ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

Animation Art: Ray Patterson At Mintz

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:18:00 +0000

Ray Patterson's career in animation spanned seven decades. He was responsible for the animation of Jerry Mouse dancing with Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh as well as animation for Dumbo and the "Pastoral" sequence of Fantasia. In 1954 he formed his own studio Grantray-Lawrence and he worked at Hanna-Barbera and Sanrio Productions as well.

Today, his family is sharing some of his earliest work with us... Ray began as an inker in 1929 at the Charles Mintz Screen Gems studio, working on Krazy Kat and Scrappy cartoons. By 1930, he had worked his way up to a position as animator. Here are some rare sketches and model sheets from his tenure there... Enjoy!

Many thanks to the family of Ray Patterson for sharing these treasures with us. We will have more to post soon.

Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Story: 1930s Cartoon "Script" Discovered

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:38:00 +0000

The family of animator Ray Patterson brought some artwork by the Archive the other day for us to digitize. Included among the material was this "script" for a Charles Mintz Barney Google/Snuffy Smith cartoon. It's actually not a script- it's a premise, but this is as close to a script as cartoon gag men got in the golden age. It fits perfectly into the first of my articles on writing for cartoons, so I added it. If you haven't seen this series of posts, check them out...

Writing Cartoons Pt 1- The Gag Session

Writing Cartoons Pt 2- A Continuity Emerges

Writing Cartoons Pt 3- Structure

Writing Cartoons Pt 4- The Rough Board

I promise that I'll pick up these posts again and continue through the process later this Fall.

We will have more exciting treasures to share with you soon courtesy of the family of Ray Patterson.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Education: John K and Preston Blair's Drawing Course

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:40:00 +0000

From Tim Rudder's Blog
Just a reminder that folks are still studying John Kricfalusi's notes on Preston Blair's Animation. If you want to sharpen your chops and you're looking for a project to keep you busy this Summer, check it out...

Animation Drawing Course based on the rare first edition of Preston Blair's book Animation

John Kricfalusi's Blog, John K Stuff
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Pop Cultural Literacy 101: Summer Screening Series At Woodbury

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:16:00 +0000

Spike Jones and Doodles Weaver
Spike Jones: Clink, Clink Another Drink
Spike Jones: Pass The Biscuits Mirandy
Doodles Weaver: A Day With Doodles
I've written before about the creative explosion in the arts that occurred around the first half of the 20th century. It always surprises me when I meet a college student who is studying animation who doesn't know anything about the music that came before the Beatles or movies before Star Wars. This Summer, thanks to Woodbury University and the Walter Lantz Foundation, I have a chance to share the work of some of the most amazing entertainers who ever lived with a new generation of artists.

Maria Callas
Maria Callas: Habanera From Bizet's Carmen
The Golden Age animators knew and loved these performers. They studied them and incorporated elements of their style and caricatures of them into their cartoons. There is a lot to learn from this old stuff. The first thing you will learn is that it is surprisingly skillful and entertaining. Isn't that something you want your animation to be?

Buck Owens
Buck Owens: I've Got A Tiger By The Tail
Buck Owens: Foolin' Around
Another thing you'll discover is that the music of the 20th century is unbelievably diverse. Today, we have a million names to describe basically the same type of music. Back then, the names defined a myriad of sounds... country, opera, jazz, folk, blues, rock and roll... more kinds of music than existed in any other time period. We'll sample a little bit of this ocean of great stuff in a series of screenings this Summer at Woodbury.

Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway: The Reefer Man
Cab Calloway: Minnie the Moocher
In this post, I've given you an idea of the musical performers you'll discover at these screenings, but there's much more... rare examples of dance, comedy, drama... all kinds of entertainment that directly applies to your work as an animator... up on the big screen the way they were intended to be seen. I'll tell you more as the time gets nearer. Mark these dates down on your calendar, and plan to attend. It's FREE to students, the animation community and the general public courtesy of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, Woodbury University and the Walter Lantz Foundation.

Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters: Hoochie Coochie Man
Muddy Waters: I Can't Be Satisfied
Pop Cultural Literacy 101
A Series of Summer Screenings
Friday, July 10th, 2009
Friday, August 14th, 2009
September Date To Be Announced
Short Subjects Start At 7pm, The Feature Film Starts At 8:30.
Admission FREE to the animation community
Woodbury University
School of Business / Fletcher Jones Foundation Theater
7500 Glenoaks Bl
Burbank, CA 91510
(Click for printable map)

Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck: Take The A Train
Dave Brubeck: It's A Raggy Waltz

See you at Woodbury this Summer!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Meta: Five Years Ago

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:23:00 +0000

It's been five years since the Board of Directors announced its intention to build an archive for the use of animators. Here is the speech that I gave at the reunion of the Lion King crew on June 16, 2004.

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Hello... My name is Steve Worth and my passion is the art of hand drawn animation.

For the past ten or fifteen years, I've been a member of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood, and I'm currently serving as the Director of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project. Tonight's event is a fundraiser for the project, and all of the proceeds from this evening will be used to establish the Virtual Archive in the ASIFA Animation Center in Burbank. I'd like to thank Tom Sito for putting this event together. I'd also like to thank the Corporate Sponsors of the Animation Archive Project... Sony Pictures Classics and the Walter Lantz Foundation.

Before we get started, I'd like to give you a little background on the archive project, and let you know how it relates to the panel discussion you're about to hear tonight. Most of all, I'd like to share with you why this particular project is so important... perhaps more important now than at any other time in the history of animation.

Sir Isaac Newton was quoted as saying, "If I have seen further, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants." It's all too easy to become so involved with what we're doing "here and now", that we forget what came before us. Los Angeles is often spoken of as "a town with no history". Compared with cities like Athens, London or Paris, that may seem to be the case. But in its short period of existence, Los Angeles was the place that nurtured and developed one of the greatest artistic achievements of the 20th century, the art of cinema... and most importantly to the people gathered together in this room tonight, the art of animated filmmaking.

This sketch was given to me by an artist who knew that I was interested in the history of animation...

He found it in the trash dumpster at FilmRoman, obviously thrown out when someone cleared his desk. The animator that gave this to me had no idea who this was. No one else he showed it to at the studio knew either. In fact, 99.9% of the general public wouldn't even recognize his name, much less his image.

This is a self caricature of Ub Iwerks, the man who designed and animated Mickey Mouse... The man who invented process photography, enabling live action and animation to co-exist side by side... The man who revolutionized the industry with the invention of the multiplane camera and animation xerography. There are few people in the history of animation who have done more for us as animators than Ub Iwerks did. Yet his picture ended up in a trash can... completely unrecognized... at one of the most important TV animation studios in town. I'm not picking on FilmRoman when I point this out. The same could have happened at any studio, even the one this man made billions of dollars for over the years.

Think about that for a second and let it soak in.

