ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

Tom Sito's Speech And Podcast Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:56:00 +0000

Here is what Tom Sito had to say at last night's Annie Awards.

The Great Artists of the past taught us that we in Animation were more than just a bunch of strangers scrambling to make a living. They taught us that we were a family. As much as I was inspired by their drawing technique, I was also inspired by their generosity. Ben Washam gave free animation classes out of his garage to anyone who showed up, Grim Natwick took a newly hired kid at Charles Mintz named Chuck Jones out for an ice cream soda, so he could explain to him squash and stretch, Art Babbitt was out in the streets fighting for better wages for his assistants and painters. And all those who gave their free time to build the animators club ASIFA,John & Faith Hubley, Norman McLaren, Marc Davis, Bill & Fini Littlejohn and especially June Foray.

They didn’t make any money from it, but they did it because it would be good for all the animation community. I hope in my own small way I am paying them back for their generosity to me. The last lesson the old pros taught us was that projects may come and go, studios rise and fall, but in the end, your fellow artists will always be there for you.

So, I would like to thank ASIFA/Hollywood for this honor, my wife Pat, and I’d like to thank you, my animation family, for letting me be part of you. Thank you.

Tom is the guest on our latest A-HAA Podcast.

A-HAA Podcast
Episode 002

43 min / 40 MB / AAC
02.09.10 / RSS Feed
MP3 Version

PROGRAM INDEX

00:00:00 Introduction and Animation News with Danny and Michael
00:08:12 Tom Sito, June Foray Annie Award Recipient
00:18:54 Breadcrumbs with Skip and Steve: Frank Zappa
00:41:25 Closing notes with Michael and Danny

For more information, see... A-HAA PODCAST Episode 002 Tom Sito / Frank Zappa
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Unsung Heroes of Commercial Art: Aviation Illustrators

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:39:00 +0000

Harper Goff
Last week, I posted an article about Harper Goff, the designer of Captain Nemo's Nautilus in Walt Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea". A couple of days later, I was going through a stack of aviation prints to see if I could find an idea for a post, and I and stumbled across these amazing WWII era pantings by Goff. It made me think about the changing role of the commercial artist in society.

Back in the postwar era, the major aircraft builders employed illustrators to conceptualize how complex engineering would transform blueprints and raw materials into real-life massive flying machines. These talented illustrators would create fine art prints for the aerospace companies to give away as gifts to their clients and suppliers. Southern California swap meets are well stocked with these prints, and I've picked up a nice sized pile of them myself over the years.

Today, Photoshop and computer modeling has replaced these great technical artists, and a lot of the magic of flight has been replaced by dull literalism. On first glance, these images might seem super-realistic, but a closer look reveals the amazing technique and creative virtuosity involved in making watercolors evoke speed and power. Here's a facet of illustration history that I would like to know more about. If you have any information on these artists, please post to the comments at the end of this article.

Two more by Harper Goff...

CHARLES H. HUBBELL
Charles Hubbell had a lifelong love of aviation and art. As a child, his hobby was model airplane building, and by the time he was in High School, he had built himself a full scale glider. He attended the Cleveland School of Art in the early 1920s, and sold his paintings to pay for flying lessons. He became a licensed pilot and successful commercial artist. In the late 1930s, Hubbell was approached to combine his interests to illustrate a calendar depicting the winners of an annual air race. For the next three decades, Hubbell painted airplane calendars with terrific authenticity and attention to detail. In the course of his career he painted over 1000 images, which together comprise a fairly complete history of aviation.

JACK LEYNNWOOD
If the art of Jack Leynnwood looks familiar, you are probably a baby boomer who had an interest in model kits growing up. Leynnwood's distinctive paintings on the Revell model kit box covers featured antique biplanes, WWII fighters, helicopters, modern jets and even space rockets. Leynnwood's images jumped off the shelf with their dramatic colors and lighting and dynamic momentum and motion blur. The wings of his airplanes would overlap the corners of the box, making it look like they were ready to fly away. He taught at Art Center College of Design, and passed away in 1999.

MORE AVIATION ARTISTS

George Akimoto

C.F. Coppock

Crundall?

MR?

