It gets harder and harder each year to find artwork that you may not have seen before by your favorite artists from the past. Over at his Disney and More blog, Alain Littaye has posted several pieces by Marc Davis. Alain explains that tthe reason these are so rare is that many of them show ideas for the attreaction that were never used. At any rate, they are a great find.
I hate to break it to you, but you missed out on seeing a very cool show at the Natural History Museum in Basel, Switzerland. Oh well, so did I. It was called “Animatus” and it featured the work of Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee, who creates exquisite and intricate skeletons of cartoon characters.
Here’s more of his work from the Arario New York gallery site. Here is some brainy text that explains it.
Thanks to Michael Sporn for alerting me to this work by writing about it on Splog.
After the jump, a video tour of Lee’s work in the Venice Biennale 2007. [Read more…]
Jerry Reed, actor, guitar legend, and Scooby Doo Guest Star has passed away. He was 71.
Aside from his Scooby Doo appearance, most people may remember him from his role as the Snowman (his CB handle) in “Smokey and the Bandit”.
Learning to play guitar at age 8, on a cheap guitar, he later dropped out of high school to go on tour with Ernest Tubb and Faron Young. He mastered the instrument.
He was a great talent in film, television, and music.
He’s one of the musicians I listen to most when I’m animating. He’ll be missed.
Find more videos like this on Channel Frederator RAW
Reading Ann Bernstein’s post about Gene Deitch and his progeny inspired me to go back in my old agency’s archives for one of my favorite pieces, called “Easy Groove.”
Jerry Lieberman was one of the most prolific animation producers in commercial animation in the 1970s, and somehow or other (I think I saw his reel) hooked with with my partner Alan Goodman and me while we were the creative directors at MTV and Nickelodeon in the 1980s. Jerry was great to work with, and ended up making dozens of our 10 second network IDs for almost every cable network we branded, from The Movie Channel to HA! and of course MTV and Nick. Once we got comfortable with each other and he realized we weren’t kidding about creative freedom, he started reaching into the community he was most comfortable with, illustrators with an edge. He introduced [Read more…]
The Comics Journal (#292) is a Deitch Family Extravaganza. The intro claims that the issue contains 120,000 words about this brilliant and complex family…and I wouldn’t be surprised! The Gene Deitch section is of interest to animation fans as he discusses his time at UPA, Jam Handy, Terrytoons, and his later years producing animation in Prague. There is also an exhaustive interview with undie/indie comcs genius Kim where he covers the far-flung experiences that feed his extensive body of work (a stint as a merchant seaman, underground comics days in San Francisco, interviewing silent film stars and death row inmates for background—not to mention a good story involving Robert Crumb and a pie!) Also featured are chats with lesser-known-but-brilliant-in-their-own-way brothers Simon and Seth. I devoured this issue!
(TCJ has posted some additional material that was cut from the Kim Deitch interview here. About 20,000 more words or so, along with lots of sketches and preliminary artwork. If you just can’t get enough!)
Also, don’t miss the Kim Deitch retrospective that opens this month at MOCCA in NYC.
After the jump, a Gaston LeCrayon cartoon from Gene Deitch days at Terrytoons. (Color shift alert!)
Pikapika is an animation technique that uses flashlights. It’s also referred to as “lightning doodle projects”. The YouTube video above gives a sampling of what you can do with the method. There’s a website here and this video explains it all in robotic English.
Check out a smattering of recent Pikapika videos on this YouTube page. Here’s one:
Not to be confused with what is after the jump: [Read more…]
Chris Prynoski (creator of MTV Downtown, among other things) has curated a show honoring gaming god and father of Dungeons and Dragons Gary Gygax. It opened last Saturday and will be up until September 27th at Titmouse Studio (6616 Lexington Avenue, Los Angeles). Lots of my old friends from MTV Animation have contributed artwork. Just a few of the participating gang of geeky alum (and I mean that in a loving way): Christy Karacas (Superjail), George “not a typo” Krstic and Jody Schaeffer (Megas XLR), Kaori Humara, Richard Mather, Cheese Hasselberger, and Antonio Cannobio. Plus, that guy who created The Tick. And Gabe Swarr, who is everywhere.
This Thursday (August 28th) is the last day to see the exhibit “Golden Legacy: Original Art from 65 Years of Golden Books” at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. I was there last weekend I can confirm that there were adults attending sans kids. (Much of the artwork is hung close to the ground, so be prepared to get down on your knees to take in the details.)
As you may know, Golden Books illustrators included many Disney artists such as Gustav Tenggren and Mary Blair. I was particularly thrilled to see two original pieces by Mary Blair from I Can Fly.
(My one gripe is that the medium of the pieces is not indicated, and although advertised as a collection of “original art”, there seem to be some digital prints in the mix.)
Amazing fact: There have been two BILLION copies of Golden Books printed to date!
If you can’t make it speedily to the West Side, the exhibit (which originated at the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature in Abilene, Texas) will be touring in the future: The Eric Carle Museum and the Chicago Public Library are on the agenda. [Read more…]