How can we as artists "see further" like Isaac Newton if our collective memory is so short, we don't even recognize the pioneers who made everything we do possible? This is the sort of shortsightedness that's led to stories in the press announcing that hand drawn animation is obsolete. Hand drawn animation is no more replaceable by computer graphics than drawing and painting are replaced by photography. Cartooning is an irreplaceable artform, not an expendable technique.

Tonight, we're here to honor the creative achievements of a team of artists who pulled together to make one of the most successful hand drawn animated films of all time. I would bet that just about all of us here tonight have pretty much the same question on our minds... How can the art of hand drawn animation return to the creative peak it enjoyed just a few short years ago?

Again, I'm going to give you a second to think about that question and let it soak in.

The Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood has been thinking long and hard about that question. We've determined that, as an organization, it's time for us to go beyond just screenings and the Annie Awards. It's time for us to build something that ASIFA-Hollywood's founders, Bill Scott, June Foray and Bill Littlejohn envisioned as a goal for our organization nearly forty years ago... a museum, library and archive devoted to the art of animation... an institution dedicated to documenting, preserving and promoting those broad shoulders we all stand upon.

The first step in achieving this goal is the establishment of something the founders of ASIFA could never have imagined... a "virtual archive"... A computer database containing hundreds of thousands of digital files representing animation drawings, model sheets, pencil tests, background paintings, book and magazine illustrations, cartoons, voice over reels, interviews, information and movies... all searchable by keyword. In short, the ultimate artist's clip file. We all know that the major studios in town maintain their own archives to preserve the documents related to their particular productions, ASIFA-Hollywood's archive will be unique, because it will be dedicated to documenting and serving the people who actually make animated films... the artists. ASIFA-Hollywood is in an unique position to be able to pull together a wide range of material for its archive... a much broader scope than any corporate archive could ever hope to encompass. If gathered together in one place, just the personal reference files of the Board of Directors alone would constitute the single most important collection dealing with this subject in the world... Think of having access to Jerry Beck's filmographic research, Tom Sito's notes on the history of the industry, and my own animation art reference library...

Our intial fundraising goal is to raise $50,000 to establish the virtual archive. When we reach $20,000 of that amount, we'll be able to begin to purchase equipment and begin building out the database. This may sound like a great deal of money. But if every member of ASIFA-Hollywood made a donation to the Archive Project equal to the amount of their annual dues of $60, we would not only have enough money to purchase the equipment, we would have enough to cover all of the operating expenses of the archive for the next two years. Once the archive is established and operating, the Board of Directors will turn its attention to creating a Museum of Animation.

Tonight, the Animation Archive is just a concept with only a few presentation boards here to represent it... but next time we gather together for an event like this, you'll see equipment and material on display... a functioning archive, instead of just presentation boards.

We realize that this is a lean time for animators. Money is tight. But we aren't asking for a great deal from any one person. What we are asking for is for the animation community to pull together to do something of great value for the artform. ASIFA has always been all about recognizing the achievements of individuals... whether through its screenings, events like this, or the Annie Awards. The Animation Archive will be no different. It will be a resource that documents the history of people like Ub Iwerks, and the people who will be speaking to you in a few moments. Best of all, the archive will provide inspiration and education to a new generation of animators, acting as the shoulders for them to stand upon. This is *exactly* the sort of project that will prove conclusively to the world that hand drawn animation isn't dead.

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

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Today, five years downstream from that night, we have accomplished a great deal. We have built an amazing database containing over 4,000 animated films and nearly 50,000 digitized images. The Archive is open to the public four days a week.

Read more about the archive in this great article by Stephanie Sapienza...

Projecting Animation's Past Onto Its Future: The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
By Stephanie Sapienza

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

Times are still tough, and the Archive still needs your support. If we have provided information of value to you, I hope you will contribute to the project using the PayPal button below.
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Zim Books Coming Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:57:00 +0000

DEBUTING AT THE SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON, JULY 23rd - 26th

Eugene "Zim" Zimmerman was one of America's greatest caricaturists. Here, reprinted for the first time in nearly a century is Zim's complete mail order cartooning course. Lavishly illustrated with nearly 1000 B&W illustrations and 22 hand tipped color plates, this landmark publication deserves a place on every cartoonist's bookshelf.

The Zim course is formatted in two large hardback volumes consisting of 20 lesson books spanning over 700 pages in total. The foreword is by Ralph Bakshi with an introduction and biography of Eugene Zimmerman by Stephen Worth. The set is digitally printed to exacting standards using high resolution archival scans from the collection of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

Proceeds from the sale of Zim's Correspondence School of Cartooning, Comic Art & Caricature go to support the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit museum, library and archive dedicated to preserving and promoting the art of animation. The two volumes will be available individually or as a set at this year's San Diego Comic Con at the ASIFA-Hollywood booth. Quantities are limited.

Soon after the Comic-Con, copies of the book and fine art prints by Zim will be available on this site. Check back for details.

For more on the Zim Course, see our Previous Post on the subject.
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Comics: Kurtzman's Comic Books

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:45:00 +0000

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 comics.

Today, Kent Butterworth stopped by on his lunch break to watch Terry Bears cartoons featuring eye popping Jim Tyer animation. I realized that it's been a while since I posted any comic book scans from Kent's great collection of golden age funny animal comics. I'm righting that wrong right now with some great examples by Harvey Kurtzman. Enjoy! (Thanks Kent!)

If you enjoyed this post, check out our first article on Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny Part One and Part Two. Also see... Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, Milt Stein's Supermouse (Coo Coo Comics No. 7) Dan Gordon's Superkatt, Jim Tyer's Comic Books, Harvey Eisenberg's Foxy Fagan and Boodi Rogers' Babe Comics.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

6.6.09
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Congratulations

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:55:00 +0000

Danny Young, a technical animator at Rhythm & Hues, has become a familiar face volunteering at the Animation Archive and ASIFA events. Last night, the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood appointed him to join them on the Board. Danny will be representing ASIFA-Hollywood to the video game industry. Well deserved. Congratulations, Danny!

Henry Selick with Danny Young at the Annie Awards

Comics: George Lichty Grin And Bear It Orgy!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:03:00 +0000

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 Christopher Lopez saw our feature on George Lichty a month or two back and decided to donate a big stack of vintage Grin And Bear It dalies and Sunday pages. I grew up with George Lichty's cartoons in the funnies every day, and as a kid, I didn't give much thought to them. But seeing his work from a wide range of years is a revelation. At first glance, Lichty's drawings appear sloppy, with formulaic oafish characters with their jaws agape. But look closer... His compositional sense and skill at putting across a visual gag is remarkable. There's nothing sloppy about his use of perspective either. His lines seem to be alive!

Along with the batch of comics, Christopher included an article on Lichty from 1952. It mentions a feature in the Saturday Evening Post titled "Does Lichty Really Hate People" (does anyone out there have a copy of that article we could scan?) and offers some choice tidbits on Lichty's working habits and lifestyle...

He works best in a crowded, noisy newspaper office. His desk is heaped so high with old drawings, discarded captions, letters he has forgotten to mail, cigarette stubs and fan mail that ever fourth day the janitors are ordered to dig through the debris just to make sure that Lichty is still alive and breathing.