Alexander Leydenfrost

?
Let me know in the comments if you have any information on these great artists, or if you'd like to see more aviation illustration.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Theory: Robot Animation

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:07:00 +0000

Boing Boing posted today about a robot dancing competition, and as I watched the video it started me thinking... Animation is currently redefining itself with new computer technology; and because of this, the job description of "animator" is undergoing big changes. Someday, perhaps people who read this blog will end up animating robots! It's not that strange of an idea. Walt Disney pioneered the idea of computer controlled robots with the birds in the Tiki Room at Disneyland, and later with Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln.
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Cartooning: Len Norris, Master of Just About Everything

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:00:00 +0000

After the holidays, my pal Jo-Jo Baptista showed me a paperback book of political cartoons he picked up in a junk store when he was visiting his family. It was by a cartoonist I had never heard of before... Len Norris. The second I opened the book, I started to get excited. This guy had everything- great compositions, stylish design, solidly constructed characters, flawless perspective, funny drawings, great fabric folds, expressive hand poses, wild looking kids and animals- and he seemed to be able to draw anything from any angle. He caricatured automobiles and trains as well as the insides of gothic cathedrals and department stores, and depicted fabulous mansions as easily as he drew middle class living rooms. What a talent!

I did a little Googling and discovered that Norris worked as Art Director for Macleans magazines for a few years after WWII, then began a 27 year run as editorial cartoonist for the Vancouver Sun. Norris would lampoon stories from the paper, which he would refer to in a tiny box at the top or on the headline of a paper in a character's hand. Today, without an understanding of the topical context, some of the gags are pretty puzzling. But it doesn't matter- Norris' drawings are spectacular.

It's clear that Norris was inspired by the work of Ronald Searle, as are many current day animators. But Norris takes Searle's ornamental line and wraps it around completely solid forms. This is exactly the sort of translation that a character designer would need to do if he wanted to adapt Searle's style to an animatable model. But Norris isn't just a Searle imitator. His characters are keenly observed and capture the spirit of Canadian culture in the 1950s. Look at these fantastic editorial cartoons and see if you don't agree with Walt Kelly who was quoted as saying that Len Norris was "the best in the business".

Let me know in the comments if you would like to see more by Len Norris.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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IMPORTANT: Need to Speak to Someone at Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:29:00 +0000

Our site provides copyrighted content under the Fair Use exemptions for 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organizations. The terms require us to host and serve our site and the content ourselves. Unfortunately, Blogger is phasing out FTP updating, so our site will no longer be able to be updated on our server. If anyone out there works at Google or Blogger, please contact me at sworth@animationarchive.org. If we are not able to come up with a way to host our Blogger pages ourselves, we will be forced to start from scratch using another blog software. I'd like to avoid that.

Can anyone help?

Thanks
Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Cartooning: Wally Wood in Mad

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:29:00 +0000

Notice the way they start some movies nowadays?... No title at the beginning... The movie starts right in with a scene...

Many thanks to Archive supporter Amir Avni for this fantastic Wally Wood story, Wild 1/2 from Mad magazine (Sept. 1954).

If you enjoyed this post, see... Jack Davis in Mad magazine, Jack Kirby in Not Brand Echh Number One, Marie Severn in Not Brand Echh Number Two, Forbush Man in Not Brand Echh Number Five, Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three; Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4; Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women; Here We Go Again and Man The Beast; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Interview: Chester Gould in 1961

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:32:00 +0000

The other day, my pal Sherm Cohen pointed me to a page on the Comic's Journal site where they have assembled various audio interviews with prominent cartoonists. This interview with Chester Gould, the creator of Dick Tracy is great! He talks about "the three Cs: Caniff, Capp and Kelly" and his early education taking the W. L. Evans Course. Check it out!

Chester Gould Interview (1961)
6.6 MB / MP3 / 29 minutes
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Illustration: Milo Winter's Aesop for Children

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:06:00 +0000

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

Today, I am going to introduce you to another great golden age illustrator, Milo Winter. Born in 1888 in Princeton, Illinois, Winter studied at the Chicago Art Institute. He illustrated dozens of books throughout the teens, twenties and thirties. His better known books are the ones for the Windermere series... Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Three Musketeers and Alice in Wonderland. Winter also served as the art director of the Childcraft series in the late 40s and early 1950s. But his greatest work was the oversize books he illustrated for Rand McNally from the late teens like the one we are featuring today.

Winter was a master of animal drawing. Check out the amazing depictions in these pages... anatomically accurate to the last detail, yet still full of personality and life. If you like this book, let me know in the comments. I have lots more from this and other Winter books if you are interested.

If you enjoyed this article, see also... Lorioux's Fables De La Fontaine Part One and Part Two, Felix Lorioux's Tom Thumb, Puss in Boots, Fables De La Fontaine Part One and Part Two, Le Buffon des Enfants, Mabel Lucie Attwell's Peter Pan and Wendy, Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929 and 1934, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1917, More Norelius and Bauer, Arthur Rackham's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, Kay Nielsen's East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Hansel & Gretel, Dulac's H.C. Andersen Part One and Part Two, Little Verses Part One and Part Two, and Rojankovsky's Frog Went A-Courtin'.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Filmography: UPA's Man On The Land 1951

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:36:00 +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.

