolverton: Powerhouse Pepper / Boody Rogers: Babe Comics Part One, Part Two & Part Three / Rube Goldberg's Side Show / Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4 / Dan Gordon's Superkatt / Parody: Whack Comics (1953) / Milton Knight's Great Brown-Pericord Motor / Harvey Eisenberg's Foxy Fagan 1946 / Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon / Walt Kelly's Pogo / People on Paper (MGM/1945)

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1.) The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course



How much would it be worth to you to learn to draw for animation from two masters... one from the "golden age" of animation, and one of the top talents in the industry today? Well, you can do that right here on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog with our online drawing course. Overseen by Ren & Stimpy creator, John Kricfalusi and using the long out-of-print original edition of Preston Blair's handbook on animation techniques, you can't find a better resource for honing your drawing skills. The individual lessons are in the sidebar of this site, but start out with the...

Introduction to the $100K Drawing Course
Preston Blair's Animation 1st Edition Part One / Part Two

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And That's Not All Folks...



Not surprisingly, the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has one of the most extensive collections of animation artwork in the world- material from every studio and era, from the earliest silent cartoons all the way through current television productions. Our focus is on artwork not archived elsewhere... drawings and cels from 1950s commercial animation houses, extinct New York studios and obscure cartoon producers from the golden age of cartoons. Here is just a small sampling of our collection...

Mike Lah and Quartet Films / Ray Patin Studios Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six / Vincent Waller Spumco Drawings / Herb Klynn's Unmade Animated Feature / Ralph Bakshi Phone Doodles / Katie Rice's Designs / Chuck Jones Layouts / Grim Natwick's Post UPA Commercials / Early 50s UPA Model Sheets / Reluctant Dragon and Pinocchio Model Sheets / Jules Engel's Alvin Show Color Keys / Model Sheets by Hurter and Thorson, Mice and Duck Model Sheets, and More Disney Model Sheets / Artwork from Disney's Bambi / Terrytoons Model Sheets / Herb Klynn's Pitch For The Shrimp / MGM Animation Drawings / Alex Toth Model Sheets

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Please donate whatever you can to support this important project. Your generosity is what keeps the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive going. If you aren't financially able to contribute or if you already made a donation, please tell your friends about the Archive Project Blog. Link to this post from your website or blog, tell everyone you know about the ten good reasons to contribute to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

Thanks for all of your support and encouragement.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Volunteer: Thanks Gemma! / Sign Up To Help Build Out The Database

Three Cheers For Gemma!


ASIFA-Hollywood President, Antran Manoogian gets a demo of the Animation Archive Database from Intern, Gemma Ross
If you have visited the Archive over the past couple of months, you've gotten to know our intern, Gemma Ross. She's an animation student from Dartmouth, who decided to take a break from school to come out to Los Angeles to help us design and build our Archive Database. Today is Gemma's last day with us. The database structure is all built out and she has done a fantastic job of taking my structural concepts and making them a functioning reality. We all appreciate how much help Gemma has been over the past couple of months and we will miss her. Thanks Gemma!

WE Need YOUR Help!

Now it's up to our crew of dedicated volunteers to enter the thousands of images and media files into the database and specify all the cross links. If you want to help out, you'll get a front row seat to the action before anyone else has a crack at it as a beta tester/data entry volunteer. If you have a little bit of knowledge of animation, and have some time during the week (Tuesday through Friday anytime between 1pm and 9pm), drop me an email at...

sworth@animationarchive.org

...and let me know your availability.

You Don't Have To Live In The Area To Help

We need internet volunteers to help build out the biographical sketches in our Biopedia. If you have some time to do some simple html formatting of entries, or if you would like to do the research to write a biography of one of the names on our list, let me know.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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