Lichty has a few happy passtimes... He likes to putter around the house. When in doubt he lays little brick walls that wind aimlessly around the Lichty garden. He also plays the bass drum, sometimes at home, but more often as a member of the Guckenheimer Sour Kraut Band, a unique musical institution that he says is perpetuating a dying art form. He is not certain what the art form is, but anyway, he admits it is dying.

Now if that isn't a great description of the life of a cartoonist, I don't know what is!

Lichty was one of the comic page's longest working artists. His style changed little over the years. Compare the examples below from the late thirties to the Sunday pages from the 50s. Lichty's distinctive free flowing lines were a staple of the funnies for over half a century. He may have drawn slouches, but I think you'll agree, as an artist, he was no slouch himself!

Here (thanks to Joseph Campana) is the entry on Lichty from Martin Sheridan's Comics And Their Creators...

1939 DAILY STRIPS

1937 SUNDAY PAGES

MID 1940s DAILY STRIPS

1950s SUNDAY PAGES

Thanks Christopher!

Check out the fascinating link between Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs and George Lichty in John K's All Kinds of Stuff.

If you enjoyed this post, see Virgil Partch's Here We Go Again, The Wild Wild Women 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

6.3.09
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History: Terrytoons Studio Tour 1939

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:07:00 +0000

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.

Carlo Vinci and Connie Rasinski

Bill Weiss, Paul Terry, unknown, Larry Silverman, Carlo Vinci

For more on the Terry Studios' production process, see our earlier post, How Animated Cartoons Are Made
Recently, the family of the legendary animator, Carlo Vinci lent us two 8mm films to transfer for the archive. I'll post about the other one soon, but today I have a special treat for you... a color film outlining the animation production process from Terrytoons in 1939!

Here are frame grabs of most of the people appearing in this short. If you can identify anyone, please let us know in the comments below.

Animator Carlo Vinci

Story Man Larry Silverman

Story Man Tommy Morrison

Music Director Phil Scheib and Director Connie Rasinski

Makin' Em Move (Terry/1939)
(Quicktime 7 / 30.7 megs)

Here is the cartoon we see the artists working on in this film...

Harvest Time (Terry/1940)
(Quicktime 7 / 13.8 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Many thanks to the Vinci family for sharing this with us! And thanks to Jerry Beck too for arranging the video transfer of this delicate original film.

For more information on Carlo Vinci, see our Carlo Vinci Cartoon Hall of Fame entry. Also see... Carlo Vinci Notes / Terrytoons Model Sheets and The Temperamental Lion / John K on Flintstones Animators / Nat Falk's How To Draw Animated Cartoons Part One: History Of Animation / Part Two: The Cartoon Studios / 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

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

5.28.09
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Comics: Chic Young's Blondie

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:34:00 +0000

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.

Chic Young was one of the most successful newspaper cartoonists of his time. His first syndicated strip, Dumb Dora ran from 1924 to 1930. He retired the strip to create a "pretty girl" comic (ala Polly & her Pals) titled Blondie. It was an instant hit. Young penned Blondie until his death in 1973. The strip is still in print, under the byline of his son, Dean.

The other day, Archive supporter Joe Campana stopped by for a visit. He brought along a book for us to digitize... Comics And Their Creators was written by Martin Sheridan in 1942. It's a treasure trove of biographical information on great comic strip artists. Today, I am presenting the chapter on Chic Young, along with some rare original Sunday pages from the collection of Marc Crisafulli.

Here are some of the very earliest Blondie Sunday pages...

July 19th, 1931

August 9th, 1931

August 16th, 1931

August 23rd, 1931

September 6th, 1931
Many thanks to Marc Crisafulli for sharing these rare original comics pages with us; and to Joe Campana of Animation Who And Where for lending us Comics And Their Creators.

For more info on Chic Young, see... Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part Two and People On Paper. Also see... Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three. Also see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three and Part Four; and Rube Goldberg's Side Show.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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What Is ASIFA Hollywood?

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:23:00 +0000

Don't Be Left Out! Join ASIFA-Hollywood!

Those of you who have been following the progress of the Animation Archive may not be familiar with the organization behind it... ASIFA-Hollywood. If you love animation and live in Los Angeles, you have no excuse to not be a member of ASIFA-Hollywood. The benefits far outweigh the cost of the annual dues. Even if you don't live in LA, there are plenty of reasons to join, or to seek out a chapter of ASIFA near you. (There are ASIFA chapters all over the world.)

Bookmark the ASIFA-Hollywood Homepage and read on to find out...

What Is ASIFA-Hollywood?

We are the Los Angeles chapter of the international organization, ASIFA: The International Animated Film Society. Founded by a group of animators in 1957, and chartered by UNESCO in 1960, ASIFA encourages the art of animation and futhers international understanding and goodwill through the medium. Today, there are about thirty chapters of ASIFA all over the globe. ASIFA is a French acronym... "Association Internationale du Film D'Animation".

ASIFA- Hollywood was established over thirty years ago as a 501(c)(3) California non-profit organization. It is the largest chapter of ASIFA in the world. We are self-sustaining through our membership dues and the proceeds from our various projects and events.

Can I Please Be A Member?

Certainly! ASIFA-Hollywood membership is open to animation professionals, students and fans of animation. Anyone who loves animation can be a member of ASIFA!

There are three types of membership categories... General Member, Patron and Student Member. To find out about these and read about our goals and ongoing projects, read on...

What's The Concept Behind ASIFA-Hollywood?

ASIFA-Hollywood is the place where professional animators and fans, employees from competing studios and artists of different disciplines can join together on neutral ground where the common denominator is a passion for animation.

ASIFA-Hollywood's Goals

To support and encourage animation education
To support the preservation and critical evaluation of animation history
To recognize the achievement of excellence in the art and industry of animation
To increase public awareness of animation
To act as a liason to encourage the free exchange of ideas within the animation community
To encourage journalism documenting current trends and activities in animation
To encourage the social interaction of professional and non-professional animation enthusiasts
To encourage the development and expression of all forms of animation

So What Does ASIFA Do?

If you love animation, you'll find lots to do as a member of ASIFA-Hollywood. Here are just a few of our ongoing projects and programs...

MEMBER EVENTS AND SCREENINGS

Throughout the year, we host a packed calendar of events, including screenings of rare cartoons, members-only sneak peeks at current animated features and shows, lectures and workshops by noted animation professionals and social networking meetings. For up to date info on our activities, bookmark our Calendar of Events for more info.

THE ANNIE AWARDS

First held in 1972, the Annie Awards have grown to become animation's highest honor. The Annies are dedicated to honoring the best animated films of the year, as well as recognizing individual achievement. All members of ASIFA-Hollywood may vote for the winners. See AnnieAwards.org for more info.