We received a surprise in the mail today from Archive supporter James Tucker- a DVD of great fifties industrial films, including UPA's groundbreaking Man On The Land. This film includes animation by Pat Matthews, Grim Natwick and Art Babbitt, but animation isn't the primary attraction here. It's the drop dead brilliant layouts by Director Bill Hurtz, Associate Director Art Heinemann and background artists Bob Dranko, Boris Gorelick and Paul Julian (among others). Just about every setup in this film is strong enough to be an illustration in a book. Check out the depth and lighting in these backgrounds. They may be painted flat, but they sure aren't composed flat. If this sort of design sensibility was applied to a cartoon with vivid characters, humor and entertainment value, wouldn't it be incredible? (Like this!)

This is a large file, so allow yourself some time before clicking on the link.

Man On The Land (UPA/1951)
(Quicktime 7 / 16 minutes / 35 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.

It's great folks like James Tucker that make sure that cartoons like this aren't lost and forgotten. We all owe him a big thank-you for sharing his film collection with us at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

If you found this article to be interesting, see also... John Sutherland's Rhapsody of Steel, Artzybasheff's Machinalia, The Alvin Show Pilot Storyboard, Jules Engel's Alvin Show Color Keys, UPA Done Right, Early 50s UPA Model Sheets, Herb Klynn The Shrimp, and Grim Natwick's Post UPA Commercials.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Illustration: Mabel Lucie Attwell's Peter Pan and Wendy

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:44:00 +0000

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

There often seems to be a disconnect between the illustrators Walt Disney hired to do inspirational artwork for his films and the designs he actually ended up using. On Snow White, Disney hired the amazing painter, Gustaf Tenggren; but his instructions to him were to paint in the style of Arthur Rackham. For Peter Pan, he hired the illustrator David Hall, but the film itself doesn't resemble his work at all. Instead, it seems to be a "Disneyfication" of Mabel Lucie Attwell's illustrations for the 1921 edition of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan & Wendy.

Attwell was born in 1879 and received some education at the Regent School of Art and Heatherley's School of Art in London, but she grew bored with her academic studies and dropped out to focus on her own interests... painting cherubic children and fairies. Her work wasn't very warmly received at first by galleries and agents, but when her first batch of paintings sold out in three days, they became much more enthusiastic. Attwell illustrated greeting cards and children's books, the most famous of which we are featuring today, Peter Pan & Wendy.

Disney didn't appropriate Attwell's baby faced characters, but he did use some of the same details of costume and setting, and placed the emphasis of his visual storytelling on many of the same elements. Attwell's designs lean a bit too heavily on formula, but there is a distinctive delicate appeal to her style. Enjoy.

Please let me know in the comments if you found this post to be useful.

If you enjoyed this article, see also... Little Verses Part One and Part Two and The New Golden Song Book Part One, Part Two and Part Three, Felix Lorioux's Tom Thumb, Puss in Boots, Fables De La Fontaine Part One and Part Two, Le Buffon des Enfants, Rojankovsky's Frog Went A-Courtin', Tibor Gergely's A Day In The Jungle, Gustaf Tenggren's The Little Trapper, Uncle Remus Stories Part One and Part Two.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

A-HAA Podcast: FIrst Episode Online Now

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:12:00 +0000

EPISODE ONE:
Antran Manoogian / Raymond Scott
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Illustration: Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:30:00 +0000

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books and magazines.

Illustration by Harper Goff
Here's another batch of illustration from late 40s Coronet magazines. This group of images isn't interesting so much for their style as much as their authenticity. With a clarity of staging reminiscent of production designs for classic motion pictures, these paintings vividly show the value of careful research into period costume, props and decor. The first batch is a history of medicine by Leslie Saalburg. The last is a review of classic children's literature by Douglass Crockwell. But the most interesting is the middle feature, Carl Sandberg's "Blood on the Moon" illustrated by Disney imagineer, Harper Goff.

Harper Goff was born in 1911, and studied art at Chouinard Art Institute. He was an accomplished illustrator, working for Colliers, Esquire and Coronet. Goff was employed as a set designer for Warner Bros on classic films like Sergeant York, Casablanca and Captain Blood. He met Walt Disney in a model train store in London, and was invited on the spot to join the Disney staff.

