by | April 25, 2011 · 1:10 pm

Fartistry

The above item is pictured in the Profiles in History Hollywood Auction booklet, available here. Aside from obviously being paired with an unrelated background, Mike Kazaleh tells me he suspects it was done by one of the MGM assistant animators rather than one of the regular suspects (Harvey Eisenberg, Ken Muse, Dick Bickenbach) for personal amusement. It is doubtful the word “boob” would be used in 1940s publicity material, regardless of where the booklet states it’s from.

There’s lots of great artwork pictured from most of the classic studios, so grab the PDF while you can. I was planning a self-righteous rant about how the practice of animation art dealing is little more than shysters ransacking widows to make obscene profits on artwork they don’t even know the origins of, save the occasional upstanding practitioner (the excellent Howard Lowery comes to mind immediately), but thought better of it.

(Via Mark Mayerson).

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Filed under classic animation

by | April 14, 2011 · 8:00 pm

Tendlar Time: Blackie & Wolfie in “Sheep Shape”

Here is another prime Dave Tendlar cartoon with Blackie the Lamb and Wolfie, the perverse Sheep Shape (1946). This is before Marty Taras joined Tendlar’s crew, but Johnny Gent more than adequately fills those shoes with some beautiful animation in this one. Unfortunately, all of my copies of this cartoon have faded to what Tom Stathes and I call “menstruavision”, so you can’t enjoy the eye candy that is Famous Studios color styling.

This has a lot in common with that very bizarre, but very wonderful, Bob Clampett Bugs Bunny cartoon, Hare Ribbin’ (1944). In both, the protagonist’s cross-dressing works so well, and they get so into it, that it gets a little uncomfortable to watch. Much more so in the Famous cartoon, where Blackie seems to have either shaved his wool or donned a flesh-colored body suit. Laughs are laughs, though, and this one has plenty of them. The adoption of suburban (or maybe rural?) rivalry over the prey-predator formula in this cartoon also gives this a unique Fleischer-like vibe to it.

I want to call your attention to a bit of animation by Gent from 2:17 to 2:37. This is a perfect instance of how great some of these guys were: that they’d do amazing work even if the material didn’t require it. Rather than just have him walk in and place the board in the door, Gent actually has Blackie stagger and struggle with the board, emphasizing its weight and what a struggle it is for a squirt like him to lift it. When Wolfie rams the revolver in the lamb’s face, every syllable of his dialog is reflected in the gun being jammed that many times in Blackie’s forehead. The scurry-in when Wolfie digs his way into the house is beautiful. In short, “that is some good shit.”

Also, enjoy a less disturbing (?) model of Blackie in drag by Tendlar.

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Filed under classic animation

by | · 3:30 pm

Storyboard: The Wilderness Adventure

John K. is posting his layouts from the unmade Ren & Stimpy epic The Wilderness Adventure, to illustrate his process of ‘maintaining guts’ of the storyboard. So I thought this would be an opportune time to share the whole unmade journey in board form. (I’m missing page 89, unfortunately, but there’s no loss of continuity).

As he writes, this was boarded in the Summer of 1990, before production on the series started. It looks to be primarily the work of John K. and Jim Smith, but there’s definitely a lot of Bob Camp in it and some Lynne Naylor too. Though it was rejected three times as is, a lot of the material found life in other cartoons, Man’s Best Friend most notably. The mosquito scene was used in The Great Outdoors – in fact, the board for that cartoon uses the exact same drawings as seen here. There was talk of using it to start off or be part of that fascinating fiasco, Adult Party Cartoon, but it never materialized.

Aside from the incredibly appealing drawing and staging, there’s a beautiful dynamic between George Liquor and his pets, only making me wish there were slews of R&S cartoons like it. ome of this material is funnier than much of what actually made it into that historic cartoon series. Maybe a naked fight between G.L. and a bear or Ren leaving his master to die seemed a little raw, but there’s at least that wonderful reassurance that this is just a cartoon and none of this is real – hell, the stuffed heads are revealed to still be living animals.

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Filed under modern animation, Ren & Stimpy

by | April 11, 2011 · 9:56 pm

Stanley Stories

I’ve spent some much needed time looking over Frank Young’s blog/shrine to comic book auteur John Stanley, and it got me thinking again about what an underrated talent Stanley was and still is. His intelligent work with child characters predates Peanuts by several years and is far darker and more profound than anything Charles Schulz did with his strip in fifty years. His obscurer handling of animated characters like Woody Woodpecker and Tom Cat are gems well worth discovering, and reprinting, if there’s a market for that sort of compilation. While I’m not crazy about his work in the “teen scene” comics in the 1960s, it still remains some of the most interesting work a comic writer/artist did in his later years.

By no means limit yourself to my few recommendations linked below. Spend endless hours reveling in the goodness that is John Stanley!

Bongo and Bop: “A Breather” (1961): Bill Williams’s art makes both the stories highlighted here worth reading, but the shorter one is a truly brilliant piece of cynic comedy.
Johnny Mole (1944): To reiterate my comment: a big hulky man who abuses a child and pays hush money is overcome with remorse and disgust at his abuse and freespending, all while the kid enjoys it? In 1944?!
Tubby: “The Gourmet” (1948): I consider this Stanley’s greatest story.
The First Little Lulu Comic (1945): These are neat little gems, but they’ve never been reprinted with the original artwork, which Frank’s provided.
“Tom Cat” (1948): This one is just perverted. Read. Now.

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Filed under comics, people