THE ANIMATION ARCHIVE

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has been collecting material related to the art of animation for over thirty years. Recently, the Board of Directors resolved to create a world-class archive, library and museum dedicated to the artform. Work is underway to build a digital archive- a database containing hundreds of thousands of image files, biographical sketches, filmographic data and animated films- all searchable by keyword. You can read about the day by day progress of this project on the Archive Blog located at AnimationArchive.org.

AND THAT'S NOT ALL FOLKS...

ASIFA-Hollywood is at the forefront of the LA animation scene. We preserve films in danger of being lost to nitrate deterioration through our Animated Film Preservation Project. We maintain a charitable fund, The Animation Aid Foundation, and we foster education through the Stephen Bosustow and Art Babbitt Educational Endowment Funds.

Okie Doke... Sign Me Up!

ASIFA membership is available in three levels...

Patron Membership includes International Membership and provides a donation for the Animation Archive and Film Preservation projects.

General Membership ($75/year within the US/$100 outside the US) includes International Membership

Student Membership ($30/year) does not include International Membership. Student ID required.

Volunteer opportunities are always available. Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering by sending an email to... volunteer@asifa-hollywood.org

Print Out The Membership Form

PDF Membership Form

Mail It With Payment To...

ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD
2114 W Burbank Bl
Burbank, CA 91506

Inquiries about membership status should be directed to... membership@asifa-hollywood.org

ABOUT ASIFA INTERNATIONAL
Find out about what ASIFA does all over the world.

ASIFA INTERNATIONAL CONTACT DIRECTORY
Find a chapter of ASIFA near you.

JOIN ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD
Join us.

Drawings on this page by Grim Natwick and Tissa David.

Filmography: The Little King in On The Pan 1933

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:56:00 +0000

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 7 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great cartoons to study.

The early sound cartoons that came out of New York have an indescribable quality that is sorely missing from animation today. The best way I can describe it is "fun factor". New York cartoons are gritty, unpredictable and outrageous with jazzy music forming the foundation for the action. There are no pretentions to be anything other than seven minutes of cartoony joy. This cartoon is no exception...

On The Pan (Van Beuren/1933)
(Quicktime 7 / 15 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

This cartoon was given to the Archive by Steve Stanchfield of Thunderbean Animation. Steve has been collecting, restoring and releasing incredibly rare animation on DVD. The discs are packed with great cartoons you can't find anywhere else, and have supplemental material that you can easily spend hours browsing. I highly recommend them.

If you like this cartoon, see some of our previous postings... Fleischer's You're Driving Me Crazy 1931, I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles and Mariutch; Jim Tyer Comic Books and Tyer's Barnyard Actor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

5.20.09
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Illustration: Tenggren's D'Aulnoy and Good Dog Book

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:47:00 +0000

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.

Just in case you aren't convinced yet that Gustaf Tenggren is one of the most amazing children's book illustrators of all time, here are two more persuasive arguments. These two books were published in 1923 and 1924, a very busy period for Tenggren. He had recently relocated to New York City, and he illustrated no less than eight books in a very short period of time. Make sure to click through the links to our other Tenggren posts at the bottom of this article to see more of his beautiful work.

THE GOOD DOG BOOK

Lines and Colors posted a nice feature on Tenggren this week.

For more incredible illustration by Gustaf Tenggren, see Tenggren's Grimms Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, Heidi, Wonderbook and Juan & Juanita, and Small Fry and the Winged Horse.

See also... Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929 and 1934, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1917, Arthur Rackham's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

5.12.09
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EVENT: Little Mermaid Reunion May 21st

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:59:00 +0000

ASIFA-Hollywood Proudly Presents
The Little Mermaid Twentieth Anniversary Reunion
Fletcher Jones Foundation Auditorium
Woodbury University
7500 Glenoaks Bl, Burbank, California
Thursday, May 21, 2009 7-10 PM

Special guests for the panels will include the film's writers and directors John Musker & Ron Clements, animators Andreas Deja (King Triton), Mark Henn (Ariel), Duncan Marjoribanks (Sebastian), Reuben Aquino (Ursula) and Tina Price (CAPS system and early CGI). The panel will be moderated by animator Tom Sito.

Reservations are not required for this event. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Members of ASIFA-Hollywood and students of Woodbury admitted free; non-members $10. Tickets can be purchased at the door. Parking is free. Woodbury University is located at 7500 Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, CA 91510-7846.

Proceeds from this program will benefit the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

This event is made possible by a generous grant from the Walter Lantz Foundation
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Comics: Dudley Fisher's Right Around Home

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:06:00 +0000

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.

You might remember an earlier post I did on the "Bird's Eye View" comics from Boy's Life magazine by Harrison Cady. (If you haven't seen it, by all means, check it out!) Here is a similar format comic, courtesy of our friends at Digital Funnies... "Right Around Home".

Dudley Fisher was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1890. He studied to be an architect, but dropped out to take a job as a layout artist at the Columbus Dispatch. After returning from WWI, Fisher created a comic strip called "Jolly Jingles". Year after year, he cranked out rhyming verse until he couldn't stand it any more. In December of 1937 he decided to take a break from jingles and draw what Christmas on his grandmother's farm would be like (if he had a grandmother and she lived on a farm!) He drew it as one big full page panel and readers immediately took to it and clamored for more. King Features picked up the strip and titled it "Right Around Home". These great Sunday pages date from early in the run- 1939.

When asked by a young artist what sorts of pens and paper to use to draw cartoons, Fisher recommended not worrying about things like that, saying "I feel certain that Michaelangelo could have done a masterpiece on meat wrapping paper with a toothbrush and shoe polish. It's all got to come out of the artist- not the ink bottle."

These fabulous scans of original Sunday pages were provided to the Archive by Jonathan Barli of Digital Funnies. Jonathan is hard at work on an important project- documenting and restoring early cartoons and comics in digital form. He offers a wide variety of fascinating material for sale on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. Please take a moment to visit the Digital Funnies website, and let him know that the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive sent you.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.29.09
.

Theory: Our Dreams of the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:39:00 +0000

THE FUTURE OF THE DISTANT PAST
Last week, I posted an article on James Montgomery Flagg's "Nervy Nat", a comic strip that ran in Judge magazine from 1903 to 1907. The page below was part of that post. It depicts a trip to Venus by zeppelin. For the past few days, I've been thinking about this comic and what it says about the way mankind's vision of the heavens has changed in the past century.

In previous generations, outer space was thought of in terms of symbolic mythology. Mars was the god of war- Venus, the goddess of love. The stars in the sky formed the shapes of the signs of the Zodiac. The concept of traveling to another planet was unthinkable- as fantastic as the trip to the underworld, purgatory and paradise in Dante's Divine Comedy. When people of the past envisioned what the inhabitants of other planets might be like, they conceived of gods and spirits who lived lives like those of the heroes and villains found in fables and ancient myths.

In Disney's 1957 television program, "Mars And Beyond", director Ward Kimball explored this concept...