Goff's first assignment was to storyboard a True Life Adventure story dealing with undersea life, but expanded the idea into a feature film adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Goff's designs for the submarine and its plush interiors were the most striking part of the film, resulting in an Oscar for Art Direction and Special Effects. Goff played banjo in the Disney studio Dixieland jazz band, "The Firehouse Five" and was the designer of the World Showcase at Epcot. He passed away in 1993.

MEDICINE ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
by Leslie Saalburg

SANDBURG'S BLOOD ON THE MOON
By Harper Goff

A TREASURY OF LITERARY CLASSICS
by Douglass Crockwell

Thanks to Rich Borowy for donating these great vintage magazines to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Casey Strikes Out In Coronet, Bugs Bunny in Coronet Magazine December 1945, Milton Caniff in Coronet Magazine, Dispatch From Disney's Part One and Part Two, Mid 30s Colliers Illustrations, Mid 30s Advertisements, Late 40s Colliers, Lawson Wood: The Monkey Artist, John Held Jr, Ward Kimball in Escapade, Complete Guide To Cartooning On Magazine Cartoons Part One and Part Two, and Rube Goldberg's Side Show.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Saturday: Adventures in Music Online Screening

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 08:32:00 +0000

Last weekend, I had a great time hosting The Boing Boing Cartoon Circus. Saturday afternoon, I presented an all new show... Adventures in Music.

We're living at the tail end of one of the biggest bursts of creativity in the history of mankind. The 20th century was one of the greatest times to live ever. If we want the 21st century to be even better, we need to WORK on making it great. We need to stop making excuses for amateurism and heartless, soulless, prepackaged, preprogrammed, predigested, canned culture. We need to stop taking the crap that gets handed to us by mainstream media and start supporting real live talented skilled performers of all types.

I'm doing that myself at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive by giving back to the students who want to learn the animation techniques of the past. I hope everyone reading this takes a minute to make a charitable contribution or volunteer some time to a local library, archive.org, wikipedia or any other non-profit resource that is working to raise the bar for our culture. I know myself from creating a non-profit resource from scratch that it is VERY hard to get by in these times on goodwill alone.

There's a lot of wonderful stuff out there. If you value the arts, become a part of it by giving back to the arts.

Comics: The Animation Business in Boy Comics 1942

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:06:00 +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.

Today, we have another treasure from the collection of Archive supporter, Marc Schirmeister. Here's the oddly titled Boy Comics Number 39 from April, 1942. This comic book isn't as interesting for its art, (check out the wonky perspective on that cover!) but rather for its subject matter...

Yes, this noir style comic written by cartoonist Charles Biro and drawn by Norman Maurer deals with the animation business! And check out the names of the incidental characters...

Sound familiar? And the design of "B.S.", the head of NDN Studios, it a pretty clear caricature of Walt Disney!

It seems that Biro had some sort of connection to the East coast animation scene. Does anyone out there reading have more info on this unique comic book? If so, please let us know in the comments. UPDATE: Mark Mayerson points out the Charles Biro was an animator and director at the Fleischer Studios from 1930-1936. Thanks, Mark!

Thanks to Marc Schirmeister for bringing this rare comic to our attention!

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is looking for collectors of gold and silver age comic books, 50s and 60s Mad magazines, 50s Playboys, National Lampoon, etc. who would be willing to lend us their books to digitize. If you'd like to help out, contact me at... sworth@animationarchive.org.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Jack Kirby in Not Brand Echh Number One, Marie Severin in Not Brand Echh Number Two, Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three; Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4; Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women; Here We Go Again and Man The Beast; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Website Traffic Goes Through The Roof

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:20:00 +0000

We did it again yesterday-21,000 page views. Wow! If you'd like to read the articles I've been posting at Boing Boing, visit this link...

Boing Boing Guestblog
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Gustaf Tenggren and the Genesis of the Golden Book Style

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:40:00 +0000

In my last post on the legendary illustrator Gustaf Tenggren, I discussed the stark change in Tenggren's style after leaving the Disney Studios. In the twenties, Tenggren had been paid handsomely for his work. But the wartime economy changed all that. Publishers were no longer able to pay him to work a week or more on a single painting. He was forced to simplify his style.

While at Disney, Tenggren chaffed under the bit of anonymity. It's said that Walt instructed his artists, "If you're going to sign a name to your artwork, spell it 'Walt Disney'." But Tenggren defiantly maintained his individuality, signing many of his key paintings for Pinocchio. He left the studio under unhappy circumstances, and was bitter about the whole episode. But he had learned one thing from Walt... the power of branding one's self.