People On Other Planets
"Mars & Beyond" (Disney/1957)
(Quicktime 7 / 13.3 MB)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Around the turn of the 20th century, mankind's conception of the world underwent a huge shift. Advances in technology were occurring at an unprecedented rate. These changes affected the way people lived their lives and the way they thought about their place in the universe. Technology was enabling people to travel faster, further and more comfortably than ever before. For the first time, ordinary folks were able to travel all around the globe. People began to think there might be no limit to the number of amazing changes technology was going to bring to them in the next hundred years.

They were right.

By the midpoint of the 20th century, things that had seemed unthinkable a generation before had become commonplace... trains, planes and automobiles carried people to every point on earth. Electricity powered a wide range of household appliances. Television, phonographs and radio enabled pictures and sound to be captured and broadcast to every household in America. The lives led by the average family in the year 1950 would have seemed like wild, futuristic dreams to the generations that preceded them.

But society wasn't through dreaming.

CHESLEY BONESTELL'S TRIP TO VENUS

Chesley Bonestell was trained as an architect. He designed the art deco facade and gargoyles for the Chrysler Building in New York, and was the first to create an architectural rendering of what the Golden Gate Bridge would look like spanning the opening of San Francisco Bay. In the late 30s, he created matte paintings for movies like Citizen Kane and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But an interest in astronomy soon led him to his most well known work: illustrations depicting space travel.

In 1944, Bonestell created photorealistic paintings of Saturn for Life magazine that caused a sensation. This led to a series of illustrated articles which were eventually collected in an anthology titled, The Conquest of Space. Bonestell worked with George Pal as a designer on Destination Moon and War of the Worlds. When the famous scientist, Wernher Von Braun was preparing a series of articles for Colliers on the topic of manned space exploration, Bonestell was his first pick to illustrate. Von Braun had dedicated himself to informing the American public that space travel was not just a dream- it could become a reality- all that was needed was money and will. Remember those two things... I'll be coming back to them in a moment.

Here is an article from the March, 1950 issue of Coronet magazine. Illustrated by the "father of modern space art", Chesley Bonestell, this fantastic vision of a vacation trip to Venus in the year 2500 doesn't just offer suggestions for what sort of technology might exist; it shows how that technology might be incorporated into our everyday lives.

ANIMATION EXPLORES DISTANT WORLDS

Director/animator Ward Kimball (far right) saw Bonestell's illustrations in Colliers and encouraged Walt Disney to produce a television program based on Wernher von Braun's vision of the future. Disney, Kimball and von Braun came together to create three episodes of the Disneyland television series- "Man in Space", "Man and the Moon" and "Mars and Beyond".

In this segment from "Mars and Beyond" the Disney animators speculate on the strange forms alien life might take...

Life Forms On Other Planets
"Mars & Beyond" (Disney/1957)
(Quicktime 7 / 11 MB)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

It's impossible to overstate how important the Disney space shows were to the American space program. President Dwight Eisenhower requested a copy of "Man in Space" to screen for his top military officers to convince them that space travel was indeed possible. Six months after "Mars and Beyond" aired, congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act which established NASA. The launch of Russia's Sputnik satellite in October 1957 might have been the immediate impetus for the swift passage of the funding for the program, but the groundwork for the concept behind NASA was laid by Wernher von Braun and Walt Disney.

THE MEN WHO TOOK US TO THE MOON

Walt Disney and Wernher von Braun
Clearly, scientists like Wernher von Braun and politicians like Eisenhower and Kennedy were responsible for America's space program. But it took more than science and funding to put man on the moon. It took will. The awe inspiring imaginary vistas of Chesley Bonestell and the fantastic animation of Ward Kimball and Walt Disney became our collective dreams. The day after "Man in Space" aired, every man, woman and child in America had the same fantasy in their head- the burning desire to go to the moon. The visions created by these artists and filmmakers became reality because they crystallized and energized our collective will.

Animation has the power to mobilize society to do great things.

THE FUTURE OF THE PRESENT
If you've read through this half century of history I've laid out for you, I'm going to reward you by poking pins in a few of your childhood sacred cows- the futuristic visions of the latter part of the 20th century.

"So Bad It's Good?"
I've read several places on the internet about the concept of retro futurism. This is one of those post-modern, ironic ideologies that looks back at the visions of the future from the past as some sort of quaint, naiive thing. The problem with this outlook is that it ignores the fact that the fantasies it mocks were responsible for putting man in space.

"Obsolete Future?"
If the visions of Von Braun, Disney and Bonestell are now considered "camp", what sort of imagery have we replaced it with?

Our modern conception of futuristic fantasy has been dragged down to banal reality by people with nowhere near the imagination of the futurists of the past. If movies represent our collective dreams, then let's look at what we are dreaming about...

"Today's Future?"
Instead of idealistic heroes like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, space is populated by jaded, long-haul truckers like Han Solo and the squabbling crew of the Nostromo in Alien. Stanley Kubrik succeeded in turning a space station into a boring 21st century DMV waiting room in 2001. The world of the future isn't a beautiful city of glass and steel where people live in climate controlled safety- in Blade Runner it's a crowded downtown ethnic marketplace with weather that would make Seattle seem like a tropical paradise.

"Has our imagination gone soft?"
Space ships are no longer sleek, chrome plated rockets with exotic tail fins- they're flying shoeboxes with a bunch of dirty breakfast cereal glued all over them. Robots aren't complex humanoid machines whose prime directive is assisting their owners in any way they can- they're trash cans on wheels that make annoying beeps and blorps, or time-traveling thugs in leather jackets riding motorcycles.

Aliens aren't fantastic creatures made of crystal that chew the landscape into wild filagrees like in "Mars and Beyond", or even super-intelligent beings who will help us solve all the world's problems with their advanced technology. They're medieval monsters with scales like a dragon that lurk in the shadows, or parasitic worms that crawl inside us to devour us from the inside out, or rubbery magical midgets covered with wrinkles and warts. Science has been replaced by pseudo-religious concepts like "the force". Aliens in Close Encounters don't just have the technology to make Richard Dreyfuss mold mountains out of his mashed potatoes, they can even make toys come to life!

Cynicism and magic are the order of the day- no room for scientific inquiry and ambition...

"Is this what life on other planets looks like?"
If these are our collective visions of the future, I sincerely hope that our dreams never come true. Perhaps we should consider dreaming a higher quality of dream. Let's bring back the futurism we were cheated out of and start building a future that's worth inhabiting.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Cartooning: James Montgomery Flagg's Nervy Nat

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:21:00 +0000

James Montgomery Flagg is best known for his iconic recruitment posters like the one above, but he was also an accomplished magazine illustrator and cartoonist as well.

In 1890 at the age of 12, James presented himself and a group of sketches at the offices of St. Nicholas Magazine, the leading illustrated children's publication of the time. He was shown to the office of one of the editors who looked at his drawings and determined that he showed promise. The editor praised the boy's work and encouraged his parents to seek out art training for him. Flagg took classes at the Art Students' League in New York, and within two years, he was a regular contributor to St. Nicholas, and Life magazine, and eventually landed a staff position at Judge. Alongside great artists like Grant Hamilton and Eugene Zimmerman, Flagg flourished, becoming one of the top illustrators of his day.

Flagg was very versatile, and his sketches of beautiful women were just as well drawn as his caricatured cartoons. He was outspoken and critical of the art community. He once said that "the difference between the artist and the illustrator is that the latter knows how to draw, eats three square meals a day, and can pay for them."

From 1903 to 1907, Flagg drew a comic strip for Judge titled, "Nervy Nat". Here are some examples of the strip from 1906 and 1907.

For more on pioneering cartoonists, see... Father of Cartooning: T. S. Sullivant, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & her Pals Part One and Part Two; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views and Rube Goldberg's Side Show

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Biography: Carlo Vinci Notes From Terry-Toons

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:13:00 +0000

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 7 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great cartoons to study.

Last Friday, archive assistant Amir Avni, John Kricfalusi and I took a trip out to visit Carlo Vinci's family at the home of his wife, Margaret. Mrs. Vinci graciously welcomed us into her home for a tour of her collection of artwork belonging to her late husband. Carlo's animation desk, which he designed and built himself, still stands in his office just as he left it, with caricatures by co-workers hanging above it on the wall. Every room in the house has beautiful artwork filling the space. It was an awe inspiring experience to get a chance to see it all.

John K, Steve Worth and Margaret Vinci
Carlo Vinci was a remarkable artist. He received classical art training at the National Academy of Design in 1930. He joined Paul Terry's Terry-Toons soon after, and worked there for twenty years. He came West to join Joe Barbera at MGM, and ended up as the lead animator at H-B for twenty more years. But as I learned at my visit, those great achievements were only a small part of his story. In addition to cartooning, Vinci was an all-around fine artist, adept at oil painting, watercolor, illustration, stained glass and sculpture... in a variety of styles, from classical to baroque to art deco... with a wide range of subjects- still lifes, portraiture, landscapes and religious subjects. It was a mind blowing experience to discover the depth of talent behind a cartoonist we thought we already knew.

Carlo Vinci's son, Paul and grandson, John
with John K in front of Vinci's self-portrait
After we had viewed all the amazing artwork, Mrs. Vinci invited us to enjoy some home made Italian desserts with her family. Excited by everything we had seen, we had plenty of questions about Carlo and his wonderful career as an artist. We asked if she had met him before he started working for Terry-Toons or after, and she replied, "He was working for Mr. Terry when I met him. When we were courting, he lived in the Bronx, and I lived in Brooklyn. It was a long trip across town to meet for our date every Wednesday evening. Carlo would send me a little note with a cartoon every day in the mail when we couldn't be together. I've saved them all these years, but I don't suppose you would be interested in seeing them..."

Naturally, we were! Her son, Paul Vinci helped her to retrieve the hundreds of letters from a closet- all on Terry animation paper in envelopes with the distinctive Terry-Toons logo. Dating from 1938 to 1939, these charming little notes had a personal message, along with brilliant drawings depicting Terry characters. Paul commented that he himself hadn't seen the letters since he was very small; and even then, his mother only shared one or two with him. They had been bundled away carefully for over fifty years. Mrs. Vinci has kindly allowed us to share these drawings with you...

We will be presenting more material by the great Carlo Vinci in the coming weeks. All of us at ASIFA-Hollywood appreciate Mrs. Vinci's generosity. Paul and John Vinci will be printing out this post and sharing it with her, so you can thank her yourself in the comments below.

For more information on this great animator, see our Carlo Vinci Cartoon Hall of Fame entry. Also see... Terrytoons Model Sheets and The Temperamental Lion / John K on Flintstones Animators / Ruff And Reddy And Pinky The Pint-Sized Pachyderm / Alex Toth Model Sheets / 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

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.8.09
.

Biography: George Herriman

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:27:00 +0000

Capsule biography from Martin Sheridan's book,
"Comics and their Creators" (1942)
Here is a treat. Buried in the stacks of Cartoons Magazines that Marc Schirmeister loaned us to digitize, I found a a great article on George Herriman from June of 1917...

Enjoy!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Biography: Milton Caniff- A Remembrance

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:57:00 +0000

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 4 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great biographies of important artists.

Milton Caniff with Jack Benny
UNCLE MILT
By Harry Grant Guyton
I would like to share some of my special memories about my uncle Milton Arthur Caniff.

Bunny (My aunt Esther) and Milt never had children, so my older sister, brother and I were their kids for years. But they also adopted many, many other children. One is Hesper Anderson, the screenwriter of Children of a Lesser God. They put a number of young adults through school and college, so in this way they were parents to many. Unfortunately, none of us were artistic in the same sense he was, at least not to my knowledge.

I recall that when I was twelve and living in Los Angeles in 1936, Milt gave my sister, brother and I yellow slicker raincoats that he painted large pictures of the characters from Terry And The Pirates on the back of. I believe my sister had a large black drawing of Pat Ryan on her slicker, my brother had Terry and I had Connie. I often wonder what happened to those raincoats.

Milton Caniff with Joan Crawford,
the inspiration for the "Dragon Lady"
Milt had narcolepsy and could- and did- fall asleep anywhere and at any time. In the old days when he was smoking, drawing and watching TV, he would fall asleep, drop his cigarette, and burn his drawing. When he burnt a hole in the strip, he always hoped it was in a spot he could cover; if not, he had to redo the whole strip. Speaking of Milt's smoking, after Milt quit, he always used to light up women's cigarettes so he could get a few puffs.

Milt had the habit of falling asleep while talking to you. We were in a chauffeured Limo in Panama. The chauffeur, Milt and I were in the front seat with the girls in the back. Milt, talking, fell asleep and awakened about five minutes later, still continuing the conversation. Needless to say, the chauffeur was amazed. Milt had bought Bun a 1959 Silver Cloud Rolls-Royce for her 1958 Christmas present. When Milt drove, he put the back part of the seat down so far, it appeared he was sleeping. Alas, one day en route to the Racquet Club in Palm Springs, he did fall asleep while driving like this. After that incident, Bunny would not let him drive unless he had just awakened from a nap.

Milt and Bunny spent money like it was water. they enjoyed their life and lived it fully. When they lived in Palm Springs, Bun sent their dry cleaning to New York because no one in California could do it right. Bun always had Milt on a diet, such as eating celery and carrots and having just one drink before dinner. In Palm Springs they had a main house and three blocks away they had a duplex. One side of the duplex was Milt's studio with the other side for guests. Milt would spend half of a 24 hour day or more in the studio. The first time we stayed in the guest part, Bun always had "goodies" such as food and liquor in the kitchen. We had a favorite cookie, so she had four or five packages of these laid out on the kitchen counter. The next morning they were gone. While Milt was working, he wandered over, saw the cookies and devoured them. Needless to say, we always left some goodies out for Milt, and no one ever said "boo" about them.