Tenggren resolved that he would never again waste his skills building a reputation for someone else. He boldly built his name into the masthead of his first major publication after leaving Disney. No longer was it Andersen's Fairy Tales or Tales By The Brothers Grimm... It was The Tenggren Tell-It-Again Book. This led to a series of self-titled books sprinkled throughout his career... Tenggren's Story Book, Tenggren's Jack & The Beanstalk, Tenggren's Bedtime Stories, Tenggren's Farm Stories, and many others.

This particular book is amazing, because it shows Tenggen's thought process and refinement gelling into what would become the classic "Golden Book style". (Click on the Three Little Pigs images above for a vivid example.) He simplifies by going back to his roots... combining the character designs of his mentor John Bauer with the colored pencil and watercolor style of his successor on the Bland Tomtar Och Troll series, Einar Norelius. (See our earlier post on Bauer and Norelius.) It's fascinating to compare similar subjects and compositions with earlier Tenggren paintings or the work of other classic illustrators. Below a few of these images, I have added links to similar pictures and themes. See how Tenggren has distilled the essence of the earlier attempts into a clear and simple presentation that still has plenty of beauty and balance.

See also Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales
and Arthur Rackham's Grimm

See also Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales, John Bauer's
Bland Tomtar Och Troll, Einar Norelius'
Bland Tomtar Och Troll, and Arthur Rackham's Grimm

See also Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll

See also Tenggren's Sing For Christmas and Grimm's
Fairy Tales and Dulac's H.C. Andersen

See also Dulac's Tanglewood Tales and
Kay Nielsen's East of The Sun And West Of The Moon

See also Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales, Kay Nielsen's
Hansel & Gretel and Arthur Rackham's Grimm

For inspiration, Tenggen goes all the way back to his roots... the work of his mentor, John Bauer. Here is one of Tenggren's illustrations...

And here is one by Bauer from the Swedish Christmas annual, Bland Tomtar Och Troll...

He also appears to be familiar with the work of his successor on the Bland Tomtar Och Troll series, Einar Norelius. Here is Tenggren...

And here is Norelius...

But halfway through Tenggren's Tell It Again Book comes a huge breakthrough in design. Instead of the full page plates, Tenggren begins to float his characters over the white of the page, wrapping the text around the compositions. Background elements are reduced to small islands on the page, rather than extending out to the edges of a square bounding box. When I first got this book, I wondered why Tenggren had changed format halfway through. Clearly one reason was to save time and streamline the work of producing so many illustrations for a single book. But there was an aesthetic precedent to it as well. The answer has been hanging on my bedroom wall since I was a little boy!

Like Tenggren, my Grandmother was Swedish. In the early 1920s, she took my father to Sweden to visit his Grandparents. It was the only time he was able to meet them, since he lived in Peterborough, Canada, a very long sea voyage away from their farm in Goteborg, Sweden. My great grandparents gave my father a gift to take home with him to remind him of the visit- this Swedish folk art picture...

When I was born, my father gave it to me to hang in my bedroom, and it's been there ever since. Notice the similarity between the forward pitched perspective, the staging of the characters in clear profile silhouettes, and the simple rendering of the figures over the white of the paper on this print and the Tenggren illustrations that follow...

Tenggren had discovered a way to simplify and refine his illustrations even further. Instead of busy backgrounds full of details, he used just enough information to place the characters, and focused his attention on composing the figures. Immediately after publishing this book, Tenggren produced The Poky Little Puppy, the book that was the model for the hundreds of Little Golden Books that followed over the next seventy years. By going back to his roots and synthesizing his Swedish cultural upbringing, Tenggren invented a style that now seems to us to be quintessentially American.

This is a perfect example of how immigrant artists of all kinds suited their artistic voice to their new lives in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. Carlo Vinci's Italian heritage resulted in a superhero mouse who sang opera. Bill Tytla's Eastern European roots helped him summon a devil in Fantasia. And Milt Gross' Jewish upbringing expressed itself in comic celebrations of the ethnic vitality of New York City.

The melting pot of American culture sure is rich with cartoons!

For more incredible illustration by Gustaf Tenggren, see D'Aulnoy Fairy Tales and The Good Dog Book, Tenggren's Grimms Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, Heidi, Wonderbook and Juan & Juanita, Sing For Christmas, and Small Fry and the Winged Horse.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
.

Cartoon Show At Boing Boing

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:38:00 +0000

Here are direct links to my entire online cartoon show...

See all my posts by clicking on the GUESTBLOG tag.