Caniff with Bob Crane of "Hogan's Heroes"
Milt had the ability to talk to you and remember almost everything you said. He picked the brains of everyone he spoke with and was able to fit almost any conversation into his strip in one form or another. It mattered not if you were a general or a private. He could elicit information from either and use it. When he visited a base and found a military person he liked and wanted to have in the strip, he would use the person's first name as his last name, such as Sgt. Andy Trone became Sgt. Andy. The character Charlie Vanilla was Charles Russhon, a US Army photographer who was on the first US plane to land in Japan. To my knowledge Milton never put any idea down on paper that went into his files. It mostly came from his head and went into the strip as he drew it. I found no notes or other papers that would give a clue as to what Milt had in mind or what future strips would show.

Of course Milton Caniff was a stickler for accuracy, but his fans were eagle-eyed. I was with him at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. He climbed into the cockpit of a fighter plane (an F-104 I believe), and spent maybe five minutes in it. That evening, he used it in Steve Canyon. He had committed the control panel in that cockpit to memory, and months later when the strip was published, he received numerous letters saying that had Steve been flying as high as Milt implied in the strip, one of the gauge readings was wrong.

He loved to get letters of criticism as well as praise because this meant people were reading the strip. One time an editor who was a friend of Milton's said he had sent back a letter of criticism to the writer. Milt asked him not to do that in the future. He wanted them forwarded to him because maybe he had made a mistake and he wanted to correct it if he had. When he was doing Terry and the Pirates, he had once put Terry's insignia on wrong, and got hundreds of letters pointing out the error. His eyes would twinkle as he said, "See! They're following the strip!"

Japanese newspaper cartoonist
Yoshirou Kato with Milton
Milt told me when he was switching from Terry And The Pirates to Steve Canyon that he had to get William Randolph Hearst's OK on certain aspects of the strip. Milt said he flew to Los Angeles, took a plane to near San Simeon and was driven up to Hearst's "castle". He was shown into the dining room where Hearst sat at the opposite end of a long table drinking a cup of coffee. Hearst asked Milt questions such as what he had in mind for Steve and how much money he wanted. Milt said to himself, "You ungracious bastard!" and told Hearst what he had in mind for the strip, asking for double his present salary and all the fringes- plus ownership of the copyrights to his strip. He related how Hearst said, "You're a high-priced son of a bitch." and got up and left the room. Milt left and two weeks later was informed that Hearst had agreed to the terms.

Milt told me that in the early 30s and 40s, he sent his original strips to the syndicates, instead of sending photostat copies. One day they cleared out the storeroom and sent him back what was left. A lot of Milt's original Terry art had been taken from that storeroom by a person or persons unknown. So Milton decided to bequeath his alma mater, Ohio State University, his files, art and memorabilia. Ohio State has a great many of Milt's original pieces that he drew from the beginning of his career. After Milt passed away, when I was going through the file cabinets and belongings in New York, I came across some things that I really wanted to keep but couldn't. I donated everything Milt had to Lucy Caswell and the Milton Caniff Reading Room at Ohio State University, including the #2 pop-up book of Terry And The Pirates which I loved so much.

One time whoever took his weekly strips to the photo engravers had lost them and he had to do the whole week over. As I was taking the strips to be copied he jokingly told me, "Do not lose these." When I returned, I told him I was going to wash the Rolls Royce and found the lost strips under the passenger seat. He said, "Since you found them, they're yours." He always gave me strips and items he had done for various organizations, because of the Terry And The Pirates originals that had been taken. He instructed me to not give them away, because someday they may become valuable. So I kept them and forgot I had most of them. Earlier this year John Ellis and I were going through boxes of papers and files and we found them.

Dean Fredericks (TV's Steve Canyon),
Harry Truman and Milton Caniff
During the 1954 National Cartoonist's Society convention in Washington, D.C., I had been invited to join the group and was to present the Silver T-Square Award to President Eisenhower and Secretary of the Treasury Humphries. However, there was a military officer who belonged to the NCS who said that since I was only a Master Sergeant, he should be the one to present it. In the end, Milton presented it himself. Walt Kelly was trying to fix me up with any and every girl we ran into. I heard that he and Al Capp got into it, but I was not present when they did and I don't recall what it was about.

Here's an interesting side note to all of this... I was stationed at Fort Eustis, Virginia at the time and had been loaned a Major General's plane to get to the NCS convention in Washington D.C. When I reported to Bolling AFB for my flight home, a Lieutenant Colonel was waiting to fly me back to Fort Eustis. As we were walking down the ramp to the plane, a paratroop Major from Fort Bragg, NC with his combat boots bloused and his ribbons shining, asked the Colonel for a ride. The Colonel stated, "You'll have to ask the Sergeant- it's his plane." The Major finally swallowed his pride and asked me if it was OK, I said yes. The Major tried to get into the co-pilot's seat, but the Colonel said. "No way. That's the Sergeant's seat." As we arrived at Fort Eustis, the Major jumped out and ran into Flight Operations. As I entered they were all trying to figure out how a Master Sergeant in the Army could have a Lt. Colonel type fly him around! Milt tried for years to fit this incident into Steve Canyon but couldn't come up with a good story that would fit.

Over the years Milton would use my name in the strips, usually on signs or on soldier's uniforms. I always got a big kick out of that. You can see the name "Guyton" clearly in the last panel of the December 24th, 1961 Steve Canyon Sunday page. My son, Terry Wayne Guyton was named after the comic strip Terry. My sister has two daughters who Milt used in Steve Canyon, Dianne was the model for "Doodly Bixenshoos", and Sandra was the model for "Orbs Corbs" in the mid 60s. I had a wonderful relationship with my uncle and saw him usually six times a year. On each visit he would talk to me for hours while drawing and watching sports on TV. He always said I took care of him. Bunny kept him on that diet and I always left treats in the kitchen. Often, I would find a thank you note on the table. Every day with him was a holiday, and I learned a lot. I miss him.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon Sunday Pages, People On Paper, Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One- Meet The Men Behind the Comics and Part Two- Studying Comic Strips, Dan Gordon's Superkatt, Rube Goldberg's Side Show and Alex Toth Model Sheets

STEVE CANYON TV SHOW

For info on the Steve Canyon TV show DVD, see... www.stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com

STEVE CANYON AT AMAZON

Fantagraphics has a great book on Caniff's career, and Checker has released year by year reprints of the classic Steve Canyon strip. Caniff was a master storyteller, and the first few years of Steve Canyon are examples of his genius at the height of its powers. Click on the pictures for more info.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

"Steve Canyon" is a Registered Trademark of the Milton Caniff Estate.
© 2007 Milton Caniff Estate. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

4.6.09
.

Parody: More Whack Comics

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:23:00 +0000

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 comics.