Comics: Kirby and Severin in Not Brand Echh

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:32:00 +0000

Archive supporter, Kevin O'Neil spotted our feature on Jack Davis' work for Mad magazine earlier this week. It reminded him of some treasures in his own stash of comics. So he came down to the archive and lent us his collection to digitize. Thanks, Kevin!

Current superhero comics (now referred to self-importantly as "graphic novels") take themselves VERY seriously. It's rare for a publisher to allow a parody of its own characters... and unheard of for the creator himself to get the opportunity to make fun of his own creation. But back in the silver age of comics, cartoonists didn't take themselves quite so seriously. Here we have the unthinkable... Jack Kirby and Stan Lee doing a parody of their own Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer comics for Marvel's Not Brand Echh!

Not Brand Echh was a short-lived humor comic line from Marvel that parodied superhero comics. The title was derived from the term of derision used in the letters section of Marvel comics to describe competing comic book companies... "Brand Echh" was a riff on TV commercials that compared products to their competitor, "Brand X". The series ran for 13 issues from August of 1967 to May of 1969, and featured art by Bill Everett (see our recent post on Bob's Big Boy), Roy Thomas and John and Marie Severin.

Here we have a story from the premiere issue of Not Brand Echh titled, "The Silver Burper". The plot was loosely based on the story of Fantastic Four #57 through #60... It was written by Stan Lee and drawn by the great Jack Kirby. (Inking by Frank Giacoia and lettering by Artie Simek.)

Here's a parody that mingles the superhero universes of both Marvel and DC. Other stories in this issue lampoon Gold Key's Magnus, Robot Fighter and Tower's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

Marie Severin is one of the underrated geniuses behind Marvel comics. She started as a colorist for EC Comics in the 1950s, where she established a reputation for creating sophisticated color schemes that raised the level of quality above the arbitrary primary and secondary colors that filled other comics at the time. She transitioned to working as an artist on the Doctor Strange and Sub-Mariner lines, but really made her mark doing parodies in Not Brand Echh and Crazy.

One of those unanswerable questions that never seems to go away (at least at gatherings of comic book nerds) is "Who would win in a battle between Batman and Superman?" Fanboys have expended many hours debating the fine points of this and other match-ups with no clear answer. But now we finally get to see the decisive outcome of a battle royale between the "Caped Crusader" and the "Web Slinger"!

Here we have a story from the second issue of Not Brand Echh titled, "Peter Pooper vs Gnatman And Rotten". It was written by Stan Lee and drawn by the Marie Severin. (Inking by Frank Giacoia and lettering by Al Kurzrok.)

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is looking for collectors of gold and silver age comic books, 50s and 60s Mad magazines, 50s Playboys, National Lampoon, etc. who would be willing to lend us their books to digitize. If you'd like to help out, contact me at... sworth@animationarchive.org.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part One and Part Two; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three; Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4; Virgil Partch's Wild, Wild Women; Here We Go Again and Man The Beast; George Lichty's Grin and Bear It; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Meta: Guest Blogging at BoingBoing

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:23:00 +0000

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I'm guest blogging at BoingBoing for the next two weeks. I'm not posting just about animation... all kinds of fun and weird stuff.
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Biography: Jack Davis

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:14:00 +0000

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 9 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to great cartoon and pinup art.

A while back, Will Finn, in his excellent blog small room wrote about the decline in drawing quality of Chuck Jones' later work for the animation art market. He offers an interesting theory that perhaps Jones' strength lay in his depiction of personality in motion, and when he chose to focus on static images, his work lost its energy. The fickle nature of the creative spirit is better discussed by artists than by archivists, so I'm not going to add to what Will has said. But I'm going to offer an example from the comic world of a similar nature... Jack Davis.

Please note that I'm focusing on Davis at his peak in this post. If you are interested in looking into how his work seems to run hot and cold, see David Apatoff's insightful article, Counting To Nine.

Jack Davis was a cartoonist from a very early age. His first published work appeared in Tip Top Comics in 1936. He was twelve years old at the time. In 1949, he packed up and moved from Atlanta to New York City, where he was hired by EC Comics to draw for The Vault of Horror and Two-Fisted Tales. At EC, Davis met Harvey Kurtzman, who liked his work and used him in Mad magazine. Kurtzman and Davis also worked together on Little Annie Fanny in Playboy. (See the links below for some examples of this terrific series...)

Davis went on to become one of the most sought-after illustrators and caricaturists in America. His caricatures of public figures appeared on the covers of Time magazine and TV Guide, as well as record covers, movie posters and bubble gum cards. Davis is currently one of the best-known and recognizable cartoonists in the world.

Here is an early Davis story from Mad magazine that shows his immense talents at their absolute best. Every panel of this comic is drop-dead brilliant!

KANE KEEN
Mad Magazine 1953

Many thanks to the talented cartoonist, Amir Avni for contributing the copy of "Son of Mad" from which this great story was scanned. Also thanks to the stalwart archive supporter Eric Graf for lending us record covers from his extensive collection to digitize.

If you enjoyed this post, check out these articles... A Passel of Sokol, Early Erich Sokol Cartoons and More Sokol, Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi, Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons and Meet Doug Sneyd.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Comics: Big Boy and the Power of Licensing

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:32:00 +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.

In 1936, entrepeneur Bob Wian opened a small lunch stand. He had a brilliant, yet slightly devious idea for a hamburger. If he took a standard hamburger bun and sliced it down the middle twice, instead of once... and if he took a standard hamburger patty and divided it into two small patties... he could create a double-decker hamburger that appeared to be larger than the average without costing him any more to make. He named it the "Big Boy".

Wian hired pretty high school girls as car-hops and dressed them in short skirts and cowboy hats. But something was still missing...

One day, animator Benny Washam was lunching at Wian's stand, doodling on placemats. Wian saw that he was a cartoonist and asked him to draw a caricature of Richard Woodruff, a chubby, apple cheeked boy who helped out at the stand sweeping up after school. Washam obliged, depicting the lad in oversized checkered overalls munching on a burger. He gave it to Wian to use as a mascot for the stand and didn't think any more of it for many years...

Wian turned the caricature into an empire, branding not only his hamburger stand, but a line of sauces and spices and a franchised chain of family restaurants that eventually covered the entire country. A cutened version of Washam's doodle was plastered all over the menus, signage and television advertising.

Wian knew who in the family made the decisions about where to eat... It wasn't mom and dad, it was the kids. Outside each restaurant in the chain, he placed a huge fiberglass statue of Big Boy as a beacon to attract children...

And cartoonists, like assistant archivist, JoJo Baptista!

At the restaurants, Wian gave away free comic books featuring the character. Here is an extremely rare example... Big Boy comics number one from 1956. These comics were produced by Timely Comics, which later became Marvel. They were written by Stan Lee and drawn by Bill Everett. Later issues featured the work of Archie comics artist, Dan DeCarlo. Adventures of the Big Boy is one of the longest continuously running comic book lines. It's still being produced fifty years later.

Years later, when Big Boy had become a familiar figure to the entire country, Washam admitted to his fellow artists at Warner Bros that he was the cartoonist who had created the character. They laughed and teased him, saying, "Benny, you should have been heir to a hamburger fortune, but no! Your lot in life is to toil day and night making animated cartoons!" They were joking, but there's an element of truth in it. Never underestimate the power of a doodle. The Big Boy sketch that Washam traded away for a free meal in 1936 ended up selling millions and millions of dollars worth of hamburgers.

If you would like to see more Big Boy comics, let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; Harvey Kurtzman Comics; Harvey Eisenberg's Foxy Fagan; Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics Part One and Part Two; Virgil Partch's Here We Go Again, The Wild Wild Women and Man The Beast. Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds Part One and Part Two; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Theory: Churchill and Chaplin

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:53:00 +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 art instruction posts.

Charlie Chaplin and Winston Churchill may have both shared the same country of birth, but they aren't people you would normally associate together in your mind...

Today I was scanning Colliers magazines that Mike Fontanelli has on loan to us, and I ran across this article authored by Winston Churchill from October of 1935. Titled "Everybody's Language", it is both a film fan's homage to Charlie Chaplin and a history of pantomime in Western culture. I hope you'll take the time to read it, because it has some important things to say to animators...

"Twenty five years ago, when the young actor crossed the Atlantic, life in the States was more fluid than in England- more fluid perhaps than it is today. Its forms had not set. Personalities were more important than conventions. Democracy was not only a political institution, but a social fact. Class distinction mattered comparitively little when the hired hand of today was so often the employer of tomorrow, and the majority of professional men had paid for their university training with the work of their hands."

"Every cinemagoer is familiar with the Chaplin tramps, but I wonder how many of them have reflected how characteristically American are these homeless wanderers..."

"No mere clown, however brilliant, could ever have captured so completely the affections of the great public. He owes his unrivaled position as a star to the fact that he is a great actor, who can tug at our heartstrings as surely as he compels laughter... I believe that, had it not been for the coming of the talkies, we would already have seen this great star in a serious role. He is the one figure of the old silent screen to whom the triumph of the spoken word has meant neither speech nor extinction. He relies, as of old, upon a pantomime that is more expressive than talk."