Today, we present more parodies from Whack comics... But first take a look at the picture above. It's an an early advertisement for the Joe Kubert School. 3D comics and movies were all the rage then. Television was beginning to cut into ticket sales at theaters, and producers were looking for a technical advantage over TV to give them an edge. But the fad quickly fizzled out. Movie audiences and comic book readers were more interested in the quality of the movies and comics than the number of dimensions. Today, DVDs and digital media downloading are cutting into the traditional media markets. Some producers are beating the drum for 3D again. Let's hope they realize soon that people are more interested in quality entertainment than formats.

The following story by Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer trumpets their publication of the world's first 3D comic book, Three Dimension Comics in 1953. Strangely enough, the comic this was published in, Whack wasn't in 3D!

PARODY

In my last post on Whack comics, I left something unsaid, hoping someone would pick up on it in the comments. J.J. Hunsecker was the one who finally mentioned it...

I find it kind of ironic that you're using Whack as an example of parody, since it can also be said to be a ripoff of MAD.

It's important to understand exactly where the line lies between exploiting an existing concept and plagiarism. Whack doesn't plagiarise Mad magazine... it simply uses the same basic format- a parody comic book. It doesn't ripoff Mad magazine any more than Roy Rogers ripped off Gene Autry or Star Wars ripped off Star Trek. They are simply working in the same genre.

MIGHTY MOOSE
Here's an amusing parody of Paul Terry's Mighty Mouse. The Super Rodent himself even makes an appearance! This is a "second generation parody". Mighty Mouse himself was a parody of Superman.

FLUSH JORDAN
Flash Gordon was also a comic inspired by the success of another similar comic. Alex Raymond created the strip to compete with Dick Calkins' science fiction comic, Buck Rogers. Here, Flash gets "Whacked"... and Bing Crosby is dragged into the mess too!

Thanks to the Estate of Milton Caniff for allowing us to digitize this.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Ripoff vs Inspiration: Chaplin's Shadow. Also see... Jim Tyer's Funny Animal Comics, Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper, Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, and Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.3.09

Design: UPA Done Right

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:38:00 +0000

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)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

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

4.2.09
.

Caricature: The Genius of Miguel Covarrubias

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:03:00 +0000

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.

Miguel Covarrubias was one of the most famous artists of his day, but chances are you've never heard of him. Caricaturists know his work- Al Hirschfeld studied under Covarrubias and shared a studio with him in 1924. He spoke of Covarrubias' talent in the same breath as Daumier and Hogarth. Ethnologists and archaeologists know the name of Covarrubias as well. His analysis of pre-Columbian art and the culture of Bali led to books on the subject that have become classics. And his reputation as an anthropologist rivalled any of his peers in that field. Illustrator, caricaturist, anthropologist, author and educator... It's high time you knew about Covarrubias too!

At the age of nineteen, Miguel Covarrubias, already a renowned caricaturist in his home country of Mexico, emigrated to New York City. He was an instant sensation, and his illustrations began appearing in New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Fellow Mexican artist, Diego Rivera described his illustrations as "those caustic but implacably good-humored drawings which, fortunately for his personal safety, people have been misled into calling caricatures. In Covarrubias' art there is no vicious cruelty, it is all irony untainted with malice; a humor that is young and clean; a precise and well defined plasticity."

Most of the caricatures from Vanity Fair below depict unlikely pairs of public figures. Click on the links to the Wikipedia entries on these people and see why Covarrubias put them together.

MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS CARICATURES

Jim Londos & Herbert Hoover
(Vanity Fair, August 1932)

Senator Smith W. Brookhart & Marlene Dietrich
(Vanity Fair, September 1932)

Al Capone & Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes
(Vanity Fair, October 1932)

Clark Gable & Edward, Prince of Wales
(Vanity Fair, November 1932)

Ex-King Alfonso & James J. Walker
(Vanity Fair, December 1932)

Mrs. Ella Boole & Miss Texas Guinan
(Vanity Fair, January 1933)

Arthur Brisbane & The Sphinx
(Vanity Fair, May 1933)

Emily Post
(Vanity Fair, December 1933)

Admiral Richard E. Byrd
(Vanity Fair, December 1934)

Sally Rand & Martha Graham
(Vanity Fair, December 1934)

Dr. Samuel Johnson & Alexander Woolcott
(Vanity Fair, March 1935)

Auguste Piccard & William Beebe
(Vanity Fair, April 1935)
Covarrubias was much more than just an illustrator and caricaturist though. His books on Bali and Mexico revealed a careful analytical mind with an eye for detail. The following article from an arts magazine from 1948 encompasses the latter part of Covarrubias' career...

MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS OF MEXICO CITY
By Henry C. Pitz (January 1948)

Many thanks to the ever-faithful supporter of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, Kent Butterworth for sharing this wonderful material from his own collection with us.

If you enjoyed this post, check out... Colliers Magazine Illustrations From the Mid-1930s and the Mid-1940s and also... John Held Jr.'s Flappers, Arthur Szyk's The New Order and Artzybasheff's Neurotica, Machinalia and Diablerie.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Parody: Whack Comics No. 2

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:18:00 +0000

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 comics.

A week or two ago, I was taking part in a discussion on the Cold Hard Flash blog about ripping off other artists' work. One of the people discussing the subject brought up the concept of parody, but seemed to have no idea what actually constituted parody. The dictionary defines parody like this...

par-o-dy [par-uh-dee] noun, plural -dies, verb, -died, -dy-ing.
1. a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing: his hilarious parody of Hamlet's soliloquy.

Parody is self-evident. The Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart said, "I find it difficult to define obscenity, but I know it when I see it." Parody is like that too. But if you're going to be a cartoonist, you have to be able to do more than just recognize it... you need to be able to control it and utilize it as a tool. If you succeed, you can create something that does much more than just make fun of another work- it can illuminate an otherwise unthought-of truth, making your parody a creative work that stands on its own. If you fail, you risk plagiarism.

pla-gia-rism [pley-juh-riz-uhm, -jee-uh-riz-] -noun
1. the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.

As a cartoonist, you have to know how to use parody properly. Parody is not an excuse for plagiarism. It's important to add your own caricature and exaggeration to comment on the work you're parodying. And your exaggeration has to make a point. The easiest way to recognize how to do that is to study and analyze other parodies. Here is an example of a comic that parodies other comics... Whack! Today I am presenting two stories from this issue...

WEIRD CREEPY AWFUL SPOOKY GHASTLY COMICS
This story is a parody of the EC Comics horror line, which included Tales From The Crypt, Vault Of Horror and The Haunt Of Fear. If you aren't familiar with these comics, you should check out the reprints produced by Russ Cochran.

STEVE CREVICE
This parody of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon was created by cartoonist, William Overgard. Overgard was a friend of Caniff's. Once, when Caniff was hospitalized, Overgard ghosted a whole week of Steve Canyon dalies so Caniff had time to recouperate. This particular copy of Whack belonged to Caniff. It was lent to us by his estate to digitize.

Let me know in the comments below if you would like to see more from Whack comics.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Ripoff vs Inspiration: Chaplin's Shadow and Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon Dalies. Also see... Jim Tyer's Funny Animal Comics, Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper, Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, and Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.27.09
.