"Pantomime, of which he is a master, is capable of expressing every emotion, of communicating the subtlest shades of meaning. A man who can act with his whole body has no need of mere words, whatever part he plays."

"I should like to see films without voices being made once more, but this time by producers who are alive to the potentialities of pantomime. Such pictures would be worth making, if only for this reason, that the audience for a talkie is necessarily limited by the factor of language, while the silent film can tell its story to the whole of the human race. Pantomime is the true universal tongue."

"It is a favorite cliche of film critics in discussing pictures to say that we cannot go back. In effect, they suggest that, because technical progress has given us sound, all films must be talkies and will continue to be so forever. Such statements reveal a radical misconception of the nature of progress and the nature of art. To explore the possibilities of the non-talking film, to make of it a new and individual art form, would not be a retrograde step, but an advance."

Churchill was mistaken about the return of silent filmmaking. Talkies were, and still are here to stay. But "a new and individual art form" based on the ancient foundation of pantomime was just beginning to make its mark when this article was written. I'll give you three guesses as to which art form that was!

Charlie Chaplin wasn't the last gifted pantomimist. Many others followed him... Jackie Gleason, John Cleese, Rowen Atkinson... and these two giants from the early days of television, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Here is a brilliant bit from the mid-1950s from the The Sid Caesar Buried Treasures DVD

Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca:
The Cocktail Party (1954)
(Quicktime 7 / 17 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 Mike Fontanelli for the loan of this magazine and Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans for the wonderful Chaplin images that illustrate this post.

If you found this article interesting, see... Chaplin's Shadow: Inspiration vs Ripoffs, The Application Of Inspiration / How To Properly Use Reference / Incorporating Natural Forms / (Visual) Literacy / Why Do We Need An Animation Archive?

If you want an incredible insight into the mind of a brilliant filmmaker, you will want to get the DVD of Unknown Chaplin. Using never before seen outtakes, these three programs reconstruct Chaplin's creative process from the ground up. This is one of the greatest documentaries ever made. Check it out!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Cartooning: What's Wrong With This Picture?

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 09:03:00 +0000

My mother passed away a little over a year ago, and recently I've been going through some boxes of things she left behind. I found a book of crafts, games and puzzles from 1927 that must have been given to her when she was very young. It included these "What's Wrong With This Picture?" cartoons by Joe McIntosh.

I don't know anything about the artist, but this style of cartooning was very popular in the 20s. Just about every college newspaper and humor magazine had cartoons that looked very similar. The leading proponent of the simplified round head style was John Held Jr. Early Puppetoons by George Pal also had a similar feel. Although Joe McIntosh's cartoons aren't nearly as sophisticated as those of Held or Pal, they're still very clever and fun.

Whenever I see straightforward, appealing cartoons like this, I wonder... Why are CGI designs are so needlessly complex and realistic? And why are Flash characters so flat that it limits their ability to be posed? Here are cartoony, stylized designs that have volume and work well within the perspective of a three dimensional environment. These sorts of characters would be easy to animate expressively using just about any technique- hand drawn, CGI, puppet, clay or Flash. Naturally, the subject matter here is dated, but the basic proportions and shapes could easily be applied to a more modern context. I'd love to see contemporary cartoons that are this simple and fun again.

See how many mistakes you can spot!

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

How many mistakes did you count?

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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My Favorite Post of 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:08:00 +0000

Here is my pick for my favorite article of 2009. As we reach a new decade, I think it's appropriate to look back to...

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
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Illustration: Felix Lorioux's Tales From Perrault

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Worth) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:45:00 +0000

Here are some early illustrations by Felix Lorioux depicting three tales from Perrault published in 1926. These delicate watercolors aren't as elaborately rendered as the ones in our previous postings of Fables De La Fontaine and Le Buffon des Enfants, but the drawing (particularly of nature) and the composition and framing of the images are beautiful. Enjoy!

TOM THUMB

PUSS IN BOOTS

CINDERELLA

If you found this to be useful, see also... Fables De La Fontaine and Felix Lorioux's Le Buffon des Enfants

See also... Rojankovsky's Frog Went A-Courtin', Tibor Gergely's A Day In The Jungle, Gustaf Tenggren's The Little Trapper, Uncle Remus Stories Part One and Part Two, Little Verses Part One and Part Two and The New Golden Song Book Part One, Part Two and Part Three, and Huckleberry Hound Builds A House.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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